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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Yr3 critical for girls and sport

63 replies

Lifechallenges · 20/01/2018 00:14

I've been reading up a lot recently about girls and sport and how year three is a vital year and age for girls engagement that lasts a lifetime or not. I am in despair about how awful our school provision is for girls and the casual acceptance that girls opting out of sport is fine.
I would honestly go to a local private school if I could afford it to overcome this for my DD.
Has anyone challnenged a school on this??
We are a large school with dedicated PE staff yet sport is still v boys focused ... and pondering emailing governors?

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TinaMena · 20/01/2018 02:27

I think any year is probably critical for girls (or boys) and sport. Our school (secondary) doesn't have an opt out for PE, and all students are expected to participate.

Bitlost · 20/01/2018 07:36

We have one PE teacher in our school for 700 children. There's only so much he can do. But I don't see the school making a difference between boys and girls.

We make sure DD does sports outside school: an hour and half of swimming every week and three dance classes of 40mns. It's difficult logistically and also doesn't come cheap. It's also below the recommended level.

CappuccinoCake · 20/01/2018 07:43

Bizarrely year 3 was the only year my daughter did a lot of sport. We had a dedicated pe teacher who ran clubs most days and she did 3 a week after school for an hour. (Plus swimming outside of school.) Unfortunately that teacher left and so far they ve only offered 1 dance club a week.

I do have private school envy when posters say their child gets to do an hour of sport a day. My daughter would have loved that!

user789653241 · 20/01/2018 08:26

At our school they seem to have after school sports clubs for girls as well as boys.
If your school isn't good at sports opportunities for girls, you don't need to send dd to private, just send her to outside school clubs?

CappuccinoCake · 20/01/2018 08:40

"Just send to outside school clubs."

So apart from the fact school run club a are free, outside ones are not (I afford swimming but couldn't afford to replicate the 3 free clubs she was doing.)

Transport - picking up from school is normal. Getting elsewhere requires transport/cost.

Time - picking up from school an hour and a half later is easy. Having to go home first/juggle siblings/get on a bus to go somewhere if it even goes to the sports centre (we'd have to catch 2 buses and it takes forever) with siblings often overlapping meal time.

Yep. I can see why free after school sports clubs run by the school at school might be preferable!

user789653241 · 20/01/2018 08:56

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude, just compared to the cost sending to private schools since OP said she would if she could.
But yes, after school club run by the teachers are better of course, but it won't accommodate everyone who wants it at our school, so still not guaranteed to do things they want to play.

Pud2 · 20/01/2018 12:34

Write to the head, not the governors. It's an operational issue so it's the head's responsibility. You would only involve the governors if you want to make a complaint about the head.

Lowdoorinthewal1 · 20/01/2018 14:25

My DS does about 10hrs of sport a week in school, depending on how many matches they have. He then does a further 3 out of school.

TBH there is just no way I could get him to 13hrs of sport all out of school, even if I didn't work so I could pick him up at 3pm every day.

The girls at his school do exactly the same amount though.

CappuccinoCake · 20/01/2018 14:27

That's amazing lowdoor! My daughter would love that .

Lowdoorinthewal1 · 20/01/2018 15:55

Yeah it is. He doesn't love all of it, but I love it enough for both of us!

It's achieved through long days though- 8am until either 5 or 6pm Mon- Fri and most of Saturday depending on when/ where his match is. Obviously not everybody would want that. Works for me because it allows me work FT (which I want to do).

lljkk · 20/01/2018 16:01

How do you plan to "challenge" the school?

DD got into sport in yr4. Not before, not in y3. She's one of the older ones, so age 9. She discovered she was a good runner.

Kids spend 2/3 of their waking hours outside school. I humbly submit, that time spent away from school is most important to developing a sports interest. Are YOU out doing sport with your DD, OP?

Hersetta427 · 20/01/2018 22:49

I agree that what you do out of school is more important than what you do in school. Also for us and DD yr 5 was her breakthrough yr where she went from a decent player in one sort to being picked for the county and then the east of England. This gave her so much confidence which carried on in school sports that she made the A team in 5 sports. She is currently in yr 6 and recently she did absolutely brilliantly at a sports aptitude test for one of the best state schools in the country and is now guaranteed a place but what helped her was her out of school training which she had been doing since she was 5 nothing she did at school would have helped her.

I agree you need to be looking at options for your dd- the school and limited with what they can provide and in our experience they really seem to concentrate on yrs 5 and 6.

Leeds2 · 20/01/2018 22:59

Do you mean that the sports offered are typically perceived to be "boys sports " (say, for example, football and cricket)? If so, I would ask the Head to review this, but I guess that the school may be restricted by what the teacher(s) is/are qualified to teach. If this is the case, I would've thought that the school could bring in after school sessions with outside teachers, although these would have to be paid for by the parents.

ragged · 20/01/2018 23:07

England (women's) football & cricket teams have been excellent in last few decades. Much inspiration to be had.

Leeds2 · 21/01/2018 00:33

Would agree with that, ragged. My DD used to love cricket!

user789653241 · 21/01/2018 08:02

I agree, at my ds's school, girls's football is doing rather good. But it is not for everyone. And those who does sports outside school seems to go further. Those girls compete are the members of outside team as well.
My ds has been doing martial arts since reception. He is now highest junior level, but he never would have achieved that through school club.

Lowdoorinthewal1 · 21/01/2018 08:57

I agree that children need to do a sport out of school to be able to excel in it.

However, state schools could do so much more in terms of enabling grass roots participation. Most school will play, for example, a term of 'invasion games' rather than actually focussing on teaching everyone how to play a sport properly. Then the only kids on the 'team' are ones that have been taught to play properly out of school. These kids may play a couple of external matches a term.

At DS's school everyone plays the major sport du jour in two sports lessons a week and then every single kid from Y3 up plays at least one external match of that sport a week, often two.

They would still have to go to an out of school club to play well enough to do County/ England stuff. But they all end up playing well enough that if they wanted to they could roll up to a recreational club as an adult and join. I don't think that is the case in state schools, and I can't really see any good reason why.

Lowdoorinthewal1 · 21/01/2018 09:03

Well I can think of a reason why state schools can't run a heavy 'fixture list'. DS's school has 8 minibuses for 280 kids and there are often hired buses brought in too on busy match days. State schools are never going to have the resources for that.

My school could walk kids to around 6 other primary schools though, so including home and away that could be 12 matches. We don't even think of doing that, because it's not part of the culture. And the school down the road may not have learned the same 'invasion game' that term...

KingscoteStaff · 21/01/2018 15:14

Under 8s is a fantastic age group for team sports! That was the year DD started playing netball hockey and cricket with our local clubs, with training one evening (or Saturday morning) and fixtures at the weekend.

All the coaches/managers/administrators are parent volunteers, though.

Jackyjill6 · 21/01/2018 15:33

The thing that absolutely struck me when my DD was in Year 3, was that was the year that the majority of girls stopped running round in the playground and engaging in active 'play.' Instead they started walking round arm in arm in twos or sitting in corners chatting? It was really noticeable.

My DD used to play with the boys who were still tearing around chasing each other till some years later.

Jackyjill6 · 21/01/2018 15:34

Don't know where that question mark came from!

Outedsochanged · 21/01/2018 15:39

How about you offer to help run an after school club if you want more free provision. If you don't know enough to coach one yourself, then just be a parent helper to boost numbers of supervisors. I did that last year, learnt a lot have encouraged other parents who I knew had the right skills which means 60 kids now attend 2 sports clubs that didn't exist before

Original poster

Lifechallenges · 21/01/2018 16:35

Sorry - been out all day...
in answer to people's comments - I'm not wanting free provision by the school and yes both my DC do sport or other activity every day, elsewhere and yes I coach and run stuff as a volunteer to make it happen, but it's sad that the majority of girls at our school have disengaged by Yr4 and decided that they don't do sport.
The Yr3 reference is based on extensive reasearch that has been done.(published on gov web site / youth sports rust etc)
Our school is very boy centric with sports and whilst girls 'play' it's the same 6 out of 45ish or so girls in each year that are in every team!
They are the ones that will play football with the boys, tag Rugby, basketball. There is no hockey or netball.
The boys dominate all the sports sessions and no effort is made to challeng the girls perception that sport is not for them :(

OP posts:

Original poster

Lifechallenges · 21/01/2018 16:48

The reason why I say I'd seriously go private if we had the money is because the ones near us (girls and coed) as encourage girls to do a lot of sport and that has much wider benefits in my opinion about how they perceive themselves and health / fitness and team sports.
Its a bit the same with STEM subjects too..
For reference our school is as bad in some ways with boys and stereotypes; there are no boys in the choirs as it's seen as a 'girl thing'.

OP posts:

CappuccinoCake · 21/01/2018 17:22

I'd go private too if I could.

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