Someone out there, please defend or explain the reasons for non-competitive sport at primary school

[Balls]

I thought I got it - you know give everynoe a chance to participate, but I've just come back from a shambles of a swimming gala where the not so able swimmers were humiliated in public by desperately trying to participate from the back and the able swimmers were not allowed to compete in their strongest strokes. What if the able swimmers fail at everything but swimming and this is their chance to shine in something? I'm prepared to be persuaded but right now I think it is PC gone bonkers.

Definitely agree with having the competition, but not sure about forcing all pupils to participate at a certain level.

Have no problem with non-competitive sport as an activity if the children are enjoying it.
But, for parents, going to sports day is like watching paint dry.

nooka

re: swimming - I actually think of all sports it might be the most important, but I am unhinged about it! Important not only because of water safety but because it is aerobically magnificent and puts litte if any impact on joints so cuts across the age groups. So, instead of it being something kids have to volunteer for, it should be compulsory to participate and forgive me if I am wrong but it is one of the few sports skill that can be taught to almost anyone - OK some will be better at it than others but there are more people with the physical attributes to swim than to walk are there not?

Hathor - well yes - and competitive egg and spoon by 6 year-olds doesn't realy make the heart race more than non-competitive parachute games? Does it?

It does?

Dear god - you need to get out more!

My son loved his non competitive sports day. The children were in teams which were fairly well balanced.

School sport as far as I am concerned is about exercise and fitness rather than competition. If you want competition then there are plenty of sporting competitions outside school hours.

"What if the able swimmers fail at everything but swimming and this is their chance to shine in something?"

Some children are good at absolutely nothing. What about them?

Blu - point taken, but was thinking more about juniors ie 8+ who have got past the tantrum at losing stage and more into discovering what they can and cannot do with their bodies/personalities/brains etc. I have a son who has gained enormous self-seteem leaps from discovering that he can swim quite well (not brilliantly, but better than some of his peers). It has transformed him as he is crap at spelling, was s reluctant reader and a somewhat slow mathematician. Since discovering that he is not a failure in all departments he has taken to reading and is getting rather wicked at maths (still crap at spelling though!) My point is that the only way to arrive at that point is to feel that you are winning at least one race..

I really think competitive sport is completely and utterly pointless.
I think there is no place for it in school at all.
exercise - yes I can see the point of that.
but who gives a shit about how fast someone runs? or how many goals they score?? what does it matter?
complete waste of time and energy. just fosters bad feeling and misery.
why not do something more useful and interesting. teach the children how to put up a tent. build a wall. go to a gallery. go coppicing, go orienteering.
rather than chuck a pointy stick, or jump over a sand pit.
children don't need to be trained to take part in ancient classical wars, or so I;m told.

Really tired - sorry, but if you think your child is good at nithing then you keep looking until you find out what they can do, tiddlywinks or whatever. No one wants to feel like a failure.

harpsichord - my point about sports day is that it is inherently ocmpetitive. So it is crazy to try and make it even handed. Fine to set up a day about cooperative skill or team building, but swimming or running races are just not, so why pretend?

By the way, I am crap at ALL sport myself! V funny on the pun harpi (sorry not to have said " ' shot" before...)

? is it inherently competitive? or do parental expectations make it so?
dd's sports day, everyone ran, everyone got a sticker, whoc ares who won? not me, for sure.

At the risk of getting involved in something ....
Isn't school supposed to be a grounding for life?
Isn't life competitive?
So what's the point of a non-competitive agenda in a school?

that's the point though isn't it Balls. if you weren't "good at sport" then I bet you hated PE and tried to get out of it.
and therefore were put off exercise.
exercise shouldn't be for those who are "good at sport" - it is negligent of schools to concentrate on competition to the exclusion of participation/health/fitness.
how would it be if we had spelling day? where all pupils had to compete against each other in front of all the other parents and got medals for the best spelling. and those who weren't any good at it were just ignored and left to their own devices?

dd1 school has 3 teams. red white and blue.

each team is split into small groups and they do a set of races each.

dd1 group was 3 people short, so 3 people had to run twice in each race.

dd1 team came first overal land the cup which is on display now has white ribbons tied to it.

the cheers from all the school children was wonderful.

School is an inherently competitive environment.
If academic achievement is rewarded, and pressure put upon children to attain certain standards, pass certain tests, then it makes no sense for this ethos to be extended to the sports field.
It is a by-product of an education system that undervalues personality, individuality and makes no allowances for specific difficulties.

harpsi - but at junior stage, it is clear that there is a winner - they do not all get stickers, nor would they want them.

stresstedd, feel you've got a point - scared to think you're right but heading that way fast.

school sport should be about fitness and health and achievement imo.
like other subjects.

"NOT to be extended"

Competitive sport is fine for the sporty children. But if you have a child who is routinely humiliated by being picked last, is painfully not good at any form of competitive sports etc then you put them off sport and exercise for life, don't you?

So I grin and bore it when my sporty pair were stuck in unsporting frivolities like the obstacle race on Sports Day. That's fine. They are both in their school swimming and tennis teams. DD also in netball team and DS also in a football team. So they have their chances to compete properly outwith the inclusive ethos of a school sports day.

A couple of years ago I had to comfort my sobbing ds1 who refused to leave a bench and come home because he hadn't come 1st, 2nd or 3rd in anything. It's heartbreaking stuff.
And children who are good at sport tend to be popular and much is made of them. Children who are good at academic stuff get an awkward pat on the back and then get shoved back under the carpet.
What about races - in teams or individually - which involve a tricky maths question and running?...for example.

harpsi - no I loved sport, just was never picked for a team. Neve rput me off but I can empathise that some might have been, hence my fence sitting

mad eye - sorry, but confused by your logic - surely same approach should be applied to academic learning as is applied to the field - brain and brawn handed out with same callous negligence of wimpiness or lack of facility surely?

I will tell you this: sports day (And most school sports) is miserable for a good ??50% of children.
so many adults are put off the whole idea of sports and exercise for years and years and possibly for ever by "PE" and school sports.
which is criminal isn't it?
and needs changing.

I am scared of sport. I associate it with enormously tall, loud, tanned PE teachers and unpleasant girls armed with hockey sticks.

ooppsI got madeue and dang bans mixed up and dangbeans you clearly misposted so sorry and retract. quattro, your kids must be in the private sector if you have teams surely? Ceratinly ime those competitive opps are not presented in state school and require additional funds for extracurricular activities?