Traditional Sports Day

[kolacubes]

It's that time of year, where my dc are practising for their sports day, the competive ones are stressing, about that someone may be faster the less competitive one would like to come 3rd because at least they get a sticker .

Anyway I love this time of year, and am fortunate that all my dc school still have traditional format for sports day, and are competitive over it.

But they were saying on the radio today, over how many children don't have competitive sports days, and that it is all team races, and everyone's a winner.

I think they learn to be part of a team in sport when doing the team sports (football, netball, rugby, cricket etc)

Am I alone in thinking that the traditional sports day should stay?

You are not alone. My DD's school is divided into four groups. In their class they will be part of a group (tigers, panthers, and two others) and they compete over the year. This years sports day saw everyone win a ribbon. IMO, individual events would be better but I do see the other side.

I like the way DD's school do KS1 sports - children are allocated to one of four teams, and then into mixed-year groups within the teams. So two groups each consisting of two each from Years R, 1 and 2 will circulate around the events 'competing' against each other. The score points for the number of relays done, beanbags in the hoop, etc. So the competing group is actually in the same team as them, but they still get the feeling of a race. There's also a running race for the fastest kids at the end for the fastest kids. The points get totted up, and the winning team announced. So there IS timing and 'get, set, go!', points to be scored, and a winning line of sorts, but it's still quite inclusive. I like it - they're very young after all, and most aren't yet doing those team sports, but there is some element of competition. KS2 gets a lot more traditional and competitive, apparently.

You are definitely not alone kola - look at the state of the GB athletics team!