Sports Day for the non-sporty kids...is this fair?

[SadAboutTheBoy]

DS age 11 - one of youngest in his year - in first year of Senior School, so first Sports Day at the school.
He's quite a quiet, sensitive little boy, and hasn't found Senior School easy.

He's not good at sport (not as big/strong as the other kids in his year), and knows it. He is quite good at techy stuff and music etc.

So he comes home today and says that everyone has signed up for things for Sports Day, but that he isn't doing anything, and has been told he is to be a 'Reporter' - and that he has to write up a news report of what happens on the day.

I sensed that he was a bit upset and there was more to this, so probed a bit, and found out the following:

• the lists were being drawn up and co-ordinated by 6th formers in the same house (not teachers)
• they asked for volunteers for each event.
• DS said he volunteered for '7 or 8' different events, but on each occasion someone from his year group shouted him down and said ' No, don't put [DS] down for that, he's crap/ no, let me do that one, I'm much better/ oh God, we'll never win if you let him do that' and so on...

There were 3 or 4 of them (out of about 40 in his House) who were told there was 'nothing left' for them, and that they could be 'reporters'.
They are meant to write up a report after the day and hand it in the next day. The next day is the last day of term,so I don't believe this report will be used/read.

I am really angry about this. DS is trying to shrug it off, but I can tell he was upset.
I don't care that he isn't doing an event (although I thought that was the point of Sports Day?) but I do think this has been handled incredibly insensitively.

Do I mention it to his teacher/ Head of year/Head of Sport, or just let it lie?
I did think I might just tell them I'm taking him out of school that day and go and do something fun instead!

I think school PE is very narrow and biased towards team sports (usually involving a ball). I think there are much better ways to make sort/physical activity a part of your life forever than forcing kids with no aptitude to lay team games requiring hand eye coordination. I spend half my life in the gym and I run half marathons. When I was at school I skived off PE almost the whole time (with the tacit consent of the PE staff). I'm dyspraxic and nothing they had to offer was any good for me. But I swam ran and walked throughout my school years. DD2 does at least 5 hours dance a week, outside school obviously. She also runs. But none of that activity counts as far as 'school PE' is concerned. At a time when school music and drama is being decimated (actually, worse than decimated, many schools are losing more than a tenth of their musical activities/capacity/spending) it seems bonkers to me that an increasing focus is being placed on the sort of PE that will not translate into life long fitness.

I think provision of sport varies a lot.
In my childrens previous school, they often did maypole dancing and actually no team based sport at all. They avoided anything competitive.
In their current school, they swim weekly, do gym, athletics, dance and also the team sports like hockey, netball, rugby, cricket, rounders.

Many children do not do any sporting activity outside school. So whilst the provision is not always good, I think it is important they should have some. And I don't think people should be allowed to opt out of lessons, be ause this would create a situation extremely difficult to manage.

I agree with herc whilst physical activity is an essential part of the school curriculum, sport does not need to be.

It would be far preferable to give pupils a range of activities to choose from during PE which include team sports, individual sports and non-sporting physical activities like dance.

If we are serious about getting more people to see exercise as a part of their lives, it should always try to be as enjoyable as possible. All too often it is exclusionary and grim.

I don't think we are disagreeing.
We all seem to agree that some form of physical activity should be compulsory.
There is a range if provision. In some schools it is mostly sport and team based sport (secondary schools mostly like this) but there are many schools which offer a wide range. In my childrens school there are all the team sports I mentioned earlier, but also dance, swimming, outdoor adventure (high wires, low ropes etc) cross country as well as country dancing and plenty of drama.
So the issue isn't really if they should avoid PE (which Herc asked) and which I still think would be wrong, for the reasons above, but what PE should involve.
Agreed, that a wider range would be good. However, it should be recognised too that many get a lot out of team sports and for many those odd set a pattern for adult fitness and involvement. Herc seemed to suggest some kind of option to opt out. I disagree with that, however much we dislike the curriculum. We wouldn't opt out of Science because we don't like the topics and I see PE in the same way.

Plenty of schools opt out of proper arts ed. Why should PE be protected? Physical activity is important but not more so than culture. Team games are not important at all.

Returning to the OPs post,must wondered what the outcome of all this has been Op.
Did you contact the school? How did you approach it and what was the response?

Chocolate Wombat - I didn't do anything about it in the end. Although he was a bit annoyed/upset about it at the time he doesn't really seem to care now. If I raise it as an issue, then he will likely be put in a team to appease me, and then, as someone said, will have to suffer humiliation and yet more abuse if/when he doesn't do well. We'll just leave it.
When I thought about it again, I realised the bit I was most annoyed about was the way it was handled (or not) by the 6th formers.
If I get a chance to informally give feedback on this I will.

I won't make him write a report. I might suggest he takes a few photos on his phone.

Oh well, glad it was a passing annoyance and hope he has an enjoyable day.

Choc- I don't think it has 'disappeared' as such, just that he doesn't want me to make a fuss. Also I tend to 'pick my battles', so will save myself for something more important.

He has already said it will be the most brain-numbingly boring day for those who aren't involved. I suspect he and a few other will spend it sitting at the other end of the field playing on their phones..