Help we are drowing in PE kit. How does a Y7 cope?

[Rooners]

Found out that there are no lockers or anything at ds's new school. So every time he has PE he has to lug a huge backpack there as well as his normal bag.

Never know if PE will be outdoor or indoor, sometimes it is both, and so he has to have two pairs of trainers in there as well as all the other gear which he hasn't even been given yet though it was supposedly delivered to the school in late August according to the supplier.

There is tons of it, rugby shirt, trousers etc etc.

Is this normal for them to have nowhere to store their kit at school?

Poor lad is finding it quite hard to lug around. All the way there, all day and then all the way home.

They even take their bags to assembly.

HELP

I mean he is taking non-regulation (badged) gear for now as the proper stuff is still sitting in a polythene bag somewhere in the office afaik. But it is going to get heavier.

Ask the school. It can't be that hard to decide the lesson before what the plan is for next time surely ?

Weather almost never influences what DS did in PE. Well unless frozen solid and dangerous.

This is all very well but I can't get through to the school, like, ever

I will keep trying. Thanks.

How many PE lessons does he have per week? It's only been a week so he may well only have seen the PE teachers once or twice? There will be a plan for the year and they will do perhaps a term of rugby or a term of basketball. When things settle down he will only have to bring the kit for that activity so if he is doing rugby no need to bring the trainers for instance. If he is carrying it around in a sports bag, perhaps get him a rucksack. Mine always took PE kit in a rucksack so they could put it on their back. They cycle part-way and quite often had one rucksack on their back and another on backwards on their front.

At DD1's school those who don't have lockers can apparently keep PE kit in a cupboard in their tutor room.

At dds school there is a very useful PE timetable on the school website. A child's timetable will list which group they are in for PE and the name of the teacher. The website timetable tells you which activity each group are doing for that term and what kit they need for each lesson.

I think as the school have chosen

1. no lockers

2. long list of PE equipment which is very bulky to carry around

It seems to me that this is an organisational problem and you are well within your rights to ask the school for suggestions on how to manage PE Kit.

I'd start by encouraging your son to ask his friends what they're doing.

If there is no joy there - then have him ask his PE teacher: Do we need to bring in everything every time? Odds are the teacher will say that they'll warn the kids that they need football boots/ rugby kit/ etc.... a bit beforehand. So this may mean he can slim down the load to just shorts/ top/ trainers for the moment (or whatever is appropriate).

If he gets no joy from the teacher: then I suggest you e-mail the enquiry address at the school and simply ask what do they advise. I find an e-mail (which is an written correspondence) often gets results - because in fact you have a record that you have raised a problem and did try to get help - and if the school doesn't respond they've not met their bit of the student/ parent/ teacher agreement. Don't be pushy - but if you are confused you are well within your rights to seek clarification on what is going on/ should be happening.

It seems crazy to bring full sports kits for several sports every time.

Don't insist on an answer right away - but do encourage other friends/ parents to formally ask the school for advice on this point as well. If there is pressure from a significant proportion of the cohort about sorting this out - then this may gently nudge the school into considering a better way of organising this.

Just as an aside: one thing I do know is frequently schools insist children get all sorts of kit for PE, especially football boots (on list of uniform for starting at senior school) - but actually don't run the football session (or whatever other sports) until the spring - by which point most children have outgrown the football boots (or whatever other kit) they bought in July/ August. Schools really do need to be aware that these things cost money and putting parents to unnecessary expense leads to very bad feelings. Far better to say - you'll need football boots after Easter - we'll remind you nearer the time.

HTH

Thanks all, yes that helps a great deal. Sounds like a good approach PSBD. I'm trying not to be pushy - but he is dyslexic and does have trouble remembering things. So I kind of wanted to check that they hadn't already talked to him about this stuff and he just hadn't absorbed the info iyswim.

Anyway managed finally to talk to head of house this morning and she said he was going to get a message to collect the kit today as it is sitting there. All good I thought till he came home without it, and had not been told to collect it. I rang again and apparently he should have been told to, so he knows where to get it from tomorrow now.

The school seems really bad at communicating between the staff let alone with us. Good point about the trainers not being needed yet too - I should have thought about that. Yikes.

She also said no, no lockers are available - there is a 'cupboard' but she didn't recommend anyone to leave their kit in it as stuff tends to walk.

He told me that he had asked another teacher about having a locker and been told that yes, sure thing, he can go on the waiting list for one which is what another parent told me this morning.

They are also on a temporary timetable (who knew? ZERO info for new parents on the website, sadly) and that all will be rejigged after the results of the initial streaming tests are sorted out in a week or two.

So we might not end up with PE every single day at that point.

Glad in a way to know this isn't unusual, and that two bags a day is just par for the course. He has a rucksak for PE and a sort of messenger bag for papers/folders etc.

Thanks again everyone.