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Secondary education

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Original poster

Why do boys play football in PE?

26 replies

cakedup · 14/01/2018 10:43

DS is 12, in Year 8. I am really fed up with the way PE is so sexist and divided at his school. Basically, the girls do trampolining and other 'girl' sports and the boys do football.

Not every boy loves football. DS hates football. He would love to try other sports like trampolining. Since he began in Year 7, every PE lesson has been football apart from a handful which were rugby and cricket (probably about 5 lessons in total).

DS tells me there is a girl who is football mad in his year and although she attends girl's football as an after school club, the girls have never had football as part of their PE lesson.

This just seems so unbelievably sexist and archaic. I'm surprised because I think the school thinks of itself as quite forward thinking (they have a strong LGBT presence for example).

What is it like in your DC's school? I'd like to write a letter to the head of the PE department, anyone else done this before?

OP posts:
Original poster
cakedup · 14/01/2018 10:58

Title was meant to ready 'Why do boys ONLY play football in PE'!

OP posts:
LML83 · 14/01/2018 11:01

That's awful, I am 34 years old so left school a while ago. Lessons were split into boys and girls but both got a good variety of sports.
Then further up if studying PE classes were mixed.

clary · 14/01/2018 11:17

That's poor OP. DS2 is in GCSE years now, but in KS3 he played cricket, basketball, yy football but also did tennis, table tennis and swimming (they have a pool).

All students should do a range of sports. I would raise it with his PE teacher.

crazycatgal · 14/01/2018 11:18

It was like that at my school, as a girl I had to do netball, trampolining, dance etc and the boys did football and rugby.

It was the same at my DPs school, he hated football but was made to buy expensive football boots every year to do 8 weeks of it.

You can speak to the school but it's unlikely that they will change anything.

BoneyBackJefferson · 14/01/2018 11:31

Ask the school/teacher.

Most schools do a half termly sports rotation due to lack of equipment.

FiveMoreMinutesPlease · 14/01/2018 11:43

That must be so boring for those that don't like it. My DS doesn't and would hate that. At his school they have a half term.y rotation so they've already done rugby and football and now about to move onto dance (this not quite so popular).

TeenTimesTwo · 14/01/2018 12:13

In 5 years at secondary DD1 did:
football, hockey, netball, basketball, badminton, unihoc, table tennis, trampolining, gymnastics, track & field, rounders, cross country

She says the only difference between boy s and girls was boys did rugby and girls rounders.

ineedamoreadultieradult · 14/01/2018 12:16

I would raise it with the school. I'm not sure this would be the norm. It's 18 years since I left school but whilst lessons were segregated into boys and girls we all did the same sports we did football, cricket, rounders, rugby, basketball and track and field

lljkk · 14/01/2018 12:19

It varies by school.
DD did hockey, DS did footie.
DD did netball, DS did basketball.
I think the rest of their options are the same.
At DC school they have 3 week blocks of each sport, then do something else.

Swimming, rugby, tennis, badminton, athletics, running, rounders are also on the rota. Cooper run is mixed sex to really put some competition in for the best girls.

BitOutOfPractice · 14/01/2018 12:23

I think lots of PE departments are bastions of sexism and archaic attitudes like this. And it’s the reason why so many people are put off sport for life.

BrownTurkey · 14/01/2018 12:52

Even at our sports specialist secondary, the girls complain that they don't do rugby in PE until year 9, annoying as quite a few got into tag rugby in primary or play for clubs. There is some opportunities for cricket and football. The department would say they have to meet wide ranging preferences can't offer everything.

londonista · 14/01/2018 12:55

God I SO agree OP. Our primary is militantly mixed sex on all sports but I think once they hit secondary it's back to 1982 style PE... 😕

WeAllHaveWings · 14/01/2018 12:55

ds (Scotland S2) does gymnastics, netball etc in mixed classes, in primary it was always mixed classes too. Must be school specific.

VienneseFingers · 14/01/2018 13:14

When I looked round several secondary schools recently I was shocked to discover that most of them did segregated sexist PE.

Original poster
cakedup · 14/01/2018 13:17

Well exactly, BitOutOfPractice and as a result, DS hates PE - not exactly encouraging for long term positive association with keeping fit.

OP posts:
Original poster
cakedup · 14/01/2018 13:18

Surprisingly, the school used to be a sports academy! They have plenty of equipment and resources.

OP posts:
idontlikealdi · 14/01/2018 13:18

Dh is PE HoD and boys and girls all do all sports apart from contact rugby. They are split for some classes and male teachers aren't allowed to 'spot' on gymnastics and vice versa.

gingercat02 · 14/01/2018 13:20

Why do girls and boys have separate PE classes?

londonista · 14/01/2018 13:39

I can only assume that because in secondary they start to become physically very aware/different.

I don't mind that they play the sports separately so much, it's just the offering only one type of sport to one particular sex I think is a bit old-fashioned.

londonista · 14/01/2018 13:42

Actually thinking back we only did team sports separately. We did things like athletics and swimming together I think. I imagine I probably felt quite self conscious doing that, but we were all in the same boat, so you just get on with it.

We did play separate team sports. I recall the boys really wanting to do netball and preferring softball (which the girls played) to baseball (which the boys played). And this was a million years ago!

MinorRSole · 14/01/2018 16:07

Sounds very out dated. I was lucky enough to attend an all girls school and we did a massive range of sports including football and rugby. That was decades ago so probably forward thinking for the time - think the local boys school only did football and rugby. They certainly weren't at any county athletic events but maybe they were just shit

My own dcs are at mixed school and do a full range of sports. Thought most worked that way now

BarbarianMum · 14/01/2018 19:13

At ds1's secondary they do 8 different "sports" each year. This year rugby, football, dance, orienteering, badminton, table tennis, hockey and volleyball.

Just football seems very outdated.

Allthebestnamesareused · 14/01/2018 19:31

At our school there are loads of option including hockey, basketball, gym fitness, rowing, trampolining for the boys too. In fact they only get to play football in 6th form!

Take it up with your individual school if you you feel the options are exclusionary.

queeniee · 01/02/2018 22:41

at my dds school the kids have an assessed sport twice in a three lesson rotation and for the other lesson the kids do ‘alternative sport’ for example at the start of the year the year the girls had one netball ‘skills lesson’ one asssessment lesson and then alternative which was either football or basketball. obviously this doesn’t quite help but i know that the boys are definitely assessed in football basketball athletics cricket and table tennis not sure about final one as they have a different assessed sport each half term. i can remember my experience being very similar to this and i went from being the really unsprorty last picked girl in pe in primary school as we only did gymnastics to being in the top group for pe and chosen regularly and did it at gcse, a level, and a degree in it y. don’t know if this was of any help but that’s my experience with pe at school

Julie8008 · 02/02/2018 00:33

Just to say my DS hates football and the bullying physical nature of the sport. We would pay money for him to do trampolining with the girls. I would support an end to compulsory PE, I dont see the point to it.