Gender-segregated races at primary school sports day

[iisme]

I went to my children's sports day today and they had boys races and girls races, right down to the 5 year-olds. I guess it's important to do this when they get to a stage where boys are physically stronger than girls to give the girls a fair race. But surely it's not necessary for the little ones, and is fostering an idea of 'otherness' (i.e., girls aren't so good) between the genders. But maybe if it is a good idea at the top end of the school (11), it's better to do it all the way down. I instinctively bristled at it. What do you think?

Also, I think views on segregation can be coloured by having all boy or all girl children

Segregation benefits girls. Mixed benefits boys

I think my DDs school got the balance right. KS1 they did fun team events - competitive but total mix of age and sex. KS2 was also an inter-house challenge, with events like sprinting sex segregated (for which the team would choose the best athletes), I think some other sex segregated events but also some mixed group things. The girls were just as vital as the boys to the points score- as is of course the case with the Olympics which is one of the rare times we do see female athletes being given a decent share of screen time.

Having read OP properly, I realise the question is actually about sports day specifically

Ours is all done in relay teams; sack race /egg n spoon/ bean bag on head etc...they are mixed teams.

They have a sprint race at the end which is individuals, which is segregated

But, Harvey, if a girl's experience at mixed sport is being spoiled by the boys refusing to pass etc., then that should be dealt with by stopping the boys' bad behaviour, and not by putting it in the too hard basket and creating new (usually smaller) spaces for the girls. Why should women/girls always be the ones pushed out?

I agree danel. The fault lies with the coaches. Most of the coaches we have encountered are awesome. Some are Terri le, in terms of their motivations, ethics etc. For some winning is the be all and end all. The coach at mixed football, totally thinks its a boys sport and barely tolerates the girls

Our girls football coach/team is flippin fantastic. We are lucky

I think you are over thinking it. I hated sport but if you think it is a good thing to encourage children and girls then setting it up so that there will be 2 sets of first, second and thirds seems more likely to encourage children than setting it up where there will just be one set..

theverm, my point is not as you say "erm, pointless"

There is no set point at which most boys will outrun most girls.

It happens gradually. They will end up segregated so it seems entirely practical to do this from the outset.

I hope you, erm, comprehend this

is this an example of the Wollstonecraft Dilemma? (sorry nothing useful to add!)

Not a mum, but surely, at age 5, the average differences between a boy and a girl of (say) 5 years and eleven months are going to be much smaller than those between a boy of 5 years eleven months and one of 5 years and one month? And I bet they don't separate them by age.

We just had sports day, a very small school so everyone was mixed together, and just infants, races were done by class.

Yes, the difference between the kids at the top of the year and the bottom of the year was much greater than the difference in size between girls and boys - this was less stark in the 7 year olds than in the 4 year olds.

TBH, at that age it's not exactly serious anyway, and the lack of skill/co-ordination (for balancing an egg, or jumping in a sack) is much more of a factor than the size :)

Since the sack race and obstacle course are hardly olympic events, I still don't see why you'd take the lazy route of segregating on sex so young. Just pick from a hat, or by surname, or the tables they sit at. If you want something physical, then by height (although as I said, I don't think that makes much of a difference - even when it's inches - at 5).

I agree with it because I have twin boy and girl. They are more or less the same height, but age 7 he is already much stronger than her and faster. If it's fun races such as sack race and egg and spoon then yes they could race together, but at their school they have a sprint race, an overhead ball throw, a standing long jump. He would beat her at all of those, as it was she won the girls sprint by a long way and he came second in his sprint.

If girls and boys are equal in the early years then why do young girls underachieve in sport generally.

I wish that my daughter's school had seperation of the sexes for sport. Recently they had a fun run and children in each year who had managed to run the most laps of the field were printed in the newsletter. There was not a single girl's name as the boys are so much faster and stronger at all ages. Even nursery!

If you are going to have mixed sports then you need to include sports like gymnastics where girls tend outshine boys. My daughter can hold her bridge or do a handstand longer than the majority of boys.

"(although as I said, I don't think that makes much of a difference - even when it's inches - at 5)."

My daughter's school decided to weigh all the year 1 children. My daughter wieghs 18kgs and the heaviest boy wieghs 32kg. (So much for confidentality! eek!) Ofcourse size makes a difference.

At our local primary, the fastest girl has outrun the fastest boys (and the older children) since she was 8. According to a few parents, the school should rethink its mixed long-distance run because this is 'embarrassing' for the boys.

The rest are busy buying bookies' tickets for the 2024 Olympics results.

Well, that's a question isn't it? Why do girls outperform boys? Are they naturally worse, or is it expectations/restrictions?

my son weighs about 18kg - his best mate probably weighs twice that - in the races they did the smaller kids had an advantage going through the tunnels, the taller kids had an advantage in a straight sprint, and the heavier kids had no advantage at all (perhaps they would have if there was some kind of strength based test? But I'm guessing having 6 year olds lift heavy weights would fail a risk assessment :) ) - and it all balanced out.

When it came to egg and spoon when it came to how smoothly you could walk and how sneaky you were at giving it a kick in the right direction when it fell.

The obstacle course, was won by the team that didn't forget to put the beanbag back twice, and didn't have any shoes fall off mid-race.

A good time was had by all, no need to segregate on sex still. I think that was a pretty standard infant sports day. Perhaps other schools take it rather more seriously.