Our school has a team based activities with points scored to give an overall house winner… and then a by year group foot-race. So a bit of both. Happy with that.

Parents races are a ridiculous and unnecessary distraction from what should be a great day for kids.

Quirrel great story !

Have had some epic sports days, mothers egg and spoon with blatant cheating and ensuing theatrical arguments plus the finish line was close to a hedge and quite a few mums ended up in it as they where looking at the egg’s not where they where going. Not one of mine but at a friend’s school two of the dad’s started playfully barging and then one went down heavily and broke his collar bone !

steve-g

Probably saved you some embarrassment TBH. I suspect you’d have been well out in front, only to start to stumble uncontrollably, trip over a dandelion, and hand the win to the rich Dad that everyone hates but who always seems to go home with the trophy.

So, kids were between 5 and 9

They weren’t still doing sports, they were outside, they were doing mildy physically exerting non competitive tasks, but it wasn’t “sports”. Once you remove the competitive element from something it’s no longer sport.

Kids seemed to enjoy it at first, but as the experience for them was 95% queue, then 5% activity the young ones lost interest fairly quickly, all sports days are going to be mostly waiting, but usually there would be some sort of sport to watch.

When I was at school there was a wide enough range of things to do at sports day that everyone was at least reasonable at something, i would have thought that was the way to go in terms of not leaving any kids feeling left out

No it would not, because they’re still doing sports, just in a way that more of them will enjoy and benefit from.

I try to do the inclusive bleeding heart liberal hippy shit normally but I do find the no racing sports day a bit of a conundrum (and I was shite at every sport going at my school) Racing is like exams/tests we want everyone to take part and give it a good go but we all end up seeing who comes out on top in the end, seems weird that sport is now exempt.

But this

As she crossed the line she ran up to her teacher – ” I saw a butterfly, catterpillars and lots of ants.”

did make me smile

I never worked harder each year than on sports day. I was a reasonably bright kid but the things I could do best involved a field or a sports hall and a pair of trainers.

I would have been heartbroken if they had removed the competitive element, the clever kids won at maths and science, the artistic kids won at drama and art, why should my moment of glory be taken away from me, the sporty kid?

Team based activities are not sports. They are team based activities.

I am too hungover to articulate my thoughts properly here today, but lunge and donk have hit the 2 points I am trying to make.

For some kids the thing they are good at has been taken away, to not upset other kids who are presumably good at other things and get their time to shine.

Then like exams, the core thing about sport is the competition, the winning, the losing, and all that goes with it. Removing the competition is akin to setting an exam that every child gets 100% at. Yes they all feel good, but you have lost the entire meaning, no one is learning anything from an exams that easy, and no one is learning the lessons that sport teaches when there is no competition.

Would like to add, in school as in life I was/am way more closely aligned to nerd than sporty guy and mini-g is the same.

Quirrel – Member
I had the pleasure of watching all my students train for the x country race at school, from KG up to 16 year olds.

My daughter, was never going to win the KG race, about 500m, as she was just too slow, and easily distracted.

Am I reading that correctly? 500m for a kindergarten race? 😯

D0NK – Member

I try to do the inclusive bleeding heart liberal hippy shit normally but I do find the no racing sports day a bit of a conundrum (and I was shite at every sport going at my school) Racing is like exams/tests we want everyone to take part and give it a good go but we all end up seeing who comes out on top in the end, seems weird that sport is now exempt.

Most sports days are for everyone, not just for the sporty kids. I’m not talking about removing competition in schools, as well as competitive PE there are sport clubs, inter-school competitions etc, and then other stuff outwith schools. But if you want everyont to take part, you should do it in a way that everyone can take part in, otherwise it’s just alienating and offputting. Competition for those that want it, and not forced on those who don’t.

(My sport was swimming, so I didn’t get to shine at sports day either, made no difference- I’d not have basked in the glory of beating a couple of hundred classmates who could barely swim and couldn’t give a rat’s ass but were ordered into the pool! No more than I’d enjoy being beaten by the runners or the rugbyists at their game. Beating people you outclass isn’t fun; being beaten by people who outclass you isn’t fun either)

Beating people you outclass isn’t fun; being beaten by people who outclass you isn’t fun either

point taken. I guess you need to do a variety of sports and also include some random/wild card stuff, obstacle race, egg n spoon etc stuff thats a bit of a laugh. I’m talking more primary school stuff here, in secondary if you weren’t an athlete (and there were plenty of us) then you were just there to watch – wasn’t a parental invite thing iirc

TBH I think I’m basically arguing for more sport in schools! So not taking anything away from anyone but giving more options for others

Our school stopped inviting parents before I joined (the staff) as the head was basically bored of telling off, then removing drunk (they brought cans with them) parents from the field every year. To be fair I am sure it would be different now.
Ours is a round robin affair with 14-16 teams doing two fewer events than teams (two drink stops) with 4 minutes of event, 1 minute to move on then the next 4 minutes. Mine is usually a hurdles relay, point for every lap of 6 hurdles. The 5 year olds are usually hearded by the older kids in the more successful teams and the winners, second and third are the ones who score the most. No praise for anyone’s to sporting nature as they tend to win anyway by supporting their team. Then we spend the whole next day walking to another school via a country park for lunch, and walking back again. I hear the kids sleep well by the end of the week, I know the staff bloody do!
Edit- I think the walk is just shy of 8 miles in total, good walk for the Y6, proper adventure and challenge down at year 2 who I think are the youngest we take.

Was placing a solid 3rd in parents race. Moving up to 2nd. Then stumbled. Twisted ankle. Tore hamstring. Can’t walk.

Currently sat in middle of Hebden Bridge park waiting for a parent to come and take me home.

#fail

At our school, they have competitive races, but almost all races are relays. So even the kids who are a bit rubbish have to try hard, and it counts if they do a bit better as they’re up against the rubbish kids in the other houses (it’s a state school, but they have houses for all sorts of things in school, though don’t make a big deal about it). Seems just about the right balance has been struck – competition, the kids who are good don’t run away with it all, the kids who aren’t any good still contribute, less waiting around (they might not spend any more time running, but spend more time being involved), lots of team spirit.

Bog eyed jog at the kids school this morning
and I was running around with them , somehow managed to trip over 2 little girls

Only one cried though so it’s not too bad 😳

Our daughter’s infants’ school has a team competition. All the kids compete in lots of different physical challenges and get points. Not a bad idea really – still competitive but far less personal pressure. Kids are to young to start blaming the weak ones for the team loss.

I’m all for competition, as anyone who knows me will testify.. but only where it’s wanted. Making kids line up with everyone watching just to lose is pretty heart breaking for little kids. But on the other hand, young kids all want to participate and have fun.

Putting my competitive proud dad hat back on.. my daughter deliberately did her running races like they do in cartoons – run with everyone else for a bit so you can look sideways at them, then burn them all off 😈

Oh and – no dad’s race. Gutted.

They stopped the parents races at the primary/junior a few years ago after a youngster got flattened 😆
I now it wasn’t funny but the dad’s were getting carried away and didn’t pay attention to where the kids were at the finish line. (no youngster was harmed in the making of this lol btw).
I got banned by the Ex running in them after “embarrassing her” . Not sure how it was embarrassing unless you count winning as that?
But then thats why they all lined up – to win.
There is a certain satisfaction though to shutting up the loud, gym monkey, fitness freak; the “tri-athlete” and the ex-PE teacher 😛

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DQziPBog7s[/video]

Did my first one last year. Was surprised at the turn of speed TBH and only just made it into the top half of the field.

I blame it on my tight-ish jeans and flat soled-trainers – which made the halfway turn a bit comical.

Speaking to another dad after he told me his clubmate – a former national runner – had torn his hamstring in the dad’s race too.

😀

Isn’t that like LA? 😈

Basically yes, just like that 🙂

It’s not the same thing though is it.

Whats would be the same thing, would be watching a film instead of doing maths, so the kids who can’t do maths don’t have to feel bad about it

Sports day is different tho.

If maths was made the same as a competitive sports day, it would be all the parents in the hall then get the rubbish-at-maths kids up on stage to write the times tables against the clock. You can bet a lot of Dads would be getting hot under the collar at the thought of that Dads race.