Whats the status on P.E. in schools?

Charityworker

Is it compulsary or not? I've been trying to find out. My 15 year old daughter hates P.E. to the point that she fakes illness to get out of it. She gets plenty of exercise elsewhere (it's a 1.5 mile walk to and from school every day) and we do a lot of activities during the week.

Now that she has chosen her options (last september) can I contact the school and tell them that I no longer wish her to participate in P.E. or is it still compulsary?

Please don't slate me. My daughter is fit and well and gets lots of exercise. It is making her very depressed having to do this lesson she hates so much twice a week and I feel that the time could be used with something more constructive such as maths which she could do with more help with.

cutestkids

Is there a reason that she hates it so much, you say that she is fit and healthy and participates in other exercise so what exactly is it that makes her feel like this.

15 is an age where girls can be very sensitive is she perhaps having a hard time from other girls or boys in the class.

Bluemeanie_2

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Schoolslearninganddevelopment/ExamsTestsAndTheCurriculum/DG_10013877

Janepig

Charityworker wrote: »

Please don't slate me.

You'll be lucky on these boards :rotfl::rotfl:.

AFAIK it is compulsory, along with RE, which imo is a bigger waste of time than PE. Schools as usual are damned if they do, damned if they don't. They get blamed for the rise in obesity by not doing enough PE, but then parents want their children to get out of it when they make it compulsory.

If your DD is 15 then I assume she's only got a year (not even that really) of school left and then she can leave the hell of PE behind. I can't see that the school are going to be willing to excuse her if you ask because all the other children are also then going to ask to be excused and there'll be nobody left to do the lessons.

What's the punishment for not participating? We used to have to do lines for "forgetting our kit" which we had to do standing at the edge of the netball court, but to me was preferable to having to participate, although I enjoyed when we did swimming and gymnastics, and rounders in the summer. But unfortunately 90% of the time it was sodding netball. I would never have dreamed of asking my mother to get me out of it though, it was part of school, you either did it or took the consequences. Perhaps your daughter needs to do the same - either take part or take the punishment, such as it will be. How is she going to manage in employment when she's asked to do a task that she doesn't want to do? Get you to ring up and see if she can be excused?

Jx

Charityworker

cutestkids wrote: »

Is there a reason that she hates it so much, you say that she is fit and healthy and participates in other exercise so what exactly is it that makes her feel like this.

15 is an age where girls can be very sensitive is she perhaps having a hard time from other girls or boys in the class.

She finds sport difficult. She can't hit a ball to save her life, can't climb a rope, can't jump over anything etc. She just isn't the sporting type. She likes exercise though. If there was aerobics taught in schools she would be OK.

GobbledyGook

Why does she hate it so much?

I got out of P.E. for my last 2 years of school because my 2 sessions of P.E. were one after the other and the freezing cold, damp, manky gym played havoc with my asthma. When I think about it now as a parent graciously excusing me (unofficially) so that I could concentrate on maths and english was just cheaper for the school than repairing the disgusting state the gym was in!

I think the situation highly depends on why she hates it so much. It could be a situation where she needs to be told that sometimes in life we have to do things we don't like, but it could be a more serious situation that needs sorted before it impacts on all of her subjects.

Sambucus_Nigra

Janepig wrote: »

How is she going to manage in employment when she's asked to do a task that she doesn't want to do? Get you to ring up and see if she can be excused?

I hated PE at school, got out of it whenever and wherever I could, and still hate 99% of competitive sports. I've been able though, throughout all my working life, to do all tasks asked of me - so it is possible.

HTH.

x

poet123

I have to say that just having a strong dislike of PE (many of us did I assume) wouldn't make me, as a parent, back her wish to be excused it.

Tigsteroonie

Charityworker wrote: »

She finds sport difficult. She can't hit a ball to save her life, can't climb a rope, can't jump over anything etc. She just isn't the sporting type. She likes exercise though. If there was aerobics taught in schools she would be OK.

Could she ask the school whether it's possible for her to do aerobics in a quite corner of the sports hall during the session? (They probably won't allow it but worth asking, it shows she's willing to do something.

I, too, hated PE. But during the last two years of secondary (those 'options' years), three forms took their PE lessons at the same time (around 50 girls) and so there was a choice of sport/activity. I did aerobics when the weather was poor, and cross-country running walking in the sun.

Janepig

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

I hated PE at school, got out of it whenever and wherever I could, and still hate 99% of competitive sports. I've been able though, throughout all my working life, to do all tasks asked of me - so it is possible.

HTH.

x

As I put in my original post, I used to also get out of doing PE, but not without consequences, and I certainly didn't involve my mother in trying to get away with it. My PE teacher was the vilest woman who has ever stalked this planet, and that's up against some stiff competition!! She was a seriously sadistic cow, bordering on evil, and 25 years later I'm still scarred from having known her! I wrote many thousands of lines at the side of the netball court in preference to doing PE with her.

In fact, I'm still scarred from my post on here last week where I dared to query the reason for the LEA "possibly" stopping local children having their names on the backs of their school hoodies (school hoodies :eek::eek::eek:!!!) so I'm surprised the same people haven't crawled out to tell the OP that she should be backing the school up in their endeavours to get her DD to do PE, and not helping her to get out of it!!

Jx

barbarawright

Bluntly, if the school lets her off because she hates it, then 25 other pupils in her class will also ask their parents to write them a note. Same with many other subjects (oh, the hours I had to spend being humiliated by my complete inability to draw or recognise a piece of music :rotfl:). You can try but I doubt it's going to happen.