Talk to me about sports day.

[DCS]

Went to DS sports day today, it was awfull. He is in reception. I believe it was a mix of reception, and possibly year 1. There were 17ish groups possibly more. Parents were told to arrive at 10. We saw some of the other parents we knew on the way so all walked in together. We had no idea where our kids where, the field is quite big so couldn't see down the other side. We were not told what was happening, we're not told to follow our kids around or how it was set up. DS teacher came over and pointed him out and then me, oh , and dd spent 30 minutes watching what I thought was the warm up before I realised it was actually the events. Basically, there was a bunch of activities, and the groups moved round. Most of the parents sat at the benches and chatted. Benches were located at the first 2 activities, none at any of the other , atleast, 15 activities. We moved around with the group ds was in but the teacher was grumpy and looked quite annoyed we were following. Ds has a persistant cough so is curently drinking a fair bit of water, luckily i bought an extra bottle because he forgot his inside ( as did all the rest of his group), which he finished in about 1/2 hour. There was no cheering or encouragement. I'm sad to admit it was boring. It went on from 10 -12.30. Reception usualy have lunch at 11.45 so they had to wait an extra 45 minutes.
I just felt like it was so badly organised. Last year was much better where it was just nursery and they did a few games, races and that was it.
I don't even know if I should mention it or just leave it be. I was quite annoyed about the drink thing and because ds has been a bit poorly and the teacher didn't seem to care when he mentioned he wsnt feeling well.
The only good things about today was seeing ds focus on the games, he realy enjoyed himself, the chance to chat to a few of the parents I know, seeing how many of the year 6 kids knew my DS and how they took care of him, and finally the year 6 kids ( who were running the games) were amazing. They were so good with the Los, even with my dd, they gave her a ball and a sticker, and we're so friendly. Which leads me to think not all of the older kids are like the ones we see on the way home.
Is this how sports day generally is? What usually happens?

 

[RaspberryK]

That is nothing like how our sports day used to be and our preschool one was great last year, looking forward to this years x

 

[george83]

This sounds a bit like part of our sports day. We split our into two day - one day being the proper races which parents are actively encouraged to come to. The second part being s carousel morning where the children go round and do probably about 15 different games to earn points. Parents are invited to this morning but as a teacher I wouldn't have a clue where the individual children in my class would be at any time to be able to point them out to parents but it is organised chaos.

 

[CookieCupcake]

Our sports day is nothing like that. They have all the school take part and the teachers run it. The parents all sit together along the track. There aren't any benches you sit on blankets. There's loads of cheering and the teachers encourage it. They do it in the afternoon rather than the morning. Once all the children are finished they have a 'parents race'. One for the mums and then one for the dads. The teachers sometimes join in the parents race too with a lot of encouragement I've always found them great fun (when the weather's nice)

 

[Tasha]

Our is nursery on one day, reception the next one, year one, two and three on the following morning and year four, five and six in the afternoon. There about twenty activities and you're encouraged to follow your child around each event but cheer all of them as most parents don't come. They all have water bottles in their classes with the school logo on so those are brought out. It doesn't affect their lunch time.

I'd say something. It should be organised better, there should be water provided for everyone and they're too little to waiting forty-five minutes extra for lunch especially after physical exercise.

 

[suzib76]

Ours do fun games in groups where they all move from activity to activity in the morning then races in the afternoon.

We just go along and look round the groups until we find Lana then follow the group as she moves through the various activities. I'm surprised so many parents just sat on benches chatting, it wouldn't ever cross my mind not to look for my child when I go to sports day.

 

[LoraLoo]

We have a sports day which is basically an all day thing.

About a week before we are given a time table so we know exactly where our children will be. They do rotate, so some activities will be on the track, others in middle of field and some on playground.

They use a loud speaker thingy and welcome parents to sit in the middle of the field if they want to see their child better . theres always plenty of seating for parents, I always enjoy it.

Sorry that yours was so unorganised I would definitely mention it, if they're not aware, they can't change things.

 

[CaptainMummy]

My dd1s school sports day was at the local sports stadium. It lasts from 10-2.
They had 7 stations, situated around the track (atalanta, shot put, egg and spoon, long jump, hurdles and something else and a rest station) and the parents walked around the outside of the track following their children. There was lots of space for younger siblings to run about too, which is good.

After these events, they had a half hour lunch (everyone brought a packed lunch) and after that they had the 100m races (yes, they made the poor p1s run 100m!) followed by a house relay, staff race and parents race (which Paige and I won!) and the whole school sat on the grass along the 100m side whilst parents stood at the other side behind the barrier or in the seated viewing area.

The head teacher had a microphone that she used to let everyone know what was happening. Parents encouraged children when doing their activities and the whole school went crazy during the big races which was lovely to see. I dont think Paige would have finished 2x 100m (there were heats and finals, she was exhausted bless her!) had she not hear all the school shouting her name.

I really enjoyed the sports day !

 

[pinklizzy]

I was actually really glad that DD had chickenpox on sports day this year so we didn't have to go!

 

[Quartz]

This sounds a bit like part of our sports day. We split our into two day - one day being the proper races which parents are actively encouraged to come to. The second part being s carousel morning where the children go round and do probably about 15 different games to earn points. Parents are invited to this morning but as a teacher I wouldn't have a clue where the individual children in my class would be at any time to be able to point them out to parents but it is organised chaos.

Ours is the same except parents are not invited to the morning bit just if you volunteer. The school has 4 houses and within that its split into 5 groups of mixed ages (so 20 groups all together made up of 30 children). Your group gets allocated in reception and you stay in it (with reception added each year and year 6 leaving) and the younger ones get a mentor as well to look after them. Parents are invited though to help out at these so I do a station (last year it was obstacle course) there are 20 overall. Then its lunch and in the afternoon its year races were a track is set up, children sit one side and parents the other and cheer on each year having a running race within the houses. Then at the end a trophy is given (last year DD house neptune one which was very exciting).

Certainly in the morning it would be difficult to know where an individual child was in terms of where the groups are but they would always be looked after. My DD has her favourite teacher and one of the boys in her class sister who is in year 6 so she is very happy.

The kids dont need parents watching at all really - DD gets caught up in it being with her friends and the competition.

The drink thing would bother me in the morning they take water bottles round in the afternoon as the PTA we set up refreshment stands with squash aftereach year race they have squash

 

[OmarsMum]

Ours was similar. Children were in their house teams so we had to look for our son and find him loool, we had to follow them around, but they had their water bottles and they were responsible to move their bottles from one area to another. We cheered for the children but there weren't much parents in the event. There was a bench for parents in the outer area, and in the gym, but as they were moving around all over the place we didn't bother about sitting. We lost him few times, but in general it was fun. It was for PY1 & 2. In reception it was more organized as the activities were much less & all were in the same area. There was no scores in reception but they had scores this year. They offered snacks for the children after the event & there was water, coffee & tea for parents.

 

[DCS]

I don't mind that I couldn't find ds, we were looking around trying to spot him. But initially I didn't even realise his year group was out there because I don't recognise any of the kids, and some of them seemed quite a lot bigger. If this is how ot always goes, atleast I'll be prepared for next year.

 

[Dragonfly]

Your reception is our P1 in NI. I think . But the whole school is involved its one morning which I found boring standing around too. Had to wait for other classes to take their turns. Think school bit smaller here. But they went from 9.45 till around 12 and got ice cream after.

 

[Quartz]

I don't mind that I couldn't find ds, we were looking around trying to spot him. But initially I didn't even realise his year group was out there because I don't recognise any of the kids, and some of them seemed quite a lot bigger. If this is how ot always goes, atleast I'll be prepared for next year.

It sounds like its like ours then when each group has different year groups. Ours then do team challenges and are split into KS1/Reception and KS2. It really does help them to get to know other years as well.

I had to realise as well that Sports Day is about the kids and then competing more than it is a spectator sport for us watching

 

[sequeena]

That's a shame! I loved my son's sports day. It was all done in one area as the SN children can't get around as easily. There were benches and chairs for the parents to sit on and they sold refreshments too. Every child got a medal

 

[KatieB]

Louis is in reception and his sports day was nothing like that. It was an hour long and held in the reception playground that is also shared with nursery class (which Alex attends), separate to the rest of the school. Both nursery and reception sports day were an hour long (Alex's was in the morning, Louis' was in the afternoon). There were a few small obstacle course type races, a race for mums/dads, drinks and biscuits then medal time for everyone. All parents had benches to sit on where they could see their children, and, more importantly for me, Louis could see us.

 

[Pearls18]

Ours is more traditional, infants in morning, juniors pm, there were 3 races, they split each class into 3 groups and just ran through them one after the other. Was really efficient and quick, parents cheered from the sidelines.