It was MG’s very first Sports Day this week and it was just for the foundation stage (pre-school & reception class so 3, 4 and 5 year olds). It was lovely, all children were included whether they attended on that day or not (for the pre-school children) and they marched out of the classroom in pairs then did some songs with actions before being split into seven groups (of about 6-8 per group) to cycle round seven activities.
There was a game of turning some cups upside down and seeing how fast the whole group did it and trying to beat their previous time; there was throwing bean-bags into a hoop, each child getting several goes; there was throwing bean bags as far as possible with scoring hoops; there was a potato-and-spoon race; a race where you had to pick up a toy in the middle, move it to the end and then run back; and an obstacle course with tyres and planks to traverse and hula hoops to place over etc. I’ve obviously forgotten one of them!
The children ranged from just turned three to almost five, so a huge range in terms of development and most games were collaborative or involved turn-taking. Nothing seemed particularly competitive and besides which, they were all separated across seven groups so direct comparisons couldn’t be made.
Excuse terrible editing to blur out other children’s faces. DG in red to the left of picture looking lost; MG at centre back not listening to the instructions 
So here is my rant. At the end there were medals given out. Less than a third of the children got a medal. Two or three children got two medals. Most of these children were the older, bigger children. But also, what were the medals for? How were they decided? Why did some children get two when most of the children got none? I think for this age group, everyone should have got a medal. They were all only little, most of them under five and I didn’t think it was very fair at all.
No, MG and DG didn’t get medals, so you can assume I’m being petty! It wasn’t a day DG normally attends and I didn’t realise she was allowed to join in so she was thoroughly confused when I left her in the class and just stood looking lost (she’s only been attending for six weeks anyway) so I picked her up to just watch instead. MG had been looking forward to the sports, singing the songs at home all the time and had asked me to watch but when I’m around she reverts to her shy state and became clingy, crying and didn’t join in.
I feel very sad because she probably would have been happier if I wasn’t there but it’s so hard not being able to share these events with your child and I hoped she would have carried on as normal despite me being there. She is a very good runner so may have got a medal if I’d not been there but instead she barely joined in and was last in everything she did join in with. She’s still amazing and wonderful but I do wish her outgoing and positive side would show more in group situations. I’m not overly worried as she is only five and I know she is a confident girl really, she just needs some time
So despite it mostly being a lovely affair (with Y5 children helping out too, also lovely to see in terms of how all the school is involved with each other and the mentoring roles my girls will develop into one day) and a sunny, dry morning too (shock!), I am a little disappointed with how the medals were handled.
I agree everyone should have got a medal. These things mean so much to them at this age and its really not much effort to just give them all something for participating. I also think that making children feel left out will just put them off sports and PE rather than encourgaging them.
That’s really interesting as I had similar feelings about ours. The boys school only has 90 pupils in total and this year as it was an Olympic year they had a special family assembly to hand out gold silver and bronze medals for most of the older children’s events and a few of the younger. Had I questioned it they would say that it’s because the older ones have less chances as they are closer to leaving, blah blah blah. But what happened was that a large group of children ended up with several medals and a very small group had none. It seemed devicive to me. Why not give all the children a medal for competing and then maybe extra medals to the outright winners. My two got medals, one got five which seemed silly really. I know we have to learn to lose but at that age it seems wrong and demotivating!
I had my son’s sports day yesterday too. He’s three next week and has been going to pre-school for two afternoons a week since January this year.
They had a sports day trial run on Tuesday, which he loved (wouldn’t stop talking about it!), but he got completely overwhelmed when we arrived yesterday as all the children from the pre-school were invited, plus parents and family, so it was much busier than normal. He burst into tears and initially said he didn’t want to join in, but then perked up a bit and did four out of the five races with me holding his hand (and the utterly lovely parents cheering him on loads) and then did the last one by himself
However, when I say ‘races’, there were no winners as the children were simply divided into four teams (equally split across the 3-5 age range) and they all took part in every race, just running it as a relay. The children were all encouraged to cheer each other on and if any child got stuck, one of the teachers simply went and helped them out. No-one minded if ‘cheating’ occurred, i.e., holding the egg onto the spoon after they’d dropped it lots of times!
Each child’s individual approach was celebrated – one boy, for example, completed the whole beanbag balancing race without it falling off his head once, but he walked incredibly slowly and finished about three minutes after everyone else was done. He wasn’t rushed, they let him do his thing and he got a huge cheer at the end. Children who ran really fast were praised, children who smiled lots were praised, children who helped others were praised – it was fab!
My son got a HUGE cheer when he did the final race by himself and he was absolutely made up! I should mention here that I don’t know many of the parents who were there, so there weren’t doing it as a favour or anything, they were just genuinely lovely.
All the children then got a medal (made of real plastic gold!!!!), a certificate and a sweet and they all got a collective round of applause. There was a mothers’ race, a fathers’ race and then a picnic for everyone.
My son came home beaming, has talked about nothing else since and we recreated each event last night when my husband got home (he couldn’t get out of work to join us yesterday).
I felt that the whole day worked really well and everyone went home happy. Yes, it was obvious who the ‘sporty’ children were (and it tended to be the older ones) but I felt that they were right not to place any emphasis on finding ‘winners’ at this age. My son (and I hope this isn’t just a proud mummy talking!) actually ran really fast when he raced by himself and ‘beat’ some of the older children, but I think drawing attention to this would have made him self-conscious and wouldn’t have achieved anything. All he needed to know was that we were so proud of him for joining in and having fun.
I’m really sorry that your girls didn’t enjoy their day as much yesterday and agree with how you felt about the medals. Maybe it is worth a quiet word with their school just to note down how you felt, as it seems as though there would be a few other people who perhaps felt the same way?