Do you think that Sports Day should be banned?

Yeah, but you need maths for your future life. You don't need to know how to do country dancing or play rounders.

Also, no-one at my school was bullied for being bad at maths and you weren't forced to do it timed in front of the whole class/school whereas this is the case for sport.

No, but it's a break from subjects and part of the fact obesity levels are rising, and so schools need to do P.E, even if what they do isn't actually that active

even though when we played P.E, it was active due to football or athletics etc

But the 'fat kids' never did any exercise in PE anyway. They just stayed fat and lazy. I don't mind PE when it's not competitive but competition just shames those who can't do it. And an hour a week (which turns into half an hour when you consider changing times) is nowhere near enough to keep someone in shape. It just puts people off exercise for life.

Yeah, but you need maths for your future life. You don't need to know how to do country dancing or play rounders.

Also, no-one at my school was bullied for being bad at maths and you weren't forced to do it timed in front of the whole class/school whereas this is the case for sport.

1. if you don't think there are advantages to doing PE then you clearly didn't get it taught correctly. Don't see the advantage of knowing how to work as a team? Don't see the advantage of knowing how to work and follow rules even when you're tired?

2. of course people get bullied for poor academic skills. People get bullied based on exam and test results.

PE is as fundamental to life as Maths, English, Science et al.

The difference is that it is not compulsory for an individual to partake in a Maths competition in front of the entire school.

I think in an obesity crisis, motivating children to exercise by introducing competition for one day in the year is not a bad thing.

Yes, it is.

These are called, variously, times tables tests at primary school, SATs, GCSEs and A levels.

Sitting exams is never compared to sporting events simply because the type of pressure is not the same.

I was quite poor at Maths and didn't enjoy it. Can that be banned too please?

I think that there should be an academic opportunity for those who aren't good at sport.

the competition of sports day never motivated me. Pretty much the opposite in fact. All it ever did was reinforce the fact that I was terrible at sports. Wasn't until I discovered that dancing is fun that I've been doing more exercise.

Sports day is great for those who are good at sports, but for those of us who aren't... not so much.

And to those suggesting that they're bad at Maths/English/whatever, if we had days where everyone had to publicly take part in tests or competitions in front of the whole school, I'd be fully in support of the idea of those not being compulsory.

I don't think that comparison is valid. At least if you're bad at maths, humiliating failures aren't usually paraded in front of the entire class (or school) for all to see.

the competition of sports day never motivated me. Pretty much the opposite in fact. All it ever did was reinforce the fact that I was terrible at sports. Wasn't until I discovered that dancing is fun that I've been doing more exercise.

Sports day is great for those who are good at sports, but for those of us who aren't... not so much.

And to those suggesting that they're bad at Maths/English/whatever, if we had days where everyone had to publicly take part in tests or competitions in front of the whole school, I'd be fully in support of the idea of those not being compulsory.

There is. It's every other day of the year.

At my school, you only signed up to do events on sports day if you were good at them.

This. In fact people who were bad at maths were given extra support and often were given awards for improving from an F to an E whereas those who were bad at sport were just bullied by horrible teachers who hated them.

Exactly. I hate competition and I hate team sports. At least in academic subjects no-one else depends on you.

Well I go to my little brother's sports day every year and the kids always compete together as a class. This year, I noticed that there were loads of overweight kids competing in the relays, and because it was competitive against the other classes, the children were chanting names and clapping for the overweight kids whilst they were running or throwing or whatever, just as they were supporting the sporty kids. I fail to see how that could be anything but positive!