If you do follow this site, you will have realised that I've not posted on here for a while. I have been bogged down with tonnes of work in Term 1 with all the changes that I made. Although I made changes to the way our department runs, most of my time was making sure our sports programme was up and running.
Our school was in a competitive league for the first time in a few years and we created teams from U11 to U16 for both boys and girls. Our first season (term 1) focused on football, volleyball, swimming and netball, so as you can imagine there were a lot of training sessions after school on a daily basis. I also couldn't get the the same training schedule every week because of fixtures, so I had to update that on a weekly basis.
However, my biggest challenge was dealing with parents during this term. I expected parental contact but not as much as I had to handle. The toughest period was when the trials were held and we had to let so many kids down who didn't make the team. I had a lot of parents complaining that their child had not made the team. The worst was for the U11 boys, where we had around 100 boys trial for 16 places. The mistake I made was allowing anyone from Year 3 upwards to come, where next time I will only limit it to Year 5's and 6, so we can hold a better trial. However, in the back of my head, I wanted to give the younger ones a chance. You never know when you may find a hidden gem.
I had parents complain about how their child didn't play in the correct position for the trial, no one passed them the ball, he/she is smaller etc. The harder conversation with parents were the ones where their child was playing for an academy/club. In Egypt, they have international academies, such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool etc. Parents don't realise but these clubs are only after your money, so if you're able to take your child to training and can pay the fees, then you are in. However, parents believe that their child is of a certain standard because they play for a certain club, which is not necessarily true. This is very different to the UK, where you get scouted to be playing for an academy.
I also had to deal with parents saying that they didn't get enough training. We had 6 games plus a tournament to play in 10 weeks, which meant if they played a game that week, they wouldn't have training. Our facilities were full and I didn't want the coach to be staying behind too many nights per week. They couldn't understand that although we did our best to win, our teams were all about having fun and not excellence.
Parents were complaining that because their child has purchased a kit, that they must play. Our school had football kits before, but the school made the decision to ask the students to pay for their own personalised one. We had to redesign our kit and find a new supplier this year, so we purchased the kits later than usual. The kids only had 2-3 games in their kit, so in most cases, I asked the coaches to allow all students to play in their kit at some point in those games. It wasn't ideal, but I understood where the parents came from. Next year, they will have their kits at the start of the season, where the kids will train in their kit, so there will be no excuses.
I had parents scheduling meetings with me because their child was upset that they didn't make it in the team/squad an in one case, one twin was in the team and the other one wasn't. A few parents were even labelling it as depression. I had to have the conversation that 'this is part of competition' but parents were reluctant to leave and presumed that I would change my mind. I stuck to my guns but I was very surprised by how parents didn't understand this.
I was shocked with how these parents were reacting. I have heard of competitive parents but have never experienced it myself. I did expect it at some point but not on this scale. At my previous school in Malaysia, I never met a parent about the sports teams. They just let me get on with it. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have parents involved, but getting involved to try and manipulate a situation/decision is a step too far.
I spoke to our head teacher to see if I can send a generic letter/email about all of these concerns because I was getting parental emails/calls/contact every day up until the end of November. He completely understands too, as he's dealing with parents all the time, but he said that even if you send out something, you will still get complaints. It's just how these parents work.
I can't get my head around if this is a cultural thing, a privilege thing or is this how the world is working these days? Like I said, this is my first experience of it, but it saddens me to think if this is happening on a global scale and if it is, these are worrying times. Have you had similar experiences to this and if you have, how have you dealt with it?
Season 2 begins tomorrow with basketball, athletics and swimming. I hope parents have got used to the system. I don't think I can handle another season of parents like the last one.