We’ve been getting sporty at Parent Ping Towers this week… or at least been watching other people getting sporty, which is the same thing, right? So this week’s blog looks at sports day, football and swimming!
But first…
Education has been in the news a fair bit after the government said it wants to ban mobile phones in schools (see what we know about this already here). Also, they may scrap the 10-day isolation period for a bubble when a child tests positive for Covid.
When it comes to self-isolation, a quarter of you with children in secondary school said your child’s bubble had burst at least once since Easter. In primary schools, whilst fewer bubbles have burst (15%) the impact is more challenging when parents need to stay home to supervise younger children.
So how do you feel about the 10-day isolation? Whilst most of you agree it is the right thing to do, 22% of parents of primary-aged children and 30% of secondary disagree or strongly disagree.
Sports day
With just a few weeks left before the end of term, around a third of you don’t know what’s happening about sports day and around a third of you with children in secondary school say it’s not happening at all this year.
Where it is going ahead, one thing is clear… unlike parents’ evenings and the Christmas nativity, sports day is not going online! Only 1 in 10 primary parents and 1 in a 100 secondary parents will get the chance to watch sports day this year.
It’s coming home
Before England reached the quarter finals of Euro 2020, around half of you watched at least some of the tournament with your children. Not just dads and boys, but mums and girls too… we really didn’t spot a pattern in who’s watching and who’s not.
However, when it comes to physically attending live professional football matches, dads were quite a bit keener than mums. Two-thirds of dads said they’d like to do this if they could afford it, compared to only half of mums.
But is it important that you are on the same side as your kids when it comes to sport? On the whole, no. But to 18% of dads it does matter… at least a bit!
Just keep swimming
Fewer than half of you have been swimming in the past year. Does that mean your kids have been missing out too?
Just under half of you with children aged 4 to 7 told us that you’d managed to get your child a swimming lesson this year, despite the closure of pools during lockdown. For 7 to 11 year olds (where swimming is part of the PE curriculum) 17% of you said your child has had a lesson at school. Thankfully, by age 12, 75% of you say your child can swim.
Coming up next week...
Next week we have questions about mobile phones, moving up day, lateral flow tests & TV. So make sure you download the app and set your notifications to PING every day!