Thank Goodness for Private schools

[Captain...]

...Or 4,978 to match Thatcher's.

Can we not just agree they are all cvnts.

[Guest MattP]

...Or 4,978 to match Thatcher's.

Won't get any argument from me on that, she hated sport. From what I read she pretty much tried to kill off football.

Along with his own passion for sport I think one of the reasons John Major set up so much funding for our athletes I think was because of what she did.

[Tielemans63]

I think Paddy will be getting a lot of +1s from anyone who works in education.

Anyone who cares even vaguely about education should detest the guy.

[Manwell Pablo]

At school (left last year) we got offered football, cricket, rugby and rounders, and that was pretty much it. This was in a middle class area, and the school had "sports college" status and all the funding that goes along with it (we now have an empty office now the findings dropped). It's as much down to a teacher's preferred sports and what they can actually play. I went through all of school at never got the chance to play tennis, competitive cycling and when we wanted to play American football (the touch type, not contact) we had to print off the wiki page and teach ourselves

I have to say quite suprised by this, and by the general talk of state schools not having funding, I was watching us play Volleyball the other day and wondered how on earth we were so bad at it was one of the main choices offered at Grammar (ashby grammar i.e not a public school) betwene Ivanhoe and Grammaer we were taught (some optional) badminton, tennis, athletics, basketball, netball, Volleyball, swimming, hockey, rounders (although in my eyes this is a pointless sport that has no place in the circulum) football, rugby, cricket, Not to mention that the two schools double upped as Community Colleges which housed (staying completley Olympic here obviously there were more) Fencing, Archery, Judo and Tai Kawndo.

Obviously I left 10 years ago so things might have changed.

I think state schools can only take a certain amount of the blame, and also the link between Private/Public success could be linked back to the Parents ability to support young talent and supply equipment not just the schools. A lot of parents don't always encourage kids to do what they are good at, they prefer to try and get them to do what they themselves enjoyed doing at that age or something with little cost attached. I remember being picked up as having natural fencing ability and being asked to join a local club at a very young age but as my mum viewed it as dangerous I got very little encouragement to carry on when I got fed up of being beaten by Adults at the age of 11.

[Jon the Hat]

BBC has some of the actuals facts of the matter re playing fields.

The DfE later added that of the 21 approved for disposal, 14 were of schools that had closed, four were sites that became surplus when existing schools amalgamated, one was surplus marginal grassland on the school site and the proceeds were invested in the school library and better sports changing facilities.

The sports facilities on two more of the playing fields were improved by developers and then leased back for use by the schools and local communities.

So in fact no schools actually lost any facilities as a result of the 21 "sales".

[Bellend Sebastian]

I've never had any interest in going to or sending my own children to private school, but I was talking to someone the other day who had worked in both state and private schools and she said that one of the significant differences is that because of the relative wealth of the kids in private school they generally have access to better quality recreational drugs in prodigious quantities than their state school counterparts.

I'm starting to feel that I may have lost out. There I was, playing football on the tennis courts and listening to Suede, when if it weren't for cruel fate and social injustice I could have been getting off my tits on coke with Louise Mensch, and then presumably become a gold medallist in the double sculls or something. If that's not unfair I don't know what is

[Daggers]

Can we not just agree they are all cvnts.

Yes, this has always been my standpoint, it's the right-whingers who wish to suppose everyone who calls them out must be a left-winger. It just happens that the Tory party are bigger cvnts than the rest.

[davieG]

There needs to be "a big cultural change" towards sport in schools if Britain is to capitalise on Team GB's Olympic wins, David Cameron has said.

Team GB have 22 gold medals, their best Olympics haul since 1908, with high hopes in showjumping later.

The PM called for a more "competitive ethos" - teachers said he was "shifting blame" for problems caused by cuts.

Meanwhile, the BOA said 800 Olympic and Paralympic athletes would take part in a parade in London on 10 September.

They will parade from the City's Mansion House to the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace the day after the Paralymics ends.

Sales of Paralympic tickets have now topped two million.

Mr Cameron said the government was investing £1bn in school sports over the next four years but added that more needed to be done to build a sporting legacy for British children.

"We need a big cultural change - a cultural change in favour of competitive sports," he said.

Meanwhile, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson has said he is "pretty confident" that funding can be maintained at the current level. He said elite sport is his priority, but that could not be guaranteed and hard decisions must be taken.

Team GB had "done better across all sports, it's not just the usual suspects, so it is fantastic news", he said.

[21st Century Fox]

[Guest MattP]

BBC has some of the actuals facts of the matter re playing fields.

The DfE later added that of the 21 approved for disposal, 14 were of schools that had closed, four were sites that became surplus when existing schools amalgamated, one was surplus marginal grassland on the school site and the proceeds were invested in the school library and better sports changing facilities.

The sports facilities on two more of the playing fields were improved by developers and then leased back for use by the schools and local communities.

So in fact no schools actually lost any facilities as a result of the 21 "sales".

Wow, I always knew the Guardian and their cronies didn;t mind bending the truth to spin stories to make the Tories look as bad as possible but that really went out on this one.

[act smiley]

I have to say quite suprised by this, and by the general talk of state schools not having funding, I was watching us play Volleyball the other day and wondered how on earth we were so bad at it was one of the main choices offered at Grammar (ashby grammar i.e not a public school) betwene Ivanhoe and Grammaer we were taught (some optional) badminton, tennis, athletics, basketball, netball, Volleyball, swimming, hockey, rounders (although in my eyes this is a pointless sport that has no place in the circulum) football, rugby, cricket, Not to mention that the two schools double upped as Community Colleges which housed (staying completley Olympic here obviously there were more) Fencing, Archery, Judo and Tai Kawndo.

Obviously I left 10 years ago so things might have changed.

The problem I found back around your sort of era - there are plenty of out-of-school options within an area, and there's a fair variety of sports covered during classes.

But in terms of school teams, it was just the traditional sports really (the only ones I remember existing were football, rugby, cricket, swimming, girls netball and cross-country) and there was no encouragement to take up any sport if there wasn't a school team, unless you had absolutely standout natural aptitude.

Now, in cases like this you're not likely to really miss out on players with Olympic potential - but for every however-many amount of people who missed out on being Sport Xs version of a Sunday League footballer, there's going to be one or two who could have developed into players at a decent level.

Its not just a case of giving opportunities to people with talent, its a case of encouraging people who maybe enjoy a particular sport whenever they've tried it to actually take it up rather than writing themselves off as "not sporty" just because they're a shocking footballer or don't have a big turn of speed / upper body strength / whatever.

My new years resolution this year was to take up a sport - I've not done any in a properly organised setting since U14 Cross-Country at school (which I was at best mediocre at and picked up because I enjoyed it and my friends were on the team). It never crossed my mind back then to take up sports outside of school as I'd thought of sports clubs as being for people who were "good at sport". I really should have taken the opportunity when at uni a few years back, but due to my experiences as a kid I'd written myself off in a "yeah, that's fun but I'm no good at it" kind of way.

I joined the local hockey club and have played a few matches with their 'odds and ends' team; its an amusing combination of being outplayed by 14-year-olds and 70-year-olds, but its fun and everyone there was supportive rather than just going "oh, what the hell are you doing here?" - I just wish I'd done it sooner.

[Webbo]

Yes, this has always been my standpoint, it's the right-whingers who wish to suppose everyone who calls them out must be a left-winger. It just happens that the Tory party are bigger cvnts than the rest.

How's that hope not hate working out for you Dags?

[Daggers]

How's that hope not hate working out for you Dags?

Better than your understanding of its significance or the use of the word 'cvnts' to describe the party you love dear.

[Webbo]

Better than your understanding of its significance or the use of the word 'cvnts' to describe the party you love dear.

Just being diverse.

[Daggers]

Just being perverse.

Uhuh. Whatever works.

[Webbo]

Uhuh. Whatever works.

[Nick]

Surely that's e-sexual assault?

[Benji]

Sport and P.E quickly started to die as I went through primary school, high school and college, being the first to lose out when something new came into the curriculum. I can't see the balance shifting much if state schools continue that way.

[Tielemans63]

Spot on. He says a lot of things does Our Dave.

[davieG]

Politicians in general