WAG any families with a gymnast that works out during school hours?

[GymDad9.9]

Ours is somewhere in the middle, Pink is running at 96 % this year , mostly due to ongoing physio appointments. School sends a letter telling you that they like 95% or above, but there are no sanctions for being off, unless its regular and without cause. My niece was regularly kept home on a Friday at primary because 5 days was just too much for her.

You can normally negotiate days off for competitions as its good kudos for the school.

Holidays are a bit different, they recently passed a national law (we have a national curriculum) that stated parents would be fined for taking their children out of school during term time for family holidays, but several parents have fought the fines in court and won and I think they are now talking of repealing it.

Baffling

 

[MILgymFAM]

Wow that's insane to me. Maybe it's a Canadian thing, but kindergarten isn't required so you can't actually fail it. Or be truant from it either.

Oddly enough, kindergarten wasn't compulsory where we lived either, but once we enrolled her we were beholden to the rules for the year. She adored kindergarten, so I don't regret sending her, but it still rankled.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Our schools here in Finland are usually flexible with kids who do sports. All the bigger cities have at least one school with sports-oriented class for kids who do some competitive sport, usually ice hockey, soccer, swimming, cross country skiing etc but gymnasts can apply too. Those classes have one morning a week for sports practice, usually it's a two hour practice in their normal training place (i.e. gym for gymnasts and ice hockey rink for hockey players) and their club coaches are coaching them, the city pays the clubs for those coaching hours. In my old gym I had many gymnasts in sports-oriented classes and they weren't even pursuing for elite or anything. All the grades practiced together every Friday morning, so it was like 10 girls total and it was a huge benefit for them - they got more one-on-one time from coaches and the coaches who ran the morning practices were professional coaches. The kids who didn't went to this particular school with the sports class were also welcomed to participate if they had late starting time that morning.

The kids who are chosen into national training programs (something like your TOPS) and who have training camps regularly can miss school with no problem as long as they do their school work at camps.

The school days are usually so short that there is no need to leave early. Kids ages 7-15 who are on the elite track usually have early starting times and the practices run from 3.00 pm to 6.30 pm so the gym is emptier and the professional coaches can still get home at reasonable time and have family life. The older kids come to practice straight from school and the younger ones who have shorter school days go home in between.

You can also miss school for pretty much any reason (like family vacations) as long as you let the teacher or principal know early. They make sure that you can participate tests etc before the absence and they give you school work to do during that time off.

 

[2G1B]

I have often taken my kids out of school about 15 minutes early to get them to a doctor's appointment and our elementary school doesn't count it as anything. I'm basically taking them out when they are packing up for the end of the day and I prepare my kids before hand to be ready to pack up fast when they get called up. I think that is is pretty ridiculous for a school to count 3 of those as absences. I suspect that it is different in middle and high school though because with those, you only have that last class for about an hour, so you are missing 1/4 of the class. I do see a difference there.

I did contact our middle school and ask if it would be possible to count gym as PE and pick my kids up an hour early for 6th grade since PE is always last period in 6th grade at our school. They told me "no". Our middle school hours are crazy late, so it really would be helpful to get out an hour earlier.

Being completely honest, in general I don't care what arrangements other parents make for their kids to miss school as long as it doesn't affect my kids. I'd be royally pissed if a teacher agreed to not teach new things for a period of time each week because a kid in the class was leaving early every week to go to a practice. I think that it is the responsibility of that kids' parent to keep the kid up on the things that they miss by choice (because IMO it is by choice to miss for practice). I can't imagine how difficult this could get is Suzy's parents want to pull her for gym practice once per week, and Bobby's parents want to pull him for hockey a different day each week, and Sally's for tennis... etc. So, IMO, allowing kids to be pulled and they keep up with the work = shouldn't be an issue. Not teaching new material because a kid is regularly being pulled for non medical reasons = not OK.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

Our state has a provision which allows for "alternate PE". Her school day ends at 1pm, after English, math, science, history, foreign language and elective. Her last 2 periods are lunch and PE (which she doesn't attend). Instead she does independent study to learn about different sports, nutrition, fitness, and submits written work along with a workout log signed by coach. It is a ton of work, much more than if she attended PE class. For the health requirement (one marking period per year), she did an online class over the summer. She is a junior and has been doing this for 3 years. When she was in middle school, she left 20 mins early 4 days a week.

 

[Mish]

I think I am jealous of all of you. This simply is not a choice here.

 

[duyetanh]

The schools where we live are not flexible either. They also aren't that great from an educational standpoint unless you go private. It sucks. Hence our reason for homeschooling. My kid gets enough social stuff to cover more time than she had in school as it is...and she gets her schoolwork done with plenty of time for other social opportunities also. This said, we would LOVE practice during school hours....but that is not an option here.

 

[MomIdidit!]

Head coach wanted DD to start practice in the afternoons this fall. I spoke to the building administration and he told me he would need to talk to the board of ed, superintendent and the lawyer for the district. He came back to me a few days later and told me the school can not allow me to pull out DD for a sport.

We were all very upset but are making it work for now. We are looking into private schools now for next year since it seems their schedule is more flexible. New York is not flexible, we have a group of girls attending private school since their public schools would not allow the girls to miss school for practice, training or meets.

It's very frustrating knowing that our school district does not look at the whole child. I even told them I would hire a tutor of their choice and have her work with DD after practice on Saturdays. They would not budge! We wanted our 8 year old to stay in her school for as long as possible because of her friends, her siblings attend the school and its just a sense of community. It's disheartening that the schools do not accommodate young athletes that have a desire to train in their sport.

OP, I hope you have a better experience with your school district....keep us posted.

 

[e'smum]

well, i know someone who had their son taken out of high school during the days for practice. in a different town. so i know it's been allowed in the state at least. the meeting with the coach is a week from saturday. my dh is going to be attending as i have a team building fun outing for e's team that day that i initiated so i really need to go (and want to). we've got multiple girls from two different gyms in her level this year so we're hoping they bond over froyo! but it means i'll miss the meeting. hopefully dh takes good notes. i'll keep you updated but it could be a year before i know anything since it's a year from now he wants to start this up.

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

My DD is 10 years old and in the 5th grade, she is currently training as a level 8. Her practices are everyday starting at 2:45 pm but school doesn't let out until 3:45 pm, we pull her out of school everyday at 2:30 pm so she can make it to practice on time. We were VERY lucky with our school, we spoke with the principal at the end of the school year last year (when we found out what time practice would be starting) and he was completely on board with us pulling her out early. She is listed as a part-time student and we obviously need to make sure that she stays on top of her homework and that her grades stay where they should be. The crazy part is that there are other girls in our gym who to go different schools but in the same district and they were not able to get early release. We are very grateful for the school and principal and teacher, they have been nothing but supportive of her and her goals.