Best way to get school on board with training schedule???

[DND]

I am hoping those of you who have been through the ropes can give me some advice on the best approach to have my DD's school approve her training schedule. Last year they were already concerned about her leaving 30min early four days a week and the schedule this year is worse.

At the meeting at gym today the coach would like to have the girls split up the afternoon training sessions. I knew it was going to be more hours than last year as my DD got moved up to train with the head coaches I thought we were only going to have one daytime practice a week not two.

How it breaks down is my DD trains 5 days a week with Wednesdays and Saturdays off. Last year she went from 3:30 - 6:30pm on the weekdays and 1 - 5pm on Sundays. This year it is the same days, but they would like her to train 1:30 - 6:30 on Mondays and Fridays and 3:30 - 8:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I know the school will be very "concerned" about this as they had already mentioned that even leaving 30 mins early was going to be more difficult as my DD got older.

DD goes to a private school and the expectations on academics is quite high, but at her grade level not as bad as it could be. DD gets a good report card - I think anyways as she does not get graded by A,B,C etc. - she is by no means the best in the class, but she is not the worst or struggling.

I am going to prepare a letter to the JSP and I guess I am finding it difficult as I can understand both side of the coin. The school knows you are paying a lot of money and they want to maintain the scholastic standards currently in place. They feel you have made a commitment to your child's education and it should come first. I do agree with that point as it is the basis of your child's future.

The coach feels that you have made a commitment to this level of gymnastics and you have to be willing to make some sacrifices to make it all work . They know there are schools that will accommodate certain athletes, but there is no guarantee that you can get in - out of catchment - and it is only for older grade levels.

I know we can't have our cake and eat it too in life, but I am hoping to get them to let me try this out for the year and if grades really fall then we can re-adjust. My DD loves gym and even though no one can tell at this age - we are just beginning the marathon - where it will go I would like to give her the benefit of trying.

Any input welcome as I find I am personally torn!

 

[bogwoppit]

Have you asked the coach how ther families manage this? THe HC may be the one with the answers you need.

I know in Quebec girls from P3 and up, which covers national and PNN, and do sport etudes programmes, which allows them to do accelerated school learning in groups of athletes from many sports, they then train the rest of the day.

At out regular school we have a few elite athletes in ski racing and they can miss as much school as they like, but their grades need to be kept up. Their parents pay for private tuition dusing the summer months and school year.

It is a tough call as your DD is very young and it is a lot of hours to miss. Private schools can have their own rules and guidelines.

I would chat to HC first, find out what other parents have done in your gym and area, then I would speak to the school.

 

[DND]

The head coaches have said that there are other athletes who have done this via correspondence etc. One girl who just went to Illinois on a scholarship managed . The big difference there was she did not start the afternoons until at least grade 7 or 8. I know in other provinces there are more programs in place, but even then I am not sure if it applies to grade 3.

I think the issue also is they are worried that the group will not get as much individualized attention if they have to have everyone all on the evening as then they cannot split them into two groups of 4 as the provincial levels are there as well.

It was hard to get the full thoughts as I don;t speak French and sometimes the coach has a hard time putting it all out there in English.

I am going to talk to the school as I know they are expecting the same as last year and I am hoping that once we analyze the PD days, long weekends (DD's school takes 4 days rather than 3) and early dismissal days that it may not be as bad as it sounds. I was also going to suggest that she can also do work over recesses rather than going outside as DD said she would rather do that then "freeze" outside anyways!

Guess the Prairie winters are a good motivator for some things!

 

[ckulat]

When our girls get to that level, they are home-schooled. We have 4 girls who train 6 days a week mornings & one evening a week as well (they are 10, 11, and 13). My DD was told she may need to be home-schooled by midyear, she's 9 years old, training level 7. Our schools here will not work with the girls, will not let them come to school late or leave early. I am pulling my DD out one day a week 20 minutes early to train for National TOPs testing in Oct. I cleared with her teacher, and did not talk with the principal since it is frowned upon. Good luck & keep us posted!

 

[Bobby]

Would your gym be willing to write to the school to outline your DD's training requirements?

Our gym generally gets a good, supportive response from public and private schools by providing a written outline of the requirements. I think it helps schools understand that the concessions requested are part of the overall picture of lots of hours - rather than say part of a family plan to prioritise an early family dinner by starting/finishing training early.

Best of luck!!

 

[Aussie_coach]

I don't see that it would be too bad, In Australia the school day is organized to suit a child's attention span. The main literacy and numeracy subjects are done first thing in the morning when the children are at their freshest. The other academic subjects like social studies, science, languages and so on are done during the middle of the day and the more laid back subjects are done in the afternoons like art, music, silent reading and so on when the kids attention is a little used up. If your school organizes their day similarly then the 1:30 starts should have too much of an effect.

I'm sure the gym would write a letter to the school outlining the need for this type of training schedule if you asked them.

There are many great benefits to doing day time training during school hours, as the equipment in the gym is usually fully available and you can get a lot more done without 100 recreational classes around.

 

[cher062]

1:30??? START TIME. I would never be able to do that with my DD on a regular basis. For us School ALWAYS comes first and I have told the gym this - If we miss its usually because she is sick, has too much homework that night or some other school obligation.

My DD loves this sport be we also know for us the "Elite" track is never going to happen. Our best hope is she can get a college scholarship when the time comes.

Talk to the coach and ask him/her how they expect the kids to be there when school gets out at what ever time. It sounds like they expect the kids to be homeschooled. I would have to tell the gym sorry the earliest I can get here is 4pm and I would be happy to go from 4pm - 8pm twice a week (giving you the same amount of time in the gym) and if necessary longer hours on the weekend. If the gym wouldn't adjust to the school times I might look for another gym that has a schedule that works with my child's school.

Our gym is really good about making practice times work with school schedules. Our fall schedule we have m, t, th 4 - 8:00 and f 3:30 - 6:30 then Sat 9 -12. The only hard day is Friday starting at 3:30 but I pick up my DD at school - she comes out with the first group of kids that are released (I think they are the kids who walk home) and we head right over we will make it there usually by 3:45 and gym is ok with missing that first 15 min.

What is the age and competion level of your DD?

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Bring her directly after school - no sooner, no later. Gymnastics is a hobby, but school is a kid's "job". I don't see why they must start at 1:30...our practice goes 4-9, although that could be too late for younger kids, and we have the option to leave at 8 for younger kids or if we have a lot to do or are very tired.

What time does school end?

 

[DND]

What time does school end? What is the age and competion level of your DD?

School ends at 3:40pm and she is 8yo doing Pre Novice part of the national program in Canada.

 

[gymgal]

It sounds like she's on elite path and if that's true than I would think the priority is going to switch from traditional school to gymnastics. If you don't have "sports" schools in your area, it seems like homeschooling is going to be your best option. if you don't feel like you could do the teaching, there are a several online schools where you just supervise the work.

the other option you have is to request that your dd gets put in the later group (you said the hc split the team in two - early and late).

 

[Aussie_coach]

There are lots of different ways to get an excellent education aside from attending a normal school day, everyday. Our kids are in school for 6 hours a day. 1 1/2 hours a day are spent on morning tea, Lunch and play breaks. A huge portion of the rest is spent marking rolls, attending assembly, being read stories, silents reading (can be done in the car), in crowd control, singing songs, drawing pictures (i have heard US schools are different but even in 7th grade in Aussie schools a lot of time is spent singing songs, drawing pictures and being read to), learning to say Hello how are you in other languages and so on.

Our elite gymnasts have reduced school days every day, their school days are reduced by several hours yet they are usually the top in their grades, most go on to have outstanding careers.

 

[Sparky]

We are in B.C. (Canada) where our DD training starts at 1:30 three days a week, and 12:30 one day a week (then 1 - 5 on Saturdays). She has daytrained at least one day a week since grade 2, and it has never been an issue - as one poster has already said, these kids seems to be more organized than most and my dd almost always is working ahead of the class as she finishes the hmework she is given by the teacher when more often than not the rest of the class doesn't manage to even get to the lesson during the time dd is away .

My policy has always been to tell, rather than ask permission - although I am always very careful to ensure that her teacher understands that it is OUR responsibility to find out/get missed work, etc., not the teachers - that this is not meant to create any extra work for them.

As for why daytraining is necessary in the first place - all I know is that the coaches at our club, in order to work full time hours, simply have to start coaching a little earlier than 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon, in order to get their 7 or 8 hours in before midnite! Unfortunately this requires most athletes to miss some school time.

We have never seen a downside to this, my dd loves daytraining cause it leaves her her evenings free to catch up on homework, etc.

 

[my4buffaloes]

I guess I am coming from a different perspective here as my husband is a teacher. I feel that school is more important than gymnastics. We will not pull our kids early for gymnastics unless it was a one time thing for a meet. Dd gets out of school at 3:40 and practice starts at 4. We are 15 minutes late 1 day a week. I pick her up right from school and we race there. I think it sends the wrong message to the kids to pull them early on a regular basis. I think the coaches at the gym are thinking all wrong here, no matter what level you are at. They should never have a practice start at 1:30, when the earliest schools get out are around 3. There is no reason she can't go from 3:30-8:30 if they really feel she needs a 5 hour practice. But even then I wouldn't pull her early. I would just get her there as quickly as possible.

If this isn't an option for you, then you need to homeschool her so that she can focus on gymnastics more.

 

[bookworm]

I guess I am coming from a different perspective here as my husband is a teacher. I feel that school is more important than gymnastics. We will not pull our kids early for gymnastics unless it was a one time thing for a meet. Dd gets out of school at 3:40 and practice starts at 4. We are 15 minutes late 1 day a week. I pick her up right from school and we race there. I think it sends the wrong message to the kids to pull them early on a regular basis. I think the coaches at the gym are thinking all wrong here, no matter what level you are at. They should never have a practice start at 1:30, when the earliest schools get out are around 3. There is no reason she can't go from 3:30-8:30 if they really feel she needs a 5 hour practice. But even then I wouldn't pull her early. I would just get her there as quickly as possible.

If this isn't an option for you, then you need to homeschool her so that she can focus on gymnastics more.

Interesting topic but I don't think that homeschooling is the only option versus pulling a kid early for gym...early on in my daughter's gymnastics (and due to the fact that we lived an hour away from the gym), it became a fact of life that she would leave early from school every day from third grade on...she left an hour and 15 minutes early every day and I don't think she ever felt that "school wasn't important" because we did this...it was just the schedule she needed for it to work. She went to a small private school and when the issue first came up I went in and had a frank discussion with the principal and her teachers about how I wanted to keep her in school , that I did not want her to homeschool , and was there a way we could make this work long term?...and I'm happy to say that the principal put her on a "modified" schedule that accomodated her early dismissal. My daughter has always been very proactive about her schoolwork and continued to make high honors every term so this worked for us. I think it's wrong to assume that a parent trying to work out a gym schedule (using some dismissal time) doesn't consider education a priority...

 

[B&M's mom]

I have to agree that taking a child out early for practice does not mean that education is not valued. My kids have been told since they were babies that they "would graduate from college." One condition of doing gymnastics is that they keep their grades up. My oldest thought/thinks that means she has to get all 4s/As. I haven't disabused her of that notion.

However, she will be homeschooled for half the day this year as she has joined the pre-elite team at her gym and is practicing from 12:30-7 pretty much everyday. I am working with the school to make sure that she is getting as much core content in the morning and she is staying for lunch so that she gets the social side as well. The school is going to provide us with copies of the textbooks for the classes she misses so we can stay on the same curriculum in the subjects we homeschool in.

This isn't an easy decision and I held off on it as long as possible because I wanted to make sure that she had the desire to pursue this. She's now starting 6th grade and is old enough to know what she wants to do and understand the repercussions. Once we made the decision I called the school and talked to the principal and the district office (we're in the public school.). It would have been great if they had been willing to let the electives go but they weren't. Because of the state aid situation, their solution was to only have her at the school half day and have homeschooled the other half. It wasn't the ideal solution but we had to give a little.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

This will be our first year with day training. My dd is also training for the PNN program. The gym wrote a letter to the school and we will submit it on the first day. I am not anticipating any problem. My dd and I are both prepared to get homework for the week ahead of time so that she can complete it on the nights when she is free.

I am also prepared to have her miss gym (or part of it) if there is an important test/fireld trip, etc.

Here is the letter:

To whom it may concern:

_______________ is a competitive athlete at abc Gym who is currently training 19 hours per week in our competitive gymnastics program. As an elite athlete these girls are required to train _______ from_______ and therefore will miss school during these times. Elite gymnasts tend to excel in areas such as independent studies, as well as develop good time management skills. Part of their gymnastics program is to set goals and keep log sheets of their progress.

If you have any questions regarding our program please call the gym.

 

[my4buffaloes]

I never stated that school was not important to those parents that pull their kids early from school, I stated that I think school is more important than gymnastics. I think it sends the wrong message to the kids when you pull them out early, but that is my opinion only.
My guess is you would have better luck arranging something with a private school versus a public school, but maybe not. I know people in my district that have had to pull their kids early for meets several weeks in a row and it did NOT go over well. I can't imagine that they would be happy with it on a regular basis. Especially as they get older. Homeschooling (something we did for years) is a wonderful option for gymnasts (or any other sport) who need to train a lot of hours. There is a lot of downtime in schools and it doesn't really take 6-8 hours to learn everything a child needs to learn each day. Homeschooling alleviates a lot of that.

 

[bookworm]

I think it sends the wrong message to the kids when you pull them out early, but that is my opinion only.



There is a lot of downtime in schools and it doesn't really take 6-8 hours to learn everything a child needs to learn each day. .

I disagree with the first statement that it sends the "wrong' message because we have been able to work around the downtimes to be able to pull them early....


And this (the second bolded statement) is exactly what the principal said to me...she said" we'll make it work, we want to keep her here , we'll work around the downtimes" . And like someone stated before, when there's a test or a special event (i.e. science fair ) or field trip, she doesn't leave early. We have been able to have her electives (gym) modified so that has helped as well. The teachers and administration have been very supportive so it's been a blessing.

 

[gasrgoose]

Interesting topic but I don't think that homeschooling is the only option versus pulling a kid early for gym...early on in my daughter's gymnastics (and due to the fact that we lived an hour away from the gym), it became a fact of life that she would leave early from school every day from third grade on...she left an hour and 15 minutes early every day and I don't think she ever felt that "school wasn't important" because we did this...it was just the schedule she needed for it to work. She went to a small private school and when the issue first came up I went in and had a frank discussion with the principal and her teachers about how I wanted to keep her in school , that I did not want her to homeschool , and was there a way we could make this work long term?...and I'm happy to say that the principal put her on a "modified" schedule that accomodated her early dismissal. My daughter has always been very proactive about her schoolwork and continued to make high honors every term so this worked for us. I think it's wrong to assume that a parent trying to work out a gym schedule (using some dismissal time) doesn't consider education a priority...

We have a simlar situation to yours. My daughter is an excellent student that understands the importance of school but also understands gymnastics requires alot of practice time. We take her out early 3 days a week. One of the main reasons is so she can be done with practice at 6 or 7 and only practice until 8 pm one night a week. She's 8 and we believe that getting enough sleep is vital for our kids. This decision is consistent with how we've raised our two other kids, 12 & 13. Make sure they get enough sleep! My 8 year old has to work hard at school to make up the time she misses but it is worth it to her. We also are at a private school that works with us. I think they realize that the next option for us is home school or a hybrid school. Quite honestly they don't want to lose our family (or any family in this economy) from the school so they work with us.

If she decides she wants to go to gym twice a day and her talent level shows she could benefit we might decide to home school. But right now we make it work.

My older daughter, an equestrian, has friends in government school that have a very difficult time leaving early or missing a day for a horse show. They simply say the absence is unexcused. I'm not sure there's a solution in that circumstance except home schooling, which isn't an option for some people. I also think that is another reason older kids drop out of sports that require huge time commitments outside of school.

 

[gymgal]

i am truly impressed with the level of cooperation you all have experienced with your schools. Our district would never allow this for a sport. They have a strict rule that restricts the number of days one can be absent (tardy or leave early counts as a 1/2 absence) in a quarter. Go beyond this, and the child fails the quarter. Illness is the only excuse. they have a few "give-me" days for vacations as well. And there is not 1/2 homeschooling either. I wish! We homeschool right now because it fits in our family and frankly, the public school waste way to much time on useless content, not to mention general time wasted on the basic running of the day. My kids (middle and elementary school) average about 3-4 hrs a day, plus reading which they do in the car or at bedtime.

BTW, I see nothing wrong with "viewing gymnastics more important than *school*". For some girls, this is exactly the case - at least in the traditional sense. They have chosen to exchange traditional school experience with achieving their dreams. That doesn't mean they are not getting a good education - it means they are taking a different path.