Parents warned about sports day challenges

PARENTS have been using video footage from their mobile phones to challenge primary school sports day results.

A Cardiff primary has written to parents telling them they must not approach teachers asking for winners’ names to be changed based on their video “evidence”.

In a strongly worded letter ahead of sports day tomorrow, Sian Evans, head teacher of Ysgol Mynydd Bychan, says: “The members of staff at the finish line, and nobody else, have the absolute final say and as to the first, second and third place positions.

“Unfortunately, during the last few years parents have approached members of staff with evidence that they had filmed on electronic devices such as iPads in order to prove that their child should have been awarded a higher position in a particular race and comments also appeared on Facebook.

“If this happens again there is a strong possibility that we will have to consider changing the competitive nature of our sports morning.”

The Welsh-medium school in Cathays, which has more than 200 pupils, is holding its sports day at the National Indoor Athletics Centre (NIAC) in Cyncoed.

The letter from the head, which has been seen by WalesOnline, also tells parents they must sign a permission form at NIAC if they want to take photographs, and reminds them they are not allowed to put photographs or videos of other children on social media sites.

And it adds: “The arrangements for the smooth running of the morning are very tight and take quite a bit of arranging.”

The school was approached for comment.