Did anyone in your secondary school ever use the showers?

[Soubriquet]

In American programs, teens are always shown using the showers after PE

I remember never seeing anyone using the showers at my school. At best, they were used for some groups of girls to change in semi privately. At worst, they were completely ignored.

So. Your school?

No. They were a big communal line. Absolutely no way would anyone have touched them. They got demolished and replaced with a single shower cubicle and some loos in the end. Much nicer but still I don't think anyone used the actual shower. No sure there would have been time anyway.

No, we never used them at my school. We did get changed out of our PE clothing after PE, and used deodorant, but I don't remember one single person ever using the showers as far as I'm aware.

Only after swimming when we could keep our costumes on

Nope they were only ever used as extra space to get changed in. I don't even think they worked if I'm being honest.

Never. And we would have been horrified at the thought.

@FuckingFlumps

Nope they were only ever used as extra space to get changed in. I don't even think they worked if I'm being honest.

It's just occurred to me that I have no idea if ours worked or not, because nobody had ever tried to find out.

The girls mostly avoided them, except maybe a quick rinse with shorts on. I expect the boys sometimes had no option, especially after rugby.

Nope. I think even the most confident girls were put off. The showers were open to the entire changing room, so no privacy at all.

Yes we did but I am wondering why you want to know about this? Is this your first post on MN, OP?

No we were meant to but we'd run in with pe kit in and wash our feet. If we were asked why we weren't having one we'd say we were on our period, had a verruca etc. I think the boys were made to have one.

Mid to late 80s - showers in a line. We had to wait in a queue wrapped in our towel and one by one walk through the water spray from start of showers to end. We had to hold our towel above our head to keep it dry. PE teacher stood at start and watched you go through. No actual washing took place. They might as well have hosed us off. Very embarrassing experience but completely accepted.

Haha no. Totally open plan and damp / tired. No one went near them

We were made to use them! Basically queued you and ran through them!! And the teacher stood the other end from memory! This was a grammar school in the mid 90s!

No choice, all of us were forced through, everyone just went through as quickly as they could (communal line) but you couldn't go too quickly as the pe teacher was there at the end checking so you couldn't run out dry either. It was not the nicest part of school at all.

Same as your school, they would have the curtain pulled to be used as a dressing room (I have a vague memory that the popular girls did this, in little groups, and the unpopular girls like me were left on the outside) but Games was always the last lesson of the day anyway. I don’t know if they were used outside of school hours by those who were in the sports teams.

Dunno if the boys used theirs.

Years 7 and 8 yes. We were forced to all squeeze in together which was horrendous. The teacher stood in the entry to the shower to make sure we were all naked as no swimsuits allowed, and that we stayed in for a specific amount of time.
After that, we weren't allowed in at all so I assume there'd been a complaint.
This was late 1990s.

Yes. There were communal showers and some single showers.

I must say it's very heartening to read these replies. I was expecting a load of people to say "Eww, how can you not have a shower? Of COURSE we used them, you unhygienic person, you" but nope, it seems like most people so far never used them. I have actually wondered about this same issue before. There's definitely a "culture" of it in films, having the dreaded shower and hating it etc.

Yes,we had to use the showers after every P.E session. I was 11 in 1982 and remember using all the way through secondary. It was a normal compressive in north Oxfordshire and I thought other schools did the same.
It was mortifying,we all hated it.

@FrancescaContini

Yes we did but I am wondering why you want to know about this? Is this your first post on MN, OP?

No

I’m not asking for details. Just if they did or not

I went to all girls school so no boys but no one even used them. I have no idea if they worked either.

Yup. Queued up and walked through them while the pe teacher watched. It was absolute torture.

The showers were built when I was in 3rd or 4th year. I only used them a couple of times. There were cubicles but no doors or curtains and we only had about 30 seconds each as there were 30 pupils and 6 showers. Plus the games teachers yelled at us to hurry up.
We were exempt from showers if we were on our period. Mine were very frequent 😁
"Luckily" this was the 1970s when bathing weekly was normal and deodorant almost unheard of.

Definitely not, but no one needed to use them anyway. PE class isn't a tough work out, we hardly worked up a sweat 99% of the time. Plus there was only one or two showers, and 5-10 minutes to change for a class of 30. So clearly the idea was that you just changed, and the shower is just there in case of emergency.

The sports teams in our school used them after matches, but that was all. There wasn't time to shower after PE/Games; certainly not for the entire year group!

Yes the popular girls using the showers as a changing room and the unpopular left outside!

Ours was in a different room (open plan door way style) but still all in a row. Not closed off.

That was fine for the popular girls but changing in the main changing room. Nope