Did your school have a climbing frame folded against the walls of the hall? Did you ever get to go on it?

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One of the DC mentioned earlier something about never getting to go on the big climbing frame in the school hall and it unlocked my own memory of never getting to go on the big climbing frame in the school hall 😂

I went to 3 different schools from 4-16 and between them my DC have been to at least 7, and now we've discussed it none of us ever remember anyone getting a go on the big climbing frame in the hall. Going to ask DP about his memories of this when he gets home!

I sprained my ankle in PE every time I was allowed to do, the other weeks I was recovering from the sprained ankle. The teachers were always speaking to my mum about just how often a child could sprain an ankle walking across a floor. Or a wrist, finger, shoulder, elbow, knee, do something to my hip, hurt my neck…

No one will be surprised to discover I’ve got severe hyper mobility and hip dysplasia and spent my entire childhood in pain and exhausted and thinking I was just an uncoordinated loser who couldn’t climb a rope. I used to get so excited for the apparatus :(

Same!!!

Ahhhh... The Apparatus. Simultaneously the carrot held above the stick, for good behaviour, and the thing I was terrified of actually going on.

Born 1973, we had naice timber Large Apparatus. I think there were two panels so when out, they made a 3 sided box. One side had some ropes which were bloody impossible to climb unless you were a monkey. Apparently 2 or 3 of the boys in our class were just that. On a really good day, the teacher would let you carry the wooden Benches over (the ones that the 4th years got to sit on at the back of Assembly) and hook them onto the bars using those rubbery hooks underneath each end. Then you could slide down the ramps you'd made!

There were bars, quite far apart. I don't remember any of those new-fangled circles to crawl through that you get in metal versions. I remember the dizzying terror of having reached the top of the bars and realising quite how high you were above the hard hard floor, inadequately covered by those spongy green rubber mats that smelled, and which you'd spend ages surreptitiously picking bits out of from the layer under the stained green cotton fabric.

Mostly, the Apparatus was for hanging posters on, or scenery for drama performances.

How much do you think schools spaffed out on Large Apparatus? Given that it came out only on red letter days, do you think they got value for money? Cost Per Use rate must have been eye-watering!

Yes mines did and it was pulled out if the teacher couldn’t be bothered to teach p.e lol it was like Christmas 😂

We had wall bars, ropes and two beams that were used for gate vaults. I don’t think I ever managed a gate vault, I was terrified of falling on my head!

Cost per use, plus insurance claim for broken bones...

Nope. At both primary and secondary school (70s and 80s) the schools had loads of sports equipment that we never used. Particularly in both, some huge climbing frames that pivoted out of the wall but put back against the wall for storage. I think I saw the primary school one out in situ once, but never got to use it, but the secondary school one in the school gym was never put in place for use. But the secondary gym had loads of other equipment that was barely used either - there was a huge trampoline that I only ever saw put up once.

From memory it was always the "same old", such as horses to jump over, but mostly, we used the school hall/gym for things like volley ball, nearly always some kind of team sport rather than individual fitness/activities. I always got the impression they just couldn't be bothered to get the equipment out and then have to put it away again, so just did the easy things instead.

Presumably they got grants to buy specific equipment, so it wouldn't have come out of normal school budgets to get the large stuff, in fact, the school probably didn't want it, but because there was a grant available, they decided to buy it anyway "just because they could".

Yes, I remember always looking at it kind of longingly during indoor PE lessons. I can only ever remember swinging from something overhead once that I think must have been part of THE APPARATUS. I spent half my life upside down on our climbing frame at home so loved all that kind of stuff.

Yes in the 80s we sometimes got it out. If I recall it was 95% watching everyone else have a turn and then 5% hopelessly trying to climb more than 10cm up the rope.

I trained as a primary teacher in the early 2000s and we did get some specific apparatus safety training in schools. I used it a few times but gradually all apparatus seems to have been removed from schools. I don't think we're even allowed to use a springboard any more unless we have specific gymnastics coaching training.

The apparatus!

yes , in another country, all schools had it

Ours came out every Friday - the whole bloody lot - setting up The Apparatus often took more time than using The Apparatus (circuit style). and I can STILL remember the one time I made it to the top of the 'ropes' in my black elasticated plimsoles. 💪