Did anyone else who went to primary school in the mid-80s have to do PE in their vest and pants?

[TheLightSideOfTheMoon]

I was telling my colleagues who are in their twenties about it and they looked at me like this: 🙄

Did anyone else experience this? Or was my school slightly strange?

Yes i did pe in my knickers early 90s.

Yes in the 90s, and I still vividly remember one time in Year 2 when I forgot to wear a vest and had to do PE just in my pants. God knows why they thought that was acceptable, I felt absolutely mortified at the time and literally felt naked. I'm so glad things have changed.

Yes! Born ‘76. Did PE in pants and vest if we forgot our kit.

Yes, in late 60s early 70s I did PE in my white vest and regulation navy blue knickers. Fortunately I only went to Primary school until I was 9 and when I moved to middle school it was definitely artex tops and navy stretchy shorts - which weren't much bigger than the knickers tbh.

Yep. Remember this in infant school (1986 -1990) approx.
Middle school (early 90s) we had kit, t shirt and shorts. If you forgot your kit it was vest and pants.

FlatWhiteExtraHot
Not this again 🙄.
Honestly, this topic should be banned and all of you who are scrambling to recount your stories should think hard about the motives for this thread appearing so often 🤮.

As @FlatWhiteExtraHot says.

Secondary we had kit and those dark blue pants to wear under the PE skirt

At my first school, early 70s, I seem to remember it being the default in the infants. Girls could wear their ‘petticoats’ as we called them (they were just full-length slips), I remember begging for one as all the popular little girls did PE in them. 😄

PE kit at my next primary after we moved house, knickers and vest if you forgot your kit. Outrageously, our class teacher once issued the (obviously bogus) warning that the next person to forget their kit would have to ‘strip off and then go and see the headmaster.’ As an impressionable kid of 9 I believed him and was petrified of forgetting my kit for a long time after that, but can you imagine a teacher saying that nowadays! Simpler times, and not always in a good way.

I went in the early 90s, we had 'PE knickers' so there was something put on top of normal underwear that was thicker but didn't give any more coverage.

Don't be absurd. 🙄 They were different times and people are just recounting their experiences, that's all. OP's asking if it used to be normal and it did.

Yes, that was the norm at my primary school late 80s/early 90s. We had a school uniform but no PE kit and all used to do PE in pants, vests and plimsolls. I still have a strong memory of forgetting to wear a vest on PE day so just having to do it in my knickers and being mortified that my boobies (I didn’t actually have any) were on show. I think I was around 8. It seems mad now!

Oh, i remember those! I was at secondary school in the early 80s and we had to wear them for 'modesty', under the little skirts we wore for hockey (former girls' grammar school and still very much had that sensibility at the time! 😄)

I did! 1977 - 1984 I anttended an all girls school. Netball in our knickers with the all boys school next door watching 😳. Hockey we were allowed to wear our skorts. In year 9 (3rd year) the school changed the uniform to those really short skirts that were pleated at the back and smooth at the front

we had to wear grey nylon knickers and they would check occasionally!!!!!

off to read rest of replies now!

Secondary school in the late 90s and for certain indoor PE we had to wear horrible PE knickers

Here's an image of those weird gym knickers. We wore them on top of normal pants, on a PE day

https://old.thememoryboxfoundation.co.uk/item/gym-knickers/

Yep, in the 70s.

I'm pretty sure that the standard PE attire at my primary school was massive, thick pants for girls anyway, shorts for the boys. Uggh!

Wondering if you went to the same school as me now! Sounds very much the same. We were expected to have our names sewn jnto those knickers, I suppose for showers after PE. 😂Thankfully no one ever attempted to check!

Yes in primary school I think girls PE kit was a thick type of knickers. Definitely no shorts or joggers like today. I have a feeling it was similar in secondary too.

I assumed it comes up as so many often younger people insist it never happened - or you are mis-remembering as it sounds so odd now.

Yes, vest and pants for PE in infants in the mid-late 1980s. Everyone had to at our school - it wasn't about forget your kit. Atrocious!

Yes, in the 90s!

Early 80s in primary and yes. This took me back to a forgotten memory of my teacher being irritated with me because I wasn't wearing a vest that day (it was not a mandatory thing, we didn't even wear uniform).

Yes in the 2000s!

Yes, infant school, approx 1979-1982, North East.
The wooden frame you describe we knew as the ‘gym apparatus’ and was predominantly folded against the wall, teasing us. We were bursting to climb the ropes and bars but it was rarely set up - I suspect the 5 minutes it would have taken to unfold and lock in place was too much effort
Got to use it a few times in infant school but less than a handful in my 4/5 years at junior school.

Yes we did and I have a very distinct memory of a boy whose undies were on inside out and when the teacher told him so, he just nonchalantly took them off and turned them the right way. I was fascinated at that sight as a 5 year old....