Anyone else relieved they never had to wear PE kit all day?

[mixedpeel]

Omg I was at secondary school many moons ago but very glad we never had to go in wearing PE kit all day. I would’ve been mortified to sit in a classroom with my (in my head) horrible legs out on show.

In my day PE kit was PE knickers and netball skirts, pretty sure the thick pants would cause a yeast infection in this heat.

Isn't it optional? Girls have their skirts so short now that I'm not sure there's much difference.

When I was at secondary school the fashion was for skirts to be calf length. Anyone who wore a skirt above their knee was considered to be unfashionable.

Yep, that too! And sitting on a plastic chair which some other sweaty-legged creature had just been on for the last hour… grim

I absolutely hated PE so would not have worn my PE kit and would have just gone in uniform. We could wear skirts but I always wore trousers anyway.

Oh god yes. Those horrible thick sweaty shorts, teamed with my mortuary purple legs. Just what my teenage self needed.

As it was, for all their faults, schools in the 1980s were less worried about branded items. Any white blouse and grey skirt or trousers could be worn, meaning we were able to choose lightweight cottons. We were even allowed to wear sandals.

I used to much prefer my PE kit to the actual school uniform, just a lot more comfortable. You were supposed to change back into your school uniform straight after PE, but we'd often lie and claim we'd be doing lunch time sports club stuff, so we'd get to stay in it a bit longer.

We were lucky enough to have a summer uniform of a cotton dress and cardigan. However we had to wear socks with "jesus" sandals.
(private school in the 80s).

My insecure teenage brain would’ve hated the whole thing. There’s no way of going under the radar. Go in school uniform and feel ridiculous for standing out, go in PE kit and feel ridiculous for having fat pasty legs.

(not saying this is how I’d feel now, but seeing them all walking home from the local secondary yesterday I suddenly had hideous flashbacks to PE lessons.)

At least my PE kit was a cotton top and skirt.
None of these horrible synthetic fibres they have now

I'd have hated it just because I really liked the full uniform. Shirt, tie, blazer. The whole caboodle! On really hot days like these we were allowed to leave off blazers.

Because of moving around I went to 1 infant school, 3 juniors and 1 secondary across England in the 80s and 90s. All had required uniform. Only one of the juniors had blazers but all of them were shirt and tie.

I thought this yesterday when I saw all the kids in their PE kits! My idea of hell!
Saying that we did have to wear an aertex top and hideous polyester skirt! Plus I had terrible stretch marks on my thighs-ugh!!!!

Me too. I went to a Comp in 1976 (yep that Summer!!) and it had only recently changed from a Grammar School. We had cotton dresses - they were fab. I never understand why school dresses mostly seem to go out of ‘fashion’ (pun intended) once kids go to senior school (private schools aside).

Our shorts were made of nylon? When you’d shave your legs (as let’s face it, at 15 the worst thing you could ever have was have any leg hair) they’d stick to your legs.

During heatwaves we’d be allowed to not have to wear our blazers. They’d be a stupid rule when it wasn’t 27+ degrees that you’d have to wear your blazer between lessons and then ask the teacher if you were allowed to take them off. We thought teachers who said ‘take this as your permission, if you want to take your blazer off in my class do so, don’t disturb my lessons in asking’.

We had nice pleated pe skirts. Wouldn’t have minded wearing it all day. If I had to wear it now

My DD has actually dug her skort out. She has worn leggings for PE all year. But their proper uniform is kilts.

Our PE skirts were quite heavy things. Our regular uniform was light gret skirts with lilac blouses.

Our PE kit was netball skirts and polo shirts - much much nicer in summer than our usual ankle-length tartan!

We had bright red PE knickers - great big thick nylon pants. No skirts or shorts. Just big red pants with little white stripes going up the sides. Hated by everybody and the boys would point and hoot at the sight of them (boys got to wear much more dignified PE kit). Plus navy T-shirts. All the girls would try to wear the longest possible T-shirts to conceal their thighs; some of those T-shirts came down to our knees and considerably hampered any attempt at sporting activity.

On the other hand, our normal school uniform was much more flexible than most school uniforms now. In this weather I'd have been wearing a short-sleeved cotton blouse and any kind of navy skirt. Much better than the stupid polyester blazers that all the schools seem to want now. We never had any blazers (just a jumper in winter) and I'm grateful for it.

I would have hated it but only because I was at school in the 80s/90s and my PE kit was horrible - the classic thick Aertex shirt, 'PE knickers' and a horrible pleated netball skirt in exactly the same fabric as our actual school skirts, plus red knee socks for some reason which we were forbidden from rolling down (because apparently a nylon sock is what stops your leg getting broken if someone clouts it with a hockey stick, who knew). No sweatshirts allowed, no leggings allowed, no shorts allowed, no trackies allowed, ever. Like you, I hated my legs at that age.

If my PE kit had been leggings/trackies and a top I'd have been fine with it.

Having said that, most teenage girls at school these days seem to roll their waistbands up so much that their school skirts are actually shorter than my PE one was 😂

years ago my sisters secondary had lovely cotton summer dresses and could wear sandals. the first secondary school i went to uniform did not really exist so we wear what we liked so short skirts were ok and pe kit was mainly or just about blue shorts and white tshirts
next secondary was all nylon stiff skirts and blazers plus white shirt with tie heaven help you if they saw you without any of it

Oh god “Jesus Sandals” I haven’t thought about those in years. We called them Nike Air Jerusalems.

When I was at high school, we had not only summer blouses (open neck, so no tie) and blazers were optional anyway. They also had a summer dress option. They sold fabric (like a lightweight chambray) and you could make any dress you wanted as long as it was just below the knee and had some sort of sleeves. I wore dresses most summers. If you couldn’t get anyone to make you one at home, you could pay and get someone affiliated to the school (I think they had a team of old girls!) to make you one! Sixth formers could wear their own clothes anyway.

Now, the very same school (as my kids go there) have compulsory blazers, no summer blouses, ties are compulsory and no summer dress option! Sixth formers have to wear uniform as well. I really don’t see why?!

I've just walked through a secondary school at break time and the girls are a mix of slim beautiful teens, with legs that go on forever in the tiniest shorts, who do appear to be loving it and even if you're not supposed to say it performing in front of the boys and those looking thoroughly uncomfortable, tugging at their shorts and dealing with chub rub.

All the shorts seem unfeasibly short regardless of the build of the wearer. Much shorter than I would have ever worn, even for sport, when I was young.

@Purpleandping and those looking thoroughly uncomfortable, tugging at their shorts and dealing with chub rub.

I feel their pain. I was (still am) a proper pear but when I was a teenager all I ‘knew’ (and it was an indisputable fact in my mind) was that I had fat thighs.

We had a summer school uniform in my day which consisted of an Indian cotton dress and optional cardigan. The dress was royal blue and white and the cardigan ash grey. It was one of the most cool and comfortable dresses I've ever worn. Why don't they have a summer uniform these days? When did that stop?

I was thinking this too. We wore black leotards with tiny wrap around skirts for PE kit. It would have been a nightmare for me.

We too had thin checked cotton dresses in 1976 for the summer term. Very light and wafty. It didn’t stop me fainting in school and being sent home with heat exhaustion. Three days lying on my bed eating boiled eggs with lots of salt on the doctor’s recommendation.