To think most schools don't care about this?

[AndHarry]

'Shock' news report from the BBC: Most UK pupils don't take a shower after PE

Too right and two reasons why that was so at my school (not very long ago...):

1. The showers were communal. No one was going to strip off and shower naked infront of their classmates.

2. There were 3 showers in a changing room for 30 girls. There was barely enough time to get changed and get to the next lesson, let alone shower.

If this is going to be an issue then schools need to be set up to actually give teenagers time and proper facilities to be able to take a shower after PE.

I'm having a flash back to still being made to have showers towards the end of Secondary but we were allowed to wear swimwear to maintain our modesty

I never once showered after PE. Don't recall anyone doing so. Didn't stop us getting sweaty or messy to be honest, we just put our clothes on over the top of the mud afterwards. I bet our parents loved that .

Our showers didn't have hot water and we weren't expected to use them. I refused to break a sweat in PE.

I'm a pretty active adult but I had standards even as a teenager.

We had showers enforced until Y9 (because that's when girls started their periods ) and I left school in 2008.

They were individual cubicles behind a wall, but with horrible flimsy curtains. The teacher would stand outside and send you back if you didn't look wet enough. It didn't take long before we all just tucked our bra straps down and splashed out shoulders and legs.

You could be excused if you were on your period, but I found it excruciatingly embarrassing to essentially announce that to the class as an awkward preteen.

Well imagine telling 30 16 year old girls or boys they have to strip off and go into communal showers or use individual cubicles that are used by 450 other children of the same sex.
Then remember they do not have private changing facilities so have to strip in a communal area together and then move to the showers.
Then remember they have to dry themselves and get dressed in the same communal area.
Then think how awkward about their bodies, worried about their peers reactions to anything, sensitive, obsessed with privacy, obsessed with their appearance and clothing,picky about anything they consider disgusting, bloody awkward at times, teenagers are.
Then think how careful teachers have to be to not put themselves in a position whete they are accused of anything improper but at the same time health and safety, particularly in any situation where there is risk is paramount.(slipping, scalding, bullying)

Now imagine telling 30 16 year olds they have to strip off and go into communal showers together used by 450 other children of the same sex and you can understand why it doesn't happen.

When I was at secondary school having a shower was compulsory. The teacher used to stand with a register and tick off our names as we came out.

I was a little shocked that my DC do not shower at school.

Never showered at school. There were only two showers, 30 girls, and from 5 to 10 minutes time.

I remember the horrors of communal showers

Leave our kids alone. It's not the end of the world. Overuse of lynx does wonders.

I don't understand this being news because MNers are always saying how horrific they found communal showers as teenagers themselves. And the English are so insanely prudish about nudity, anyway.

In my country, as teenagers we would have considered you the most minging creature on the planet not to shower after PE. Always communal. But I hear that's changed a bit over there now, too.

No showers after pe at our school either - apart from after swimming.

My school had the compulsory showers with the teacher taking a register. If you had your period you were excused and she wrote 'p' in the register so you couldn't say it every week.

They were communal behind a wall so you could just dash in and wet your legs and shoulders in your towel and that did the job.

I hated PE and probably didn't do enough to break a sweat anyway.

I think it was a misguided way to teach us good hygiene, an early form of pshe?

So glad to hear the enforced showers are over now!!

Maybe it's an age thing.(secondary school 1971-1977) I don't recall the showers in the gym at my school ever being used. I assume it was part of the planning consent that it had showers but they were purely decorative.

We didn't have enough time between classes to use them anyway.

And like others I hated PE. Due to timetabling clashes I managed to lose one period of it per week as I did Latin.

My school was odd in this regard - showering was the norm after games, mostly enforced by the older pupils rather than teachers. We didn't have much PE during lesson times though, it was all in the afternoon after lessons finished (independent school, part-boarding) so usually no rush to get to the next lesson.

I didn't take a towel with me on my first day, and was told by the year 8 girls that I was disgusting and unhygienic. There was a really weird culture around nakedness and "not being ashamed of your body" which looking back was extremely odd.

At my school, between year 5 to year 8 the showers were in a row with no doors so totally communal. You had to walk from one end of them to the other as a minimum. Butt naked in front of all the other girls. It was awful. I loved PE but hated this aspect of it. It was cruel especially to those girls who had body issues. up to 13 years old. So horrible.

Worst bit of PE was the showers. The PE teacher cottoned on to the fact that we would wear underwear under our towels and rather than showering we would just stand in the corner of the cubicles for a bit. She used to pull them down a little at the top and up at the bottom to check we werent wearing underwear when we went in.

I loathed PE in general as it was just an exercise in humiliation for me, but the showers were the bit I feared the most.

We only showered at school if we'd done swimming. Don't see what the issue is tbh.

The showers at school were a long row at the side of the changing room. Absolutely no chance of privacy whatsoever. Luckily they were only switched on for swimming lessons which was just the summer term and it was amazing how many of us had a period every single week of that term. For some reason the teachers never questioned it which was out of character compared to how they treated us the rest of the time.

Putting your uniform on over your PE kit was also the norm for most of us, I certainly put no effort into PE whatsoever so didn't get sweaty. Having the option of a shower would not have encouraged me to put in more effort, I am not someone who enjoys physical activity.

I can't remember taking a shower after pe ever - if hey had made us I would have bunked off pe more than I did
High grades in everything else but the idea of other girls seeing me after I'd been ridiculed for being the first girl with pubes for years would have been hell

I was dreading secondary school because my siblings had a terrible experience in the communal showers. Showering naked with your classmates at a time when you are going through puberty is not a pleasant experience. The PE teacher would hold everyone's towels and stand at the end handing everyone their towel as they walked past so she could check that they were wet and had showered. There was bullying, the overweight and late developers coming off worst.

Fortunately the showers broke just as I started secondary school and were not fixed until year 9. Because we had gone 2 years without showering it was no longer compulsory and most people chose not to shower.

If the showers were not communal I would have chosen to have a shower as I'm sure most people would. Provide adequate facilities that allow for privacy and I'm sure most teenagers would opt for showers. Ds needs reminding to look after his personal hygiene but after any sport he can't wait to jump into the shower. Who wants to spend all day sweaty and muddy?

I remember being so scared when we were shown around the local secondary school in year 6 because there were communal showers in the changing room AND an outdoor swimming pool. Very relieved when I had my first pe lesson and was told we wouldn't be using either of them. I went to school with some very scary girls. Really wouldn't fancy taking a shower with them .

I don't think I ever exerted myself enough during P.E. to break a sweat, never mind need a shower. Same was true for most of the girls. The boys always seemed to return from P.E. head to toe in mud however.

There were showers, left over from the days when kids had to shower after games, but they were used as storage rooms for equipment or as a tool for the bullies (who liked to chuck people's bags, clothes or the person themselves into the shower and turn it on).

I definitely did PE 'properly' but never showered afterwards. Good deodorant, and a quick wipe with wet paper towels if it had been particularly muddy.

Admittedly I was a pretty late developer and didn't really get BO type smelly (still don't particularly) and of course you put pretty clean clothes on at the end. I don't really remember anybody being particularly smelly

In fact, what is fairly disgusting now I think of it, was unless particularly muddy, we only took our normal PE kit home at half term! (Match kits were washed separately.)