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.

When I was at secondary school the showers were awful and nobody used them. Small, dark and communal!

We were supposed to shower but it wasn't heavily enforced. Proabbly about 2/3rds of the class did, and at least half of those ineffectively (e.g. towel wrapped round and run through). Big set of communal showers. No soap. Almost no time. Sometimes freezing cold water.

I showered properly unless the water was freezing. And I was often late for lunch or missed half of break. But I like showering after sport. I was also very actie. Sports captain. On virtually every team etc. My experience mirrored the study's correlation between activity and showering.

Not sure it's about making people have showers though. I suspect people who are more active are less embarrased by their bodies. Either because they fit more into society's ideals or (more likely IMO) because they value their body more for its physical prowess than its appearance. Also, people who exercise more may find showers more useful and so be prepared to invest the time in them - not just to get clean but as a passive cool down, which those who don't work out so much in PE would not benefit as much from.

PE was a weekly ordeal for me. We weren't expected to shower, since in the five years I was at secondary school the showers were broken. But we still had to get changed in a communal room and, as the class fat girl, it was horrible for me.

The PE teacher was also the stereotypical witch. Even with the hindsight of adulthood I can see she was an utterly vile person who took pleasure in having a bit of power over teenage girls with low confidence. One of my fondest school memories was her getting hit in the face with a puck during hockey.

I suspect people who are more active are less embarrased by their bodies.
I don't buy that at all. I was very active and loved sport. I was thin and athletic, but showering afterwards was hideous. It was compulsory in my day. We used to wrap the towel around ourselves and get our legs and shoulders wet so we could get out and dressed as quickly as possible. Everyone hated it, though there were a couple who were happy to stand naked in the communal changing rooms when getting changed for swimming.

I was very relieved when I discovered that my children were never going to have to endure the same thing. There is simply no time for showering after their lessons.

I work out 3/4 days a week and am active every day. I still wouldn't use a communal changing room, let alone communal showers.

We were made to shower after PE. We had to run through the communal shower while our PE teacher stood at the other end holding our towel

Don't call that's exactly how it worked for my siblings too. Horrendous isn't it?

We still had the row of communal showers at my school but weren't required to use them. Once some girls got permission to bring their cossies in and used them.

20 years earlier, my mother had to use them and they were supervised as they ran laps through them. Any cleansing properties were negated by the mud in the rest of the changing room.

When I was in the later years, the PE block was replaced with a public leisure centre, shower cubicles were included but they were more for public use than within the school day.

It's absolutely awful - no wonder we hated showering!

We had to shower after pe between the ages of 9 and 13 (middle school, three school system) and it was MORTIFYING... cold, embarrassing, damp for the rest of the day. If a child has the facilities to shower daily at home I wouldn't think school showers are an issue.

What about the shower scene from Carrie?

Showers at my school were a nightmare.

This was 1982/3 and I was 12/13.

After PE we had to get completely undressed and carry our towel folded over our arm ( not allowed to wear it around you and anyone who tried to cover themselves up would be shouted at)

Then made to queue up in pairs and go into one of the four ( disgusting concrete) cubicles with another girl and shower together. There were no shower curtains.

The water was almost always freezing too.

Just horrible.

They seemed to change the policy after the first or second year and suddenly showers were no longer compulsory.

We had communal showers at school and it was horrendous. Making very self conscious girls strip off in front of each other and shower is just a horrible thing to do. We didn't have much time either, so nothing's changed there. I remember one year when I had PE last lesson and refused to shower as I simply didn't have the time before I had to catch the bus home (I went to the only Welsh school in Gwent at the time and it took school buses a good hour to get there) and my PE teacher refused to let me leave until I did. I missed the bus and my mam had to come pick me up - she tore the teacher a new one!

Same teacher used to keep a weekly record of when we were on our period so you were only allowed to not shower if you were on. We had to shout out 'misglwyf' (Welsh for menstrating) if we were on when she took the registry in front of everyone. I probably wouldn't give a shit about that now but at 14 it was enough to reduce me to tears!

So I get that teenagers smell at the best of times but if schools expect them to shower, they should provide acceptable facilities. How many of us would happily strip off in front of work colleagues in a communal shower?

I'm 32 btw so this was 20 years ago. Seems like nothing had changed

Our showers were approximately 6 behind a wall, no curtains. My friends and I used to try to go in together as it wasn't quite as bad in front of them. Having to share with the very sporty, toned, gorgeous girls just made it worse! We would stand at one end and run to the other, making sure out hair got wet enough that it looked as if we'd properly showered, then liberally apply a lot of Impulse 02 (still my favourite deodorant ever!)

we have showers at the school I teach at, but they are generally reserved for after afterschool matches when everyone's muddy to the hair rim AND a robust sporty type to boot, rather than trying to squeeze one in at the end of a 50 minute standard lesson for 30 kids, some of whom will have managed not to break a sweat anyway.

The more fastidious of the kids take wet wipes & give their pits a swipe before applying an extra layer of deodorant, apparently.

To be fair, I think 'Kes' style communal showers would have been more appropriate when a lot of today's secondary schools were built; there would still have been plenty of kids without the facilities for a daily shower at home.

These days, they just pong slightly for the next couple of lessons & then go home for a nice hot, private shower without needing to put stale socks, shirt & pants on again afterwards (ugh). Much more civilised.

And another thing - the teacher used to check we didn't have our knickers on before we went in the shower, that was seen as cheating

At the time this was all perfectly acceptable but if a child of mine was made to do this, I would be asking some serious questions!

Showers were compulsory when I was at school and yet I managed to never have one! Always had a veruca/ period/ excuse. The teachers stopped even trying to get me to shower. My friends were SO mad at me and looking back I bet the p.e teachers thought I had "issues". I was very skinny and embarrassed I had no boobs.Hadn't thought about this for years!

*Thought

When I was at High School in the mid 80s we were all forced to have naked communal showers. You were excused if you had your period but the PE teacher kept a register and marked each girl's period in it so you couldn't use that excuse too often.

It was awful, took me years to get back into exercise after the school experience.

Hmm. I wonder whether it matters so much for sporty types who will happily run around getting sweaty, shower or no shower, compared to people, girls especially, who already don't like PE and for whom the thought of ponging for the rest of the day is just another reason to not try very hard. Would proper showers and enough time to use them help them to do better in PE? Dunno.

I hated PE when a teen let alone the showers (communal) and compulsory, the teacher even used to whip the towel off of you and push you in! so I used to miss the coach.

Surely it's up to you whether you shower or not? How barbaric to "make" students do this.

My middle school and high school (ages 11-18) in the USA had adequate shower facilities and lockers, but we weren't allowed to use them because we were in a drought. I would have been mortified if I'd been made to shower there anyway, the cubicles were individual but didn't have a curtain/door.

Showers weren't compulsory, no PE teacher checked or cared. But the other kids would have noticed & said something harsh if you didn't (1980s). Millionth thing I can't understand about the English.