Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

PE teachers and kids with no kit

37 replies

Pseudonym99 · 28/12/2016 00:43

I left school in 91, and following on from the PE showers thread, wondered what others' experiences are if you didn't have your PE kit. We had to go without kit, but with just with our blouse or jumper to protect our modesty. Do you think its okay to make kids without their kit to still do the lesson? No doubt these days it wouldn't happen!

OP posts:
KingJoffreysRestingCuntface · 28/12/2016 00:53

Didn't matter whether it was right or not.

My teachers could be borderline sadistic. We had some nice ones but many who felt it was their duty to 'break' students.

I've never really recovered from school.

WorraLiberty · 28/12/2016 00:54

These days they phone home (if the child has realised they've forgotten it) and if the parent can't get it there on time, they're either given a spare kit from lost property or given an hour detention.

And rightly so.

Why do you ask OP?

Original poster
Pseudonym99 · 28/12/2016 00:58

Was just reading the PE showers thread! Can't believe what happened to some! Period registers and stuff. I thought we had it bad having to do it in underwear when we forgot their kit, but others seem to have had it worse!

OP posts:
VonHerrBurton · 28/12/2016 01:18

It would be Equipment/kit detention that same day for my high school ds, if parents could be contacted. If not, a note would be sent home and detention would be the following school day.

brasty · 28/12/2016 01:24

If a one off, we would sit out. If persistent, been made to wear whatever shorts they could dig up, often ones that looked stupid or too big, along with a t shirt and ordinary shoes. But I don't actually remember kids forgetting their PE kit very often. Unless my memory is faulty, it was a rare event.

elliejjtiny · 28/12/2016 01:42

In primary the ones who forgot had to lie on the floor on their tummies and do maths. If more than 3 forgot, the whole class had to miss pe and have a spelling test instead.

Limebritzer · 28/12/2016 03:17

Made to do it in knickers and school shirt in junior school, can't remember what happened in high school I think we were made to borrow off a friend or lost property, one thing that sticks out in my mind re pe uniform and still makes me angry is my grandmother buying me some white trainers (my first pair of not second hand trainers) and a plain white tshirt when I got put on the tennis team and the pe teacher poured a drink over me and smeared her shoe ontop of mine as it was "too clean" Hmm wtaf, she got fired later in the year though, but that still makes me angry!

SparkyStar84 · 28/12/2016 03:19

I recall my Father going crazy as I had to run cross country, on public roads in my knickers and gym top as I'd forgotten my gym knickers.

I doubt today the PE staff would do the same. But they used to be rather brutal in my day.

Changednamesorry · 28/12/2016 03:28

yes - school shirt and knickers.

EagleIsland · 28/12/2016 03:38

Primary school, you did PE in your pants. In. Secondary school you had to get some out of lost property.

SparkyStar84 · 28/12/2016 04:05

Even the gym knickers didn't hide much. I know they looked matronly, but I know girls that found different styles.

I hated PE. Was far more academic.

SparkyStar84 · 28/12/2016 04:08

About showers there was always the rumour this one teacher was looking at you. But really what good did they do, you essentially ran through the water. Soap / shower gel was never used.
I wonder what they're like now, also if they have hair dryers and make up bars!

M0nkington · 28/12/2016 06:02

Where I live kids go to school in the PE kit on PE day and it happens in the afternoon so they can change at home. Such a sensible option I think!

Jengnr · 28/12/2016 06:07

PE is such a pointless waste of time for most kids. They should make it optional and let those who don't want to participate use the time for something productive instead.

Keremy · 28/12/2016 06:10

We did it in knickers and vests.

Now a days they get detention. Certainly they did at the old school which is annoying as dc has SN and crap organisation skills and frequently loses kit AT school and despite it being labelled it doesn't come back. They then get detention because I cannot afford to buy replacement kit immediately.

Keremy · 28/12/2016 06:12

Monkington

Yes that's what happened as dc primary. Much easier.

Original poster
Pseudonym99 · 28/12/2016 07:06

That's horrific Sparky. Like you say, they wouldn't do that these days. If we had outdoor PE and didn't have our kit, they'd at least put us in with the class doing indoor PE. We might have had to do it in our knickers in a mixed lesson, but at least we were indoors!

OP posts:
hazeyjane · 28/12/2016 07:16

My pe kit was often forgotten when I was a kid (very disorganised home) and I had to do it in vest and pants or a red tshirt that was lent by the pe teacher, that made me stand out in a sea of powder blue aertex. It was bloody horrible. That and the pe teachers obsession with training bras and periods starting, put me off playing sport completely.

I always put a spare pair of shorts and tshirt in the girls kits, and tell them to lend it to anyone who has forgotten theirs, because, even though I know it wouldn't happen nowadays I hate to think of someone in a panic because they have forgotten it!

Lostwithinthehills · 28/12/2016 07:17

I have memories of being forced to do pe topless, in just my knickers, at infant school. The reason I remember it is because of the feeling of humiliation, I remember arguing about not wanting to be topless. I would have been five or six.

hazeyjane · 28/12/2016 07:23

Yes, topless at primary - unless I had a vest on - I was red shirted at secondary.

KurriKurri · 28/12/2016 07:51

Our gym kit(indoors) at secondary school was aertex shirt tucked into knickers. We had to walk from the changing room to the gym -along several long corridors, it was a girls only school but there were several male teachers. I hated it. This was the 1970s.

We had no showers. - you just stank (yet we were constantly getting talks about personal hygiene)

My XH at school had a gym teacher who used to inspect the boys in the showers to check they were 'developing properly' needless to say he was arrested a couple of years after XH left the school and found guilty of having sexually abused some of the boys.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 28/12/2016 07:56

A friend of mine told me what happened to her son when he forgot his PE kit recently.
They were doing PE outside and it was raining. He had to join in wearing his school uniform and got soaked.
The first she knew about it was on receiving a phone call from the school. It was an oversight on the Dads part. She offered to drop the PE kit off there and then, but was told not to bother.
She went anyway and took a change of clothes, which he very much needed.
Her son is 5.
I was a bit Hmm about it. When my son (6) lost his PE shirt at school he was leant a spare one and I was given a note at the end of the day.
Secondary school age then yes I think a detention for persistent forgetting is a good idea, but there's no need for the humiliation.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 28/12/2016 08:05

LimeBritzer Shock you poor thing!

At my Primary school. We had to do it in our underwear and bare feet if we forgot kit. I think they were of the opinion that you'll only need your bare feet trod on once to always remember to bring it in future. In secondary school, we were made to sit out.

My DDs current PE Teacher is also her TA and they're one of the few people who put the fear of God into me so it's rare DD misses PE as I always remember for her! Grin DD adores them though so I think it's a front to cope with managing 30 kids on a daily basis. Wink

AwaywiththePixies27 · 28/12/2016 08:13

Cigars I can actually believe that.

One time in my Nephews primary school, a couple of the kids were misbehaving and wasn't listening to reason. The teacher made the whole class stand outside in the yard as punishment without their coats, in the snow. This was only a few years ago.

The only thing that's got me a bit Confused this year was when DD was going on a planned walk in a PE Lesson and I sent her in wellies and fleece coat as suggested. She came home in a borrowed coat that the teacher thought she needed. It was the exact type of fleece coat I'd sent her in with! Grin

Zoflorabore · 28/12/2016 08:22

My dd is in year one, she's 5.

I bought her the new school pe kit for September and it was labelled and put in her pe bag. She never got to wear it as it went "missing".

The first I knew of it was when she came out of school with a letter saying she had not been allowed to do pe that day as she had no kit and it said " I trust your child's kit will be with them tomorrow as they are missing out on physical education " blah blah.

Spoke to teacher who was quite flippant and said that I would just have to buy her another one and the head happened to overhear and told me that it wouldn't have happened if it had been labelled! I then pointed out that it was very well labelled.

So I bought her a new one, from the specialist school supplier that is the only place that sells it, was quite tempted to write her name all over it Grin but again labelled it in two places.

Two days later, the original kit magically appeared.
When i was at school we had to do in knickers if no kit but I think those days are long gone.

Swipe left for the next trending thread