PE teachers inspecting pupils' feet - Unusual?

[noverrucasnowadays]

Something's just jogged my memories of the verruca checks we had in middle school (in the UK - late 90s/early 00s).

At the start of each new term we all had to sit on the gymhall floor in queues, shuffling forward one by one on our bums to have our feet inspected. The teachers sat on chairs at the head of the hall, wearing gloves, and we had to extend one foot at a time to them for examination.

The context was that all indoor PE lessons were expected to take place barefoot, unless you (at the beginning of term ) had a verruca, in which case you were allowed to wear plimsolls or trainers.

To me it feels (and felt) really quite strange.

For all I know though, it wasn't uncommon at all. Now I'm really curious!

Help me out fellow MNers... Did this happen at any of the schools you attended?

I've NC for this, just in case it turns out that the only UK middle school this happened at was my one!! :). Thanks for your time.

We never had this, even for swimming. But we wore trainers for indoor PE anyway.

We all messed around at PE once and our punishment was to have showers under supervision we weren't allowed towels after either. That was only in the 90’s.

I don’t remember the foot check but I do remember the teachers watching us go in the showers and we had to leave our towel on the peg round the other side of the wall (so all having to go in one big communal shower)
I thought it was just our fucked up PE teachers until I have just read other people’s comments !
I am sure I read once that the highest percentage of women who hate sport due to how it was fed to them at school are now in their 40’s.

We had this! It's bringing back all the memories now! When I was 11 I was hit by a car, I was off school for nearly 3 months, and the day I returned (on crutches, non-weight baring on my right leg as it had a metal frame with pins going into my leg to realign the bones), well I didn't bring a note to excuse me from PE.. I was doing tag rugby on one leg. Character building she used to call it!

Yes. Mid 90’s at primary school & at high school too.

Yes, they did those very term at my secondary in the 90s.

• every term Bloody autocorrect

yep, verruca check at the beginning of each term in the late 90s/early 00s. They did it along with kit check - we had to lay out all our PE kit for them to confirm it was present and had nametapes. Then they'd look at our feet. I suppose it is a bit weird now you mention it, I'm sure the teachers weren't that keen on it either.

The PE teachers who recorded periods, would they be aware and sympathetic to girls with non-standard cycles, or would they refuse to believe someone who claimed a period that wasn't in line with a 28 day cycle?

At secondary school 97-00s and I have no memory of verucca checks. I think ours was the first year where gym skirts and showers weren't required. We had a lovely relatively new PE teacher.

I am sure I read once that the highest percentage of women who hate sport due to how it was fed to them at school are now in their 40’s.

I can well believe it. I used to do anything to get out of sport and communal showers.

We had a pool and had to put our feet on the desk each week for the teacher to check for verrucas.

Born 71

MrsPotatoHeadsSheeWee Mon 09-Mar-20 21:52:28
The PE teachers who recorded periods, would they be aware and sympathetic to girls with non-standard cycles, or would they refuse to believe someone who claimed a period that wasn't in line with a 28 day cycle?
........
They must have been, it is so common for girls (and women) to have irregular periods - mine were well into adulthood. I think they recorded them to avoid girls pretending they were on a period to avoid communal showers - if they had periods three times in a month it would indicate that either the girl was taking the proverbial or there was something medical to be concerned about.

I never went to a school with communal showers thank goodness so the issue never arose for me, sounds extremely humiliating. I know I would have got out of it somehow (I used to manage to skive off from PE sometimes), and stood my ground because it was just not right. Does it still happen nowadays?

We didn't have to use the showers although our changing rooms still had them, in the 00s.

We did for swimming, we had to kneel on the side of the pool.

@AngelsWithSilverWings that sounds horrendous, I have awful memories of showers at the middle school, age 9-13, but we were at least allowed to have towels. I still hated getting dried in front of the otherd. The PE teacher used to strip right off in the changing rooms too and go into the shower - imagine how much trouble she'd be in nowadays!!