Changing for PE

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My 7 year old son used to wear his PE kit to school on PE days. Now the school has said they want children to change in the classroom again. Parents have complained that their kids don’t want to do this. The head has sent a letter saying that:

”I understand that some parents and children are a little worried about changing into their PE kits in front of their peers. As this is something that we regularly did prior to Covid, we would like to bring back this process as part of a normal school activity.”

Why should children have to get used to changing in front of each other and their teachers? This isn’t a life skill. It is archaic and weird. As an adult I have never had to change with 26 men and women, in a room with many uncovered windows. Would I be wrong to write to the head and complain about this?

YABU: kids should change in front of each other and the teacher
YANBU: it is odd that it was ever allowed even before covid.

This!

It's very different. At lunch, children will be eating for half the time and will be on the playground for half. It's rare that a child will spend their whole time outside being active and will mix doing various things, including just walking around having a chat or playing low energy games like throwing a ball around.

High quality P.E. lessons are typically an hour long with the children being active for over 90% of the lesson. They even do things like jogging on the spot whilst teachers give instructions so that any time "waiting" or standing around is minimised. Whilst it does depend on the specific focus on the P.E. lesson, it's not unusual for children to get incredibly sweaty by the end of the lesson, definitely more so than during break or lunch.

The posters saying it’s ok because the children are young are missing some important points:

1. A number of the girls will be hitting puberty from Year 3 (aged 7/8) onwards, it’s far more common than it used to be.
2. Even before reaching menarche, a lot of girls will be developing differently to the boys, developing breasts for instance.
3. Boys from that age onwards, especially those with older male brothers, cousins etc., can be very well aware of the bodily differences and can be vile to the girls about their bodies, happened at our school.
4. Except in winter, a lot of children don’t wear vests these days. So it does mean stripping to their knickers in front of a class full of other children, roughly half of whom are the opposite sex. Once they are old enough to be disturbed by this, just don’t make them do this!

I understand the argument re: seeing bruises, but just make them wear shorts and T shirts for PE, and let them then put on joggers and hoodies if they get cold.

Could you please point me towards the part of the PANTS guidance which says this? Like PP I am frankly alarmed that your child's school has so fundamentally misinterpreted the campaign and is using it to teach your child that it is her responsibility to protect herself from abuse.

PANTS is supposed to be an age-appropriate introduction to bodily autonomy and consent and it sounds like the staff at your child's school need a refresher on its principles.

I'm a primary supply teacher, and yes, most schools are now phasing back in to changing at school. For the younger ones, it's a life skill.

Personally, I don't have an opinion either way.

I remember changing in the classroom in front of the boys and our male teacher in Year 6! I don't remember it being a big deal, but I remember my best friends mum not liking it. She raised it with the school IIRC, and just got a metaphorical shrug in response. This was the better part of 30 years ago though.

After my retirement, I did a stint of long-term supply in another nearby school, and they already had this system in place; this was before Covid. I remember thinking, I wish my old school had done that! The teaching time we could have saved, not to mention the growing heaps of lost property!
I was a pupil myself a long time ago, and we changed together, but I think times have changed, and over my career it was obvious that the onset of puberty was becoming earlier; it was a great rarity when I was Y6, but a lot of the girls I taught in my later years were well on the way to being young women. I would guess that, rather than arguing the odds about when it became inappropriate, it was more straightforward to have a whole school policy.

Girls are getting their periods younger now. This is a fact.

I find the mixed sex changing thing utterly bizarre and boundary breaking.

They should go in in their kit or change in private areas.

Surely it’s single sex? I’ve worked in a few secondaries over 10 years, prior to Covid pe was single sex and children changed in the changing rooms so I don’t see the problem with that resuming.

During Covid pe became mixed sex and children came in wearing pe kits. I wouldn’t want them changing in mixed sex groups (I think anything past year 4 should be single sex really) but changing in school, in single sex classes, is absolutely fine and has been done for decades

Back when DD was in reception I had a very confusing a conversation with DDs teacher.

DD was wearing a summer gingham dress with the zip up the front and had unzipped it slightly to show her friend a scratch she'd got on her collar bone that weekend.

The next morning the teacher was waiting for me in reception and said she needed to speak to me about inappropriate behaviour because DD was showing off her chest to her classmates and removing her clothing.

I pointed out that it was just her collarbone and asked why showing that was inappropriate but the whole class of boys and girls stripping to their pants and getting changed in front of each other was fine. She said that I was being deliberately facetious and should understand the difference.

I thanked her for her time and said that I wouldn't be telling DD off because she'd done nothing wrong and that if she wanted to discuss the issue further we should arrange a meeting with the Head teacher present as it would be a bigger discussion.

In my opinion changing in class is fine till yr 2 after that they should have separate changing areas for boys and girls.

Surely it's better to go back to changing OUT of PE kit after sport, to avoid remaining in those clothes all day.

My teens aren’t happy about this rule coming back either.

That's the problem. They are not separated until about age 11. Girls can start puberty at 8.

I think it's completely normal to change in the classroom at that age. You'll create body issues but making it a big deal. It isn't.

Fucking hell. No it doesn't. It provides privacy.

If you think that giving a child privacy is sexualising then you have one hell of a problem.

Do you believe a 4 year old over the teacher about what happened?

I suspect the changing is to preempt smelly teens wearing sweaty clothes all day.

My kids are 8 and 10 and in a swim club! That means a lot of changing in front of peers on a pretty much daily basis. At least in school pe they all have their pants on. It's just a quick school top off and pe top on, school shorts off and pe ones on. Not a major big deal, especially if the girls and boys can be segregated from year 4 onwards.

I hated this at school, even when very young. We were expected to change in the classroom right through primary, by the time we girls reached year 6/7 we decamped en masse to the toilets as many of us were already well underway with puberty. I had periods at 10 so you can imagine that communal changing was miserable for me, I didn’t even like getting changed with the other girls.

@Oysterbabe yes and the teacher confirmed that all DD had done is unzipped her dress a bit, she hadn't taken it off.

We had to change for PE right through primary school up to age 12, and even more embarrassing, shower in front of others as well. It was mortifying, and made worse by a perverted teacher who used to stand in the shower block/changing room pretending to supervise us. He is now a convicted paedophile.

If schools don't have facilities for children to change privately then they should be allowed to go to school in their PE kit - if the teachers aren't expected to change in front of other adults, why should it be different for the children?

Why would there be any teens in a primary school?

why 'surely' would it be single sex? I've never heard of a single sex state primary school?

As a two-form entry school, my school is able to separate boys and girls for changing from reception upwards. Not all schools have this facility, however...

With the cold and wet weather approaching, however,I equally wouldn't want little ones sitting in their PE clothes all day. What would you suggest?

If they are that sweaty they would need a shower and clean underwear, not just a change of outer clothes.

For hygiene purposes, yeah I agree with you. In some countries, that's actually the common practice and there are some secondary schools in the UK which have the facilities to offer this.

However, changing general clothes is easily achieveable within the current context of most primary schools. Showering isn't.