to expect school to be ready for games being cancelled in the cold weather?

[digbies]

I've posted this in secondary education as well, but heremay be a better place.

My DD is in her 2nd year at secondary school and has games timetabled every Monday, so she went off this morning with her hockey gear. When I met he this evening I asked if she'd done hockey today, considering that the pitch was probably frozen. Thankfully she said no, but what she told me then shocked and annoyed me.

Apparently the whole class had changed and were redy when the teacher arrived late and tod them they'd be indoors doing gymnastics instead. She got the girls to remove their boots, put on their school shoes and walk to the gym, where they took their shoes off and went into the gym. The teacher then told the girls to take their socks off so they were barefoot, but also to remove their skirts !

Apparently the teacher said that skirts were dangerous in the gym with the apparatus, and wasn't moved by the fact that quite a few girls, my dd included, weren't wearing their gym knickers beneath their skirts. I'm right to be angry about this, aren't I?

hmm. I am deeply sceptical.

Surely some girls that age would just refuse point blank.

Luckily my kids old school came out of the dark ages when DD started there and made shorts part of the PE kit for boys and girls. Some people might be happy to prance around doing gym in their underwear but I know I wouldn't be.

Maybe DD should've thought that maybe outside PE would be cancelled and taken indoor kit as well but surely even 12 year olds have a right to dignity which seems to have been denied them.

oh sorry missed crucial post

in year 8 my foster daughter would be only 12 so not 13/14.

I'm dithering about this actually. One part is saying how mortifying - particularly if one had a period. And on the other hand I think we can encourage shame in our children when really there's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean there's not much actual difference between pants and bikini bottoms/swimsuits.

So I'm genuinely not sure about this, on one hand I could be quite annoyed but on the other I wouldn't want to make too much of it so that she was encouraged to be embarassed iyswim.

Tough one

12/13 then.

Skirts do get caught up in gym equipment, but teacher should have suggested a change of kit, not skirts off!

Sorry everyone, a slight correction needed here! The boys who normally play hockey with the girls (a whole other area of debate!) DID NOT go to the gym with the girls. So this was a single sex lesson.

Single sex does make the situation a whole lot better. But I can't help thinking that shorts for all would be better.

Why are girls and boys playing hockey together an area for debate? It was common practise at the kids school.

then if single sex I don't see a problem.

It's still mean. Go on, speak to the school to find out if that's what really happened and complain. If I was your daughter I would appreciate it very much!

Laurie - I think my mum had that kind of PoV, she didn't understand why I wasn't comfortable prancing around in my undies in front of family/only girls whatever, and would sometimes try and force it. It just made the issue more of one, for me personally. I did grow out of it, and it's not an issue now - but I really feel for any of the girls that although they had no particular need to (wasn't going to get judged or picked on or anything) just felt incredibly vulnerable and exposed in just my pants.

but did you feel vulnerable/exposed in swimsuits too? and not the 'pants' per se.

I don't think that the lesson being single-sex made it much better, to be honest. I had weight issues as a girl and would have been utterly mortified to have had to do PE in my knickers as a teenager. And it wouldn't have made me less self-conscious as a teenager - it would have made it even worse.

The teacher knew that the class was going across to the gym when she got to the changing room - why on earth didn't she tell the girls then to put their PE knickers on?

I would be writing a strongly-worded letter of complaint to the headteacher, if this was one of my children.

god in my day we had to do atheletics outside in pe knickers with the boys
and communal showers , not with the boys
those overweight or underdeveloped (like me) were mortified

sunnygirl, it wasn't that they weren't wearing their gym knickers, they didn't have them with them at all, so couldn't have put them on.

Nope - but a swimsuit is chosen for outdoor display. Whereas at 12 you don't expect anybody to be seeing your pants, and are probably wearing slightly dodgy white ones. I suppose it's probably a puberty/image insecurity thing.

I agree with law. Yopu don't expect anyone to see your knickers. They might be old grey ones, or ones that are really too small or ones that are too huge or have a hole somewhere, or those bikini style ones that just leave you feeling exposed.

If I knew I was going to be showing my knickers to a group of people, I would choose with care

Ahh - I see, digbies - sorry. I still think you are justified in being shocked at this though - it was a horribly embarrasing thing to do to girls of that age.

I may phone the schoool tomorrow and ask to speak to the PE teacher, to check what happened and why. Luckily, DD still wears old-fashioned white pants, so nothing too skimpy. But it must still have been pretty embarrasing for her.

I would check with the school first to see what actually happened. If they were made to do it in their knickers, then that's awful, but I doubt very much if a teacher would make that happen. I doubt very much if a whole class would just get on and do it.

I was sceptical too wotulookinat, but her skirt and socks haven't been used, so it's clear the only part of her kit worn was her white t-shirt. I'll be checking with the school tomorrow, though this particular teacher has form for this kind of thing. Last term DD forgot her trainers and socks for cross country, and was made to run with her bare feet inside her school shoes. They came back covered in mud.

That's shocking. Please do find out, and let us know what the school says.

Update: I'm awaiting a call from the teacher later today. I'll let everyone know what she says.

I got off the phone with the teacher a few minutes ago. What DD told me yesterday was accurate. The teacher confirmed that the girls were told to remove their socks and go barefoot, and that she told them all to remove their skirts. I asked if DD and others told her they weren't wearing gym knickers, and she confirmed that they did tell her, but that she considered it wasn't a reason not to do the lesson. I told her that I found it inappropriate and unacceptable to make girls of that age do PE in their pants - she said she appreciated my point of view and hoped that it wouldn't be necessary again. I don't think that this was really the point!

YANBU at all! When I was that age I had very heavy periods and hadn't quite mastered the sanitary towel/tampon absorbancy thing so often had bloodied knickers from leakages. I was embarassed enough getting changed during my period, but having to do that would've just about killed me. Gosh.

What? She basically hasn't even confirmed she wouldn't make them do it again. I would speak to the head and let them know that this is what she's said, and that you want it to be confirmed that it WILL not happen again, not that it might not. How horrible!