If you have dc in secondary school or are a secondary teacher

[Januaryissodull]

Are they currently doing physical PE in school?

What about other subjects such as design technology?

Mine are doing pe as normal. They wear pe kit those days

PE as normal, change at school. The school courts are behind my back fence, it is so lovely to hear them doing their lessons.

Yes pe, but no after school activities.
Science is not in labs (except y10/11),
Design and technology and art are mostly being done in the right place but occasionally can't do certain activities because equipment has been used by a different class and therefore needs quarantining /cleaned before next use.
Lunch time is shorter (due to shorter days because of staggered start and finish) they have lunch and then have 10 minutes outside.

@Januaryissodull which country are you in? I am amazed a secondary school in England could get away without doing any PE lessons. I am a PE teacher and it is allowed and encouraged at the moment (with a few restrictions). I would have thought the lack of pe would have already been raised by some parents already. The only thing I can think of that would limit pe provision would be if it’s normally offsite and there is no facility in school. Or if the PE staff have been redeployed. I think it is totally acceptable to enquire with the school why they aren’t doing PE in a non confrontational way...... if they have legitimate reasons then they will have no problem replying. I would be very interested to hear their explanation.

Yes they’re doing PE and allowed to get changed.
Dd currently doing woodwork in DT and doing practical work as well as theory.

Actually ours have even started after school sports clubs again this week.

PE and practical subjects happening at DSs school. They are getting changed into kit at school (they tried going in in PE kit but quickly abandoned it - maybe for smell reasons? ).

I don't think it's great to cancel PE - they need the physical activity - mine certainly does as he's a lazy bugger.

Lunch is outside but not if raining I don't think... I did try to ascertain what happens when it rains but my DS just shrugged. I guess unless it's absolutely pouring down they'll survive outside for half an hour or so (sandwich might be a bit soggy though!)

@beckypv

We are in the UK.

There is a bit of backstory.

When they all went back last September we were initially told that there'd be no physical PE lessons, only theory. This was due to changing rooms being closed. I gently raised it at the time and asked if students could wear PE kit into school and was told they were updating the guidance. A week later they changed the rule and PE lessons resumed. However then, a couple of weeks after that they stopped them wearing PE kits in and went back to no PE with no explanation other than "this is what will be happening".

Now they've gone back again with no physical PE. Apparently the PE teacher has told the class that a risk assessment had been done and they weren't to use the changing rooms. He said the PE department had asked for students to wear PE kits into school and this had been refused but that it wasn't his decision.

I'm getting the distinct impression that the senior management don't want dc wearing PE kits in. Which I cannot understand.

The school has ample outside space. I'm baffled by it.

Yes to PE in all our local high schools plus after school sports too.

My daughter also has swimming and dance classes too even though the girls need to change.
Is your child at an all girls school?
My daughter was once at an all girls grammar and they were forbidden to wear sports kit around the school or outside the school. We think it was the school trying to avoid girls in skimpy shirts walking around. Bit daft though as they could just make leggings mandatory if it bothered them that much!

Yes, PE is in as normal (but no contact sports). Outside of possible, or inside with all doors open and children spread out.

They wear PE kit all day on PE days. No one has exploded because students are not wearing blazers and trousers twice a week.

Art as normal, music as normal but no singing. DT has been on a rota, including food, with some year groups doing a stretch of practicals and then switching to theory. Same with science. Drama has been mostly theory and some individual practical work, like monologues.

No it's a mixed school.

The PE kit is school shorts and t-shirt football socks combo too all logo'd and in school colours, so can't see that there be any major issues.

Our school has had no practical lessons for design tech or food tech for a year.
Food tech is all theory and to say the kids are bored is an understatement. There is only so much design a menu and food hygiene you can keep going over

Yes, an hour and a half of fitness on Wednesdays (they can chose an activity) and after barely moving for three months she is feeling sore and achy today!
All other practicals going ahead too. Mind you it was amusing when she had to do practicals at home- teacher obviously thought we all had chemistry labs in our sheds! Art and DT all as normal.

PE lessons - normal and GCSE - changes at school. I think they’ve changed some activities but otherwise at normal. His kit comes home splattered most of the time as they are outside so I don’t know how it would work if he wasn’t able to change.

GCSE DT so doing practicals - emphasis on this as did so much theory in the first half of this term.

Lunch is inside but designated places to sit and full menu as normal.

PE as normal. Go in/home in kit if first/last lesson but other than that get changed at school. Also lunchtime and after school sports clubs in year bubbles.

After Easter all lessons are hopefully going back to 'normal', so moving around the school on a oneway system into appropriate classrooms.

My DD is doing PE but only if it isn't raining. It has to be outside and she wears her PE kit to school. If it's too wet they don't do it as they'll be in wet clothes all day.

Luckily it mostly goes ahead. She really needs the exercise after far too much time inside over lockdown.

DT seems to be just as normal and they are making things as usual.

Specialist rooms like the labs, food tech room etc which need to be used by all year groups are wiped down between classes but lessons then go ahead as normal.

This would really bother me. They need to be doing PE now more than ever.
Why have a PE kit if the school is then unhappy about them wearing it?
Also depending on age is there not a requirement for the school to provide PE?
If the reasoning behind it is uniform policy then I think you are perfectly entitled to have a robust discussion!

Outdoors PE. Go in PE kit those days.

Yes to PE - all outside, they are fortunate to have big playing fields.

D&T, Science etc, they are using the workshops:labs every other week, to allow for an hour break/ventilation and cleaning between classes.

We haven't had PE since they started back last Thursday but they are on a 3 week rotation so just hasn't fallen yet; they go in their PE kit that day rather than their uniform. Lunchtime sports - football, badminton etc. have also restarted this week. He has food and nutrition today, and they're making pastry, and has been using drills and chisels in design tech. Music lessons also started again this week (piano, violin etc.) rather than the timetabled music class.

No school lunches though, they have to bring their own food and eat outside so I'm sending DS with hot food in a flask.

Ah PE kit is a tricky one. At the school I teach in we have abandoned uniform for the whole year and they wear PE kit everyday. At my sons school which is a big comp, they are just getting changed as normal (and I assume cleaning the changing rooms between, or maybe they are using classrooms to change). Swapping uniform to pe kit for a day is a tricky thing for some schools who believe a smart uniform is one of the first layers of discipline/behaviour within a school. To start with it can feel a bit like a non uniform day and the behaviour is often more excitable. I guess it is a belief that casual clothes = casual attitude, but I think the school should be able to address this, as the novelty of wearing pe kit quickly wears off. I have no idea what your school is like, but it sounds like maybe there is a bit of an SLT control thing going on, and maybe they are trying to keep on top of behaviour which is currently/or on the past, has not been great. Schools have a lot to deal with at the moment and there are lots of things going on. If you believe the PE staff are keen to be doing practical PE, then the more enquiries the school gets, the more it may revisit its evaluation and try harder to think of a way of facilitating it. It really isn’t acceptable to not be offering any practical PE at this time. Like another poster said, if they are concerned about girls walk around in their shorts/skorts, they could always stipulate leggings.

All lessons (including practical ones) happening as usual except that all PE lessons are outside.

They are also changing for PE as usual; the school has utilised extra rooms to enable "more spread out" changing facilities. Those who are going in PE kits- how does this work when they get wet/muddy? Are they just expected to stay in wet/muddy clothes all day?

@beckypv it's a previously failing school with a relatively newish headteacher so you may well be right, perhaps senior leaders felt that the PE kit days were causing some issues.

There has been a hell of a lot going on there.

This and the fact that I've already previously raised it, makes me a little reluctant to mention it again and perhaps just wait until after Easter. I'd want to chose my words carefully.

Exercise is important to us especially after months of dc sitting at a laptop the best part of the day so I'm feeling pretty peed off about it.

I'd be annoyed without some form of PE as well. I can't see why they can't do outdoor PE.

As you asked, my DS1 is in Y9 and he does both games (currently rugby) and PE (I think its trampolining - so its indoors)
His timetable is unchanged, so yes to D&T (although not sure in what form as his lesson is today - they may suspend cookery for now)

The kids go to school in games kit - they are allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms rather than shorts if preferred - and they wear their blazers over the top. They can take boots to change into but there are no changing rooms to change their clothing.