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Original poster

Did you enjoy PE at school?

145 replies

BeRubyReader · 02/04/2025 16:09

No

OP posts:
redgingerbread · 02/04/2025 16:11

Nooooo. I was very uncoordinated so rubbish at all ball games, and hated anything involving running. My sister was netball captain and the PE teachers wouldn’t believe we were related.

MsNevermore · 02/04/2025 16:14

I liked certain aspects of it.
Id been a gymnast from toddlerhood, so was on the school gymnastics team. Also played in a local youth football league outside of school, so quite enjoyed team sports at school - football, rounders, netball etc.
Hated it in the summer though when it switched from outdoor ball sports to athletics 🫠 Doing laps round the track in June getting eaten alive by insects. The joy.

MrsSchrute · 02/04/2025 16:14

Nope. Put me off team sports for life!

Flamingoknees · 02/04/2025 16:15

No - the female PE teachers were awful. The males were great, and joined the biys on cross country runs etc - ours went inside then came our later to stand at the finishing line! There was also lots of bullying overlooked. Also, if there was something you turned out to be good at, for eg discus, but you weren't good at other things, they acted like it was a fluke, and still put their favourites into competitions.
I did lots of exercise out of school though, and became a fitness instructer in my 20's.

Youaremythtaken · 02/04/2025 16:15

Liked it at primary, hated it at secondary. I credit it for putting me off exercise for a good chunk of my adult life. I wasn't naturally sporty but effort was never recognised or credited. I actually enjoyed cross country and running despite not being particularly fast but just got yelled at for being at the back. And netball and hockey were obviously only for the popular girls, which I wasn't.

When I finally discovered exercise in my 30s it made me so cross that p.e. had robbed me of that enjoyment - I exercise regularly now and get so much out of it. If it hasn't been for school p.e. I reckon I'd had discovered it a lot earlier but I absorbed the message that I was inherently shit at it and that it wasn't for me.

nessiesnotreal · 02/04/2025 16:16

Yes but I was good at it so I guess that was why. I loved it from doing movement and games as a small kid to gymnastics, athletics, running, hockey and netball as an older kid. I represented the school at gymnastics, athletics and netball and was sports captain for my 'house' and also captain of the netball team in Secondary school.

I was one of those kids that loved cross country running in the rain and getting muddy and wet!! 😂

Dartmoorcheffy · 02/04/2025 16:16

Absolutely despised it. Communal showers were degrading. The teachers were just sadistic bullies.

I had an accident aged 13 which meant I was exempt from it and I was so bloody happy..

iggleoggle · 02/04/2025 16:18

Hated it. Massively put me off exercise. All the faff around changing I and out and awful communal showers that we were checked in and out of. Then out into the cold with skimpy clothes but no real education as to why PE was a good thing. And teachers who were frankly frequently horrible.

I wish it had been presented as exercise ought to be: moving your body and getting your heart going is great for you, and we’re going to introduce you to a range of stuff, and it’s ok to hate some of it but try and find something you can build into your lifestyles

DaphneduM · 02/04/2025 16:18

Definitely not. Awful, with ghastly thick, bullying PE teachers.

ARichtGoodDram · 02/04/2025 16:21

Loved it at primary school.

Hated it at high school thanks to my teacher and her belief that she knew how asthma worked. She really really didn't.

Despite multiple meetings and discussions she literally locked my inhaler in a cupboard and it took so long to get it I ended up being blue lighted to hospital so my Nana wrote me a note excusing me from PE for the duration of my time at the school.
The librarian was lovely thankfully

Justploddingonandon · 02/04/2025 16:22

No. Combination of being shit at it and being unpopular meant I was always the last to be picked (yes, they let classmates choose the teams). Even stuff like running that didn't involve teams I somehow managed to get teased both for not being very fast and being too fast (I think other girls couldn't be bothered and thought I was showing them up).

lingmerth · 02/04/2025 16:26

I loved it. Played Netball for my school at Primary and Secondary school. Also hockey and rounders too. Useless at tennis, cross country and swimming. Like previous poster we had communal showers at the end of school lessons and they were awful. Pe teachers stood either end of showers and watched us in and out. Disgusting!
most of us ended up having ‘month’ long periods to avoid them.
Was pretty fit with my children but they’re grown and gone now and apart from swimming have stopped any sport. I’m fat and have terrible arthritis in my left knee now.

Youaremythtaken · 02/04/2025 16:27

iggleoggle · 02/04/2025 16:18

Hated it. Massively put me off exercise. All the faff around changing I and out and awful communal showers that we were checked in and out of. Then out into the cold with skimpy clothes but no real education as to why PE was a good thing. And teachers who were frankly frequently horrible.

I wish it had been presented as exercise ought to be: moving your body and getting your heart going is great for you, and we’re going to introduce you to a range of stuff, and it’s ok to hate some of it but try and find something you can build into your lifestyles

Same. Absolutely. I'm hoping it's more like that now.

AgeingDoc · 02/04/2025 16:31

No, I hated it.
It would probably cause my PE teachers to die of shock (if they're still alive !) if they heard that I now coach a sport. I hated school PE, was bullied by both the other pupils and the staff, and it put me off all sport as a result. I didn't discover any forms of exercise that I enjoyed until I was an adult with children of my own and I actually feel quite bitter about it. I think I might have been quite good at the sport I coach if I'd started when young. Not national level good or anything but I think I could have got a lot out of competing as a young person. I would never have tried though as I had had it drilled in to me that I was useless at anything physical and that attempts only resulted in misery. So now I just try to help other people to learn and and enjoy the sport instead.

Goldbar · 02/04/2025 16:43

I quite liked some aspects of it (netball, hockey, other team games etc.) but I wasn't very good at it which meant that I didn't get any encouragement or attention from the teachers as I was never going to be on the school team, for example. I wouldn't say it put me off exercise, but certainly it didn't help. I felt like a bit of a write-off, whereas actually I could have improved with some attention and encouragement but that wasn't on offer. And there was absolutely no emphasis on PE for enjoyment/fitness and finding out what you liked and were good at. Some aspects of it were quite sadistic too (bleep test etc.) and I always felt sorry for the children who came last as it was a bit humiliating. I was usually fairly near the bottom but not quite there 😆.

Unless PE has improved a lot since I was at school, I don't see the point in it. It would be far better for PE to be focused around giving children 'tasters' in terms of the local sports and activities available, and then paid access to these activities and an afternoon off school per week to attend them wit instructors who actually care about their development and enjoyment.

I enjoy exercise now despite PE rather than because of it and I think that's a bit sad.

ITurnedMyCollarToTheColdAndDamp · 02/04/2025 16:51

I'm pretty sure that the number of teenagers school PE puts off of exercises is greater than the number it encourages. Which is a real shame.

Similarly to others, I loved it at primary. I kind of enjoyed some aspects at secondary sometimes, but largely I disliked it. The overwhelming focus on team sports, the favouritism, the lack of empathy from most of the teachers, getting far too hot or far too cold then needing to be in your next lesson in 10 mins as if nothing happened, the communal changing. Just ugh.

Goldbar · 02/04/2025 16:55

I'm pretty sure that the number of teenagers school PE puts off of exercises is greater than the number it encourages. Which is a real shame.

They should replace it with a couple of afternoons off a week and vouchers to access sports facilities and clubs in the local area imo. A lot of schools don't have sufficiently good facilities for PE to serve any useful purpose.

DinoLil · 02/04/2025 17:03

No and NO again with capital letters and underlined and SHOUTED!!

Sealanes · 02/04/2025 17:06

I loved most of it.

I hated that we weren't allowed netball anymore in secondary (having been county champions) when a new PE teacher started who said that netball wasn't a 'proper' sport and we had to do volleyball. I hated volleyball because it made my really bad excema bleed.

Darkclothes · 02/04/2025 17:09

NO!

I grew massive boobs overnight and thought a flimsy crop top would suffice- it didn't!

I grew up abroad and we had outdoor swimming lessons. We had to jog up and down the grass near the pool, in our swimwear!!! These were the days when no swimsuits had any underwire or support of any description and I couldn't even wear the crop top underneath. It was mortifying.

ginasevern · 02/04/2025 17:09

I bloody hated every minute of it. I've got no natural talent whatsoever for launching myself over 6ft high equipment, shimmying up ropes like a monkey or catching a ball. I found it utterly degrading. I guess you feel more "exposed" than in any other subject if you're not good at it because, for a start, you're semi naked (we used to wear navy blue knickers). You're also highly likely to get seriously whacked in the face or shin, which is even more excrutiating on a freezing cold playing field. There is no other subject where the potential for humiliation is so profound and the license to bully so easily acquired.

Sulu17 · 02/04/2025 17:12

No. I remember being forced to do athletics during a heavy period, and being shouted at nastily by the teacher when I stopped because blood was running down my legs.

DramaAlpaca · 02/04/2025 17:12

Absolutely despised it. Communal showers were degrading. The teachers were just sadistic bullies.

This was my experience too, in the late 70s in a supposedly nice girls' grammar school. Just awful.

Yopl · 02/04/2025 17:14

I loved it, my favourite lesson, I hated when we did gymnastics though, every other sport we did I loved and always had fun

handsdownthebest · 02/04/2025 17:16

Yes loved it and still love sport now at 60. Get out to exercise whenever I can.
Love watching sport including football and have encouraged my DC to be sporty too.