Primary 5 boys & girls have to change for gym together??

[Yogagirl17]

DD (10) just been telling me that her teacher makes them all get changed for gym together in the classroom and also that her male teacher stays in the room while they change. Now I just want to say straight out I like and trust this teach and absolutely do not suspect him of anything untoward, other than possibly being a little naive.

Anyway, DD says she is beginning to feel uncomfortable with this and doesn't understand why the boys (and the teacher) can't go to another room while they change. I can't say I blame her and frankly I'm a little surprised this is even happening - surely 10 is old enough that they should be given privacy? I definitely want to say something to the school but trying to gauge how strongly to react. I mean, should I just ask the head teacher if they can change teh current arrangement or do I make a bigger deal of it?

[CrapolaDeVille]

I wore a bra, much needed, at ten. There is no way I would have changed in front of a male teacher or boys. No way.

[Feenie]

Y5 and Y6 PE - sweaty stinky kit all day. Ewww.

[CrapolaDeVille]

Feenie...What would you suggest?

[MumblingRagDoll]

Of course its not ok....why do people on here always say things like this are fine....the girls and the boys are at the ede of puberty now and deserve privacy no matter what a pain it is....the male teacher is a fool or a pervert. I hope you get it sorted OP.

[Bonsoir]

Maybe they could also wash more? I haven't noticed any smelly children after sports here...

[MummyDoIt]

Like most primary schools, ours does not have separate changing facilities. Cloakrooms are out as the Y5/6 cloakrooms are just a corridor so even less privacy there than the classroom. The solution we use is that any girl who feels self-conscious may change in the toilets. Girls who have started to develop usually take this option but the vast majority are happy to change in the classroom. I'm sure any boy who wanted privacy would also be allowed to use the toilets but, so far, none has asked.

[Feenie]

I feel strongly that girls need a separate place to change - but agree with all of the logistical problems above. This is an age old problem. My classroom is opposite the ICT room, so I tend to shove the boys in there under the supervision of our apprentice technician - but we won't have one of those next year. Or I beg/borrow/steal a TA for 5 minutes, but colleagues often are not impressed. With a better behaved class I go back and forth and use high expectations, much glaring and crossed fingers. None of these 'solutions' are ideal.

[mrz]

Where do they wash Bonsoir?

[Goblinchild]

'.the male teacher is a fool or a pervert.'

That's just nasty, twisted and wrong. We are saying this is an issue across the country in primary schools for thousands of teachers.

[Feenie]

No showers in most primary schools here, Bonsoir, but much sweating.

[Feenie]

Oh fgs, MumblingRagDoll, how nasty. You have no idea that he is either, no idea at all.

[Goblinchild]

So, every primary should have communal changing rooms with individual cubicles and showering facilities.
Sorted.

[emptyshell]

Sadly - most of our school buildings aren't of an age where they HAVE nice changing rooms for both sexes. It's a legacy of when most of our primary schools were built (most of the newest ones around here are 1970s-era) - and lots don't even have the toilets where you can neatly pop in and out and supervise both groups at once either. New schools, yeah they have changing rooms now - partly as a reflection of changing times, partly because kids are developing earlier - but most schools and teachers are just doing the best with what they have available - which is why you end up with situations like those I mentioned, generally involving me running backwards and forwards like a blue arsed fly trying to supervise two groups of kids at once... and kids, being kids, WILL act up in the absence of an adult on occasion. I'm also not sure I'd want them unsupervised getting changed for PE in particular as that's got the potential for all the "ewww you got no boobs... ewww you got moobs... ewww you're fat" stuff to kick in as well. Last thing I'd want would be a bunch of Y5 girls left unsupervised in the toilets to pick holes in each other's self esteem to be honest.

There's very little that the schools can do other than various makeshift solutions that don't really solve anything - especially without an extra pair of hands to supervise if you're splitting the sexes for changing and most schools simply do not have the extra staff to pull that one off - even if you do pull a TA out just for Y5 and 6 - in a 2 form entry school that's 4 PE lessons a week - 8 changes (into PE stuff and back), assuming 10 minutes changing time (because there's always a group of kids so busy comparing underpant patterns that it takes them that long) - you're talking about losing a TA from working with kids for well over an hour (translation: I can't be arsed to do the exact maths since the cat's pestering me to go feed her).

Poor teacher can't help being male and it's unfair on him to be lambasted for that in particular - believe me - there is nothing other than feelings of supreme "oh gawd will you lot hurry UP half the lesson's gone and you're still in your underwear" when the kids are getting changed for PE (possibly with a side order of "how on EARTH have you managed to lose a sock that shouldn't possibly even leave your foot"). You can't change his gender and you can't leave 15 kids (I'm assuming a class of 30 and half being each sex here as a rough generalisation before any pedants get at me) unsupervised - if there was an incident you'd be quite rightly down the school demanding to know why they weren't supervised in such a case.

Msz - we had separate sides of the playground when I was at primary school - I was forever being removed from playing football with the lads! I also remember being highly aggrieved at my single sex secondary that we weren't allowed to play football and had to play crappy wallop your mates around the ankle with bits of wood.... sorry hockey.

[mrz]

I teach in a primary school that doesn't have cloakrooms or spare TAs. Our Y6 classroom has a huge walk in cupboard where any girls who feel embarrassed can change but none of the other classes have that luxury.

[Feenie]

Ours is a very new building and has no changing rooms.

[CrapolaDeVille]

I would recommend getting one sex to change whilst the others line up silently outside, then swap....if this is too noisy for other classes, tough. A decent teacher can get children to shut up.

[Feenie]

Bang goes half of the PE lesson then.

[mrz]

That takes twice as long to get the class changed CrapolaDeVille and eats into a very tight hall/field timetable

[Goblinchild]

We are not nitpicking as teachers, it's just that we've all tried a range of solutions over the years with different classes and different schools and there really isn't an ideal answer in many situations.

[emptyshell]

Your Y6 classroom has a walk-in cupboard? GIMME!

You've worked in teaching too long when walk-in cupboards are your idea of a dream classroom feature - somewhere to hide all the mess!

[Jaspants]

I feel really sorry for any developing child forced to change in a room with children of the opposite sex. A friends DD started her periods at 9 - can you imagine how embarassing it would have been for her to have to strip to her underwear with evidence that she was on her period for everyone to see.

No changing rooms in the DCs primary - they leave boys in the classroom and the girls go in the library - which is actually a small room off the main corridor with a curtain that pulls across.

[mrz]

We were teaching in a portacabin so the Y6 classroom is a new extension with great features like a walk in cupboard and a sink with hot and cold water! It even has somewhere to hang coats!!

[IloveJudgeJudy]

When my DC were at primary, in the later years boys and girls changed in the same room, but had to turn their backs to each other. Worked fine. I have boy and girl DC and none of mine complained. My DD was quite developed, but just accepted that was the way it was (perhaps as she had an older bro?) Don't see the problem, myself. You show at least as much on the beach, don't you? Have absolutely no idea what difference it makes that the teacher is male. It didn't even need to be mentioned in the OP.

[vintageteacups]

OP - I find it very odd! Girls at 9yrs can start their periods and can have rather developed chests.

I really don't think that by yr 5, a male teacher needs to supervise a class getting changed.

Luckily our middle school has large changing rooms for all years.

[CrapolaDeVille]

Then schedule a lesson near break. Jesus....
Or allow girls to change in a ICT suite, library or whatever. If these girls were pubescent Muslim girls we would do something about it. Seems the excruciating embarrassment of children is not enough to make you guys bend over backward.
Put a divider in the class, ensure a teacher is available, this is not hard.