changing for PE

[lottiespoon]

I would like to know if anyone feels that girls and boys, particularly years 5 and 6 should change together or separately. If they change separately at your school can you let me know how this is done in terms of staffing and health and safety.

sometimes the obvious can be right in front of you but if you choose not to see it then the problem isn't there!

Hi, we've moved this into Primary Education. Thanks.

So there's no HSE implication in a mixed bunch of potentially pubescent kids changing together? Sure the teacher may be supervising but the scope for subsequent bullying, harrassment, putting them off healthy exercise is probably not the lesser of two evils.

The thing is a lot of these things may be going on, but the children maybe too embarrassed to say anything or if they do are they being fobbed off as just being silly?

Ours change separately in Yr3 for swimming and yr4 onwards for PE. Unfortunately they change with the blinds open, which wouldn't be an issue except for when they realise it's 3pm and their parents are outside in the playground and start doing silly half-dressed dancing pressed up to the windows...not my child, ever, no

Thanx, that did make me smile, though not if it was my child!

Definitely separately from year 6 and perhaps year 5- we have just had some changing room built at our school but before they were completed the girls got changed in the classroom and the boys in the lobby outside.

Have you raised your concerns with your school? The thing is they get told how their bodies are changing in year 5 and year 6 but are then expected to be completely unaware of each other when getting changed for PE. So the school tell them they are different but won't then give them the privacy they need.

At my DD's school, the girls change in their classroom and the boys have a tiny changing room. At age 9 - 11, it is reasonable to keep them separate. Their elderly male head is very concerned about pupil dignity.

Thanks for that clairebunting. I think you hit the nail on the head with "dignity".

my dcs school they get changed together until year 6, except for swimming

the year 6 are in a portakabin with large cloakroom so the girls change in there (no windows) and the boys change in the classroom

dd1 was wearing a bra in year 4 and is now yr5 and a B cup

I brought it up with the school and they offered her the toilet to change in which she felt drew even more attention so instead she just throws her pe jumper over her school polo shirt and generally comes home stinking on pe days

Y5 and Y6 change separately, due to falling roll we sadly have a spare classroom.

Supervision, I don't know. There are various TAs about and they are good kids and perfectly capable of changing unsupervised.

The most mature Y4 girls have asked to, but I don't know if has happened.

It's out of order for them to be made to change together.
When I was at school it was separate from juniors which is year 3, and used to be unsupervised for it. The teacher would be outside the 2 rooms where people were changing (2 rooms were next to each other)

They send the girls from one Y6 classroom into the other, and the boys back to the other one, so there is a class of 30-ish boys getting changed in one classroom, and 30-ish girls in the other. Y5 is done a bit differently, as it is a 1-form entry year, and a particularly girl-heavy class. The boys go out and get changed in the hall, which if you poke your head out of the classroom door, you can watch them.

The school are pondering how to deal with the changing situation when the 3-form entry gets to Y5, as they can't have more than 30-ish in a classroom, but obe classroom will inevitably be further away from the hall, upstairs!

Usually Y5 & Y6 get changed seperately, younger ones fon't unless there is a need, I.e. early developers, then they do the boys in one class, girls in another for changing.

It's a tough one as in some areas the children will be in middle school (I was for 6 months before moving). We got changed and showered in separate changing rooms to the boys. It was a complete shock when I moved house (ended up back in junior school as middle schools aren't used here) to go from changing away from the teachers and boys to changing in a classroom in full view of the boys, teacher and anyone walking past the window.

At that age children are starting to develop and should at least be given the opportunity to choose whether they want to change in front of the opposite sex or in same sex groups. I would have preferred to keep the changing rooms when I moved.

think they should change separately. When I was that age I already had budding breasts and pubic hair. I was embarrassed enough to get changed around the other girls, let alone boys.

Hi, just wanted to thank everyone who joined in on this discussion and hopefully I can use some of this to back up my argument to change the exisiting policy at my school to a more up to date child friendly system.