Do children not get changed for P.E anymore?

[Cottonbud25]

My daughter starts school in September and I noticed one of their uniform policy’s is that children must come to school in their P.E kit and remain in their P.E kit all day until they go home? I’m just wondering is this standard practice in schools nowadays? As I remember the days we all used to get changed for P.E in the classroom and then you’d change back into your uniform after P.E? It just seems abit odd to stay in your P.E kit all day?

Ours have just gone back to getting changed for PE at school again, apparently it's important for the younger ones especially to be able to get changed themselves (school call it an important life skill etc). So, the getting changed is as important as the PE lesson for some. It was so much easier before though.

Oh no 😅 I can’t imagine how stressful that was 😂 my 2 are a nightmare to get ready at the best of times 😂😂

I'll always remember the TA in DC1's reception class telling me that it had taken an hour to get 30 kids into their PE kits for their first PE lesson

I wonder if your dc go to the same school as mine. When dd1 was in receptionmany years ago they sent a letter /email saying to get our kids practicing changing at home as they were taking to long fir pe.

Erm you are making 4 year olds wear shirts and ties and the girls are in tights. It's a problem.entirely of your own making.

And all with different needs / level of ability with self-dressing that comes in a primary school class of 30/31/32 kids.

Somehow, despite no longer having to get changed for PE, some of the children in my class still manage to lose their socks and swap trousers and go home with little Joey's jumper 🙈

I'm in Ireland and my kids primary always did tracksuits on PE days. It's brilliant as they all prefer their tracksuits and less items lost like when I was at school. My eldest's secondary used to change for PE like we did but since covid they now too wear their tracksuit on the day they have PE. They only have to change on days where they have sports extracurricular but not timetabled PE.

At my school the children come to school in PE clothes on their two PE days. Was started during covid times and been a game changer. In the lower years almost ready whole PE slot was spent changing and then changing back. The children now get a much longer PE session and we have far less clothes lost!

My kids school did this precovid too. Less lost property. Less chance of forgetting pe kit. Longer pe lesson.

I do get the point about life skill getting dressed. Although surely some activities can be parents/carers responsibility....

It does make total sense now 😅 it’s probably alot easier for both the parent and teacher as the parents don’t have to buy as much uniform

Few of our parents wash and clean or clothes before each wear, same as with their uniform - they don't wear clean every day. I certainly wouldn't bother buying loads. Unless they've had an accident or spilled something then they don't need cleaning every single wear ime. A bit of wear and tear from the day before is totally normal ime.

The schools round here are moving back to uniform and changing for PE in school from September. It's been great for some kids and parents the covid pe way. But there's been a negative impact for many children in that they don't have as much practice putting clothes on and taking them off. Children are older and older now who can't do their own cardigan buttons up or put their shoes on the right feet etc and then there's children with SEN as well. So our schools have taken that choice. Personally I'm happy with pe clothes all day but my child is good with changing her own clothes, but then I'm happy to go back to the old way if it helps other children progress.

Less ironing. Luckily both my kids' schools are doing this now. The secondary school have a particularly nice PE kit and they still look smart in it as well as being comfy.
Just set the big kids up with plenty of deodorant... for the poor teachers teaching 30 of them after cross country!

My DD2 is in p1. I think that's the equivalent of Reception in England. Anyway, she's 5 and in her first year of school. They have their PE stuff in a gym bag at school and get changed as usual. The bag comes home occasionally for washing.

Ours have just gone back to getting changed for PE at school again, apparently it's important for the younger ones especially to be able to get changed themselves

Our school is also bucking the trend and has just reverted back. They do acknowledge the advantages of staying in PE kit, but say that getting changed into appropriate clothing and dealing with transitions between different activities is an important life skill that not enough parents are teaching effectively. They also say that personal hygiene was becoming an issue, especially among some of the Year 5/6 pupils, when they were staying in sweaty school uniform all day. I can see both sides tbh.

(Sorry, meant sweaty PE kit, not school uniform.)

I teach in a secondary school and everyone, including the 6th form, comes in PE kit on Games day. As everyone has said, it was a covid measure.

It definitely used to be part of the pshe framework to learn that you should have different clothes and shoes for PE and get changed after so that you didn't get smelly. (But it's totally fine for those smelly clothes to sit in a nylon bay for 6 weeks between washes)

Or at least this is what the rationale for having a PE kit for a no uniform school was.

Standard for primary school. Our high school used to do it during covid, but have reverted back to having to take their kit now. Probably better for the teachers' noses that way!

Ours have just gone back to getting changed for PE at school again, apparently it's important for the younger ones especially to be able to get changed themselves

Maybe they can actually dress themselves its just shirts with their tiny buttons and skirts and trousers adjusted to the max because they don't come in a smaller size that are causing the problems.

Most people wouldn't stick a 4 yr old in anything but leggings or joggers and t shirts fir this reason.

PE 'kit'? Does that mean uniform? In Australia on PE day you go to school in your sports uniform. There is no changing. 4 days a week it's the ordinary day uniform is worn, 1 day a week the sports uniform is worn. The sports uniform is worn on PE day. All day.

It is sooo much easier now and you actually get a decent length pe lesson rather than spending 90% of it getting dressed, but children do need to learn to get themselves dressed/undressed. Pre-covid we'd have the many struggle at the beginning of the year but the majority independent by the end. Not to do with age, purely because parents had always done it for them. Those children aren't going to get a chance to learn now. I know it will obviously happen at some point, mum won't dress them as an adult, but still... it is a skill they should learn by that age.

an important life skill that not enough parents are teaching effectively

Blimey, I hope that's your spin and not the school's line on it! (I can believe it's true, but can't bear schools telling parents off like this.)

Our school have stuck with the 'all day PE kit' thing since covid. I quite like it. But they're reasonably relaxed about uniform anyway (it's a school jumper/polo shirt/any kind of black or grey trousers/any kind of black shoes including plain trainers) so the children were mainly in trainers anyway and the younger years mainly in tracksuit bottoms or leggings anyway. I agree with PP about the ridiculousness of requiring 4 year olds to faff around with buttons and ties and uncomfortable clothing.

@TalkingCat in the UK a PE kit isn't a standard uniform although most schools in our area will request certain colours to be worn.

For example, our school request dark joggers/shorts, so the children can turn up in navy blue joggers or black joggers but not allowed to wear white. So the kids don't have matching clothes on the PE days.

Our school doesn’t do this. And they now have their PPA sessions (half a day a week when the teachers have planning, preparation and assessment time away from their classes) as a full day once a fortnight of physical activities - they do things like dance, yoga, cup stacking etc. I think this is a brilliant idea - the school brought it in post Covid to help kids get fit again, alongside normal PE, and my son loves it. But it seems crazy that the kids go into school that day wearing uniform, then as soon as they arrive change into PE kit and then change again just before they go home. It’s because PE kits stay at school for the whole half term.

You don't need two hoodies for PE. One is fine.

As a teacher, I love it. The hassle of changing was a pain, it didn't matter what age group, there would be issues. Now we have the whole lesson for actually doing pe.
I wish secondary schools kept it up, as one of my dc who is studying pe GCSE, has to 3 lessons on one day, and has to change for each of them!