Showers after PE

[luciemule]

Hi,

DD moving up to middle school next year and having read the school brochure, saw it said about having showers after PE.
I can't believe (from my own experience) that they still subject chidlren to the misery of standing naked in a school shower with no curtains.

Can the school make the chidlren have showers after PE? I would have thought not due to child protection issues but not sure. Anyone know and anyone told the school that their child won't be having humiliating, naked showers after PE

[luciemule]

Sarah so how will you prevent him having the showers? will you write to the school? What if they say it's their policy?

I too was quite traumatised by it and I'm sure that's why I'm still so phobic about my own periods! I have never come to terms with them - it's awful.....so much so that, although I'm only in my early 30's, I've sometimes wished for a really early menopause!

[civil]

Having to have communal showers at our secondary school made many of us dread PE.

As an adult, I have no qualms about being naked in changing rooms but at secondary age, when bodies develop at different times and girls are less secure about managing their periods, I hated it.

After the age of 16, it wasn't an issue for me, but before then, awful!

[thinkingaboutschools]

I found it a misery when I was at school. If you are painfully shy, this can be awful. I can't believe things haven't moved on in 20 years! [shocked]

[luciemule]

Glad it's not just me who has these awful memories.

[luciemule]

If you out for a day's hill walking for example, you'd be very muddy and sweaty yet you don't stop half way to have your shower because you're off to the pub for lunch -you'd have it when you got home. I don't see why the kids can't wait until they get home and for others who want a shower, have one.

[Gorionine]

OP Sorry because I have not got much time so I have not read past your post.

DD1(year 7) sais that they do not take showers after PE and it baffled me a bit. 20 odd years ago, when I was in secondary school we had showers after PE and we all had our own cubicle with curtains and there was no adult supervising us. I am to hear that there are still places where they would ask the girls to use a communal shower. Is it really still like that?

[Donna383]

Where did you attend high school?

[Flojo1979]

We had communal showers and hated it.
It put many of us off PE, we'd dread it all day.
We'd get in to trouble for forging note of our parents excusing us from showers.
When they did the register at the start of PE, u used to have to reply "yes miss, shower note" then she'd collect the notes at the end.
All the bullies would then tease u all wk about your periods. But having a note was still better than running the naked gauntlet.
We'd quickly splash water out ourselves as the teacher waited at the end to check your bodies to see if they were wet, if not, they'd send u back through.

[SoupDragon]

DS1 was told to take swimming trunks in for showering after sport. However, I believe that showers actually don't happen apart from a "Trinity Shower" which, i am told, consists of spraying yourself liberally with Lynx .

Muddy sports are done at the end of the day.

[squeezedatbothends]

My kids don't get a shower after PE but I wish they did. After rugby and cross country, they're caked in mud, then put uniform back on and I end up having to wash everything overnight. They say there's just no time.

[TalkinPeace2]

DS uses the showers after Rugby - I just wish he'd take his clothes off and not get in the car steaming and dripping

normal PE - nope they never use them

showers when I was at school were the haunt of a predatory gay PE teacher so best avoided

kids are perfectly happy using the communal changing rooms at the gym - but timing are relaxed there

[skyebluesapphire]

I hated this at my school, over twenty years ago now, but it was torture. I was very well developed at age 11, had started periods, had big boobs, and a lot of the girls hadn't.

I got bullied because of it and absolutely hated having a shower :(

[laughingeyes2013]

No child should be forced to be naked for any reason.

End of.

[soontobeslendergirl]

They have shower cubicles as my son's school I think but none of the kids shower as there isn't enough time between lessons for them to.

[curlew]

"t is wrong that mums tolerate their little boys being forced to do swimming topless in shorts or brief style swimming trunks when we require modesty for girls."

Eh?

[TeamSouthfields]

we HAD to.. But we'd all.run the water (as teacher wud check) but no-one wud go in,

a male pe teacher use to come into us when we were getting changed

[Marmitelover55]

We used to have to have take showers in a communal shower. We used to wrap out towels around our bodies and just get our hair and shoulders wet. The female teacher used to come and check sometimes. We found out later she was gay. I dong remember this when I was older though - maybe it was years 7-9. I think I've you had you'd period then you dicing have to take a shower.

DD1?had just started in year 7 so I faked her about showers. There are individual shower cubicles but they don't have to take a shower , although they do usd communal changing rooms when they go swimming.

[bigTillyMint]

I never had a shower at school in the 1950's 1970'2.

DC have never had a shower in school either after pE or after school and they both do a lot of sport.

Is it just private schools that do showers?

[WorrySighWorrySigh]

DCs' school (failing comp) actively discourages students from having showers as it gives the bullies too much opportunity (staff in changing rooms by exception only)

[curlew]

I don' know of any school where they have showers after games or PE. Imagine the time it would take!

[curlew]

"The female teacher used to come and check sometimes. We found out later she was gay. "

Yeah, yeah, of course she was.........

[TooBusyByHalf]

There were no showers at my school - so far as I recall we just brushed the mud off and changed as quick as poss. Have been doing tours of all the local schools this month - not one has shown or mentioned a shower. Thought it was just a myth.

[marriedinwhiteisback]

Communal showers at my school in the 70s. All forced through with the PE teacher watching. It was totally humiliating not least because of developmental issues - I was the last to grow boobs and start my periods and I shall never forget how unhappy and inadequate it made me feel.

We all had to go through completely naked and the PE teacher watched to check that we did. She had a manly haircut, huge legs, wore lace up brogues and tweed suits when not in PE kit.

Looking back it fills me with utter disgust and I find it difficult to believe that neither parents nor girls complained. Today I think she would have been dismissed for gross misconduct. She was an utter bully too.

The day I finished by O'Levels and left the school I vowed that nobody would ever again make me hit, throw or catch another ball and to this day I have never used communal changing room - although I don't they exist either now.

[Rufus44]

No showers at our comprehensive