Changing for PE in secondary school

[cloudglazer]

Is anyone aware of any evidence or research about the impact of getting changed in school for PE, rather than coming in to school already in PE kit.
Thank you

I don't know but it's really rubbish, I was told it was life skills - I've never used communal changing since leaving school so I don't see this argument .

They've got used to going into school in kit in primary, there's no embossment for an already self conscious age and makes my laundry life easier. I really dislike DD having to take kit in.

Impact on what?

Why would you want to go to school wearing your pe kit? And you would be really sweaty if you didn't change afterwards!

What impact do you mean?!

COVID made lots of schools realise it's far easier for kids to just come in in their kits. Lots of time is wasted getting changed and in my experience, at secondary level, boys tend to get more sweaty playing football at lunch than doing PE.

I don't know any research though. This is anecdotal.

Less stinky post Pe teenagers?

They do PE outside on the field in rain and mud.

They don't want to wander around the rest of the day like that!

Don’t know of any research either. DDs school has just brought in the option of wearing Games kit on the day they do Games. I’m guessing to save time changing rather than it being a privacy thing. Most do sports after school so still need to change in communal areas. Bizarrely DD has never raised it so maybe they all somehow respect each others privacy.

Well I did it for 5 years and it had no impact on me, so did my sister and husband - they're not impacted either. So far, on my social media none of the people I went to school with have ever mentioned it. So, based on my own anecdotal evidence I don't believe it has any impact at all!

Why don't you just ask your PE department for their rationale? It is probably based on experience rather than research, and probably similar to the rationale in our school which is:

1. If they don't come in their uniform, significant numbers are likely to forget to bring items of uniform to change into afterwards, e.g. their shoes, trousers, and therefore end up staying in partial pe kit all day.

1. PE kit after the PE lesson can often be smelly and muddy.

1. When teenagers have growth spurts, their PE skorts/shorts can sometimes become very short/tight and may become a safeguarding risk outside of school.

Saves time and stuff doesn't get lost/go missing.
Makes sense to me.
Edit: PE should be held in the afternoon though so you don't have stinky/muddy kids.in the classroom.

The down side of going in already wearing PE kit is when they get muddy/wet and then smelly.

The plus side is that they'll have one less reason to hate PE and will take part more willingly.

Anecdotally - DD started liking PE for the first time ever in Y7 (pandemic year so they went in their PE kit on PE days AND boys and girls started doing PE separately. We thought she'd cracked it).

Come year 8 and back to changing in school - DD started became extremely anxious about PE lessons and started missing them.

The plus side is that they'll have one less reason to hate PE and will take part more willingly.

having to sit in a smelly muddy kit for the day isn’t going to motivate many pupils!

PE should be held in the afternoon though so you don't have stinky/muddy kids.in the classroom.

how do you plan on having a whole school have enough PE lessons over 5 sessions a week? Ds school is fairly small and splits the years in half for Pe two sessions a week years 7-9 and 1 for none GCSE students. So that’s 16 sessions a week before adding in whatever the gcse PE students needs.

@Sirzy maybe GCSE PE lessons held in mornings where they change at school (so older kids, more mature not to mess around in the changing rooms, have private showers and they are only doing PE because they chose to so would have more respect for it.
Lower years (7-9) in afternoons, no getting changed.
I don't know which is a better system to be honest. My biggest complaint when I was at school was weren't given enough time to get changed at the end of the lesson and we were then frequently late to our next one.

At my children's school, they currently come in in PE kit on PE days and it works well. Now there is a new head, it's being changed. The reasons given make no sense, and wondering if there has been any research in either direction
about advantages or disadvantages.

Yes, this is my concern. Already stressful enough at school, and access to sports for girls already too low.
I just wondered if there is a good reason. The ones given make no sense (e.g. children more likely to wear the wrong hoodie)

PE is compulsory in year 10-11.

So what were the reasons given?

The fact is, there are benefits and disbenefits, and the new Head has the authority to make the change, like it or lump it.

The PE department at DD's school apparently preferred the covid arrangements, where kids attended in their PE kit. Nobody "forgot" their kit, so participation rates were much better, and of course there was less time taken up with changing.

There does need to be something in place for the days when they get drenched/filthy during the PE lesson - so ideally everyone needs a spare set of clothing kept in a locker at school for when that happens.

The kids campaigned quite hard when they changed the rules back to everyone changing for PE. The school's claim was that the problem was kids coming in PE kit on non PE days.

@Simonjt oh yes... valid point.
To be honest when I was in Year 10/11 (4th and 5th Year in my day) 90% of us bunked off PE 😂

Unfortunately, that would require double the number of PE teachers, all employed only for the afternoons, and double the amount of playing field/sports hall/gym space!

It's to teach good hygiene around sport. Clothes should be changed and if possible showers taken afterwards. I do understand facilities at school aren't great, but it's a muscle memory, if I exercise I should change/ wash. Also by secondary school it maybe unpleasant for the teachers having 30 children in sweaty clothes in a classroom.

I used to coach rugby at a school until fairly recently, there were five year groups, eight PE groups in each year, the afternoon lesson was 13:50-14:50pm. So you would need 40 PE teachers 🤣

Only if they all have PE every day.

@lanthanum yeah I've realised my idea of afternoon only PE wouldn't work.

@Needmorelego afternoon only PE can and does work. Our school has one double lesson of PE in the afternoons only. There’s 5 year groups so one year group per day. (yr7-Mon, yr8-Tues, yr9-Wed, yr10 Thurs, yr11 Fri) 6th formers also have games on Wed. We do seem to have a lot of PE teachers though. Some of them will teach GCSE & A level PE theory in the mornings but I’m unsure what the rest of them do in the mornings. It’s not a huge school - 100/120 per year group.
@cloudglazer seems a shame to be changing something that’s working well unless the Head thinks it actually isn’t.