Girl's experiences of PE

[WarriorN]

The gap between the proportion of boys and girls in England who enjoy PE lessons is widening, a survey suggests.

Some 59% of girls in secondary schools who responded to a Youth Sport Trust survey said they liked PE or liked it a lot, compared with 84% of the boys.

Obviously I have questions about the survey design in terms of "identity as girls etc" but it seems that it's more important than ever to preserve single sex access to sports / physical activity, as well as more ways to engage girls in sports/ physical activities.

Drop in how many girls like PE, Youth Sport Trust study suggests www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-67063845

I haqd an eye opening moment when I went to college. I had been exposed to Swedish gym invented by Madam Osterberg in Dartford, very liberating for girls, invented gymslips and netball, highly thought of round here. But you had to do things in just the right way, and I just couldn't. Memories of trying to achieve long-fly over the box haunt me now. But college was wonderful, find as many ways as you can of balancing on three points, getting over this apparatus... And I went home and enthused to my mum, and she said, "that's the 1933 syllabus and here's my copy". Blooming Heck, it took to 1960 for me to meet it! (I did enjoy 'pirates' on the last lesson of term, but they banned it!)

I quite liked PE when I was in school but I was fairly fit and healthy, and not too bad at sports (and my class was mostly girls who weren't very good at sports so there wasn't any pressure really), especially in year 11 I think, when we were allowed to choose what we wanted to do so I just went to the weight training room every PE lesson.

DD is 12 and likes PE too, for the most part (she doesn't like orienteering or cross-country skiing) but the big downside for her is when they do ball sports and the boys dominate and don't pass the ball to the girls (only 5 girls in the class doesn't help matters) but they don't actually spend that much time doing ball sports (its more playground games type activities and athletics)

I had similar horrible experiences to many on this thread. It's like PE attitudes are still stuck in the 19th century, yet I believe if people were taught how to use and look after their bodies properly, we'd have less mental health problems and certainly less obesity in society. (Obviously people have mental health difficulties for all sorts of reasons, but being active can help.)

My first two years at secondary school were at a boarding school (my parents lived/worked abroad at the time), where because we all lived/slept in close proximity there were absolutely no hangups about nudity, we all saw each other’s bodies all the time.

Then my parents moved back to the UK and I started at the local comprehensive at the beginning of the third year, just turned 13. On my first day we had PE and in the changing room afterwards I cheerfully stripped off, and every pair of eyes in the room swivelled in my direction and the chatter abruptly stopped. OMG, the shame! I hadn’t noticed all the other girls’ contortions as they showered and changed hidden behind towels. Instant conversion, I was well used to being “the new girl”, so knew how to fit in - do as everyone else does and you’ll be fine. (Similarly my boarding school accent instantly converted into the home counties mockney. Gotta be a chameleon if you want to get on.)

The class bully had found her new target, however, and she tormented me for the next three years because of that rash, brash strip-show on my very first day.

I later found that some of my new friends/classmates had NEVER seen their parents or siblings naked, which seemed astonishing to me.

My sons would be in the like camp and spent break at school being physical and running around, playing basketball etc When they went out with friends, there is usually some physical activity involved like skateboarding, basketball, footie..

My dd would say like but in secondary didn't have friends who would play sport at break. Her group of friends would go to the park and sometimes play basketball with the boys from school that they knew but bonded differently.

I hated PE in school for the reasons above. Expect for the last 2 years in an independent school where we'd be taken to the pool or gym for an extended lesson and coulddo what we wanted as long as we were moving. That was great.
DD also hates PE. For the same reasons everyone has posted. She's a competitive swimmer though and extremely fit and happy to give any sport a go, but it's still all taught soooo poorly.

I actually went to a slightly old-fashioned boarding school (as a day pupil) where the admittance of girls ten years previously was still throwing the old regime for a loop. Mandatory cross country running and games four times a week was seen less as a means of nurturing sporting excellence and more as a tactic for keeping adolescent boys too permanently knackered to get into any mischief outside of lessons...

@ManyRoads that shows how gendered access to physical activity is.

Apart from all the usual issues around PE for girls there’s the added faff. Many teenage girls do hair and makeup everyday before school. Doing PE means another shower/hair/makeup but with little time to do it. When you’re image conscious/self conscious it must put you off even if you actually like sport.

PE was bad but communal showers were worse. Several of us used to wet our arms and legs a bit and pretend. Eventually we were allowed to "play table tennis" while the gym teacher was out with the hockey team. Maybe if we had some weight training or a few gym machines to use I'd have learnt a lot easier that I could enjoy keeping fit.

Can you imagine being expected to go in communal showers or changing rooms with boys?

Hated it. Was taught by adult bullies who enjoyed public humiliation. Always freezing cold (uniform was see-through airtex tee and tiny white shorts/pleated skirt). My knees went purple once. No time to properly change so messy all day afterwards and punished if late to the next class. No such thing as sports bras. No privacy changing at a sensitive age with girls at different stages of development. Smells covered by Impulse body spray. Trying to shave anything was a fight at home. I stole razors from the bin. If you had your period and wanted off it you had to announce it in the PE staffroom (which included men) and be questioned then sit and watch so everyone would know. Screamed and screamed at if you didn't have a hair bobble. Mixed school so sexual harassment from the boys which wasn't curtailed.
I like swimming a lot now, but after school finished I didn't go near a swimming pool again for almost a decade. And I still detest ball sports.

We specifically chose a sporty school for DD precisely because of the worry about teenage girls dropping physical exercise. She does double games every day in a rotation throughout the year of: netball, hockey, swimming, running, cricket, gymnastics, athletics, tennis and lacrosse.
They do it in all weathers and there is a culture in the school of not worrying about how your hair/make up looks plus if you've had games in the afternoon then you can stay in trainers + school tracksuit for the rest of the day. She loves it, is immeasurably fitter than when she started and with the variety of different sports on offer everyone can find 1 that they are good at/enjoy.
They only shower after swimming/XC running and thankfully no issues with anyone bullying anyone else for their body shapes.
I appreciate we are lucky with the school and may be in a minority.

@twistyizzy wow double games every day?! Must be independent/ boarding no?

I hated games because I hate cold, I hate team sports. Since leaving I discovered the gym, yoga, Pilates, and social dancing. And I’ve learned to do front crawl so now I can lane swim properly

@schooloflostsocks yes day pupil at boarding school. Not a flashy type boarding school, a rural indi with lots of farmers kids hence emphasis on outdoors sports in all weathers 😄
They sensibly allow baselayers and trackie bottoms in the worst weather so that helps.

There was nothing pleasant or enjoyable about my P.E lessons.
Shit facilities, shit uniforms, shit equipment, shit teachers and shit grounds all enjoyed in the shit British weather.

I would very much like to know why we had to wear teeny tiny little mini skirts that barely covered our bum cheeks, whilst we were in huge trouble if our standard uniform skirts were above the knee.

Were the boys expected to be less rapey in PE?

Hated it. The boys would ping our bras, compare who had the biggest tits that bounced the best when we would run, make fun of anyone even slightly overweight....oh, and the odd dick or ball wouldfall out their shorts when we had to sit down in the hall to listen to instructions.

Liked it or hated it, depending on what activity we were doing and what the weather was like. East Coast of Scotland gets bloody cold and I had many miserable experiences on the hockey pitch....

Hated PE class in secondary school because it was segregated by sex and too fucking girly. Gymnastics, ribbon dancing, tennis, field hockey. 🤮

I wanted to do football, rugby, lacrosse, fencing but only boys could do that and I was a girl. 🙄

I have never understood why they don't have martial arts on the curriculum; in my experience so many children who hate pe love it when we've organised a club with some sort of martial art, eg judo.

I think because many parents wrongly think it makes you violent?
I did a ton of martial arts as an adult. Fun stuff!

DD (11) definitely in the "like" camp. She is not the best (scrapes into A's for netball but C for hockey ) but enjoys getting stuck in and plays netball and rugby OOS. Like PP she goes to a school where there is games every day and matches on Wednesday. It is quite traditional - hockey/ netball/ cricket on seasonal rotation (boys do rugby/hockey/cricket) but what I think they get right is that the PE staff focus on everyone, not just the good people and when they play other schools there are obviously conversations beforehand about standards so they make sure no-one gets thrashed/ humiliated. If it's poorly matched ( a lot of these schools are tiny so may be that everyone has to play whereas my DC's school can choose) they mix teams and play a friendly. They manage subs so everyone is included in a team and gets pitch time. Cricket is mixed and there are usually a good number of girls in the A's as the county is putting a lot into girls cricket now.

DD wears a games skort and long socks but there are also trackie-bs for those that want.

I'm not sure what the solution is but I think its notable that some schools do get it right without necessarily diversifying into a tonne of other sports options (which are not feasible for most schools- every option you offer requires a staff member to supervise it). I think its more about the culture of the school and attitude of sports staff.

I hated pe. They would always start off with a run to warm up. I was a terrible runner and would always be last back and exhausted. Then the ‘games’ would always involve dodgeball or something where I would be one of the first out. Never could improve at anything when you are always the first eliminated. It was definitely not inclusive or fun.

I loved athletics and hockey but my god, the uniform and showers. I still remember the embarrassment of tiny skirt and too tight aertex top.

Dd loathed school PE lessons but now is quite sporty in things that weren’t on the school curriculum.

I'm not sure what the solution is...

It sounds an awful lot like the few girls mentioned on this thread today who seem to enjoy PE are at private schools. They are a minority.

It looks like the solution many have settled on is having money.