Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

To Matthew - 'Tunnel Showers'.
Simply a corridor or 'tunnel' - usually tiled, with shower sprinklers in the ceiling or mounted towards the top or the walls. Water was turned on by a 'master' tap, or someone was let of gym a minute or two early to turn on individual taps (cold water!). Everyone else went into the changing rooms, stripped and went through the 'tunnel'. The last ones through (hopefully hot water!) turned the water off.

A fairly mild day here today ... looking out earlier on I saw boys from the local Middle School still going to lessons in shorts (not forced) ... and quite a few of us older guys also in shorts.

To Ian - What are "tunnel" showers?

We also had "tunnel" showers. The teacher did not like them and managed to get them altered to standard showers. The rebuild took nearly three months during which time gym went on as normal except we had to strip at the end of the period, form up in twos and then march stark naked past the builders to the swimming pool showers.
We did not like it, especially as a couple of them were hardly older than us, but were told the usual "we're all the same underneath". (I've always thought he should have added "but not all the same size")
Also, I tried the "damp the hair" routine to skive a shower, but out PE teacher had X-ray eyes (so many of them seemed to have this mystical power) and caught me just as I thought I had made my escape. Six of the belt later I had to take a proper shower. I never tried it again although some of my friends managed to get away with it (by the way, the builders had gone by this point)

Thank you for sharing your experience, it sounds like you had a pretty terrible time and it is obvious that your teachers behaved in a way which clearly intended to humiliate and degrade, and the forced wearing if girls uniform certainly raises suspicions that there may have been a sinister element too.

I have pushed back on earlier posts suggesting abuse was the norm and always sinister. I do believe what we consider outdated methods were often applied with good intentions and not for any illicit reason.

I agree with yours and other comments that barefoot outdoor PE is bizarre though I did gymnastics barefoot indoors and remember the dirty soles of my feet but it didn’t bother anybody. I do believe that a fairly basic uniform along with practices such as communal showering are generally positive.

When I think back to running cross country in the rain in a heavy reversible rugby shirt I would have liked to have gone without.

Comment by: Trevor Cooper on 14th August 2020 at 11:57

I was reading Trevor's input earlier and it got me thinking. Back when I was in senior school leaving in 1984 a lot of things went on that made me uncomfortable in the sense that I hated Games and PE, Now back in the day if you did Games you always had to shower, If you raced back to the locker rooms and attempted to wet your hair to avoid it then the gym teacher made you strip off and shower again if he suspected you hadn't. Now that in itself was embarrassing enough as he made you wait until everyone else had finished and gone. Then there was the shower tunnel as I used to call it where everyone went in and on odd occasion the gym teacher would pass the end looking through then walk off, Back then it was seen as creepy in our eyes but nothing was ever said over it.
The skins and shirts were also a major factor as it was done both in the gym and on the sports field, Now I was scrawney at the time and hated being a skin, It felt so humiliating displaying myself on the field where the science block looked over at you, But again you did as told and nobody dared to speak out of line in case of further repercussions and back then you were made to suffer.
Onto Barefoot, What Trevor said makes me think of foot fetishism or am I over reacting. Common events used to get me when entering the sports hall and put into line up when they picked teams , Naturally the skins and shirts was always part of the equasion but then we were to all remove our socks and plimsolls, We all had plimsolls for the sports hall as it was the PE kit back in the day, So why were we removing them to run around barefoot on the dirty sports hall floors, It was odd that they allowed us to dress in them in the changing rooms only to be told to remove them 5 minutes later. Staying with this subject I was a bit of a bugger back in the day and constantly bunking off or getting in trouble and on this occasion I was popping over the back fence after signing in when the games teacher caught us on the other side, Anyway we were frogmarched back inside and our punishments were set, Luckily we missed out on the cane this time but we weren't so lucky with the games teacher as it was his lesson we were bunking off. We had to go and get changed into our PE kits and he came in the changing rooms as we were ready, We were set to go running around the whole school along it boundaries but we weren't getting off so easily, We had to strip to skins and remove our shoes and socks for it, It was freezing and raining out as it was around mid October but we simply accepted without question, We were made to continue it through the 1st break time before being allowed to come in, By then I couldn't feel my feet and they were covered in mud and I was like a block of ice, We had to shower and then we were put on report.

Now I feel this has effected me in mental ways as I'm now 50 and I have a bit of a barefoot phobia, I sleep with socks on, I never take my shoes off in the house and feel anxious if I visit somewhere that I have to remove my shoes, I'm just glad now that this has all stopped but I do question wether it was right back in the day.

One more before I sign off, If you were a boy and forgot your kit you were sent to get a loan kit from the female games teacher and often di the lesson with the girls wearing a Maroon gym skirt or if you couldn't find her quick enough you did it in vest and pants which again was a bit much.

Mr Dando I will join you on the march tonight. It is time to speak truth to power and ban infantile nudity/toplessness in schools. We must stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

No shy child should be forced to go topless or be compelled to take a "compulsory school shower". There are many educational institutions that no longer mandate this barbarity and the obligation is on us as grown adults to outlaw it once and for all just as we did with corporal punishment.

This poor excuse for a school still has such a coercive directive!

https://www.sph.academy/parents/information-parents/school-uniform

St. Philip Howard St Ralph Sherwin
Catholic Voluntary Academy

P.E. Kit – Additional
A plain black track-suit where P.E. staff say it is appropriate for winter – no logos or designer outfits.
Ties, jumper with school crest and all items of P.E. kit can be purchased from school.
A current price list is included.
Physical Education is a National Curriculum subject and all students are required to participate in the course. All students are required to shower unless there is a confirmed medical reason for not doing so.

I say no student should be forced to shower in school -medical reason or not. The irony, a "Voluntary" Catholic academy with "Compulsory" degradation of its subjects.

It is time to stand with me tonight 2 metres apart and use the pandemic to abolish Compulsory Physical education under the pandemic!

We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught. He can be killed and forgotten. But four hundred years later an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first-hand the power of ideas. I've seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them. But you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it.

Ideas do not bleed. They do not feel pain. They do not love. And it is not an idea that I miss, it is a man. A man that made me remember the fifth of November. A man that I will never forget. Now we must act together and give the educational "establishment" a 5th of September 2020 that will not be forgotten.

Behind this mask there is more than just flesh.... one that should not be denuded by the school shower!

Max, I agree. I too was a shy child who would have benefitted from a tough love, or even, dare I mention it, a more disciplined approach.

I do feel that if the PE syllabus became an individual fitness, strength and flexibility programme it would be more inclusive and less demotivating for less athletic children.

This would then help those who have traditionally been left behind in PE to have achievable goals as they would not just be the last to be picked for football or rugby only to stand away from the action. They may even excel and out-perform those who have natural ability on the pitch.

I've found this debate very interesting and can see some of the different points of view. As Trevor said, you can't assume 'one size fits all' and at the same time, I feel it might be counter productive to leave it up to each individual as to what they prefer wearing for PE. That could just exacerbate divisions between the boys who are more confident and those who are shy.
From my own perspective, I think there are some boys who actually benefit from a 'tough love' approach... I certainly did. I was one of the shy boys going into my teens and it wouldn't have occurred to me to do sports or exercise bare-chested - yet suddenly I didn't have any option when the PE teacher announced he was putting us into teams of vests and skins. At first it seemed a terrifying experience - I felt so exposed and self-conscious when I had to take my top off. And like many other things, the more I did it the less it seemed a big deal. In time, my body developed, I grew in confidence as well as stature and it felt quite natural to be running around bare-chested. However, I doubt I would ever have plucked up the courage to take my top off voluntarily - I needed to have the choice taken out of my hands at that time. It's not really about discipline so much as being nudged out of your comfort zone, which isn't a bad thing at times.

Thanks Chris. You say "I didn't hear any dissenting voices". Because you didn't hear them, it doesn't mean to say there were none, and certainly doesn't back up your claim that all your form liked or approved of the practice. By definition most boys who were not comfortable with the situation would hesitate to say so.

I wouldn't stop you or anyone else from dressing as you like, but teachers of all people should know that one size fits all does not apply to every person, and some relaxation in the codes would not have diluted "discipline". I have to say that far too many teachers had a fetish for discipline, often including corporal punishment, perhaps to mask their latent homosexual tendancies.

Trevor
Leaving aside the fact that I was there and I don't think any other contributors to this discussion were, it is a fact that when topless PE was introduced at my first secondary school, about two years after I started there, I didn't hear any dissenting voices. It wasn't a question of surveys or gung-ho advocators. This was 50+ years ago, when most kids were expected to wear underwear vests for most, if not all, of the year and we just enjoyed legitimately spending time bare-chested!. In contrast, the "vests for PE" protocol at my second school was "strict" in that toplessness was never an option, even in the summer, and I still remember the head-master announcing at lunch one day half-way through the Autumn term that it was time that we were all wearing our vests (as itemised on the clothing list).
That was then, and this is now, and I was only reporting it as it was, not advocating a return to the "bad old days". Autres temps, autres mœurs.

Chris wrote " I and my classmates were more than happy to be topless for PE at the former and would have relished the opportunity to be topless at the latter, where vests were strict policy.".


I think you mean you rather than "we". Unless you took a poll how could you possibly know what ALL your classmates would have preferred?. Few boys are going to give their real opinion, especially if they know the questioner is really gung-ho about the subject. I would'nt presume to second guess what people prefer, but they ought to have the opportunity to chose their own mode of dress. Perhaps being August you have forgotten how cold it can be in January. School is not a prison.

Strangely I don't like the second schools "strict" policy either: I don't think anybody should be compelled to do anything they don't want to do. We are all individuals, capable of making up our own minds.

Mr Dando said: "I believe Children can never be happy forced into toplessness or nudity during physical education classes or school changing rooms"
My experience, in two different schools, one with a topless PE policy and the other without, was that I and my classmates were more than happy to be topless for PE at the former and would have relished the opportunity to be topless at the latter, where vests were strict policy. I realise this was several decades ago, but I suspect that today's boys would, secretly at least, prefer to be topless wherever possible. Other posters have noted that boys prefer to exercise topless out of the school environment, through choice rather than compulsion, and I suspect many of today's teenage boys habitually sleep topless too, again from choice..

I believe Children can never be happy forced into toplessness or nudity during physical education classes or school changing rooms. Here is a school which still mandates children take a towel to their lessons.

https://www.beauchamps.essex.sch.uk/uniform-and-pe-kit-for-new-students/

Sports Kit and Equipment for Boys
Black & red sports top with school logo
Black shorts with school logo
Black & red football socks
Trainers (no plimsolls)
White ankle sports socks (indoor & Summer term)
Plastic-studded (moulded) footwear suitable for use on 3G pitch
Shin pads
Rugby shirt
Red sweatshirt with school logo (optional)
Black thermal top/base layer (optional)
Black sport leggings to be worn underneath shorts (optional)
Plain black track suit bottoms (optional)
Gum shield (highly recommended)
Towel

We must use the Coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to create real self distancing measures for children by abolishing communal changing rooms, compulsory pe lessons, getting rid of school PE kits and allowing kids to exercise at home in virtual work places. It is time to end sex discrimination for all males and consign this sad practice to history.

Interesting comments from Rob McS about his sons exercising topless and also those about young Euan.
I live opposite 250 acres of common land and see on a daily basis people exercising in many ways. Certainly in spring & summer (and into the autumn) I see lads happily exercising topless and as the summer goes through the shorts seem to get shorter and different colours than the usual navy/black.
I suspect a lot of this may be down to the personal 'make-up' of the lads and what their 'peers' are doing and wearing.

As I say I think the question of shirts vs shirtless is a red herring really. The content of and engagement in PE lessons is what is important to me.

Perhaps freedom for boys to choose from a uniform t shirt, vest or neither would be the way forward.

Rob, I agree with Tom, and to some extent you, if boys want to take their tops off and feel comfortable doing so, that is fine. Equal consideration ought to be given to those boys who do not feel comfortable doing so and should be allowed to cover up. This has damn all to do with "discipline" - a boy good at sports will be equally as proficient in a tee shirt in the same way a boy without athletic skills will not suddenly improve by taking his top off.

Also, Rob, your excuses do not hold water. I doubt there were any branded tops in 1959 when the photos on this site were taken, and where many of the memories have been stirred by contributors or when many of those here attended school. Likewise today there is a shop called Primark which sells cheap unbranded clothing. Schools, could, if they wished, specify unbranded plain clothing be worn (they probably do considering the financial climate).

I have to say this unhealthy desire middle-aged and elderly men have for wanting to see boys running round topless and/or in bare feet sounds extremely dodgy to me. I question the pleasure this thought gives them. The matter of ulterior motives crops up. If they want to recreate the days of long ago why don't they buy themselves triangles and recorders and get a school geometry set and pencil box?

Times have moved on and attitudes should move on too. The days when some seedy PE teacher was regarded as a God who knew it all are long passed.

John, I'd say you've got it right. The "tech tops" are pushed by sportswear manufacturers for one reason...profit. Exercising without a top should be regarded as a practical approach. During lockdown my 2 boys spent time running round a field. No-one ever suggested they take off their t-shirts but they did and have continued to do so. Before lockdown a nearby boxing school encouraged lads to be bare top to fight during competitions. Oddly none of the females objected in any way if with the lads showing their bare chests in a boxing ring then why PE be any different?

I’ve said more than once now that I don’t see the need for boys to go without shirts as technical fabrics allow comfort when shirtless. That said, if you look at the boys who do gymnastics outside of school many choose to.

I am far more concerned with the content of the lessons and the idea that everybody should take part (be encouraged) and also get the most from lessons (be pushed).

As for bare feet I agree, I’m not wildly in favour of it other than in a gymnastics environment though I do think it is good for growing feet to be bare at times and I doubt kids have such care taken when they select shoe sizes as in my day.

My grandparents raised my sister and I from 9 year old and wholly approved of me being barechested as much as possible. My school was deemed most satisfactory in that all boys exercised topless, no exceptions. Our PE teacher was a cold man and enjoyed being in control. He also had an unwelcome habit of taking a whistle cord over your back if he thought you weren't working hard enough or indoors if you weren't sweating at a particular part of a lesson...no pressure. I remember it's sting even now and returning home when I was 13 and showing 3 red marks across my back to my grandmother who simply shrugged it off telling me it was for my own good and I obviously deserved it. I don't think lads exercising topless is a bad thing and it's great that lads like Euan choose to be topless when working out in a safe environment. For us there wasn't any protection and a greatly distorted view of teaching methods.

Tom B,
I totally agree with your thoughts around how the physical education curriculum could be enhanced and teaching children about the importance of nutrition is an excellent idea. I still think that exercising shirtless for indoor PE is a more comfortable way for lads, parents don’t need to spend money on another unnecessary t shirt or vest.

Tom B, I wasn't suggesting there was a direct link, I am just saying that a grown man who insists on kids being totally undressed, only wearing shorts, so that the kids modesty is compromised (think shinning up ropes etc). The barefoot routine sounds very much like a foot fetishist. A PE teacher who constantly find excuses to go into the changing rooms or shower area.is, in my view a potential paedophile, or a repressed homosexual. Let's put it another way - what is wrong with wearing plimsolls?, what is wrong with a thin unbranded tee short?.

Many of these "men" would of course use the tough , no-nonsense "disciplined" approach to mask his true interests - it would be in his interest to do so, because to lapse into Alan Carr-like speech and demeanour would blow his cover right away.

There are and have been dodgy doctors, dodgy police officers, why do some people find it hard to accept that there have been dodgy P.E. teachers?

Trevor,

Regarding predatory teachers, of course the behaviour is unacceptable but I don’t see the direct link between that and rigorous physical exercise.

On your final point, I’m not suggesting there should be an atmosphere of “fear, ridicule and coercion” either, though I guess it is a fine line between the necessary encouragement to perform and some coercion. It’s also clear sometimes a child may be fearful of an activity but need to face and overcome it to feel accomplishment.

John, I agree PE is vitally important for ensuring children grow into fit, strong and healthy adults. That is why as I said in the previous post I believe the curriculum needs reform to become more inclusive without taking away the competitive atmosphere.

Given sports kit technology it is no longer necessary to exercise shirtless in my view - though I have no problem with it personally.

I do believe in the importance of uniform both for PE and for school generally and that is about control and discipline. I do feel uniforms should be plain, generic and minimal in quantity - the excess cost of personalised branded kit and unnecessary clothing is a burden on parents.

White shorts and a white vest or T shirt is sufficient for most activity.

Tom B: My problem is that an awful lot of teachers abused their positions - if this was say a history or geography teacher it was still bad, but the fact a PE teacher had access to changing rooms and shower rooms makes their potential for abuse that much worse. A lot of kids would be too frightend to complain, because the likliehood was, until the Savile case came along people chose to believe such things didn't happen. Some would think that an old perv exercising his kinks was just one of those things (there are those who have forgiven the now dead paedophile Michael Jackson in that way - he was just a bit eccentric, who loved children, but only chose to take boys to bed and then paid them hush money). As with school teachers, I am sure there were boys who just regarded it as a bit of a laugh, and perhaps it did them no damage. But for many others it would have caused problems they kept quiet about. Whatever, I am just glad that these days they are CRB checked, and if they did try anything they would quickly be found out and prosecuted.

I agree with you there should be standards of fitness, and the opportunity to try all sorts of sports, but this should be in an atmosphere free of fear, ridicule and coercion

Trevor, I am sorry that your experiences of PE were so negative. You clearly had a teacher who was abusing his position. At the same time I don’t think the answer is to abandon rigorous physical education. ??I have commented a few times on here and on Facebook in discussion with friends.

I would like to see strength, fitness and flexibility along with classroom based nutrition form the core of a school PE curriculum. If done properly, an individuals progress can be assessed and personal targets set so nobody gets left behind. At the same time competition is important and so pupils can be ranked as individuals or teams/houses. Finally there will always be a few who don’t wish to engage and participate - but they must be made to complete a basic level of activity a week and parents/teachers are failing them if they accept excuses.

Sports do not need to be mandatory, some boys just aren’t built for rugby. That said, perhaps insisting all pupils play at least one sport would be worthwhile along with the promotion of local teams and sports clubs.

Trevor,
What is important about Physical Education is that it makes young people develop into healthy adults and in order to achieve that the body needs to be worked hard. My PE teachers worked us hard in the gym and I was glad that I wasn’t made to wear a shirt or a vest for Indoor PE. Exercising shirtless was more comfortable and not a form of control by my teachers and never harmed me in any way.

David: "very good and fairly stricht but still ligthearted PE masters"

Perhaps like our one, whose idea of humour was to take the mickey out of the pupils, so the herd laughed at his weak jokes. I just wish that some of you on here who have such roseate memories of running barefoot etc, could have had to endure the scumbag we had for 5 years.

This "discipline" nonsense, is all down to control, the feeling of power they had over their pupils.

Teachers even today like to think they inhabit their own world, a very special one, to be tailored to their dictates, - the fuss so many of them are making about returning to school after a six month break shows you that.

I can't see the point how dictatorship and something like that has anything to do with shirtless PE. Yes, there were some agressive PE masters in the past. There were maybe more than nowadays. But the result of their attitudes was not shirtless PE. The two have nothing in common.
There were some very good and fairly stricht but still ligthearted PE masters in the past either who didn't do any harm to pupils. Some of them had a shirtless PE rule too. It is a nonsense to think that shirtless PE effects the attitude of boys about PE or loving any sport. If it were the case all of the boys would hate swimming lessons where they are shirtless even in co-ed lessons without any problems.

Scotty I am genuinely glad Euan feels comfortable, and I would never want to stop anyone from dressing as they like. I am only against pupils being forced to "obey" dictatorial teachers who like to hide behind the rules. I am also glad that there are boys as sensitive as Euan who can see that other people might be uncomfortable and like me, would not want to see them forced to do things against their well. I am also very glad boys these days are more aware of life, and that teachers, or the modern ones anyway, seem to see their jobs more as instructors and coaches and not as dictatorial sargeant majors.