Burnley Grammar School

Michael, If your PE teacher thought you were all a bunch of softies who needed toughening up he should have sent you out stripped to the waist every time like most of us here.

Our PE teacher routinely sent whole classes of us boys out on cross country runs.

The weather made no difference. In fact, the worse the weather, the better he liked it, as he often remarked that we were a bunch of softies who needed toughening up.

In winter, wearing only gym shorts/vests and plimsolls, it was sheer torture, but we had to do it.

Meanwhile he would stay in school, presumably making a mug of coffee before sitting down to read the newspaper.

Occasionally he would venture out in his big Ford Zodiac, and park up at the turning point of the run, to tick off our names as we ran past. We could never predict when he would do this, so the only safe option was to run the entire exhausting distance, every time.

After driving back to school, his oversize gym shoe would be made ready, to welcome back anyone whose name hadn't been ticked off.

Happy days? I didn't think so!

Thanks for the link Sterling.Always quite fancied Jane Asher!

Our PE teachers certainly didn't join us in stripping down.

In winter they were wearing layers of clothing, topped off with an overcoat!

It reminds me of the PE clip in the Movie 'Deep End' a 1970 British drama starring Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown.
Although Moulder Brown and his classmates are allowed vests and socks with pumps to protect their feet from the snow covered ground. The teacher is wrapped up warm in a similar overcoat to that of my PE teacher. And possibly leather gloves if my memory serves me right.

If a teacher's policy was that his classes did PE stripped to the waist, then he should have applied the same policy to himself. It's good to read that some did.

Andy. Our history/PE teacher would wear black shorts (we wore white) and white plimsolls (we were barefoot). I don't ever remember him coming on XC. He coached rugby at the senior level in the school but was in kit/tracksuit for that. He wasn't slow to resort to the strap (we had strap rather than cane) and you could very quickly end up bending over feet apart for a really hard three or four whacks. Even junior boys who usually got the slipper for minor infractions of gym rules. But he was very popular with boys.

NickK,Frank C,John
When I started at grammar school in 1955 two of our PE teachers looked elderly,although probably only in their fifties and the other one was younger, but much stricter. When I was in the sixth form a very young looking teacher arrived to teach geography. Like your teacher, NickK, he occasionally substituted in the gym when our PE master was called away.We had already seen him doing athletics on the playing field wearing a brief pair of running shorts and vest, but when he took our PE class he stripped to PE shorts, the same as us, and joined in as though he was one of the boys.In fact, although he was probably about five years older than us, some of the lads were bigger built than him. He came on a cross country run with us a couple of times and always joined us in the showers afterwards to freshen up before going off to take a geography class.

NickK

Did your history/PE teacher strip to only his shorts - so no shirt, bare feet, no boxers/briefs. I assume you wore white PE shorts, so did his match ?

What about when you ran xc, did he take it, did he strip, did he run ?

Matthew. We had a young history teacher who very occasionally substituted in the gym when a PE master was away. He would always strip to shorts (just like we were). He was a very popular teacher but was a ferocious strapper. On the hands in the classroom and on the backside in the gym. You certainly didnt want to cross him!

Andy, just to clarify - initially we didn't have to strip to the waist for cross country. By the time that happened (in the summer term) we'd had two terms of doing indoor PE in shorts only. So it was probably less of a shock than at the outset, when it first dawned on us we'd have to do the lesson with bare chests and bare feet. I remember standing there feeling quite exposed and vulnerable at first and I know many of the other boys did too.

Our P.E. Master was the first adult I saw with a tattoo when he removed his top joining in with gymnastic exercises.He was also ex military and always had his hair cropped short like a soldier.I think he was a good role model for the boys and was like Action Man come to life!

Replying to Matthew, 17th February.

Yes, Our PE Teacher quite often stripped to the waist to take lessons, to demonstrate the muscle groups in the upper body, and would often join in any team games - if he was stripped to the waist he would join the "skins" team , and if he had his tracksuit top on, then he'd play for the "vests".

He was ex-army (PTI) and a former Police officer , so he was used to it , and a strict disciplinarian.

Angus

How did boys react when they had got used to wearing a nice warm sweatshirt for cross country, then to be made to strip to the waist ?

Andy and NickK, that's pretty much the way it was at my school (all boys) in the early 90s. First two years we wore the full PE kit as set out in the school handbook - vest or t-shirt, shorts, socks and trainers. In fact for cross country there was even the option of adding a sweatshirt! Well, it all changed the following year, when we did PE in sets rather than form groups. My set got a different teacher who was new to the school, so none of us lads knew what to expect. We soon discovered he was old-school and big on discipline. Our first PE lesson of the year was in the gym and straight away he made us strip to the waist and go barefoot. Initially vests (not T-shirts and certainly not sweatshirts!) were still permitted for cross country, as were socks and trainers. However, in the summer term, we had to take our vests off as well. This was the way it stayed right through until I did GCSEs and eventually I got used to it.

Andy, I had two different teachers with different attitude towards footwear. In year 9 we had A more lenient teacher that didn't care what you had on your feet as lo g as they were white and clean. From year 10 onwards we had a stricter teacher that insisted on us being barefoot for all PE in or out.

Our kit was supposed to be a vest, shorts, plimmies too. However we quickly discovered otherwise and were quickly told to strip off. If those lads in the photo had our teacher they'd start to sweat up early on in the session. Being at a mixed school it was a very common sight for girls to see lads stripped off and visibly sweating.

NickK

Did you have the same situation with cross country - different teachers, different kit.

Did your classmates "worry" about stripping to only shorts having been used to full kit ?

Andy

Andy. The PE teacher we had in first form insisted on shorts only in the gym even though socks, plimsolls and vest were on the kit list and bought by all our parents. A different PE teacher in second form expected us to wear the full kit. And when we had the same chap as in first form when we were in fifth form it was back to shorts only!

Matthew,
Sometimes our male PE teachers did conduct lessons stripped to the waist.

I think Mr. Parry should have conducted his lessons stripped to the waist

Did anyone have different kit rules depending on the PE teacher ?

So, were some more strict that others, and thus did different classes wear more kit for PE and cross country than others.

NickK, The photo all looks very staged. Next time they had PE perhaps they would have been a lot more attentive to what Mr.Parry what was instructing them if they all had to sit on the floor as we did, in regular lines with our legs straight out in front and our arms resting behind us. In addition we would have felt the sweat running down. These boys don't look as if they have been worked as hard as we were.

Rob. He does look happy enough doesn't he. Maybe nothing has happened yet as the photographer was expected and everyone needs to look happy and positive. Perhaps when the photographer left to visit other rooms in the school Mr Parry set about restoring normality and the lad was bent over that horse and given a good slippering. It would be interesting to see a picture of the next time that class had PE - I wonder if the shorts were all white!

NickK, he looks happy enough and not crouched down like some of them; maybe he just got a detention.

Steve,I don't recall anyone at our state school being made to strip naked to be caned. At the end of our first PE lesson we were told to go back to the changing rooms and take our shorts off and get in the open communal showers. I stood and hesitated for a few seconds but seeing other boys already naked realised I had no option but to join them. As you say, Steve, that was how life was.

"groans". @ Frank. I too wore those wired glasses at school and endured unending taunts such as "speccy four eyes" and sometimes much worse, so much so that I ditched them and I was 45 until I had another pair for reading only.

Thanks for the comments - I'm just very shortsighted, but fine with glasses or contact lenses. If I had been made to take my glasses off for PE at school, everthing would have ben a blur !

At my school if we forget PE kit, we did it in just our pants - white y fronts for almost every boy - and got a detention (first time). If you forget kit again, it was still strip to briefs, but caned as well.

We were never made to strip naked, I'm sure no one was at state school, but if a teacher had told us to strip totally to be caned, there would immediately have been a line of naked boys all hands on heads, that was how life was.

Rob. Well spotted that one of the boys sitting on the floor on the left is in black shorts. If these came out of the spare kit box I wonder if he is sitting on a rather sore bottom after a good slippering for not bring his kit.

Obviously the student with the NHS glasses wasn't afraid of making a spectacle of himself!

Michael, when I was at school at the time of this photo, any boy who wore glasses had to take them off for safety when we did PE and put them on a table just inside the gym door until the end of the lesson. There is another boy on the left of the picture also wearing glasses and and next but one to him on his left a boy is wearing black shorts, Did he forget to bring his kit and did they come out of the spares box? You can't see whether or not he he has bare feet.
Steve, I remember the sort of glasses that you had to wear and I'm sorry that your eyesight was so bad. I hope that you have since been able to get help.

I wore glasses at school, like the lad in the picture.

We wore simialr kit, but bare feet, thus all we were allowed was shorts - same applied to cross country, all year around.

It's true my glasses did slip sometimes, but they tended to have wire sides that went right around your ears, so were reasonably secure; anyway I couldn't see at all without them.

If you were lined up, waiting to be caned, hands on head, which we had to, you soon had other things on your mind other than glasses slipping, especially when you heard your surname and "6 strokes lad", get over the horse.