Burnley Grammar School

Sam
I was also at Secondary school in the 1960's. Like you our PE was done stripped to the waist, but were you like us without underwear, and was it an all boys school?

In the 1960's at my school we did all our PE stripped to the waist.
When we did cross-country many lads went barefoot as well.

@Adam - No need to apologize! Life is made too complicated now!

To Tim H perhaps I should have said "politically correct rather than "left-wing."

Just a few comments - to Adam I agree with pretty much everything you say but would leave out the word 'left-wing'.

To Michael - we weren't a particularly 'sporty' Grammar school and I can't recall jockstraps being required or underwear being prohibited, but by the end of the 1st year it was being suggested by teachers that we wore swimming trunks for 'support' if we wanted.

Back in September, a fine day, chatting to a lady in the gym car park. We commented on the weather allowed us to go to the gym, and home, in lightweight gear. Then we started talking about wearing shorts and about how many men wore them as a natural thing nowadays, followed by a comment as to how the shorts got shorter & shorter as the summer went on! The lady then made, what to me, was a telling comment. She said 'its been nice to see lads playing in the park these fine summer days - just in shorts - so much more natural'.

I can see that following the negative comments from my last blog that men are often their own worst enemies. This is not a matter of being left wing but supporting gender justice and a right to privacy that we as adults take for granted.

Women feminists have been very effective at getting laws passed that end sex discrimination and promote equal pay. Whereas males tend to "put up & shut up" or even actively support the status quo.

Most of the gender inequality I experienced in pe was at the hands of male pe teachers in secondary school rather than the female teachers in primary school.

Unfortunately, we still have this attitude in Britain that males should be treated like Army recruits for the British empire rather than potential adults with individual needs.

There are still schools in the Uk that mandate showers for boys but forbid them for girls.

http://www.ashmoleacademy.org/page/?pid=31

Boys' PE Clothing

Ashmole Rugby Shirt (Navy with sky blue side panels)
Ashmole Royal Blue Polo Shirt
Ashmole Navy Games Shorts
Navy Football Socks
Ashmole PE Navy Zipped Fleece Top (Years 10/11 only)
Training shoes (MUST NOT have black soles)
Football boots
Shin pads

Towel (students are expected to shower
after football and rugby)

Plain navy blue tracksuit bottoms (optional)

Girls' PE Clothing

Ashmole Sky Blue Polo Shirt
Ashmole Navy Sweatshirt
Ashmole Navy Games Shorts or Skorts
Navy Football Socks
Ashmole PE Navy Zipped Fleece Top (Years 10/11 only)
Training shoes (MUST NOT have black soles)
Shin Pads
Plain navy blue tracksuit bottoms (optional


Another school is also shown below:

http://www.driffieldschool.net/information-for-parents/school-uniform

Indoor Kit:

•Plain green (standard school green) polo shirt - the current white shirts are to be phased out.
•Black shorts
•White or no socks
•Indoor clean non-marking trainers

Outdoor Kit:
•Green and black long sleeved shirt - Available from Drury Sports only.
•Black shorts
•Green long socks
•Boots and outdoor trainers

•Towel for showers (boys)

•Navy or black tracksuit bottoms may be worn during winter months for outdoor activities

•A gum shield and shin pads are strongly recommended
Swimming Kit:

•Boys - swimming trunks or shorts (not long) and towel
•Girls - a one piece swim suit/costume and towel
•Goggles can be worn if required

As men I think it is time we organised and rather than support the status quo we should demand the same rules for boys that there are for girls.

If you look at the Police force today all women wear trousers. Increasingly if we made females wear skimpy shorts or skirts there would be outrage in society.

Is it too much to ask for that boys get to choose if they want to do netball & modern dance rather than forced to do rugby?

Do girls not perspire during physical education, fall over and get muddy during hockey, suffer from urinal incontinence and period problems and may need to shower?

Why in this day and age do we allow schools to have different shower policy for boys? Even if you support the idea of compulsory showers, these seperate rules for seperate genders are wrong.

I am sure many of the bloggers on this site would be angered if there employer stated all male workers must shower at work or sit in the office bare-chested but female workers would be exempt. Lets also end skimpy swimwear for boys and allow them to cover up just like the girls.

I note Adam's reaction to Maltamon's long post.

I do not see that games kit and even the 'games' themselves can ever be entirely unisex. The favourite topic of going bare chested is a point in question.

Away from that familiar road a subject which has sometimes featured on this page is the practice of boys wearing their swimming trunks as underwear. As someone who was at school in the distant 70s I well recall that many of us wore these for comfort during pe, rugby etc and not being allowed to wear them would have seemed extraordinary. I'm sure we would have sneaked them on!

I dont know if there are those out there who agree with my observation.

I do hope that Maltamon is a troll, I would hate to think that anyone really believed the nonsense posted. Boys and girls are different beings who have different capabilities and skills and they need different challenges.

The sooner that is believed again the sooner we will be able to restore some sense to our quite mad society.

I played rugby at school and loved it. It was a boys school so I have no idea what girls did but I wouldn't change my school days for anything. I also was caned on a number of occasions and I deserved each and every stroke. I also have many happier memories, they were great years and boys ought to be allowed to have the same now instead of all this femin-socialist nonsense and drivel.

Maltamon's comments are typical of the left-wing nonsense which is increasingly common in our modern society.
Why should games etc be "unisex" whatever that means and why should pupils have choice about what games they play at school?
If you are told to do certain games at school then you should have to do them.
That also includes what clothes you wear for PE etc(including boys doing games bare-chested.)

People often say the cane done them no harm. Thankfully the cane was abolished in state schools in 1986 and in private schools in 1999. Often teachers refused to hit girls for quite serious offences but beat boys for much lesser misdemeanours. If a girl was hit it was usually a light tap. Our headmaster at primary school did not hit girls at all.

Likewise, bare-chested pe is a form of sex discrimination. True boys bodies are less defined at 5-9 years of age. This is also true of girls. At that age they have not developed breasts and are below the criminal age of responsibility for indecent exposure. However, parents would go mad if girls were forced to go topless.

In my view all pe kits should be unisex no matter what the age.

No boy/girl should be forced to pe in underwear and knickers. All schools should have a spare kit policy.

No boy should be forced to do swimming in brief style shorts. All should have the option of swimming in wetsuits or rash vests and long bermuda shorts.

All pupils should either be allowed to wear tracksuits over t-shirts and shorts or have compulsory sports trousers in the school to cover bare-legs to protect modesty and protect from the sun or cold weather.

Both boys and girls should have the same colour pe uniform. There should be no white shorts and T-shirts for boys. Girls would kick up a fuss if you could see their underwear under their sports gear.

There should be no compulsory football boots for boys. If girls doe pe in trainers then so should the boys.

The showering poicy should only be optional or recommended. There should be no compulsory showers or situations where girls have optional showers and boys mandatory showers.

There should also be no compulsory change of underwear or dictation that boys wear swimming trunks under shorts.

Football and rugby should at best be optional for boys if not phased out altogether in schools. All PE subjects should be gender nuetral.

Overall, PE kits must be unisex. Publis sector unions in school are quick to demand the end of sex discrimination against teachers but they are more relaxed about gender bias against male pupils. State sponsored mysandry may have been acceptable in past days when we had male conscription and illiberal divorce laws but in today's post feminist pluralistic society such rules have no place.

To Roger G.
Was the boy doing the handstand on the box "imported" from an older class for the photograph? He looks bigger than the other pupils in the photo. To me, that boy on the left of the group of four standing watching seems to me to be thinking "I don't want to have to do that. I thought I was coming to this school to learn Physics and Chemistry and Latin."

Rob, I suspect that if a boy made it clear he was that unhappy about doing PE barechested, his parents would send him to a school where shirts or vests were permitted. But I'd be surprised if many boys of that age were terribly bothered about it. I think it's a different matter when a boy reaches puberty, suddenly he may be more self conscious about having a six pack, whether his chest is more defined than other boys and several other body issues, especially if they do PE in front of girls. So I don't think a barechested uniform should be enforced for teenage boys, but at a younger age I can't really see that it matters.

Remember Mr Parry as am one of the boys(class3m?) in this photo (taken when BGS moved to the 'new'school in Kiddrow lane).We also did cross country races in snowy conditions also lightly clad,it did us no harm in fact toughened us up.Happy days!

But if the boys are unhappy with it they probably can't do anything.

Can't really see why this is such a big deal, we're talking about primary school children not teenagers. When I was that age the boys and girls had swimming lessons together, naturally the boys were all barechested while the girls were not. Does it really matter if that's the case in the gym as well? And as John pointed out, if parents are unhappy about their sons having to do classes with their tops off, they can always send them to another school.

Ofsted report from St Michaels, Bamford, Rochdale ...

http://clc2.uniservity.com/GroupDownloadFile.asp?GroupID=677164&ResourceId=1936957

Hi Rob, lots of things are enforced in school, you ahve to wear a uniform, you have to go to classes etc etc. Why should it be different for boys going barechested in PE? It's a policy that has it reasons (H&S, discipline, gender indetity, ..) as has any other policy. If you're not happy, go to another school that doesn't have has a different PE uniform!

John, boys may not need shirts for PE, but it cannot be right to force them to go without one. There is no need for that either.

I have found the offending school. All other St Michael's schools across the country allo boys to wear t-shirts and shorts but this one in Rochdale:

http://www.stmichaelscemidd.rochdale.sch.uk/our-school/school-rules

8. For P.E. boys are expected to wear shorts. Girls should wear knickers and vest (young infants and all Reception children), shorts and white t-shirt or black leotard (older infants and juniors.) Children will do P.E. in pumps or bare feet.

How do they justify this rule. Boys are expected to wear shorts and possibly pumps on their feet but says nothinh about knickers and vest for boys.

Why cant boys wear shorts and t-shirts? If girls can wear black leotards why cant boys wear black leotards with shorts on top like at professional gymnastic academies?

It seems the dead hand of Cyril Smith MP is still alive in working class male Rochdale and we all know what that "liberal MP" done to boys in children homes!

I wonder what the female teachers who often run these primary schools would do if they were forced to turn up to lessons in just a pair of shorts.

They would be going straight to their Trade Unions, go on strike and sue the local authority under the Equalities Act 2010. Well Sex Discrimination laws apply to all services and Education is a service. Equal protection for males and girls doesn't come into force at aged 18, children are covered as well.

If the school rule is that boys do PE barechested that that's the way it is. Stop going on about it as if it was a bad thing. Boys are not girls they do not need a top for PE, let them grow up into healthy men!

Look at rule 8 of the the school rules section of the St Michael's Church of England Primary School. They also seem to require boys to do PE without shirts, whereas girls can chose between shorts and shirts or leotards. The youngest wear vest and pants, but boys have to wear less than that all the way up to year 6

Now is not the time to go wobbly. There are still at least 2 primary schools in the UK that force boys do indoor pe, topless.

These shameful schools are

http://www.holmevalley.n-lincs.sch.uk/parents/key-information-1/school-uniform

Clothing for P.E.

Indoor
Girls - Black leotard

Boys - Black PE shorts

Outdoor
A change of clothing is required for outdoor games

Black Shorts and white T-Shirt

Trainers/black plimsolls—not shoes worn during the school day.

Track suit - advisable in cold weather


Online uniform ordering formation 2012

http://www.marshfieldprimary.co.uk/index.php?page=36

No child will be allowed to participate in gymnastics and games unless appropriate clothing and footwear is worn. Clothing for educational gymnastics and dance:

•Girls: T shirt / school polo shirt and shorts or leotard.
•Boys: shorts.

Larkshill remains a partial victory against state sponsored paedophilia because since 2009 boys have the option of wearing a vest and since 2013 the pe kit is now just "recommended" and not compulsory. Yet the school still thinks it is acceptable that boys aged 5-11 dress less modestly than girls.

http://larkshill.wakefield.sch.uk/school-uniform/

Pupils Recommended Dress for PE Indoor:

Boys: dark shorts and white vest/bare chest.

Girls: navy/black leotards (Reception to Y3); navy/black leotard or white T-shirt and dark shorts (Y4 – Y6).

Footwear is not worn for gymnastics or dance. Written exceptions for medical reasons.

This is indefensible on 7 grounds

1 There are no showers in primary schools so barechested boys have to put on their regular school uniform back on their dust covered bodies.

2 A boy with a skin infection on his back could pass it on indirectly through doing forwards rolls bare-top on gym equipment whereas girls are protected by leotards and t-shirts.

3 Under the age of 10 girls are below the age of discretion for criminal responsibility so cant be prosecuted for going topless and at prepuberty age dont need bra's for support or underwear to keep sanitary towels in place.

4 About 99% of primary schools in the uk require boys to wear t-shirts and there have been no freak accidents concerning boys getting their shirts tangled in gym equipment.

5 Girls are often allowed to wear t-shirts in schools and the pe teacher doesnt seem to be concerned about them hanging themselves on the gym equipment.

6 If you look at professional gym classes (ie outside school organisations) boys aged 3-18 often have to wear more clothes than girls.

Ie boys have to wear leotards with shorts on top to cover any bulge for gymnastics whereas girls often just wear leotards.

In ballet girls wear leotards and stockings with no underwear whereas male ballet dancers get to wear tshirts and shorts/tight trousers with optional vests and ballet belts/support underwear.

7 Pe is compulsory therefore boys have no choice but to do sport which is taught at a very basic level in primary schools. These are not adult sportspersons who have freely chosen their discipline and have voluntarily signed up to stringent rules. Therefore pe kits should be modest to placate muslims, radical feminists and shy boys!

I went to boarding school in the 1960s and there was no such thing as privacy. It was a shock on day one but at the end of a week it was normal.

We all slept in open dormitories for twenty of which there were five on each floor along with a further big open washroom that had basins, communal showers and toilets which had no partitions either though once we were about fifteen there were waist high partitions on the toilets but certainly no doors at any time.

Sports kit was white shorts and plimsolls or rugby kit or cricket whites as appropriate. If it wasn't rugby or cricket then be it gym, track, field, cross country or any other game it was white shorts and plimsolls. Like everyone else of my generation, underpants were not allowed either and trying to wear them resulted in a sore bottom.

Ridicule was the cure for shyness. I have to say I got over being shy very easily but I think some lads probably hated it before just accepting it.

Sports masters generally applied the plimsoll vigorously to bare bottoms, other masters used the cane in the privacy of their studies again to bare bottoms.

It was how things were and I've never thought it did me any harm and I liked school and was very happy there.

I do wonder about how boys grow up today. They seem uncertain of their identity and who they are, we didn't have those problems and I think we were better off with the perceived privations and discipline of the time than the boys of today are with their mollycoddling.

I remember doing cross-country along the streets near to our school.
All us boys were stripped to the waist and no-one thought anything of it.

I went to a boys boarding school where we swam naked. I'm not sure why it was insisted upon but it was just normal and group nudity was not unusual.

We slept in open dormitories, showered in communal showers, took off underpants for sport and showered in (different) communal showers afterwards often having two or three showers a day and to top it all off, we were caned on our bare bottoms.

After a couple of weeks I didn't think anything of being naked with my peers so swimmming certainly didn't bother me.

Cornwall, the nearest thing to a difinitive answer to the compulsory naked swimming years read;

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-demise-high-school-nude-swimming-us-8669909.html?cat=4

"Although almost non-existent today, institutional male nude swimming in the U.S. got its start at the YMCA in the 1890s. At the time, men wore wooly suits, which shed fibers, clogging the then sensitive water filters. It became traditional and mandatory for men and boys to swim au natural at these facilities, and many believe schools copied the policy of this respected institution."


".......one reason was discipline, and that boys were not expected to be bothered by nudity. "Nude swimming for boys was a no-nonsense, practical, easy, conforming and cohesive, method of handling 30 exuberant boys in one hour." Nudity had a calming affect for even the most boisterous boys."

Still others credit the military. Schools in the 60s were largely administered by the World War II generation, and during the war, there was little respect for male privacy. Many believe they transferred this norm to schools. And even in the early 70s, one man remembers a selective service physical where "long lines of naked guys being inspected for everything from flat feet to eyesight and hearing in a shockingly open environment."

".....Threads Clogged the Drains? Oh, Come On, This is the 60s"

"Although almost non-existent today, institutional male nude swimming in the U.S. got its start at the YMCA in the 1890s. At the time, men wore wooly suits, which shed fibers, clogging the then sensitive water filters. It became traditional and mandatory for men and boys to swim au natural at these facilities, and many believe schools copied the policy of this respected institution.

READ in full;
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-demise-high-school-nude-swimming-us-8669909.html?cat=4

I still cannot understand why so many schools especially boys boarding schools insisted on naked swimming. Is there a definitive answer?

I remember my pe and swimming lessons very well. From about age 9 - 15, PE was always in just white pe shorts. No question, that was it. If you didn't have your shorts, you just did it in your underpants.
Swimming was always done naked. For new boys, the walk down from the changing area to the end of the pool before a lesson was always odd as you felt very exposed but once you got used to it it was fine. As a boarder we had to swim naked at weekends as well although the older boys generally wore trunks. We never thought anything of it and in fact enjoyed it. At weekends we were often supervised by a female games teach or a housemistress and this was no problem. Any other female however might have been different.

My first experience of barechested PE actually came when I was 16, probably much older than most of the others who have posted their recollections here. Basically I moved to a different school for the sixth form and I was surprised to find that PE was still compulsory. It didn't occur to me that I might need specific PE kit either - at my old school nobody had bothered too much about what you wore. There was an official PE kit but any kind of top/shorts/trainers combination was usually acceptable.
At my first PE lesson I discovered this was no longer the case. All the other boys wore a vest in school colours, white shorts and socks and running shoes. Thankfully my shorts were white but my coloured t-shirt and socks immediately attracted the PE teacher's displeasure. He demanded to know where my vest was and seemed less than impressed by my plea that I hadn't realised I needed one. I wasn't even sure what he meant when he ordered me to 'do it in skins' - I'd never heard that term at my old school! Most of the other lads were laughing as the exasperated teacher barked at me to take my t-shirt off, as well as the offending socks. I felt very self conscious as I went out to the gym in just shorts (thank heavens I hadn't had to take those off too!) and trainers. It wasn't that I was embarrassed about my upper body, but it felt weird to be the only barechested boy among a group I hardly knew yet and I was very aware of standing out as the new boy.
Before the next PE lesson I got hold of a school vest and wore it as we went to the gym. However, before long I had to take it off again - we were split into teams for a game of basketball and this time I understood what the teacher meant when he announced that my team were skins. The good thing was that this time I wasn't the odd one out, all my team-mates had to go barechested as well. I got talking to one of them, who told me 'skins' games had been regular practice all the way through the school and he said that had encouraged him to make sure he kept in shape and looked after his body properly. To be honest, the results were pretty impressive! I could see the logic of that and I decided to try and do the same over the next two years. Looking back, I think it's a pity I didn't have to go barechested before then and a pity for today's young men that they're never required to at all.

Hello Donald,

I remember the first time I went barechested at school as it was a warm September's morning and that was OK. The school very kindly rostered 2 double games lessons and 2 double PE lessons each week. We weren't so fortunate at the end of week when we were taken outside and stripped down in the pouring rain, something we'd get used to - but that was a suprise at the time.