Burnley Grammar School

Yes, meant wearing trunks was not on the Agenda. This was the practice at my school and many others. I did not wear trunks from early prep school from age 8 to about 15.
My sisters teased me a bit as they thought it was amusing that they were allowed to wear costumes and we wern't. I got my own back when we all forgot our swimming kit but i could still do my swimming lesson

Simon, I remember getting teased for having to wear shorts

Matthew your comments about whther the Teachers should have also been naked are interesting. Possibly logical but I should think unlikely.

Lorry,did you mean "wearing trunks was not on the agenda"?
Why were you teased by your sisters,I was teased by sisters for wearing short trousers?

An awful as I think the treatment of boys in games and swimming in school was up to the 1980s,it may still surprise you to hear that I actually have no problem with naked swimming in principal but it has to be a free choice of any boy to do so.What right does anybody have to force nudity on teenage boys at any level?That goes for showers too.The reasons for naked swimming at my school were that you couldn't wimp out with the excuse that you had forgotten your kit.Having said that many lads still didn't bring a towel and ended up borrowing from a friend or getting dressed damp.Our classes used to involve about 36 boys at times and I would readily admit that maybe 10 of them loved it but they were the minority.I rememeber at the end of one lesson coming out of the pool and getting a loud bawling at for some minor reason by my games teacher.I just cannot begin to explain how utterly small and pathetic it made me feel to be shouted at while naked in front of my fully clothed adult teacher,as a boy of 14,while he was looking me up and down.During a lesson of about 70 minutes the boys would not be in the pool for the whole time and for periods would be required to stand at the edge in line watching in the pool doing various swim tasks.I always remember wandering where to put my hands.To cover or not.When we lined up at the start of the swimming periods at the side of the pool,as our names were ticked off the register,I was struck by how many of my classmates would put their arms behind their backs,maybe somewhat defiantly.We had a female school matron who had seemingly unrestricted access to the pool where boys or girls were swimming.She appeared on numerous occasions and I clearly recall us saying to us boys one day that there wasn't a lad in the 12 years she had worked there who she hadn't seen in his entirety.We all new what that meant.About 3 times a year wee would have the matron check the soles of our bare feet prior to our lesson,when we kneel in a line along a bench.Not one of us liked it.Oh!and guess what,we were ready to swim at the time,so naked.Now why did we have to be naked to have our feet looked at?On numerous occasions rumours circulated that we would be getting our penises checked out by her too.It stayed a rumour,thankfully.The simple fact is that there were a lot of boys who never got used to this behaviour by our school teachers and staff.Boys could be stripped,poked about,looked at etc.as if we had no care about it.But girls,well it was a world of difference.No naked swimming,nice swimwear of their choice,voluntary showering and nice gym kits too.They could wear their trainers in the gym,boys were bare feet and bare chested.Many were mixed so it mattered.The boys were to be "meat" to be checked over.Lots of boys didn't like taking their shirts off and going bare chested but were given no choice.

Sam, in an all-male context, trunks would probably have been considered unnecessary. By the same token, though, the teacher should not have needed them either.

Sam, you have to remember, this was a totally different era. The cane was used daily and i was not aware of parents complaining about this. Mine certainly didn't and in fact if i got the cane at school, i got further beatings at home. Not wearing trunks for swimming was just not even on the agenda. It didn't register as anything unusual as this is what we did. Always got a bit teased by my sisters but this was the norm. I did go to a private school and in the 70's, this was the way it was. Nowdays, i appreciate, we are a million miles away from where we were

Jeff
We did sometimes have females come in to the swimming area. It really depended who they were. If it was one of the sports teachers or medical staff, never a problem. We were oblivious to them. The rule was that no trunks until year 3, ie about 15. Not compulsary and quite a few, especially the boarders stayed nude.
We did have house galas and these were all done nude if you were year 1 or 2. Only school staff watched. Not sure about galas outside school but i assume that trunks were worn

I have read so many of the comments about nude swimming. This was something I did not experience. Does anyone have any definitive reason why nude swimming for boys was insisted upon in it seems many schools. Were there any parents that objected?

Could you imagine it happening nowadays assuming swimming lessons are single sex.

George, did you ever have any female teachers or staff present during your nude swimming?
Some of the earlier posters here said that they even had to be nude at swimming galas in front of parents and other mixed spectators.
Were the boys allowed to wear trunks after the 2nd year at school?
Was it a boys only or mixed school?

Thank you to James for your theory and thank you to Lorry for confirming what James suspected.

Matthew, we often had visitors wandering around the school and the teachers generally preferred us in the pool when they came into look at the pool. Also, some female teachers sometimes used the pool after our lessons had finished and they seemed to enjoy watching the last part of our lessons knowing that we were a little self concious.

In reply to Matthew,I'm sure Lorry became accustomed to the conditioning of wearing no trunks during his swimming lessons but probably what caused so much alarm would be if a female entered the swimming pool area.

Sorry for doubting you, Lorry. But, if the school policy was no trunks and it applied to every boy, why were you quick to get into the pool if somebody entered the pool area?

Yes, I am a boy, or man. Lorraine for some reason was a name used in my family for relations of some ancient uncle. A bot odd i know. Called Lorry now. Sorry for the confusion

At weeekends at my boarding school in the late 70's, all the 1st and 2nd years in the secondary school had to swim naked. It always amused me that we had goggles, flippers, floats, even watches, but no trunks.

Similar to me. The swimming coach at my private secondary school gave private swimming lessons to any first year boys whose parents thought this would be good. We did these on a saturday afternoon and it was normally me and another boy. As nude swimming was the norm, the private lessons were done like this. We were only about 14 and thought nothing of it. As there were only two of us we always got changed next to the pool instead of the changing rooms. A lot of instruction at side of pool. The ooach sometimes got in the pool also, with trunks on, especially if he was teaching things like tumble turns where he helped us get on the right position. It wasn't the thing to be shy in those days

As you can see from 14:00 boys had to be barechested for PE in Netherlands too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adqr4Iu3ibM

Another comment on the posting by "Lorraine". Not wearing trunks was "quite normal and it would have felt odd to have to wear trunks". So why the need to "get into the water pretty quickly" if someone entered the pool area?

Strange comment from "Lorraine". I thought that was a girl's name.

And a comment to James. How many were there in your class? The process you describe must have taken ages considering the amount of times the doctor and his assistant moved up and down the line.

In my first and second year of secondary school in the early 80's, i had extra swimming lessons with the pe teacher. These were often at lunchtime or after school and the agreement was that the pe teacher would see when the pool was free and tell me to meet him there. As we were not allowed to wear trunks, having kit was never an issue. Towells were always hanging around. The initial part of the lesson was standing out of the pool as he would make sure my arm and leg actions were ok. As i had never been allowed to wear trunks at school, this was quite normal and it would have felt odd to have to wear trunks. How things have changed. I would however add that when someone came into the pool area, i got in the water pretty quickly.

Showers were compulsory when I was at secondary school in the 1970s. As they were often cold, we used to spend as little time in there as possible!

At primary school, we didn't have proper changing rooms, let alone showers! In fact come to think of it, as we didn't have a shower at home (just a bath)the first time most of us ever had a shower was when we started secondary school. The only exception was the shower you were supposed to go under before getting in the local swimming pool, but that was different as you went in that in your swimming costume. Most of us didn't bother, but we did have to walk through a sort of foot-bath thing, filled with a horrible smelling chemical!

What about obligatory nude showers after PE?
Some schools had them, some didn't.
We didn't have them in primary, but had them in secondary, although not exactly obligatory.

It's a bit off topic but if you only had to be bare chested during the first part of your school medical you were lucky!

I was at a boys grammar school and had a rather different experience to those described. It also happened to a number of friends who went to schools close by and we had the same doc who was a former military man. We had a medical in the autumn term of each year.

Medicals were done class by class and we had to report to the gym where the doc and two male assistants were waiting. A class list - surnames only (naturally) was read and we were told to get into alphabetical order. There was then an instruction to strip with an additional line that any little boys could keep their underpants on for now but the men in the class should strip completely. Naturally no one wanted to be deemed a 'little boy' and by that stage we were all used to taking off underpants for PE and having a communal shower so everyone stripped.

We were then examined by the doc who basically did one body part at a time, I can't remember the order but it started at the top so may have been mouths and worked down. One of the assistants accompanied the doc along the line making any notes.

Once chests and backs had been checked we had to stand up on benches and we were checked for hernias then our penises were checked to make sure our foreskins retracted - a few lads disappeared and returned trimmed, there were a few each year.

Lastly we were ordered to stand legs well apart and bend forward so our elbows were on our knees. On the next pass our testicles were checked from behind with the hand coming through our legs and we were ordered to cough, that was where the second assistant came in, he stood in front of us keeping our heads well down and making sure we were steady.

That over our buttocks were spread for a visual inspection in the first couple of years, in the third year that did not happen and didn't thereafter. There was an additional pass of the line and buttocks were spread and a finger inserted for a good feel around, again while we were held steady at the front by the orderly.

That over we were allowed to get dressed.

It was how I thought school medicals were done and was amazed to find out they weren't all!

In reply to the messages where boys had to wear brief,short pants,my mother did the same but with horribly skin tight lycra shorts,from spring to autumn as soon as I got home there would be a pair of bike shorts laid out on the bed for me to change into,no underpants allowed.
Catalogue time was hell,she with a friend's mum would go through the catalogue and pick every pair of lycra shorts and show us the page and tell us we would be wearing them in a week or two.

One thing that puzzled me about the annual medical exam at school was why we always had to be bare-chested throughout the whole procedure. Basically you were called into the medical room one at a time and straight away one of the nurses would check your name and tell you to take off your shirt. However, the first part of the exam just consisted of an eyesight test and I never really understood why I had to strip to the waist to have my sight checked. Then you had to sit down and wait for the boy in front of you to emerge from the doctor's office before you went in for the full examination and stripped down completely. I remember finding it a bit odd at the end of the exam when the doctor told me 'you can get dressed now' - to an extent I could but of course my shirt was still in the next room! When you left the doctor's office there were still a few tests to be done like checking your heartbeat and pulse rate but you remained bare-chested for those as well. It wasn't until everything was completed that you were allowed to put on your shirt and leave.

At my school all the boys had to do PE stripped to the waist but as the lessons were single sex the only time the girls saw us bare-chested was at the annual medical when the boys had to queue to see the doctor/nurse while stripped to the waist.

at me and my brothers school, the boys were never made to do PE shirtless, not even for shirts and skins. Though I wish they were!! Our only opportunity to see the boys with their shirts off was the yearly medical. We loved every second because while we got to wear our usual pe kit, the boys had to strip off and go barechested halfway through the exam, giving us plenty of time to check out their bare bods :3 These were always supposed to be carried out separately for boys and girls, but I guess the teachers organized it this way to save time, not that im complaining haha!

This may be true Michael, but shaming overweight children won't make them want to lose weight, it often sparks a weight increase as they will take refuge in food.
Its the parents who fill their kids full of rubbish, therefore thats where the need for education rests.
Yes we have an epidemic of obesity in the UK but the reasons are complex and go far beyond overeating. If it were that simple then it may be relatively easy to fix. But it is not

I would have been glad of a bit of extra weight, if only to help insulate myself from the perishing cold of that gym and the icy showers I endured after each session. But, there was little chance of any of us gaining extra fat, with our high activity lifestyles and barely adequate meal portions.

In contrast, today's youngsters spend much of their time slumped in front of a video game, munching high-calorie saturated-fat junk food. It's no wonder the nation is heading towards an obesity crisis.