Burnley Grammar School

Comment by: Joanne on 7th May 2023 at 11:59


I agree ALL teachers, regardless of sex, should keep their hands to themselves. I suspect in most cases of this sort the boys are wiling participants, which I think does lessen the crime. I think when you have a male pederast inflicting himself on young boys it is far worse, because there is always the possibility of buggery coming into the equation, which, frankly, I find deplorable.

My former secondary school, which shall remain nameless, had a decent looking female teacher, I forget which subject she taught, who was 38 years old and found out to be seducing boys in her classes aged 14 and 15 around her home including engaging in sex with them. This happened in around about 2015, a long time after I left the place. When it was reported what caught my attention was how the tone was so much lighter than it would have been if she had been male doing that to them, or girls in school. It was almost as if the boys were lucky to manage to get the teacher to do that or that the teacher was a bit of a cheeky up front so and so, not an actual sexual predator of underage persons and acting completely illegally, unprofessionally and beyond the pale. It's not all men, but when a few women cross the lines they do seem to get treated and thought of less harshly.

Jason, I think this is a trend that is reflected throughout public life - the BBC is a prime example, women football commentators, even rugby commentators, and of course in politics. Given the proclivities of some male teachers, which I have discussed before, and won't again now, perhaps it is not such a bad thing. I think primary school has always been female dominated - certainly it was in my time, and I doubt very few men work in pre-school nurseries.

Ever heard of a dinner man? No me neither. All ladies.

Nowhere near enough male role models in school at that age. It's actually getting worse too. For some reason the gender balance is going the other way in schools under age 12. Far too many women and if you look at many first schools up to age 8 they are staffed completely by women and that is not right in my opinion and yet nothing is done to address this unhealthy imbalance.

I went to Sandbrook Primary School which long ago changed its name for some reason, between 1971-75.

In one of the A4 sheets I still have which details what we could wear to school and what to bring for PE there is an interesting use of the words 'basic' and 'clean' to describe boys PE kit for the indoor school hall. They didn't really have what you would describe as a proper gym as such, the main school hall just had some bits of PE apparatus around the edges that got pulled out and a nearby cupboard stuffed full of mats and anything else PE related.

Boys PE description;

Boys in all years - The only requirement shall be a basic pair of clean PE shorts in any colour, non patterned.

That really was it. Very easy to remember and there was a box of spares if somebody did forget. So like a previous person on here has said, there was no positive describing of the PE lesson as something a boy would do with both an actual bare chest and feet. You draw your own conclusions from the 'basic' description.

In that time boys would never have been expected to complain or question about such an ask in PE and it would have been unheard of for any parent to do so either. Contrast with some today if the same applied.

If the weather was great we'd pop outside to make the most of it instead of staying inside and continue with the same 'basic' PE kit. I did not like walking on grass with nothing on my feet, it felt strange to me.

There was a big long jump sandpit which was quite fun when we went outside.

There was a small shower area in our boys changing room at this school. It was not used as a general rule but if you had PE in the morning and it had been a hot day we might come back and find it being put on and told to use it if we had been very active. But we never had to bring a towel to school so in those circumstances we would use what amounted to a kind of modern day kitchen roll sheet or two.

I remember my primary school seemed to have quite a lot of male teachers for the time, almost half were.

It doesn't matter what school you go to, however good or bad it is, state or private, pompously renamed academies, grammar, fee paying, whatever - you will always get a class twit in every single form, sometimes a couple of them who feed off each other. The fire alarm is a very familiar tale unfortunately in any school.

(ex-teacher)

Haha it's amusing you mention that Chris. I used to wonder what would happen if the fire alarm went off while we were showering at school, so the class idiot decided to find out one day and broke the glass in our changing room as half the class was under the showerheads just so he could find out. All that happened was we ran out soaked and got dressed without drying off and walked promptly outside before getting asked what took us so long to do so. So basically we were prevented from drying, but not putting our stuff back on. Hope that helps!

My school was filled with anarchist students in 1977.

Robbie, You were very sharp to have spotted Dr Dawn Harper in that photograph. She was in a television programme with some young men, whose friend had died from testicular cancer, and showed them how they should check their testicles. But the the photograph is inexplicable. The blogger seems to think it's genuine but I wonder...

Comment by: Ben on 28th April 2023 at 17:31
Thanks Craig for your post about bareskin running! Sounds a great idea and something I'd like to give a try some time when I'm in your neck of the woods. How often do you usually meet? Barechested PE in the gym wasn't uncommon when I was at school late 80s/early 90s, but I never experienced it in cross country. Maybe now's the time!




Is this you Ben? Only asking because its the same full name as your email icon popped up that you left with your post and there were some posts on the same subject as here too.

https://www.quora.com/profile/Ben-Thomas-306

"Woody" commented <In the same lesson someone smacked a ball against the wall, nothing unusual in that, except it hit the fire alarm box and cracked the glass setting it off and sending us all outside only ten minutes into the lesson. A couple of teachers lent one or two their coats to cover and warm up while the rest of us just braved it and shivered until we got back inside.>


We had loads of fire drills at school. It seemed like one every term. I've no idea if they do as many nowadays but it became a bit of a running joke at one point. We might have even had one or two unofficial ones, I'm not sure. I never gave it much thought that I might be in a PE lesson during one and what that might entail. That's the trouble with these things, you can't collect belongings and must head for the nearest fire exit fast and assemble ASAP, with whatever you have with you or on you and nothing else.

Lance on 4th May 2023 at 00:21


No, I wouldn't, Lance. I prefer to feel comfortable.

TimH

Thanks for checking the link - I had checked it myself and found it working.

For the sceptics:
1 - Yes, I am Male.
2 - My username has a derivation of no concern here, but is not gender-related.
3 - I have watched these threads with much interest, but I haven't posted for a long time as I have nothing new to contribute, beyond my experiences of school PE over half a century ago.
4 - I'm flattered to see my posts reproduced, but in "quotes" please.

Rant over! Back to meaningful discussion.

@ Mike et al.
Just to say that I simply 'cut & pasted' the URL and it came up. I don't think I've any special 'exemptions' set up on the PC so why other people can't get it I don't know.

Cutting and pasting - this is what appears:

I've heard that there are still some schools which require boys bing shirtless for P.E. and some don't allow underwear under gym shorts.
Do you know any school with such a rule?I don't know any.(I would like to know the school's names,website...etc. proving it)
What is/was your PE kit at school? (with school names)

Followed by:

Primary School: age 5 - 10
There was no special kit (this was not many years after WW2 when clothing was rationed) and we generally did PE in whatever we had on at the time. This was generally cotton (summer) or woollen (winter) vest (singlet for non-UK English speakers) and fly-front underpants, topped with grey flannel shorts and grey shirt, with a woollen jumper in cold weather. I remember one Summer afternooon, just before I left primary school, the PE master made us (boys at least, I can't remember if we did PE mixed or not) strip to the waist for PE in the sun in the playground. I remember confiding in this episode with my younger sister, but for some reason I was reluctant to tell my parents, probably because the prospect of kids going about without vests on was rather revolutionary in most households at that time.

Secondary School 1: age 11 - 16
Specified PE kit was white shorts and PE vest; on economy grounds, those of us who regularly wore underwear vests, i.e. initially virtually all of us, got into the habit of substituting our normal everyday vest for the latter item. After I had been at this school for a couple of years, the PE staff decided that it would be healthier for us to do PE topless and took a vote among us on the matter. Not surprisingly, toplessness got a 100% vote. With this garb, "Shirts and Skins" was obviously out, so we had coloured sashes to distinguish teams when necessary. Although we were expected to wear vests between the changing room and the gym, this rule was honoured more in the breach than the observance and we soon got into the habit of "forgetting" to put our vests back on under our shirts after PE. As we had PE every day of the week, generally in the mornings, we ended up minus our vests for much of the school week and soon most of us didn't bother coming to school in a vest at all, much to the concern of most of our parents, who felt that all children should wear vests all the year round, regardless of climate. There was no prohibition on the wearing of underwear, although for the first couple of years, most of us freeballed. At one point, probably when we were 12 or 13 and one lad got accidentally kicked in the "privates", the PE master advised us that we should think about wearing some form of support, and mentioned a thing called a "jock-strap". I don't think any of us had ever heard of this item of clothing, and i don't think any of us took the trouble to obtain one, but most of us took the hint, and from then on we tended to keep our underpants on for PE.

Secondary School 2: age 16 - 18
Specified PE kit was rather more conservative, white T-shirt and black rugby shorts, and no exceptions. Despite a persistent campaign by myself and a few others who arrived from schools where topless PE was customary, full kit was the inflexible rule, except for the beginning and end of term weigh-in, when for some reason we would strip down to our shorts. Since the shorts weighed rather more than the T-shirts, the logic behind this still escapes me. "Shirts and Skins" was out, sashes distinguished teams. There were no underwear rules, or even recommendations, but for comfort and safety we generally all wore some form of support, principally swimming trunks (Speedo type) or, increasingly, jock-straps, which we preferred once we had tried them out. This was where I got my first jock-straps, which I still find the ideal mimimal male undergarment, and which I generally regularly wear, particularly at week-ends.

The 'author' of the reply is 'Sidona'.
The only other comment I'd make is that the OP asks questions which are remarkably like those that a regular poster who appears to have left us might have made.

I can say no more.

Regarding the Tapatalk site, I don't think you would need to see it, to assume if is a fetish site, clearly a collection of strange men, and perhaps a few women, who seem over concerned about what young boys wear, or don't wear, when they are exercising. Not exactly edifying anyway, though fine, as Miss Jean Brodie would say, "for those who like that sort of thing"

Jeremy, there is something on that pixnudeswim swimming site you've placed on here that the blogger thinks might not be real but I can say for sure it is. Going to the 'Leftovers' tab on the left hand side, click it and then scroll right down to the final image number 29 which shows a woman standing with 8 full frontal naked young lads. The blogger (American?) seems to think that photo is bizarre but it's absolutely bona fide genuine. It comes from a Channel 4 TV series, he wouldn't know that probably, the name which now escapes me but was in the Embarrassing Bodies genre, it might even have been that show. The woman is actually a doctor, Dr Dawn Harper I think that is, and I've got a feeling the lads with her were a hockey team or something like that. I remember seeing this it must be about ten years ago now. Just another example of earlier gratuitous nudity from Channel 4 pushing the boundaries into CFNM territory. Do not even begin to ask me why there was a need for that to be filmed, I can't remember that much more.

Would you go bareskin running Alan with others like yourself if you thought it would instill greater confidence in you? Genuine question.

Regards your post Stephen.

The boys always had to shower through to fifth form at my secondary in the 80s but the girls didn't but could decide for themselves. They had all the same available options. Two sisters almost never bothered. It's just one of these things where boys seem to get treated so much stricter for some reason and have a need to be told what to do while girls are seen as mature enough to make decisions even when they are very young.

I'm getting a message saying - no route found, for the tapatalk link, so yet again I'm another saying it does not work.

Comment by: Ken on 27th April 2023 at 21:40
Between 1951 and 1955 I was away at a boarding school for boys.

I was minded to write because I have seen so many of you on here take great issue with the upper half of the body being shown off whilst in PE. This was the usual way boys did PE as a boarder at my school too. It didn't appear to be an issue in any way at all. It was something we would do without thinking, because actually we had even more to lose.

The younger boys, of which I was one in 1951 would never wear a costume to swim. We would have completely naked swimming instruction weekly, if my mind is correct until the age of possibly about 13. Once again, there were no complaints, I refer to the deference of the time again. Your tutors were without question and you did what they said. They were always right, or so they wanted you to believe. Personally I would not have chosen to do that but the novelty soon faded and it seemed completely normal within our school community. It was more than 20 years later when one of my lifelong friends from school caught up with me, now a lecturer himself, sometime in the 1970's and I found out how much he deplored our school and our compulsory naked swimming class with something like 20 boys. I did not feel so strongly and accepted it for what it was at the time and place it happened.







Well that part was quite interesting Ken. I didn't seem to do much swimming at school but did spend time larking about with my clothes off in a weir near home with other kids during two or three summers about 55 years ago. We got into enormous trouble doing it one day, I think more for trespassing and the water danger rather than discarding all our clothing and frolicking about naked outside. It was not a very public area anyway, that's why we did it, and it would have been easy for someone to accidentally drown and not get proper help. Those were the risks kids took then.

My late grandfather told me about doing something similar at school more than a century ago in the 1910's and I always used to think he embellished a lot of his olden days stories that he would tell me in his old age.

Here is a site that seems to take a critical look at this kind of swimming and whether all is what it seems when researched. There does not seem to be anything British on it that I noticed at a quick glance but I've not had an exhaustive read of it.

https://pixnudeswim.com

I had all my PE lessons through comprehensive in the mornings only, good point about having the lesson just after lunch if you have a big appetite. Never even considered that. At my school the set school dinner would never have blown you out but at another one I went to you could pay for whatever you wanted and have as much as you could afford.

My PE teacher drew attention to my belly button which stuck out a little bit, telling me and anyone else in earshot that I was quite rare like that, thus instantly making me feel self conscious and fixated when I hadn't been at all or even noticed such differences. PE at the secondary school I attended was shirtless for gym every Monday straight after lunch, and as I liked my food and filled my face in the school canteen I was often doing PE on a very full stomach and felt it noticed to look at because we had our shirts off and a teacher once made a "too many chips" quip at me. I was average weight, not fat. We were not allowed to put tops on in that lesson. I think I began eating a lot less on Monday's just so I was doing PE on less of a full stomach.

In the same lesson someone smacked a ball against the wall, nothing unusual in that, except it hit the fire alarm box and cracked the glass setting it off and sending us all outside only ten minutes into the lesson. A couple of teachers lent one or two their coats to cover and warm up while the rest of us just braved it and shivered until we got back inside.

Link doesn't work at all. How did you manage it then Tim, do tell us.

I wasn't especially interested in reading that link but based on what others have said compared to you Tim I thought I'd also have a go and it's the same result for me also, the link "Sidona" provided simply does not work and I've used it on Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and also CCleaner internet browsers.

The Sidona & Sid issue does not make a great deal of sense to me I must say. If Sid has used someone else's words then why, although there was an explanation, but then considering they were written such a long time ago now it also seems incredible that the alleged original poster just happened to notice immediately themselves and answered back when there is no evidence they have been active here for an eternity.

If anyone remembers the Maypole chat this time last year which took off somewhat, I've just noticed some kids about 10 near me at the local school looking like they are practicing around one in their PE kits.

Folks - this is most interesting - because I've tried it in several browsers and it opens OK for me. Have you got any 'restrictions' on the web addresses you can access?
(Personally I wouldn't bother too much!)
T

The link doesn't work for me as well TimH, and I've made multiple attempts.

No need to make too much of a big deal about it this one time though. Copying is actually a very schooldays thing isn't it, I remember how I often used to shield my work with my hand from a rather thick boy in class who was always looking across at my books in maths to use what I had already done.

Going back to Craig's bareskin running reminds me of a very early morning last summer when I left the house shortly after 4am and it was just becoming bright when in the park near me where I was having a walk and expecting to be completely alone I suddenly found two shirtless male runners coming towards me, I was surprised to see them and I think they were to see me too. It was more the fact they were both out jogging just after 4am that surprised me rather than them being shirtless as they went. It was a warm summer night after all.

The link does not work for me either Tim, cut and pasted into various browsers.

This is quite a strange little plagiarism spat isn't it.

I agree with you Andy.

Sidona your comment from 2010 makes clear you are a male, but the name you use is female. Also, are there any further examples of comments on here you can point us to or was that the only one and have you really been reading this for so long without ever writing another comment until now?

Something doesn't quite add up here.

Jim
The link does work - at least for me
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/barefootdad/pe-kit-shirtless-barefoot-and-no-underwear-
t95.html

(I have no connection with Sid or Sidona!)

T

Sidona, that link does not work. I'm not convinced. You have not posted on here in very many years so it seems and have instantly discovered a 13 year old post, a post older than a lot of current secondary school kids!

Whatever the case, what Sid (or you) wrote seemed okay to me and if it has been lifted from you then just feel flattered that something so old was deemed worthy of another mention. What's that old cliche - immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.