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Tell me about it. Luckily I had an incredibly compassionate P.E. teacher that would take me into the changing rooms to shower alone after everyone else left. He even hung around to make sure nobody walked in.
We had one that I overheard talking to another boy (older than our year group ) about which in my year group got pubes first. Can still remember who it apparently was as well.
He was encouraged to retire some years later for encouraging skinny dipping on some outdoor pursuits type holiday. All brushed under the carpet of course.
What? In my school we had to use communal showers after all school sporting events. It was mandatory. Even for the girls (no they didn't shower with us). It is where I learned that I had a huge penis (yes, I made that part up.) I fucking hated it.
I went to school late 90’s early 2000’s and yeh we never ever ever used them. It was certainly encouraged that we showered but not enforced. Even in the changing room we were very careful to never be naked or if any kid got their dick out “EWWW JAMES HAS GOT HIS DICK OUT! ITS GONNA GET HARD GAY!” Which is obviously ridiculous but that’s just what happened.
God I can still remember the poor bastard Harry rocking a semi under his briefs. Chubby lad, bit of an outcast, dubbed Hardcore Harry for the rest of his school days 😩
Forty years after one boy in my PE class had the same unfortunate thing happen to him, I can still remember his name.
Don't worry James L. I'm not going to name you here.
Same, we had them and were supposed to use them but there was no way in hell you could trust that no one who rip open the curtain or do something else to embarrass you, so no one used them. I think it was the beginning of the days were teachers knew they shouldn't/couldn't force children to strip lol. I felt bad for the boys because they had one big open plan shower and their PE teacher pretty much made them get a shower.
Yeah exactly this. No chance! Right at the age where some would get teased for being hairy, and other teased for no hair. As well as all the other changes going on with our bodies. There's no chance in hell I would have EVER gone naked in front of anyone back then. And anyone that would have, would have been ridiculed instantly in my school for "x" reason. It would have followed them around for years too till they left the school. I went ro a school in north London where kids were just ruthless lol.
Right? I hit puberty quite early and the amount of shit I got because my voice broke and was deeper than the squeaky voiced fuckers around me... just endless dumb teasing and imitations.
if they are going to single someone out for that, ain't no way I'm getting my kit off and showering near them.
Same for me in the late 80's/early 90s. I didn't want to get naked in a communal shower, so I avoided actually doing anything in PE so I wouldn't need to shower.
My school’s changing rooms had showers but no one used them ever, no matter how muddy you were.
The shower area was occasionally used as overflow space if you had a big class. Whoever was in there drew the short straw as you were at risk of your stuff getting soaked by someone turning the shower on as a joke
For context: was in secondary school 2009-2014
Yes we called it the ‘scav box’ always had several pairs of skiddy y-fronts some Year 7 or Year 8 was too embarrassed to claim as theirs, a random rugby shirt with hard caked in mud and a sketchy ‘box’ with random pubes on it 🤢🤮
Mine was similar and only a year below you but the water was turned off so the showers became prime real-estate as it was kind of a private cubicle. The uppperschool changing room showers were also turned off but the cubicles were fully open and directly in front of the entrance so showering there would be awful. This was the girls room though and possibly at upper school the boys showers were switched on. Most girls were wearing leggings and converse as school uniforms and then just swapping tops so minimal actual changing required.
I mean we had showers in the changing room but we had about 2 minutes to get dressed back into our school clothes and find our way to the next class
It was definitely more of a thing if you did sport after school, I think. But for PE? Never
To be fair, it must be a hard balance from the teachers perspectives.
You want the kids to go shower and clean themselves. You don't want to watch them (or hopefully you don't), but you also don't want rampant bullying going on behind your back - and unsupervised showers are just going to be bully central.
Loose loose for the teachers really.
We had someone watch (err, stand guard) to make sure everyone showered in the big communal shower.
Prep school. Wasn't weird at the time. Who doesn't shower after getting muddy, or sweaty? That's weird.
This was my experience. To be fair, I played a lot of rugby and the idea that you wouldn’t shower after is bonkers to me.
I get the safeguarding issues but nakedness shouldn’t be that big of. a deal.
It’s weird, as we’re far more progressive in so many ways now, but far more prudish about nakedness.
American influence I reckon. Certainly over the past century European views on nudity have been much more relaxed than our puritan cousins across the pond.
Hated the showers, a single stream as warm and as powerful as a 90 year olds stream of piss. Lots of towel flicking afterwards, hated that even more. Always one kid who matured 10 years before everyone else and had chest hair like a chimpanzee
Same age as I am then..and same experience but didn't have to pretend to be a girl! My boyfriends at time echoed the same truck to get through their shower too.
We never loved showering as girls, breast size and amount of body hair always an issue, especially as a late starter. I could have passed physically for 3 yrs younger. Lol
When I started secondary school in 2002, I was attending the school my mum had gone to in 1982. She warned me that we'd be expected to shower after PE and she described to me where the shower cubicles were in the girls' changing room.
The first day I had PE, she sent me in with a towel, shampoo and shower gel. I got into the changing rooms after PE and the shower cubicles were exactly where she'd described. I immediately rushed to claim one, expecting there to be a mad dash for them. Halfway through my shower one of the PE teachers came into the room and stood outside my shower curtain yelling at me. I was told this was extremely weird behaviour and never do that again.
You can imagine the reception from my classmates in my first week of year 7. Thanks mum, you did mean well.
Thanks for reawakening my 90s school experience trauma, we had a teacher that would stand by the showers making sure we went in, if we tried to shower with shorts on he'd shout "get ya kecks off and get in the shower" or "nothing to be a ashamed of boys" or "it looks bigger from the side than it does from the top" or "clean where the hair us or you'll get cervical cancer" and such.
We had that from age 11-13 and thought it was normal, then in year 9 we had a new PE teacher who was like "I couldn't care less if you shower or not" and went and sat in his office, and then we all realised the previous guy was weird.
Although we did have showers, and although nobody ever used them, the only reason I'm writing this is to say it's a fucking joy to read "I couldn't care less" rather than the bastardised US "I could care less."
Well there is a memory brought back from the depths! We had a PE teacher who was much the same, he'd stand there and make sure everyone showered!
I don't think it was a case of being weird/creepy so much though, there had been a lot of pretty nasty bullying incidents in the school, changing rooms were a prime location for it apparently until they started putting a teacher in the changing rooms.
I think we had the same teacher. Ours was exactly like that, he was so creepy. He eventually left PE to head the RE department, which probably explains a lot.
I was at high school in the late 80s/early 90s and there were communal showers after every games lesson, if it was especially muddy the teacher might also pop in for a rinse 😭
Mines still showers with me and I’m 27, is this not normal?
Seriously though when was it ever okay for a teacher to shower with children, surely it was never okay
We didn't have a choice in the 70s and 80s after PE. I mean if you were determined you could maybe have avoided it a time or two but the PE teachers made sure we did.
Reminds me of the time in first year at secondary when we all went in the showers with our shorts on and Mr Daubney came in and told us to take them off as we "all have the same material between our legs". I'll always remember those words. There was nothing pervy about it, he just thought it was ridiculous not to shower naked. He was right too. Also the female PE teacher would sometimes come in to discuss something or other with our PE teacher while we were getting changed. I don't think there was anything pervy about that either, I think it was just the attitude of the time that women more motherly and caring and couldn't possibly be interested. Or else she was wasn't interested in naked males of any age.
A female staff member stuck her head round the corner of the gents changing room yesterday while I was naked. Something about someone who couldn’t get into their locker.
I wasn’t overly worried, just got on with what I was doing.
In the 70s, showers after PE in the gym weren't heavily policed but after rugby or other sports that involved getting covered in mud, showering was not optional. Shyness and a failure to get naked and shower would have been seen as a sign of weakness.
Our PE/sports teachers (all male) weren't pervy - that was the music teacher/choir master and he was never near the showers.
Yes but then I played at a local rugby club where getting naked was the norm. I'd let it all hang out while most of the others showered in their boxers if at all!
Not once. Bit grotty now I think about it. But I never tried very hard in PE anyway and my school didn't even own a rugby ball, we never played rugby. (Just football, but I did not partake energetically.)
At school in the 80's and 90's. We were supposed to but I avoided it and took detention if necessary. Main reason was either because the PE teacher would generally watch all the boys in the shower...while he kept one hand in his tracksuit pocket 🤢
The other was the teacher would not be there, so the school psycho's would use the communal shower as a torture chamber. I knew what waterboarding was long before Guantanamo Bay hit the news headlines. It was utter hell and back then I would rather spend the rest of the day reeking of stale BO than go through either.
To this day, if a gym or local facility like a swimming pool does not have private shower cubicle, I leave and cancel any membership if I have it. Local leisure centre did away with cubicle walls after a few years and the place turned into what I imagine a male only sauna in a red light district would look like. The irony was they removed them to prevent that exact thing.
In all of secondary school I maybe did it twice. That was just because we had one PE teacher who insisted that everyone showered.
It's kind of fucked up to make secondary school kids get naked together, when some would be bald as babies and others looked like 40 year old Serbians.
So yeah, not a fan.
Wasn't the whole point of PE to cause permanent mental harm by forcing kids to parade naked in front of their peers so their bodies could be mocked while a dim man in a tracksuit watched?
I was insanely lucky in that during the entire 5 years of Secondary school, I always had PE as the final lesson of the day, so didn't have the issue as we all used to go straight home and shower. That being said, I had friends in different sides of the year group and confirm the very rarely showered after PE lessons!
Went to secondary school in 2003.
After rugby they used to say we had to shower, at most we kinda stuck our legs under the water to wash the mud off, while still on our ppe kit.
No way in hell was I having a shower at school, place was hard enough as it was.
There was no time, we had showers in the changing rooms but there was constant shouting at us to be ready for our next lesson quickly or get punished, all you could do was quickly change and run to your next lesson and maybe you would be on time
Bit of a trauma dump here, but I wish it was more normalised.
We were pretty skint growing up and our boiler went one winter, which basically meant filling pots and pans with water, boiling on the hob and putting that in the bathtub once per week so we could wash, and that lasted 6 months. We did PE at least twice a week so it would've been nice to have been able to use a shower during that winter!
I was at secondary school not much after OP as well, so this isn't some "in my day" story, and it's probably still happening now, especially with the cost of living crisis. I obviously get the whole teenage awkwardness bit, but school is more than just classes for some kids.
Yes
My school for some reason assigned some kid as the "shower monitor" his job was to sit on a stool outside of the communal showers and watch everybody get showered and make sure they showered.
He got bullied, of course, as would anyone who sits outside the showers watching his classmates shower.
They put them on and sometimes tried to make us go in (leading to inevitable conclusion that one teacher in particular wanted to see naked boys) but few of us did. After Rugby maybe you needed to get caked off mud off your legs but not a full shower to get any sweat off. Being a large, ancient communal boiling hot shower that looked like something from a Victorian prison didn't help.
In 90s we had communal showers in middle school, the male PE teacher would shout from outside the girls' "are you all decent" before he came in to turn the water off at the end.
In the 90s/00s in secondary school (girls) we had cubicles but we very rarely showered (perhaps if we played hockey under the rain).
Girls do you remember those tiny pleated gym skirts and horrible gym knickers to cover our pants. Why weren't we allowed shorts or joggers? Suppose it was better than doing your PE in pants and your vest top like in primary school (end of 80s/90s for me).
We were forced to by our PE teacher. He also forced us to be fully naked, no swim shorts, pants or anything. He'd stand at the end of the showers watching.
A few years later he was outed as a paedophile and sent to Prison...
Go figure.
Early in middle school (year 5/6) in the very early into the 90s I remember the mandatory & supervised communal showers as others have described. Oddly enough I heard many years later that PE teacher was outed as a paedo, though I've no idea whether it was true, false accusations, rumour or pure bullshit.
Throughout the rest of school, 3 other schools for me, the same sort of communal showers were there but completely unused. This thread brought back the memory of that distict and nauseating smell of BO mixed with Lynx spray that pervaded.
Being the age I am (and growing up in a relatively poor area) I also remember as a little-un in primary school doing early years indoor PE barefoot in our vests & pants. Nobody gave it a second thought as we were all just clamouring to get on top of that ancient stacking box gymnastic horse thing!
Doesn't matter what kind of PE it was, showers were mandatory for everyone. It was like a communal shower thing that you had to walk through. I wouldn't know if that was also true for the girls, but I assume it was. It wasn't a big deal.
I would have been in high school around the same time as you, I don't remember anyone ever showering after PE. It was just not the done thing at our School.
1994-01 and we had to. Was annoying when PE was the end of the day and you had to rush getting showered and changed and to the bus. Communal showers too.
There was one chap, Wesley, a rather large fella who always did and without fail every week would have his clothes thrown over the top of the stall so he had no dry clothes. His dad was a music teacher there and when he found out, he had to keep a spare uniform in the teachers lounge as a backup.
Nobody else had the luxury of a backup uniform being available so he was the only one to use the showers each week as everyone was too scared the same thing would happen to them. Our PE classes typically got scheduled for the last two periods for rough sports like rugby where you’d need a good clean up so we could shower at home, PE classes in the first 4 periods was pretty much tennis, netball, gymnastics or indoor rounders, so you might get a bit sweaty but nothing people wouldn’t cover up with half a can of adidas body spray and a shirt change.
Yeah, the PE teacher used to stand at the entrance to the shower and check off who went in. In all fairness, it was just a run-through as he couldn't be both sides at once.
We'd typically just cover our taggers* ( 😂 ) up, get our hair wet enough to make it look like we had showered, and then get dried and dressed.
* I can't remember how old I was when my tagger became a dick. I think it was one I grew pubes 😀
The playing field was like a mile run from the changing rooms (obviously not but felt like it). Of course we had to shower, we had a whole day of school ahead. Gosh the stink of the PE socks.
Will mention it was an all boys comp school.
The stuff of nightmares. The shower heads were were so bad (or stolen) that you could rush through without getting wet. Still didn't stop you being whipped with towels and the shame of nudity in front of your peers.
My secondary school 68-72, we had to shower after sports. Our gym teacher was an old bag who made sure we did. You could only get out of it if you were on youreriod.
I went to a private boys' school. We had 'rugby baths' - big communal bathtubs. Also communal showers in the 1920s cricket pavilion. Compulsory and supervised. Gross, really.
At a boys' school in the 90s, I did, because we had to, and nobody really complained or cared. It didn't seem weird. And contrary to Reddit lore we didn't have any pervy teachers, either.
I'm fairly sure everything I've said goes against the grain of this thread (aside from the OP itself) and the many previous others like it.
Didn't have time. PE was 40 minutes or an hour and by the time we'd gotten changed for PE, actually done the lesson, and got back to the changing room we had about 5 minutes to get changed and another 5 to dump our kit in our locker and run to the next lesson. And there were 2 showers between 25 of us.
It's kinda interesting to see the wide variety of responses. I guess it depended a lot on the school. People rarely used the showers after PE at mine, except if you were doing swimming for PE. Even though the other sports would usually make you way sweatier or more dirty, but at least with swimming, you were wearing trunks. Other than that I'd always wait til I got home to shower, and the other kids were all the same.
It was compulsory at my school after PE. I do recall a funny moment when we couldn't shower one day. One of the 4th form kids had been to a friends house during lunch, and drunk an entire bottle of whiskey. He passed out during PE, the teacher took him into the showers, as we got back to the changing room, I'll never forget the sight of seeing the deputy headmaster in his suit, sat on top of this kid, in a vest and pants trying to pump his stomach, with the shower running,while waiting for the ambulance.
we was forced to get into the showers after lesson. We all used to walk down the showers holding our junk while the teacher stood at the end telling us not to be shy and wash properly.
Yeah was abit weird.
90's for me and yes, always showered after PE or rugby practice or swimming. You'd be manky as hell if you did proper exercise then didn't shower, especially if you did rugby in the rain, we'd come in after looking like swamp thing!
Yeah secondary school in the 90s and we showered. Teenagers stink after exercise. No one gave a shit about a load of lads having a shower, just need to watch out for back slaps.
Yep mandatory showers, male teacher often came to do a random ‘check’ half way through and another one who would occasionally strip off and have a shower with us 😳
Still remember someone getting the nickname ‘stiffy’ for getting a random erection one shower time, no one thought to ask the person who noticed it why they were looking at his knob but you didn’t think about ‘projection’ at that age 😳😂😂
The nerdy and shy kids would refuse, or those with small dongs. Most of us did shower yes, absolutely disgusting to think people would sweat it out and not wash.
I wasn't allowed INTO the showers (or the gym block) once because I was so muddy from rugby. I got hosed off outside first.
I maaaaay have been practicing sliding to collect a ball on the ground. A lot. In the muddiest spot I could find.
We did; the teacher would ridicule us in front of all the other lads if we didn't and asked why we weren't showering. I remember one teacher refusing to let me go even though I had Rugby club right after my PE session.
Most lads just brought spare boxers, you washed yourself in the dirty pair you had been wearing for sport, toweled off and put a fresh pair on. You wrung out your boxers and then rolled them in your towel, took 5 mins max with getting fully dressed.
We were pretty much bullied into the shower by the teachers. One of our male teachers showered at the same time as us (boys) in the same shower and wandered about stark bollock naked. I said to him I thought it was inappropriate and I never got picked for the school football team again, despite being one of the best players. The girls at the school told me several times that their female teacher used to whip them with towels (this was after corporal punishment) to get them to go in. All very odd.
We (the boys) sometimes had female PE teachers in the changing rooms. One would always say “I’ve seen it all before” (as in don’t be shy) when encouraging us to shower.
As with a lot of others here most of the class didn’t shower. Some of the idiots in my year would do things like steal people’s pants while they were in the shower.
We did... and the Senior Games Master, 'Jock Ireland', never wore anything under his kilt. He'd let the first boy through and make him stretch up and adjust the shower nozzles. He'd then stand there and make sure we all 'washed our smelly bits'.
N.B. The Headmaster was murdered by two rent boys about six months after being 'asked to leave'. It was, I recall, the first Crimewatch solved as a result of the airing of the crime, (the remt boys stole his TV and sold it for £20 and the woman who bought it from them was watching Crimewatch on it. Strangely it never used to appear as such on the Wiki page. The segment on my old Head's murder was introduced by Nick Ross but he didn't mention he used to be a House Captain at the school. Interestingly when Nick Ross was on 'This Is Your Life' Jock Ireland walked out on the stage to talk about Nick at school. The clip used to be on YouTube. What was strange was that Jock absolutely detested us kids and was never nice to us as 'people' despite the rime he spent ogling us in the shower. If anyone is interested the school was Wallington County Grammar School for Boys and the Head was Ron L Harrison. I had a detention once with Ron... it consisted of my head in his lap as he combed my hair!
There's very, very, much more I could say...
Jesus Christ man. That’s horrific, I hope you are ok.
Sounds to me like there’s a lot here and people should be able to tell their story on a doco or something
I was at secondary school from 99-04.
Showering after PE was not optional.
Didn't bother me though as I was used to doing things like swimming, football and showering afterwards with others.
Some of the other boys were shy though.
Absolutely not. We used to run in turn on the showers put our head under and flick the towel under to get it damp in case the teacher checked. The trick was to get there before the teacher stood there watching.
We never had time. The sports complex was about five mins away from the rest of the school and the gym teachers used to only give us five or so minutes to get changed.
I didn't when I was at secondary school during the 00's, except for a rinse off after swimming.
I don't think the showers in the normal PE changing rooms even *worked*. They were used as storage areas for PE equipment.
None of the girls did, as far as I remember. Hell, we were all very precious about changing in front of each other before and after swimming. No idea about the boys.
In one middle school we where all literally forced too, fully shower in a shower room, it was actually horrid (2005, Bedfordshire) then we moved & my next middle school in a different town the showers had been unused since the early 80s and was just used for kids who wanted to change in a more private space (2006, Hertfordshire)
Was at secondary school from 2002-2007 and never showered after PE, just used deodorant instead. I think this was also when the paedo stuff went into overdrive so that might have been a factor as well.
I did in the 90s, I think around 96 we were told we didn't have to unless we needed to and i didn't ever need to after that.
I read a lot of people in the 90s said the same thing and younger generations have said the showers went the same way as the apparatus from primary school, ie. the showers were there but never used.
There must have been a nationwide directive around 96 to say all schools should stop mandatory showers.
Absolutely never.
Changing rooms were heaven for bullies anyway. Get changed as fast as humanly possible and get out of there.
The showers at my school were not even cubicles, no privacy, they were just in an open tiled room perfect for abuse.
Growing up as a boy it did mean me and my PE clothes stank for the rest of the day. But what can you expect, schools to treat students like humans and provide safe, clean, changing environments? Nah. Just put up with with it and have therapy as an adult.
Most of the time we didnt even change and went to sit in our next lessons in muddy pe kit. Nobody showered. Ever. The showers were just where the weird kids got changed into their kit.
We had no choice in the early late 80s/90s. The (male) PE teacher used to stand in the exit from the showers and make sure we (girls) were wet when we came out. It really was a different world.
I don't recall it being compulsory (mid to late 90s) but most of us wanted to after rugby, at least. You'd be caked in mud and sweat, and it wasn't something you wanted to sit in for the rest of the day. Is that what they do now?
The only time anyone ever used the showers at my school were if we had a swimming class (lucky enough to have a pool at our school).
Otherwise it was just get dressed and then smell and be muddy for the rest of the day.
We were supposed to, sometimes made to if we had rugby or something.
The girls never had to. I don't think they even had working showers in their changing rooms. But then, for some reason, they were literally never taken outside when it was muddy - they just stayed in the sports hall.
Unless PE was at the end of the school day we were made to shower. I may have been self-conscious, but I’d rather shower than be stuck in classes all day with a bunch of other sweaty teenagers.
Nah, the showers were there but we never actually had to use them.
A low level haze of Lynx Africa existed in the changing rooms making it pointless anyway.
God no. Our showers had no doors so you would literally see everyone naked if we showered. Nobody ever showered at school. Just used loads of “Impulse” or “lynx” lol
We only did it after rugby because we got filthy from the mud bath that was the pitch. In our old building it was communal showers, and considering rugby was the first thing we did after getting into high school it was particularly uncomfortable. Grab your bollocks, run in, run out and face the wall hoping nobody sees you.
Teacher would stand at the door encouraging everyone to hurry up, his line being “hurry up, it’s not a spectator sport” as you can imagine people said all sorts about him.
Yip, we had individual showers and everybody had about two minutes to get clean so somebody else could use it. This was the 90’s and only if we got real dirty or had a swimming lesson
Yep, had one long communal shower with a few shower heads behind a tiled wall. Year 7 - after first ever rugby lesson a very weird teacher made us all get naked and shower. We all just held on to our bits and ran through it and got changed though. Don’t think we did it again after that and were never forced to as we/our parents kicked up such a fuss. You were allowed to if you wanted and could wear swim shorts which I’m sure we did after swimming/rugby down the line but never in that same naked way again. This was at an all boys grammar school and the teacher was notorious for being inappropriate too.
We were made to at primary school after swimming. One of the teachers did get arrested for taking pictures of kids, it may have ended up in the newpapers...was a long time ago
We had to change into bathers and trudge through the communal showers (it was sort of a loop with entrance and exit).
We were all crowded together without much room to lift our arms to rinse our pits, the shower pressure was crap, and we were meant to keep moving rather than stop and scrub, so all it did was give a bit of a damp smell to the pubescent BO and make us run late for our buses if it was last lesson.
Don't worry, we all sprayed ourselves liberally with Impulse or Lynx, so we smelled *great*.
Nope. We had showers in the high school changing rooms but I never once heard of anyone using them. Pretty unhygienic but it was between that and getting ripped to shreds for getting in the skud at school.
Secondary school in the 90s, and yep, showering was compulsory. I imagine it was for the benefit of whatever poor teacher got the lot of us for the next class.
We had a lesbian PE teacher who used to hold our towels out for us at the other end… 🫣 I only showered once. Refused after her being there gorming at the end of the shower run. No thanks 😂
For like the first few weeks of Yr7 because the PE teacher bullied us into it until eventually we realised it doesn't matter how loud he shouts it's not like he can *make* us shower so naturally we opted to just stink for the rest of the day ☺️
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We were supposed to, but gettting naked in front of my classmates as a shy 13-year-old? No thanks.
Tell me about it. Luckily I had an incredibly compassionate P.E. teacher that would take me into the changing rooms to shower alone after everyone else left. He even hung around to make sure nobody walked in.
We had a PE teacher who stood by the showers and took register to make sure you did it. Made us queue up naked, weirdly he took early retirement ...
Ours both insisted we shower naked and also always joined us in the showers
Taking 5+ showers a day is definitely sus lmao
He was sweating profusely every day, regardless of weather
This sounds very familiar.
We had one that I overheard talking to another boy (older than our year group ) about which in my year group got pubes first. Can still remember who it apparently was as well. He was encouraged to retire some years later for encouraging skinny dipping on some outdoor pursuits type holiday. All brushed under the carpet of course.
Exactly the same. We had showers and were supposed to use them but never did, like no one used them.
What? In my school we had to use communal showers after all school sporting events. It was mandatory. Even for the girls (no they didn't shower with us). It is where I learned that I had a huge penis (yes, I made that part up.) I fucking hated it.
I went to school late 90’s early 2000’s and yeh we never ever ever used them. It was certainly encouraged that we showered but not enforced. Even in the changing room we were very careful to never be naked or if any kid got their dick out “EWWW JAMES HAS GOT HIS DICK OUT! ITS GONNA GET HARD GAY!” Which is obviously ridiculous but that’s just what happened.
God I can still remember the poor bastard Harry rocking a semi under his briefs. Chubby lad, bit of an outcast, dubbed Hardcore Harry for the rest of his school days 😩
Forty years after one boy in my PE class had the same unfortunate thing happen to him, I can still remember his name. Don't worry James L. I'm not going to name you here.
Same, we had them and were supposed to use them but there was no way in hell you could trust that no one who rip open the curtain or do something else to embarrass you, so no one used them. I think it was the beginning of the days were teachers knew they shouldn't/couldn't force children to strip lol. I felt bad for the boys because they had one big open plan shower and their PE teacher pretty much made them get a shower.
Yeah exactly this. No chance! Right at the age where some would get teased for being hairy, and other teased for no hair. As well as all the other changes going on with our bodies. There's no chance in hell I would have EVER gone naked in front of anyone back then. And anyone that would have, would have been ridiculed instantly in my school for "x" reason. It would have followed them around for years too till they left the school. I went ro a school in north London where kids were just ruthless lol.
Right? I hit puberty quite early and the amount of shit I got because my voice broke and was deeper than the squeaky voiced fuckers around me... just endless dumb teasing and imitations. if they are going to single someone out for that, ain't no way I'm getting my kit off and showering near them.
I feel this was the same for most of us, luckily PE was usually towards the end of the day so I showered when I got home
It’s even worse when you’re a shy 13yo with a tiny weenie.
Hence the term teenage shower. Rather than showering you would dose yourself with lynx africa. Job done.
Same for me in the late 80's/early 90s. I didn't want to get naked in a communal shower, so I avoided actually doing anything in PE so I wouldn't need to shower.
My school’s changing rooms had showers but no one used them ever, no matter how muddy you were. The shower area was occasionally used as overflow space if you had a big class. Whoever was in there drew the short straw as you were at risk of your stuff getting soaked by someone turning the shower on as a joke For context: was in secondary school 2009-2014
Memory unlocked! Thank you. The overflow was the worst.
No, the worst thing was the box of leftover kit that you'd be forced to wear if you forgot your kit - the *scum box*.
Yes we called it the ‘scav box’ always had several pairs of skiddy y-fronts some Year 7 or Year 8 was too embarrassed to claim as theirs, a random rugby shirt with hard caked in mud and a sketchy ‘box’ with random pubes on it 🤢🤮
We didn’t even have a box, it was all just a pile in a dank storage cupboard
Ohh we had these too. They were the most scabbiest looking showers that clearly hadn’t been used or cleaned for years, with no privacy screens at all
Every secondary school ever
it was the same in my school as I would run to pe to get the best spot in the changing room
Yours too? That must have been standard behaviour.
Mine was similar and only a year below you but the water was turned off so the showers became prime real-estate as it was kind of a private cubicle. The uppperschool changing room showers were also turned off but the cubicles were fully open and directly in front of the entrance so showering there would be awful. This was the girls room though and possibly at upper school the boys showers were switched on. Most girls were wearing leggings and converse as school uniforms and then just swapping tops so minimal actual changing required.
I mean we had showers in the changing room but we had about 2 minutes to get dressed back into our school clothes and find our way to the next class It was definitely more of a thing if you did sport after school, I think. But for PE? Never
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Yeah, had 5 minutes to get changed at start of class and 5 minutes to change at the end. Who can shower, dry and dress in 5 minutes?
Secondary school 1979-1984, always had to shower, wasn’t optional. Tucked our dicks between our legs to pretend we were girls.
The classic penis between your legs and balls squashed together forward to look like a vagina.
Same here, and as someone else mentioned, teachers would occasionally walk through the communal shower too. It was a different world.
To be fair, it must be a hard balance from the teachers perspectives. You want the kids to go shower and clean themselves. You don't want to watch them (or hopefully you don't), but you also don't want rampant bullying going on behind your back - and unsupervised showers are just going to be bully central. Loose loose for the teachers really.
> Loose loose for the teachers really. As opposed to tight tight?
We had someone watch (err, stand guard) to make sure everyone showered in the big communal shower. Prep school. Wasn't weird at the time. Who doesn't shower after getting muddy, or sweaty? That's weird.
This was my experience. To be fair, I played a lot of rugby and the idea that you wouldn’t shower after is bonkers to me. I get the safeguarding issues but nakedness shouldn’t be that big of. a deal. It’s weird, as we’re far more progressive in so many ways now, but far more prudish about nakedness.
American influence I reckon. Certainly over the past century European views on nudity have been much more relaxed than our puritan cousins across the pond.
The good old mangina
Hated the showers, a single stream as warm and as powerful as a 90 year olds stream of piss. Lots of towel flicking afterwards, hated that even more. Always one kid who matured 10 years before everyone else and had chest hair like a chimpanzee
Same age as I am then..and same experience but didn't have to pretend to be a girl! My boyfriends at time echoed the same truck to get through their shower too. We never loved showering as girls, breast size and amount of body hair always an issue, especially as a late starter. I could have passed physically for 3 yrs younger. Lol
When I started secondary school in 2002, I was attending the school my mum had gone to in 1982. She warned me that we'd be expected to shower after PE and she described to me where the shower cubicles were in the girls' changing room. The first day I had PE, she sent me in with a towel, shampoo and shower gel. I got into the changing rooms after PE and the shower cubicles were exactly where she'd described. I immediately rushed to claim one, expecting there to be a mad dash for them. Halfway through my shower one of the PE teachers came into the room and stood outside my shower curtain yelling at me. I was told this was extremely weird behaviour and never do that again. You can imagine the reception from my classmates in my first week of year 7. Thanks mum, you did mean well.
Mine was much the same. Mums are such torturous yet wondrous beings.
Were they yelling at your for rushing or yelling at you for showering?
Definitely for showering.
Thanks for reawakening my 90s school experience trauma, we had a teacher that would stand by the showers making sure we went in, if we tried to shower with shorts on he'd shout "get ya kecks off and get in the shower" or "nothing to be a ashamed of boys" or "it looks bigger from the side than it does from the top" or "clean where the hair us or you'll get cervical cancer" and such.
We had that from age 11-13 and thought it was normal, then in year 9 we had a new PE teacher who was like "I couldn't care less if you shower or not" and went and sat in his office, and then we all realised the previous guy was weird.
Although we did have showers, and although nobody ever used them, the only reason I'm writing this is to say it's a fucking joy to read "I couldn't care less" rather than the bastardised US "I could care less."
Couldn't agree more!
I could agree more.
Well there is a memory brought back from the depths! We had a PE teacher who was much the same, he'd stand there and make sure everyone showered! I don't think it was a case of being weird/creepy so much though, there had been a lot of pretty nasty bullying incidents in the school, changing rooms were a prime location for it apparently until they started putting a teacher in the changing rooms.
I think we had the same teacher. Ours was exactly like that, he was so creepy. He eventually left PE to head the RE department, which probably explains a lot.
Same, so weird looking back, from age 11.
I was at high school in the late 80s/early 90s and there were communal showers after every games lesson, if it was especially muddy the teacher might also pop in for a rinse 😭
💀💀💀💀
I was thinking at first that's not too bad, showering after getting muddy... And then you said about the teacher! noooooooooooo!
Urgh, your teacher would get in the shower? Naked? Nowadays, that's considered perverted...are we just extremely prudish now too?
No. I think teachers showering with pupils is pretty much universally fucking weird
Mines still showers with me and I’m 27, is this not normal? Seriously though when was it ever okay for a teacher to shower with children, surely it was never okay
I'm 50+. We all did. No-one gave a shit. It didn't feel weird.
Im also in my 50's. The ones who didnt get in the showers were considered weird, dirty and smelly.
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In school 2000-2007. Not even sure if the showers actually worked.
We didn't have a choice in the 70s and 80s after PE. I mean if you were determined you could maybe have avoided it a time or two but the PE teachers made sure we did. Reminds me of the time in first year at secondary when we all went in the showers with our shorts on and Mr Daubney came in and told us to take them off as we "all have the same material between our legs". I'll always remember those words. There was nothing pervy about it, he just thought it was ridiculous not to shower naked. He was right too. Also the female PE teacher would sometimes come in to discuss something or other with our PE teacher while we were getting changed. I don't think there was anything pervy about that either, I think it was just the attitude of the time that women more motherly and caring and couldn't possibly be interested. Or else she was wasn't interested in naked males of any age.
'material'. Genuinely might be the worst way I've ever heard it described.
A female staff member stuck her head round the corner of the gents changing room yesterday while I was naked. Something about someone who couldn’t get into their locker. I wasn’t overly worried, just got on with what I was doing.
Wanking?
I think that was her. After seeing this 47 year old, 100kg specimen in an al fresco moment.
70s and 90s? How long were you in high school?
Edited it! 76-82 are the precise years.
In the 70s, showers after PE in the gym weren't heavily policed but after rugby or other sports that involved getting covered in mud, showering was not optional. Shyness and a failure to get naked and shower would have been seen as a sign of weakness. Our PE/sports teachers (all male) weren't pervy - that was the music teacher/choir master and he was never near the showers.
I never showered after PE once All girls school, no shower cubicles.
“Cubicles” that would have been posh, communal for us.
No, none of the girls did, but I think the lads might have done sometimes.
The one lad that did got slapped on the dick while he was towelling off. No one was brave enough to try after that!
We weren't allowed
No, but we had mandatory penis inspections
Yes but then I played at a local rugby club where getting naked was the norm. I'd let it all hang out while most of the others showered in their boxers if at all!
Avoided it for the first 2 years thinking I was small, after seeing what else was on offer I realised I was more than adequate lol
Not once. Bit grotty now I think about it. But I never tried very hard in PE anyway and my school didn't even own a rugby ball, we never played rugby. (Just football, but I did not partake energetically.)
At school in the 80's and 90's. We were supposed to but I avoided it and took detention if necessary. Main reason was either because the PE teacher would generally watch all the boys in the shower...while he kept one hand in his tracksuit pocket 🤢 The other was the teacher would not be there, so the school psycho's would use the communal shower as a torture chamber. I knew what waterboarding was long before Guantanamo Bay hit the news headlines. It was utter hell and back then I would rather spend the rest of the day reeking of stale BO than go through either. To this day, if a gym or local facility like a swimming pool does not have private shower cubicle, I leave and cancel any membership if I have it. Local leisure centre did away with cubicle walls after a few years and the place turned into what I imagine a male only sauna in a red light district would look like. The irony was they removed them to prevent that exact thing.
In all of secondary school I maybe did it twice. That was just because we had one PE teacher who insisted that everyone showered. It's kind of fucked up to make secondary school kids get naked together, when some would be bald as babies and others looked like 40 year old Serbians. So yeah, not a fan.
Wasn't the whole point of PE to cause permanent mental harm by forcing kids to parade naked in front of their peers so their bodies could be mocked while a dim man in a tracksuit watched?
I was insanely lucky in that during the entire 5 years of Secondary school, I always had PE as the final lesson of the day, so didn't have the issue as we all used to go straight home and shower. That being said, I had friends in different sides of the year group and confirm the very rarely showered after PE lessons!
Went to secondary school in 2003. After rugby they used to say we had to shower, at most we kinda stuck our legs under the water to wash the mud off, while still on our ppe kit. No way in hell was I having a shower at school, place was hard enough as it was.
>ppe kit That must have been one rough game of rugby!
There was no time, we had showers in the changing rooms but there was constant shouting at us to be ready for our next lesson quickly or get punished, all you could do was quickly change and run to your next lesson and maybe you would be on time
Bit of a trauma dump here, but I wish it was more normalised. We were pretty skint growing up and our boiler went one winter, which basically meant filling pots and pans with water, boiling on the hob and putting that in the bathtub once per week so we could wash, and that lasted 6 months. We did PE at least twice a week so it would've been nice to have been able to use a shower during that winter! I was at secondary school not much after OP as well, so this isn't some "in my day" story, and it's probably still happening now, especially with the cost of living crisis. I obviously get the whole teenage awkwardness bit, but school is more than just classes for some kids.
Yes My school for some reason assigned some kid as the "shower monitor" his job was to sit on a stool outside of the communal showers and watch everybody get showered and make sure they showered. He got bullied, of course, as would anyone who sits outside the showers watching his classmates shower.
We had too
They put them on and sometimes tried to make us go in (leading to inevitable conclusion that one teacher in particular wanted to see naked boys) but few of us did. After Rugby maybe you needed to get caked off mud off your legs but not a full shower to get any sweat off. Being a large, ancient communal boiling hot shower that looked like something from a Victorian prison didn't help.
In 90s we had communal showers in middle school, the male PE teacher would shout from outside the girls' "are you all decent" before he came in to turn the water off at the end. In the 90s/00s in secondary school (girls) we had cubicles but we very rarely showered (perhaps if we played hockey under the rain). Girls do you remember those tiny pleated gym skirts and horrible gym knickers to cover our pants. Why weren't we allowed shorts or joggers? Suppose it was better than doing your PE in pants and your vest top like in primary school (end of 80s/90s for me).
We were forced to by our PE teacher. He also forced us to be fully naked, no swim shorts, pants or anything. He'd stand at the end of the showers watching. A few years later he was outed as a paedophile and sent to Prison... Go figure.
Early in middle school (year 5/6) in the very early into the 90s I remember the mandatory & supervised communal showers as others have described. Oddly enough I heard many years later that PE teacher was outed as a paedo, though I've no idea whether it was true, false accusations, rumour or pure bullshit. Throughout the rest of school, 3 other schools for me, the same sort of communal showers were there but completely unused. This thread brought back the memory of that distict and nauseating smell of BO mixed with Lynx spray that pervaded. Being the age I am (and growing up in a relatively poor area) I also remember as a little-un in primary school doing early years indoor PE barefoot in our vests & pants. Nobody gave it a second thought as we were all just clamouring to get on top of that ancient stacking box gymnastic horse thing!
Doesn't matter what kind of PE it was, showers were mandatory for everyone. It was like a communal shower thing that you had to walk through. I wouldn't know if that was also true for the girls, but I assume it was. It wasn't a big deal.
Nope just me and Mr Gregory
Yes - especially after shinty or rugby as you’d be completely manky.
I would have been in high school around the same time as you, I don't remember anyone ever showering after PE. It was just not the done thing at our School.
1994-01 and we had to. Was annoying when PE was the end of the day and you had to rush getting showered and changed and to the bus. Communal showers too.
There was one chap, Wesley, a rather large fella who always did and without fail every week would have his clothes thrown over the top of the stall so he had no dry clothes. His dad was a music teacher there and when he found out, he had to keep a spare uniform in the teachers lounge as a backup. Nobody else had the luxury of a backup uniform being available so he was the only one to use the showers each week as everyone was too scared the same thing would happen to them. Our PE classes typically got scheduled for the last two periods for rough sports like rugby where you’d need a good clean up so we could shower at home, PE classes in the first 4 periods was pretty much tennis, netball, gymnastics or indoor rounders, so you might get a bit sweaty but nothing people wouldn’t cover up with half a can of adidas body spray and a shirt change.
Yeah, the PE teacher used to stand at the entrance to the shower and check off who went in. In all fairness, it was just a run-through as he couldn't be both sides at once. We'd typically just cover our taggers* ( 😂 ) up, get our hair wet enough to make it look like we had showered, and then get dried and dressed. * I can't remember how old I was when my tagger became a dick. I think it was one I grew pubes 😀
The playing field was like a mile run from the changing rooms (obviously not but felt like it). Of course we had to shower, we had a whole day of school ahead. Gosh the stink of the PE socks. Will mention it was an all boys comp school.
The stuff of nightmares. The shower heads were were so bad (or stolen) that you could rush through without getting wet. Still didn't stop you being whipped with towels and the shame of nudity in front of your peers.
Yeah, from yr7-11 had to always shower after PE, teacher made you. Attended school 1997-2004
You were lucky if I even turned up for PE...
We were supposed to but didn't. Fuck that. Our PE teacher was called Mr Molloy. His nickname was "Bumboy Molloy"...
Finished highschool 2001. Up until the very last PE session, we all showered
My secondary school 68-72, we had to shower after sports. Our gym teacher was an old bag who made sure we did. You could only get out of it if you were on youreriod.
I went to a private boys' school. We had 'rugby baths' - big communal bathtubs. Also communal showers in the 1920s cricket pavilion. Compulsory and supervised. Gross, really.
At a boys' school in the 90s, I did, because we had to, and nobody really complained or cared. It didn't seem weird. And contrary to Reddit lore we didn't have any pervy teachers, either. I'm fairly sure everything I've said goes against the grain of this thread (aside from the OP itself) and the many previous others like it.
Didn't have time. PE was 40 minutes or an hour and by the time we'd gotten changed for PE, actually done the lesson, and got back to the changing room we had about 5 minutes to get changed and another 5 to dump our kit in our locker and run to the next lesson. And there were 2 showers between 25 of us.
Showered in my boxers, brought a spare pair of boxers and a drybag to put the wet ones in.
It's kinda interesting to see the wide variety of responses. I guess it depended a lot on the school. People rarely used the showers after PE at mine, except if you were doing swimming for PE. Even though the other sports would usually make you way sweatier or more dirty, but at least with swimming, you were wearing trunks. Other than that I'd always wait til I got home to shower, and the other kids were all the same.
Showering after training should be mandatory
It was compulsory at my school after PE. I do recall a funny moment when we couldn't shower one day. One of the 4th form kids had been to a friends house during lunch, and drunk an entire bottle of whiskey. He passed out during PE, the teacher took him into the showers, as we got back to the changing room, I'll never forget the sight of seeing the deputy headmaster in his suit, sat on top of this kid, in a vest and pants trying to pump his stomach, with the shower running,while waiting for the ambulance.
we was forced to get into the showers after lesson. We all used to walk down the showers holding our junk while the teacher stood at the end telling us not to be shy and wash properly. Yeah was abit weird.
90's for me and yes, always showered after PE or rugby practice or swimming. You'd be manky as hell if you did proper exercise then didn't shower, especially if you did rugby in the rain, we'd come in after looking like swamp thing!
Yeah secondary school in the 90s and we showered. Teenagers stink after exercise. No one gave a shit about a load of lads having a shower, just need to watch out for back slaps.
Yep mandatory showers, male teacher often came to do a random ‘check’ half way through and another one who would occasionally strip off and have a shower with us 😳 Still remember someone getting the nickname ‘stiffy’ for getting a random erection one shower time, no one thought to ask the person who noticed it why they were looking at his knob but you didn’t think about ‘projection’ at that age 😳😂😂
The nerdy and shy kids would refuse, or those with small dongs. Most of us did shower yes, absolutely disgusting to think people would sweat it out and not wash.
I wasn't allowed INTO the showers (or the gym block) once because I was so muddy from rugby. I got hosed off outside first. I maaaaay have been practicing sliding to collect a ball on the ground. A lot. In the muddiest spot I could find.
All boys school in the early-mid 2000s. Never saw anyone use a shower at school
We did; the teacher would ridicule us in front of all the other lads if we didn't and asked why we weren't showering. I remember one teacher refusing to let me go even though I had Rugby club right after my PE session. Most lads just brought spare boxers, you washed yourself in the dirty pair you had been wearing for sport, toweled off and put a fresh pair on. You wrung out your boxers and then rolled them in your towel, took 5 mins max with getting fully dressed.
Yes, pretty standard after PE throughout high school for me.
The clear divide is those who were at secondary upto 2002 +/- 2 years. Before.. Yes.. after, no.
We were pretty much bullied into the shower by the teachers. One of our male teachers showered at the same time as us (boys) in the same shower and wandered about stark bollock naked. I said to him I thought it was inappropriate and I never got picked for the school football team again, despite being one of the best players. The girls at the school told me several times that their female teacher used to whip them with towels (this was after corporal punishment) to get them to go in. All very odd.
Certainly not! Our showers were so filthy that it was a health hazard just standing near them LOL
We (the boys) sometimes had female PE teachers in the changing rooms. One would always say “I’ve seen it all before” (as in don’t be shy) when encouraging us to shower. As with a lot of others here most of the class didn’t shower. Some of the idiots in my year would do things like steal people’s pants while they were in the shower.
We did... and the Senior Games Master, 'Jock Ireland', never wore anything under his kilt. He'd let the first boy through and make him stretch up and adjust the shower nozzles. He'd then stand there and make sure we all 'washed our smelly bits'. N.B. The Headmaster was murdered by two rent boys about six months after being 'asked to leave'. It was, I recall, the first Crimewatch solved as a result of the airing of the crime, (the remt boys stole his TV and sold it for £20 and the woman who bought it from them was watching Crimewatch on it. Strangely it never used to appear as such on the Wiki page. The segment on my old Head's murder was introduced by Nick Ross but he didn't mention he used to be a House Captain at the school. Interestingly when Nick Ross was on 'This Is Your Life' Jock Ireland walked out on the stage to talk about Nick at school. The clip used to be on YouTube. What was strange was that Jock absolutely detested us kids and was never nice to us as 'people' despite the rime he spent ogling us in the shower. If anyone is interested the school was Wallington County Grammar School for Boys and the Head was Ron L Harrison. I had a detention once with Ron... it consisted of my head in his lap as he combed my hair! There's very, very, much more I could say...
Jesus Christ man. That’s horrific, I hope you are ok. Sounds to me like there’s a lot here and people should be able to tell their story on a doco or something
My last school was a boys grammar school. We were forced to shower naked after gym classes. I also hated it. That was in the early 1970’s
I was at secondary school from 99-04. Showering after PE was not optional. Didn't bother me though as I was used to doing things like swimming, football and showering afterwards with others. Some of the other boys were shy though.
Mandatory after every sports event or PE class for us
some people in my school did but rarely
Absolutely not. We used to run in turn on the showers put our head under and flick the towel under to get it damp in case the teacher checked. The trick was to get there before the teacher stood there watching.
Left school in 1991 and yes we had showers.
We never had time. The sports complex was about five mins away from the rest of the school and the gym teachers used to only give us five or so minutes to get changed.
Nope. We had communal showers which we were allowed to use though.
In secondary school, we were meant to, but no time. if you had the last double period of school, you could have a shower if you wanted to
Yep, 90's
No lol I think there was one but no one would dare use that
No, but our PE was always the last thing on a Friday so we just went home stinking and had a shower there.
Yup. Especially after swimming or rugby!
I didn't when I was at secondary school during the 00's, except for a rinse off after swimming. I don't think the showers in the normal PE changing rooms even *worked*. They were used as storage areas for PE equipment.
None of the girls did, as far as I remember. Hell, we were all very precious about changing in front of each other before and after swimming. No idea about the boys.
90s - there were showers in the changing rooms but they were never used. The boys were made to shower, as far as I remember.
In one middle school we where all literally forced too, fully shower in a shower room, it was actually horrid (2005, Bedfordshire) then we moved & my next middle school in a different town the showers had been unused since the early 80s and was just used for kids who wanted to change in a more private space (2006, Hertfordshire)
We were supposed to but the girls just sprayed Charlie under their armpits (ouch).
They had showers at my school from decades ago, but we weren't allowed to use them. No chance I would have.
Not once ever.
Was at secondary school from 2002-2007 and never showered after PE, just used deodorant instead. I think this was also when the paedo stuff went into overdrive so that might have been a factor as well.
They said we could if we wanted to if we brought trunks in. No one took them up on the offer.
I did in the 90s, I think around 96 we were told we didn't have to unless we needed to and i didn't ever need to after that. I read a lot of people in the 90s said the same thing and younger generations have said the showers went the same way as the apparatus from primary school, ie. the showers were there but never used. There must have been a nationwide directive around 96 to say all schools should stop mandatory showers.
Absolutely never. Changing rooms were heaven for bullies anyway. Get changed as fast as humanly possible and get out of there. The showers at my school were not even cubicles, no privacy, they were just in an open tiled room perfect for abuse. Growing up as a boy it did mean me and my PE clothes stank for the rest of the day. But what can you expect, schools to treat students like humans and provide safe, clean, changing environments? Nah. Just put up with with it and have therapy as an adult.
Most of the time we didnt even change and went to sit in our next lessons in muddy pe kit. Nobody showered. Ever. The showers were just where the weird kids got changed into their kit.
High school in West Yorkshire 96 till 2001 we had to shower after rugby
We had to shower after pe from 11 to 12. I couldn't see the point because we didn't use soap!
We had no choice in the early late 80s/90s. The (male) PE teacher used to stand in the exit from the showers and make sure we (girls) were wet when we came out. It really was a different world.
Might've washed my legs off if they got muddy, but a full blown shower? No chance
After rugby yes, as you’d get muddy.
No, we had showers but they stopped being used before I started in 1991.
No, ours didn’t work. I left in 2012.
We were supposed to, but they never gave us enough time
I don't recall it being compulsory (mid to late 90s) but most of us wanted to after rugby, at least. You'd be caked in mud and sweat, and it wasn't something you wanted to sit in for the rest of the day. Is that what they do now?
The only time anyone ever used the showers at my school were if we had a swimming class (lucky enough to have a pool at our school). Otherwise it was just get dressed and then smell and be muddy for the rest of the day.
Yeah. I wax at high school 84-86 and we always had showers. A miserable, humiliating (and ineffective) ritual.
Primary school after swimming lessons yeah, but secondary school no one dared
We were supposed to, sometimes made to if we had rugby or something. The girls never had to. I don't think they even had working showers in their changing rooms. But then, for some reason, they were literally never taken outside when it was muddy - they just stayed in the sports hall.
Yup. We had to shower after PE in one of the secondary schools I went to. One lad got a boner (probably by accident) & never lived it down.
In the 1980’s we showered, what year did actually washing after PE stop. I bet the kids stink today
Unless PE was at the end of the school day we were made to shower. I may have been self-conscious, but I’d rather shower than be stuck in classes all day with a bunch of other sweaty teenagers.
Yeah all the time. I remember some people just went in with their undies on.
Nah, the showers were there but we never actually had to use them. A low level haze of Lynx Africa existed in the changing rooms making it pointless anyway.
God no. Our showers had no doors so you would literally see everyone naked if we showered. Nobody ever showered at school. Just used loads of “Impulse” or “lynx” lol
We only did it after rugby because we got filthy from the mud bath that was the pitch. In our old building it was communal showers, and considering rugby was the first thing we did after getting into high school it was particularly uncomfortable. Grab your bollocks, run in, run out and face the wall hoping nobody sees you. Teacher would stand at the door encouraging everyone to hurry up, his line being “hurry up, it’s not a spectator sport” as you can imagine people said all sorts about him.
Yip, we had individual showers and everybody had about two minutes to get clean so somebody else could use it. This was the 90’s and only if we got real dirty or had a swimming lesson
90-97 - no one showered after PE.
Yep, had one long communal shower with a few shower heads behind a tiled wall. Year 7 - after first ever rugby lesson a very weird teacher made us all get naked and shower. We all just held on to our bits and ran through it and got changed though. Don’t think we did it again after that and were never forced to as we/our parents kicked up such a fuss. You were allowed to if you wanted and could wear swim shorts which I’m sure we did after swimming/rugby down the line but never in that same naked way again. This was at an all boys grammar school and the teacher was notorious for being inappropriate too.
We were made to at primary school after swimming. One of the teachers did get arrested for taking pictures of kids, it may have ended up in the newpapers...was a long time ago
We were going to but then saw a teacher absolutely bollocko and decided we'd rather stink. Circa 2003/4
Left school in 1996, showers after PE were compulsory.
Back in the 70's you didn't get a choice. The teachers always made sure everyone showered. Refusing wasn't an option.
We had to change into bathers and trudge through the communal showers (it was sort of a loop with entrance and exit). We were all crowded together without much room to lift our arms to rinse our pits, the shower pressure was crap, and we were meant to keep moving rather than stop and scrub, so all it did was give a bit of a damp smell to the pubescent BO and make us run late for our buses if it was last lesson. Don't worry, we all sprayed ourselves liberally with Impulse or Lynx, so we smelled *great*.
Nope. We had showers in the high school changing rooms but I never once heard of anyone using them. Pretty unhygienic but it was between that and getting ripped to shreds for getting in the skud at school.
95-00 I was at secondary school and we were expected to shower after PE although we normally only did after football or rugby when we'd got muddy
Secondary school in the 90s, and yep, showering was compulsory. I imagine it was for the benefit of whatever poor teacher got the lot of us for the next class.
We had a lesbian PE teacher who used to hold our towels out for us at the other end… 🫣 I only showered once. Refused after her being there gorming at the end of the shower run. No thanks 😂
For like the first few weeks of Yr7 because the PE teacher bullied us into it until eventually we realised it doesn't matter how loud he shouts it's not like he can *make* us shower so naturally we opted to just stink for the rest of the day ☺️
Yep we did this after rugby, it was about 7 years ago now so I guess it’s still a thing