Rabu, 02 Mei 2012

Grubby changing rooms and embarrassment at getting sweaty in front of boys mean PE lessons are putting girls off exercise for life

Grubby changing rooms and embarrassment at getting sweaty in front of boys mean PE lessons are putting girls off exercise for life

  • Half complained they were ‘forced’ into doing team sports, such as hockey and netball
  • A third said PE was geared towards the sportiest and a fifth ‘felt like their body was on show'


By Katherine Faulkner

PUBLISHED: 19:56 EST, 1 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:52 EST, 2 May 2012


Struggling to stick to your fitness regime? Instead of blaming a long day or hectic schedule, it seems you may need to look a little further back in time.

Women are being put off exercise for life by their school PE lessons, a study has found.

Competitive classmates, grubby changing rooms and the embarrassment of getting sweaty in front of boys all contribute to girls avoiding the gym as adults.

Uniform: Girls from the Royal Commercial Travellers' School in Pinner, balancing on the wall bars, in 1956

Uniform: Girls from the Royal Commercial Travellers' School in Pinner, balancing on the wall bars, in 1956

Secondary school classes are the ones most likely to send girls running â€" or rather, growing up to do anything but.

In a survey, more than half of school-age girls said their PE lessons had put them off doing any exercise at all.

Almost half said they felt ‘forced’ into doing the same team sports, such as hockey and netball, year in and year out.

Many wanted to try ‘less competitive’ activities, such as dance, but said these were not on offer.

And a third complained that PE lessons were geared towards the sportiest pupils. The study also found that one in five girls avoided PE because they ‘felt like their body was on show’.

Enthusiasm: Some girls are keen to take to the pitch despite the reluctance of some

Enthusiasm: Some girls remain keen to take to the pitch

Roughly half said they hated ruining their hair or getting sweaty or dirty at school because they felt it was ‘not feminine’.

Others were put off by having to do sport in front of boys or use ‘dirty’ school changing rooms. The researchers said the results were ‘alarming’ and showed that girls were being ‘put off sport for life’ by negative experiences of school PE.

Sue Tibballs, of the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, which carried out the study, said: ‘If the only activities on offer are competitive sports like netball and hockey, you are going to have whole swathes of girls who feel pushed out and don’t want to do exercise.

'That continues into their adulthood.’

Team games: Pupils at St James Primary School in Muswell Hill north London taking part in a mixed netball session Team games: Pupils at St James Primary School in Muswell Hill north London taking part in a mixed netball session

Team games: Pupils at St James Primary School in Muswell Hill north London taking part in a mixed netball session

She warned that teachers were finding it increasingly difficult to get their pupils enthused by sport because girls were ‘worried about their hair and nails’.

‘It’s also hard because there aren’t many sporting role models for girls. While boys grow up dreaming of playing for England, women’s sports tend to get pushed out.’

Only 12 per cent of girls aged 14 are doing as much physical activity as they should be, compared with a quarter of teenage boys.

During the study, 1,500 school-age boys and girls were questioned about how often they played sport and their attitude to PE lessons.

The results revealed that girls tended to become less and less positive about sport as they  grew older, with many blaming  secondary school PE lessons for putting them off.

While boys and girls tended to do the same amount of sport until aged 11, after three years at secondary school, girls were doing significantly less.

By the age of 14, few er than a third of girls said they had done 60 minutes of physical activity in the previous week. For boys, the figure was 50 per cent.

The researchers found many girls ‘spoke nostalgically about PE at primary school, which they experienced as less formal and more fun’.

Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

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Another made up story. The reason that they don't do P.E. is because the schools do not have an PE lessons any more. Maybe one a week in state schools. As for private schools they have loads of PE lessons. I know this because my wife taught in a state school. She now works in a private school, what a difference. There are no over weight kids in this school because they get loads of exercice.

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Having to go naked in communal showers and being underdeveloped compared to others. Constant mental and physical bullying as the teachers were never about always sat in their office in their cosy tracksuits. Having to wear red pe knickers with a stupid short skirt and having purple numb legs in the dead of winter. Being in an old block with no heating in the changing rooms. Astigmatism meant for any ball games with balls in the air i just could not coordinate what i could see to the bat,racket in my hand. In my whole life i only hit the rounders ball once with the bat. I think it was a fluke. My optician said my right eye does 80% and my left only 20% Its unfair to push people to do sports they are blatantly unsuited for.

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PE at school is a bit rubbish. My school only offered netball and hockey, plus rounders for 'a change' in the summer.... All of which I found incredibly boring. I would have loved to do something like gymnastics, dance, ballet?? But none of these were offered.

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Gym work is boring for kids. When I was at school, it was netball - that´s a fast, athletic and exciting game, rather than just drearly old stretching and sit-ups.

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Many councils have sports centres which are mostly almost empty during the daytime. If schools made more use of them and activities were more varied, girls (and boys) may well be more inclined to take part. There are also many gyms, outside local authority ownership, which are less busy during school days who may well be interested in providing a service for schools for negotiated fees. A little imagination needs to be shown here.

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As kids, don't we always hate what is good for us!!! The lack of sensible P E and exercise is all to apparent these days!

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Kids need to do a bit of walking - that would provide all the exercise they need.

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They are quite happy to be seen half dressed, throwing up in the street through alcohol.

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All I can say is these children need to think less about make up and boys. How pathetic that they are frightened to get hot or sweaty! Yes I didn't much like the communal showers but just got on with it... and the don't need to join a gym when they are adult there are lots of things to do to keep besides paying for a gym membership!

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Does anybody still wonder why millions of our young women (and men for that matter), are so podgy,fat and unhealthy looking in comparison to other countries equivalents??Once they start of obese,99% of them will go through life obese...........

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