This English reader has noted that many HBC personal experience accounts do not mention gym or physical education uniforms. He has provided us information on gym at his secondary school as well as general information on his school uniform.
I was at secondary school from the mid-1970s to 1982, my older brother the mid-1960s and my younger brother the 1980s. We all went to the same secondary school. It was a grammar school (selective secondary school) that had changed to a comprehensive just before I arrived. Nothing to add to the information HBC already has on the existing school uniform pages. What I have not seen much information about is the P.E.kit, for boys now as well as boys in the past. This was a vital part of school clothing.
At junior school the typical uniform was grey shirt, school tie, short trousers, long grey socks, black shoes, and no cap.
My brothers and I all went to the same secondary school. It was a grammar school that had changed to a comprehensive just before I arrived, but it still remained all boys. Girls came a few years later.
We did not wear caps. Caps had finished 3 or 4 years previously, sometime when my older brother was 16 or 17 years old. We wore black blazers with long grey trousers. No shorts were worn by boys when I was at school. The only boys who still had grey shorts were the first year boys that were still 11 and in Cubs. But they didn't wear them to school. As for boys feelings to uniform, well it was excepted, all boys wore similar uniform to school. I don't remember a lot of conversations about our uniform. Nothing much was thought about it as the uniform was no different than any other school.
At the start of a new year a list with uniform and P.E. kit was sent out and parents had to but each item. The P.E. kit consisted of the following. The gym kit was plain white vest (under shirt), white shorts, short white socks, white plimsolls (sneakers). The outdoors kit was a rugby shirt in school colour maroon with sky blue hoops, white shorts, maroon football socks, black football/rugby boots. The swimming kit was maroon trunks. A towel was required for all P.E. lessons. This was our kit and you needed to know what the lesson was to be so you would bring the right kit.
It is on this point that im sure my memories will ring true with others i.e. our P.E. teachers were really strict on boys having the corect kit for each lesson. Checks were made to ensure it. Checks were also made for something else as well. Our P.E. teachers were keen on the P.E. rule that no items of outdoor clothing were to be worn under the regulation P.E. kit. So checks were made to ensure no vests or "T" shirts were worn under rugby shirts, that no underpants or trunks were worn under shorts, or socks inside football socks. As with forgetting your kit, any one breaking this rule wished they hadn't.
As for PE kit and the points I made, yes without a doubt our PE department rules concerning our gym kit were disliked by us boys. We didn't much think about wearing gym shorts without underpants as younger boys, but as we got we began to object. The ruling on forgeting our kit was the most hated one. Indoors it wasn't so bad, just into the gym. Outdoors was another matter, whatever the time of
year. We all hated going outside in just your underpants (boots given if on rugby pitch). Boys big or small, hated running out in what ever
the weather in underpants. Running out on a freezing cold winters day to spend the lesson playing rugby in just your
underpants was an experience that ensured you did not forget your kit very often. It might be useful to note here, at my time at school, PE teachers ran the class with the aid of "the slipper". Boys did very much as we were told, you were soon bent over if you didn't. So no matter how much we hated something, we had no choice but to toe the line.
My own experience including an incident my first year. I showed up for PE without my kit. I had left eveything at home on a day that was an outdoor rugby lesson. I was told by our PE teacher to come out in just my underpants. I was given a pair of boots my size, then told to get out on the pitchwith the other boys. I did as I was told, ran out
with the others into a freezing cold day, wind and rain blowing all about. I did the lesson, got covered in mud, was freezing by the end, no wounder after spending the last hour, bare chest, bare legs outside on a cold Febuary day. Back indooors I borrowd a towel from a mate to dry myself off after a shower. Believe me, this was the first and last time I forgot my PE kit. Going to school at my time it was
common for PE teachers to use the slipper on boys that broke PE department rules, so at least I avoided the slipper, unpleasent as was to do PE in my underpants.