Mixed sex changing rooms in a Brighton secondary school - part 3 - we're really cooking now

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

Hello friends.

I'll let the press do the talking...

https://www.gbnews.com/news/trans-school-court-changing-rooms

Thank you for this update.

Good news for return to school in September. I’m sure you will be there ‘inspiring’ them to comply.😄

we did mixed sex basketball in the last years of high school and it worked pretty well. This was everybody all together. The best players were all boys (there was a gang of them that had a scratch game every week at lunchtime and were all pretty decent) then some of the girls who could really shoot due to netball, then the rest of us who just milled around not having a huge impact on the game! I was in the last group (am male) and honestly didn't hate it. It was a nice way to low key socialise with the girls without yanno having to actually make chit chat which I've always been terrible at, even without the general angst and terror of being a teenage boy!

@BezMills Mixed Sex sport done properly can be enjoyable. I do wonder how some of the girls felt though.

I know as a sporty teenage girl I didn't find e.g. mixed sex hockey or ultimate frisbee at university great. I had to deal with some sexual harassment and it wasn't nice to not be as 'good' at sport as I usually was, coming from a single sex school. I also felt like some of the boys were holding back and it wasn't a proper sporting competition, more just for fun. I definitely preferred single sex sport.

Me too. Given our horribly short games skirts and equally nasty games knickers, I would not have been happy with mixed sports at school.

I hear you! Yes I'm quite sure some of the more sporty girls who would be top players in field hockey or netball or basketball found it a bit annoying to get played off the court by the top boys or overlooked by the boys they were actually better than (not sure what would be worse)!

I was not good at any of the sports that we did at school, so the experience of being accomplished (or even enjoying) any sport during school years is not one which I had (in common with many women I went to school with) . The closest I came might be mixed-sex basketball as mentioned above!

Turns out there are a few sports I do enjoy (not that I have any particular talent), just none of the ones that came up in the course my bog standard Scottish secondary education!

I think the impact of menstruation in turning school PE into a horrific nightmare cannot be underestimated either. Some women and girls have unpredictable, extremely heavy fast onset periods. For those girls, knowing they're in a single sex PE environment is probably important for their mental health, wellbeing and attendance.

My opinion is that mixed sex sports in school should be opt-in only. There should ALWAYS be a single sex option too.

And being forced to play hockey when almost bent double with cramps and being scolded for not trying. Thanks, Miss Evans, you utter cow. Did you not remember your youth?

This thread has inspired me to just dust off my trusty Roberts biology textbook from my teaching days. I remember scoffing as I purposefully read a passage to the pupils. Here it is:
’a small amount of blood passes out of the vagina’….. ‘There may be slight pain during the period itself’. I raised my eyebrows at both of those. I think even back then I said women should write these chapters.

Whereas it should have said 'but also you may hemorrhage like an eviscerated pig and want to disembowel yourself with a rusty spoon to stop the pain'

We had to wear very short shorts for PE at my school and the boys would look for evidence of a sanitary towel in those tight short shorts and point and laugh. It was disgusting behaviour. And who the fuck thought tight short shorts were appropriate wear for young teen girls? I know they’re fashionable now, but not every teenage girl is a lithe young thing.

I'm so glad mine was single sex. There was a boys school on the same site, so you got socialising at lunch time and joint afterschool clubs, e.g. drama, orchestra, where you were there by choice and interest, not being forced.

Yes. I think the girls would haved loved that. The boys were all very quiet already - I didn’t want to alienate them even further. It was always nice to see the girls feel more comfortable in these lessons.