Burnley Grammar School

At the time of my P.E. lessons at junior school (1992 - 96), I was not very capable physically (I had mild dyspraxia) and was nervous.

I am enormously grateful to the member of staff, Mrs Nixon, who worked with me one-to-one at the same time as the rest of the class had their weekly lesson with the teacher. She was so kind and patient, gently coaxing me to climb higher up the wall-bars, dare a little more. She held the rope ladder steady for me as I timidly ascended and delicately guided my body, up and over, through the forward roll.

She also taught me to swim - what fun, what pride - and helped in many other ways. I was very lucky.

Someone wrote about going into their school to vote and seeing all the old PE equipment in one of the Maypole anecdotes here. We never did Maypole at mine sad to say as it sounds so much fun from what I've been reading here. But they do use my old primary school as a polling station and have done ever since the days I went there over 45 years ago. Infact on polling days in the past we used to get the whole day off school because of it whcih doesn't happen anymore. Despite all the changes in education over the years and the quite long period of time there are still the same PE apparatrus frames on the wall that I used way back in time and incase I was in any doubt a couple of years ago after I went in to vote I walked up to one of them and saw the two tiny initials that one of my friends scratched into it back in what must have been sometime 1974/5/6. There are also the same movable PE benches that we used to balance on and I've not so long ago even seen some tatty old green mats that look identical to ones I roled about on. I went in last week and these climbing frame things still remain, the ones that would pull out from the wall and lock into place. About eight to ten years back I saw what looked to me to be the very same horse sitting nearby too. All this stuff was almost brand new when we used it. They don't buy new PE gear very often in some of our state primaries quite obviously. They probably don't use it as much as we used to, which was two or sometimes three afternoon each week.

To Aaron, I was just reading your very personal injury comments while having late night coffee and biscuits. Thanks for making me choke out my drink over the laptop keyboard laughing when I then got to that throwaway line about your old 'Chopper' bike after a story like that.

I had 4 primary teachers and we had a May Pole. The first year teacher loved us using it and often took us outside with it in nice weather. My second year primary teacher clearly didn't like May Pole and in that year we never used it at all. Then in my third year at primary I had another teacher who seemed to like it and we began using it again and in my final primary year the teacher went back to being one who wasn't interested and we never touched it. I agreed with my two teachers who never took us for May Pole. I feel sure we also used it inside in the autumn. The headmaster was a big fan of having the May Pole and I remember he would sometimes leave his office and simply stand there with a smile watching us under instruction of our teacher before leaving again, saying nothing. We changed into t-shirts and shorts, no shoes.

I was born in 1966. My primary junior school from 8 to 11 did music & movement class all year round and we had a maypole come out at this time of year too.

Music and movement class was just what it said, we moved, exercised and danced to music of all varieties. Boys like me did this in whatever random style & colour of shorts we brought into school, our bare feet and our bare chests. The girls were also in shorts and had a vest or top on. This is how we did all our music & movement classes including with the maypole inside.

Our primary junior didn't have a separate gym so we used to go in the school hall for it, and I think that might be like many other primaries were and perhaps still are. I'm talking of the years here of 1974 - 77.

During my time at primary junior there was just one single male member of teaching staff in the entire school and at one point for a year none.
Looking back that seems so unhealthy to me. Music & movement was definitely not a P.E lesson which was very different and nearly always outside anyway.

One thing that seems different and may be of interest is my boys primary changing room had an open showering area in it all along one side that worked and could be switched on but because all the staff bar one were female none of the boys were allowed or told to use it whilst the girls at my school did do so sometimes because I could hear the running water and my best friend Emma told me about it. Now that's a bit unusual to say the least and a bit topsy turvy to the norm.

To let other know here who have been wondering about it, I went to the local Syresham Primary (close to Silverstone in Northamptonshire) school May Day fete only this past bank holiday Monday which had the kids going around the Maypole. So it still goes on. I never did it at school myself though. They all had smiles on their faces and seemed to love it.

My middle school took delivery of its brand new Maypole while I was there as an eight year old back in 1978 and when I think of this childhood tradition I instantly think of this particular late 70's year. I remember it being shown off for the first time and the explanation of what it was, which did seem a weird thing to a young child who'd never heard of them. The school had never had a Maypole previously so it proved of great interest to us all, teachers and pupils alike. It was certainly very different and we kept bringing it out on a regular basis, it wasn't just in the month of May, although I do have some snaps of myself using the Maypole on the playground with parents watching on a rather nice bright 4th May early afternoon day dated 1979. I reckon it was the very day and to the hour Thatcher became PM that I was actually dancing around the Maypole! We are wearing white tops, black shorts/skirts, a variety of footwear. It was an even split of boys and girls dancing around it together. Many others have said they did this in their p.e kits and that's also what I know we did many other times.

Another thing was that all our teachers danced the Maypole together in front of us all which was good fun to watch. That was at the outdoor event that I have the snaps of, but unfortunately nobody thought to take a photo of that at the time. It's possible the parents of some of the others I went to school with took one though.

We really worked well together when learning how to do the various Maypole ribbon dances and to this day it remains a very memorable and happy school memory. Once or twice I had the choice of going outside to do Rounders or Maypole and I always chose the Maypole because I was more comfortable doing it.

It's already been said in an earlier post this week but I concur that it's quite something to see so many familiar sounding Maypole thoughts popping up on here in the past week, I would not have expected to see it attract such fond interest. Happy to add my bit too.

I wouldn't hesitate to take a time machine back to 1978. One of those memories that makes me feel both happy and sad at the same time.

I have my own fond recollection of our class of eight- to nine-year-olds dancing round the maypole on May Day 1994, teacher looking benignly on. The maypole was set up in the junior school playground, the sun was warm and we held on to the ribbons and danced around in white T-shirts, white shorts and plimsolls (outdoor PE kit). That was the only time I remember it happening at school. Delightful.

I have my own school maypole recollections too. I've got some yellowing old newsletters from my primary days of the 73-76 period that mention the Mayday gala I took part in on Saturday 1st May 1976 at 1.30pm that day. Just before the legendary big hot dry summer took hold. All ages got a chance on the maypole at some point and it happened every year I was at primary on the first Saturday in May while I was there. My younger sister who followed me started there the year after I left and did maypole too for a few years after me. The maypole also came out at other times after May on regular weekday afternoons, at about the longest day in June for some reason and again in the last week of the school year in July before we broke up. Maypole was part of the "music, movement and mime" classes we did which seemed like a weird hybrid of music and PE lessons combined with each other, as it was definitely not our proper music lesson but it was neither a PE lesson either even though we did sometimes wear our PE kits to do it if we already had them with us on the same day. I think it kept going for quite a while at my old primary into the 1990s.

Permission to laugh like your mates Aaron Meech. How mortifying though.

How I'd like to see sight of a doc at my bedroom door if I was hurt or ill nowadays. Now that would be dying of a heart attack on the spot levels of shock if that happened. How times have changed. Now we can't even show up at our own surgery with our knocks and bumps.

A good story that. We men will understand, the ladies can only imagine it.

Yikes Aaron. I came out in sympathetic pain while reading that cricket injury story. Ouch. We used to play and do net practice a lot and didn't even have the shin pads.

Maypole dancing was always a major fixture of our spring timetable in the 70's which was always done outside. Just like a couple of others have already said themselves, it was always the job of a few boys to carry it outside, never the girls and never the lazy adults either. I can't remember how many danced the maypole at any one time, maybe ten, but I do know when we did this it involved at least half the class if not more just sitting down watching the others for long periods cross legged and fidgeting about, so we spent more time doing nothing which was very boring and my main memory of this thing. It didn't seem like either a music or a PE lesson and we kept our school shirts and trousers on, and the girls their skirts, and just had to put soft shoes on, plimsoll type stuff or trainers or otherwise wear nothing underfoot. I have no memory of the music we circled the pole to but it must have come out of some tape machine I think. Definitely not a record player though!

A funny story that might appeal to some on here from a Friday morning in early July 1979. On the subject of old past PE games in secondary school I did heaps of cricket over the summer term from after Easter until break up in late July. I got hit badly a couple of times by the cricket ball, once very hard in the head, no helmets, and another time even harder straight between the legs, again no coverage. I got sent to the medical room on both occasions. I must have been unlucky for that to happen twice! On the second time the school nurse asked to take a look where I'd been hit and I refused and pretended I was okay. She sussed I wasn't and was being coy so rang my mum and sent me home. I was in agony. When I got home my mum demanded to see and I showed her. I was thirteen. I was swelling and beginning to bruise. Later that day my privates were not only giving me massive ballache but showing shades of black, blue, red and purple on the full package. Refused point blank to have the GP come around to look at me buut she rang him behind my back and he showed up suddenly at my bedroom door. Remember home visits anyone? He gave me a painkiller from his bag, told me to be careful and that was it. If the pain or bruising got worse he'd come back. About 5 days later it reached its worst looking although the pain had mostly gone but this was at the time of my next indoor gym class where I landed awkwardly and all the aches came straight back again.
Class knew I'd been hit for six in the groin by the cricket ball days earlier and I'd told a few I had a tender spot down there. I had the final hurdle to clear which was now leaving gym and taking the required shower with everyone else. I was so-so over that kind of thing, didn't overly fuss me but my multi coloured bruising was there for all to see and I knew it was going to create some nonsense and it did. The most amusing thing was it gave every single lad in my games class the green light to take an up close and personal look directly at my black and blue privates and what a misfired cricket ball swung fast off a bat at close range speed can do to them without the protection of anything more than nylon shorts + pants. Gasps of horror and some laughter, even my two PE teachers took a good look. It stayed like it for a couple of weeks then suddenly vanished after another three or four days and it was as if it never happened. I later found out that you can actually break your penis and I'd been very fortunate. They're stronger than they look even at thirteen. The moral of the story is keep idiot schoolboy batsmen and their speeding cricket balls well away from between the legs or the results will leave you a figure of sympathetic curiosity! Cricket seemed such a safe sport too and I was always more concerned about a rugby injury.

Riding my Raleigh Chopper (yes really, so no jokes please) was agony and I always had to get out and about on it after school ended.

On the old circumcision thing I was appalled by what I read from James and had no idea the school doctor ever checked there. The only proper school medical I had seemed quite benign, pants and a vest, stethoscope, eyes and hair for nits. Nothing too troubling. I didn't ever notice anyone around me who looked like they had their foreskin snatched away but maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention although I always liked a sneak glance around at the competition. This straight man is prepared admit it. :-)

That right to protest sounds fairly reasonable to me Alan.

I'm not going to labour over the points I made previously but I agree with Gareth here and for myself if the chance to ever meet the school doctor who persuaded my parents to get me done at ten for no urgent reason ever happened I'd give him a few choice words I can tell you. But as he could probably be well the other side of 100 by now it's unlikely. After I wrote my bit the other night it left me wondering how many others felt just the same as me because of just this one man who must have seen hundreds and thousands of boys like me in all probability and made similar recommendations. Truly scandalous but in the end my parents made the choice so I'm torn who to blame the most.

Gareth J: The word "intactivist" is a word the movement or organisation in America, picked themselves:

https://intactivist.org/about/

As I am not a doctor, I would have no reason, purpose or desire to inspect boys private parts, and no, as I said previously, I wouldn't wish to inflict my views on others. I would aim to give unbiased advice, and there ARE men who do suffer from problems like phimosis, which can lead to paraphimosis, which is life threatening, or balanitis, that can cause infections, which should be dealt with but is often not. To me that is a bit like having decayed teeth and not visiting the dentist.

Some of the stunts that the Intactivist movement go to, in addition to calling men and boys "mutilated" include, for example, standing at the entrance to maternity homes in America, en masse, wearing doctors coats with a large circle of red paint round the genital area, signifying blood. I don't know if you agree, but it seems totally over the top behaviour.

Gavin mentioned radio schools broadcasts - they used to go out every weekday from 11 to 12 and from 2 till 3 in the afternoons. Some days there was also a radio assembly programme that went out between 9 and 9,30. They were on Radio 4. They suddenly stopped just before the TV ones.

Well at least you answered me Alan, thanks for that but I really didn't like your use of the word "intactivists", whether that's your own word description or one used elsewhere on the subject. You wouldn't wish to inflict it on others you said but if you yourself were a school doctor you'd be one of those who the other guys on here mentioned stepping way over the mark throwing their own zealotry, a good word that was used, at parents and their school age sons wouldn't you. It's one American import I'm glad us Brits haven't indulged in and most of the men on here will still have what they were born with although it seems a someone wasn't so lucky at school and a couple of others had a near miss. Quite why some school doctors thought they had the authority to be looking over boys willies I don't know, never mind recommending invasive procedures so casually. Anybody would think these people couldn't access their own family doctor in most cases on this. I mean we are not talking 2022 are we, when they are now impossible to get hold of. Would you really be happy living in a country where every newborn male is chopped? Repulsive. I'm shocked this is still a subject up for discussion in this day and age for anything other than last resort medical imperative.

Why the passion on this, well I'm the middle of three brothers. My older one now 48 was chopped at age five and always wanted to look the same as us other two and I know it was a negative for him. Guys do care Alan, don't deny that. When as young adults we asked why he was done only and not us other two all my parents said was they didn't really know for sure and that the clinic he went to at the time said it would be for the best and they arranged it on the spot and they later regretted it and vowed not to do the same again. I am eternally thankful of that.

My middle school had a "maypole" and we used it as a part of our music lesson. We did it for our (mostly) mums one afternoon, probably was May time, to the Madonna song, La Isla Bonita. I remember doing it a lot during one academic school year only and not again, must have been possibly 1986-87 as I must have been around about or coming up to ten. We danced to pre-recorded music although the lady who took us, Mrs Kingsley, was the school head music teacher who played piano for assembly. She had us change out of our school clothes into our PE bits when doing it so we were all in shorts and barefooted I know that for sure, because that was my middle school kit. Boys didn't always wear tops in middle school PE but we definitely always did when we danced the maypole. No fancy clothes unfortunately. It's amusing that I always think of doing this as a music lesson in school whereas others look at it as a part of their PE class and some just think of it as country dancing.

It's amazing how similar some off the memories of this actually are because one of the things that strongly comes to me is it seemed a very heavy pole, or at least the base part was, and that it was always a handful of boys picked out to grab it and stick it wherever it was going, and like others have said too it was done both inside and outside. It seemed to be one of the few things we did at school in a physical sense that both boys and girls combined to do together with each other and most had a good time doing it I think. It's really cute to think that so many of us in our separate independent locations across the country were doing this and behaving in such a similar way dancing with ribbons. Someone mentioned the 'spider' but I think what they meant was the 'spider's web' which was quite a good but tricky ribbon arrangement that didn't just wind tightly around the pole but made a proper web structure and once done the knack and hardest part was reversing it and unwinding it all successfully again without making a hash of it and getting tied up too much. I've probably forgotten a lot more about this than I'm actually remembering. But like someone else said of their school, our Mrs Kingsley took her music maypole class quite seriously and took no nonsense when instructing us. I remember plenty of cock ups from those with a lack of co-ordination skills. It all seemed to come quite easily to me.

Great days. Who says it's just a school kids thing? I'd love to give it a go all over again and I'm 45 on June 1st!

On the question of Morris Dancing - it thrives with mens and ladies teams (not too sure about mixed) and with 'youngsters' getting very much involved.

I don't 'do' Morris myself but it (and its derivatives: rapper, longsword, molly, etc) are all good aerobic exercise and an excellent way of learning team-work.

To see Morris in 'full flow' visit any Folk Festival such as Whitby, Sidmouth or Broadstairs.

At Crossley Street Primary school Maypole dancing was a very regular springtime feature from my very earliest schooldays on the cusp of the 70s into 80s. School did a couple of Mayday parades including us dancing the Maypole with parental invites to watch us. I remember helping put all the plastic chairs outside for them to watch. Mostly think we only did it if 1st May was an actual schoolday, which it was in 1979-81. I have some old Kodak slides my parents took. We dressed up in posh fancy dress style costumes but I can't remember where they seemed to come from. But if we were doing Maypole dancing in class as part of a bog standard lesson we seemed to just do it in our regular P.E clothes. I remember when not used the Maypole was always stuck in a corner behind the school TV which was on a tall stand beside the climbing frame and all the other P.E equipment at the side of the main hall. I've a sneaky feeling we might have used it at other times in the year too. I quite enjoyed it. We had no record player but one of those tape machines with two large tape spools going around, the same thing we used to listen to recorded schools programmes that I'm sure came from the radio at the time. I wonder if Maypole was more popular in schools in particular parts of the country? Mine was Wetherby in a similar part of the country, not too far and same county I think as Peter's clip from the 60s.

I may be wrong but why do I get the feeling that there is probably hardly a school in the country nowadays that is doing this dancing around the Maypole, although it's just a hunch I've no proof of that. This got me thuinking about Morris dancing that I haven't seen around for year either that used to be quite a common thing at various carnival, fetes etc over summer months.

On the subject of scrutiny Jim, as I mentioned proof above, it's worth bearing in mind this great quote from the late astronomer & astrophysisist Carl Sagan who said;

'Extraodinary claims require exraordinary proof'.

Keeping up the dancing theme - this coming Saturday - May 7th is 'Helston Flora Day'.
At 9.50 the (well-scrubbed) children of the town will dance through the streets:
(Quote) Over 1200 Children from Helston’s four schools, all dressed in white with headdresses and ties representing each of the schools, will commence from Wendron Street and process up and then down Meneage Street turning into Church Street and Cross Street. Dancing around the gardens of Penhellis before progressing down Tanyard Lane to Lady Street. Dancing down the pavement of Coinagehall Street, the dance circles the Bowling Green before ending by dancing up the centre of Coinagehall Street (Ends)

https://www.youtube.co/watch?v=DH4UMb9Y5bo

The recent post by Ambrose doesn't bear up to serious scrutiny does it.

There are no legitimate reasons and don't use the past as cover to pretend otherwise.

Born much more recently than some here in '82 I only started school in 1987 but we had maypole dancing in both my first & middle schools which were within the same boundary fence with shared playing field but separate playgrounds. The long white seemed about 20ft high at a guess and got heaved to and fro between both schools when wanted. It seemed popular for the 8/9 year age group mostly so I think I used it into the start of the 90's. We had pre-recorded accordian style country music playing from a tape in a large school owned ghetto blaster, which was not the kind of sound you expect out of one of those things.

I found it fun to deliberatly wind boys up the wrong way on purpose with the ribbon I held but then even at that age I had my anarchic side. We took it outside onto the playground on one occasion but otherwise it stayed inside. I can't remember what we wore doing it, nothing too grand like the You Tube video that's for sure. I think we just kicked our normal leather school shoes off and then did it in our normal clothes much of the time. Obviously Maypole proved more popular than we all ever knew, although I hated the thing if I'm being honest ansd the music with it was dire.

So many memories of the Maypole. I didn't expect to generate so many. Thankyou Peter for your sweet clip, the children look like they made a bit of effort with the costumes, especially the girls there and the boys looked clean and tidy in all that pristine white. A lovely piece of old sixties cine film.

One of my YT vid clips Laura which I hope answers your Maypole question - this comes from 1965.

https://youtu.be/BaUA6Rt0cug

Okay so 1980 through to 1983 in my Somerset juniors we had maypole as well which was combined into country dancing kind of stuff with p.e as one extended lesson during early summer term at this time of year so I always think of this as part of my p.e lessons in junior schooldays. If the weather was rubbish we'd do it inside in the main school hall, sometimes even in our large dining room with the tables cleared where the pole nearly scraped the ceiling but if the weather was really lovely teacher got about six boys to lay it lengthways and carry it outside onto the grass but you had to be careful placing it as it could wobble on uneven ground outside and it fell over once, but mostly down to boys pulling at it too hard. Our junior p.e lesson was black leotards for the girls and some navy shorts for the boys, nothing on our feet even on the grass at all and the boys were not expected to have any top to put on doing any of this, which some people might get a bit funny about nowadays I suppose and I was a bit shy myself being made to exercise like that with girls at age seven/eight/nine/ten or thereabouts. This was how we danced the maypole, did movement and music, exactly the same as proper p.e. Like the other person said, it seemed quite energetic once you got stuck into it and was equal to any other proper physical exercise we got told to do in juniors. Some were really good at it and others never quite got the hang of it and it wouldn't surprise me to think the girls were better with it as I'm sure maypole dancing embarrassed one or two boys skipping away as we were. Boys like to run not skip don't they.

I can back up what GBBGG says here. I saw this yestreday and spoke to an old aunt of mine who was at school throughout most of the 50's and she said she did Maypole dancing in the middle of that decade between the ages of 8 -10. She described doing something called 'the spider' with the ribbons and other patterns and said she really liked doing it and that a music teacher would sometimes be in the corner on the school piano playing various tunes while they danced around it in their shorts and vest tops.

Maypole dancing in schools certainly goes back into the 50s when Country Dancing also appeared.

Back in 1947 the Schools Broadcasting Service was introduced which included 'Music & Movement' (“Children, I’d like you to be like a flower-bud pushing up through the earth before opening your petals in the sunlight”). This led on to Country (and Maypole) Dancing.

(Country Dancing - aka Folk Dancing - is a fine cardio-vascular exercise, bringing in agility and the need to train yourself to do things without much thinking. If you disbelief this, go to a Ceilidh that offers 'Folk Rock' and join in)

Country Dancing. that brings back memories of junior School. If I recall correctly the lessons were taken by our headmistress. we dance to music played on a record player(remember them??)

I like the "Maypole" memories here although I never did it. I feel like I missed out now and would have loved to try it.