Thank you to everyone who has signed so far - I have received a response from the school outlining their rationale for returning to the 'pre-covid' routine. I have cut and pasted their response below - I have also asked for some evidence to support the statistics they have provided.
Will keep you posted :-)
Response from school...
I will attempt to explain the rationale behind the return to changing for PE as I wasn't successful in getting in touch with you. These are not in any particular order of importance and cumulatively add up to the reason behind the decision.
1. There were issues with parents/carers cleaning the PE kit as some students have PE on days back to back (core PE and GCSE PE for instance could mean 4 days running so wearing the clothes all day as well as PE was unpleasant).
2. Basic hygiene of changing after exercise is especially important for teenagers.
3. Some parents/carers asked for the return of wearing uniform in the same way as you have emailed me asking for the opposite.
4. Additional time is wasted across many lessons as the young people disproportionately forget their equipment, books, homework etc if they are not in normal school uniform. Therefore, teachers are having to hand out more equipment and set more detentions. Leading to wasting time at the start of lessons, strained relationships and additional workload.
5. Student behaviour is worse when in non-uniform. An approximately 20% increase in negative points on SIMs leading to an increasing number of challenging conversations and of sanctions set. This is especially the case at break/lunch.
6. Unfortunately, not all young people are honest about when they have PE which means we had an additional check to see if they were 'meant' to be in PE kit and a large number of additional detentions/isolations had to be set.
7. Footwear needs to be sturdy enough to also complete lessons in food teach and resistant materials (where hot food/equipment is used) and we find shoes are much more protective than trainers generally.
The reasons above are also the same reasons we now have about 50% less non-uniform days for charity/rewards.
As you know we moved to PE kit during covid and have closely monitored both the positive impact on PE lesson time - I am sure you don't honestly think we have changed back so PE teachers have to teach less? - and the impact across the school generally.
The PE department would also prefer students to come in PE kit on those days and have put many of the same reasons as you have but have accepted that it is not possible for the other reasons listed.
We will constantly review the decision but currently have decided that getting changed is the best for the overall impact across the school.