Campaign to change school changing rooms - as 1 in 3 secondary school girls admit skipping PE

• One in three secondary school girls say they’ve skipped at least one PE lesson due to their school’s changing rooms
• Many report feeling embarrassed or judged, while others report poor cleanliness
• Alarming survey results find about one in 10 secondary school girls are no longer active at all
• A charity is now pushing for change to how the UK designs its school changing rooms

Secondary school girls say the state of their changing rooms is putting them off PE classes.

A new report by The Sweaty Betty Foundation, a UK-wide charity that aims to help women and girls stay active for life, has found that nearly a third (32%) of female secondary school pupils say the thought of having to get dressed in their school changing rooms has contributed to them missing at least one PE (physical education) lesson. A quarter of girls (24%) have skipped PE more than once for this same reason.

It’s now calling for urgent, system-wide change to stop young girls from feeling so uncomfortable in their changing rooms, with many disengaging with physical activities as early as 11 years old.

The charity’s call for action comes on National School Sports Week, with the 2025 theme focusing on making sure young people are ‘always active’. But the Sweaty Betty Foundation says that how girls feel about changing rooms has been ‘ignored for decades’ to their physical and mental detriment - and the UK needs to rethink how school changing facilities are designed.

But what exactly do girls find so off-putting about them, and what could we change to help them re-engage with PE classes? Here’s what the report has to say:

Why are girls skipping PE - and what are they worried about?

The nationwide study captured the voices of 1,000 secondary school-aged girls from across the UK. The Sweaty Betty Foundation says they suggest urgent action is needed to keep girls active “during a crucial time in their lives”.

More than a third (37%) of the young people surveyed said they felt uncomfortable using their PE changing facilities. This discomfort in the changing room started most commonly at just 11 years old.

Overall, their five biggest concerns about their school’s changing rooms were:

• Privacy concerns (43%)
• Not enough time to change (33%)
• Feeling judged on appearance (30%)
• Feeling watched (28%)
• Unclean conditions (18%)

However, girls were finding ways to cope - besides just sitting PE classes out. About two thirds (65%) said they were changing as quickly as possible, while about three in 10 (28%) were turning up to school already partially dressed on PE days. About one in five (18%) were resorting to changing in toilet cubicles for some privacy.

Menstruation also presented another stumbling block when it came to young girls taking part in PE, with nearly 70% missing at least one class due to period-related concerns. One in four (24%) said their schools also needed better ways to dispose of period products.

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Girl-designed changing rooms could boost ‘confidence and empowerment’

Just as a third of teenage girls were uncomfortable using their school’s changing rooms, a similar number (38%) said they were now less active than in primary school. Even more concerningly, one in 10 girls reported no physical activity whatsoever.

“This issue has been ignored for decades, and it has a serious impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of girls up and down the country.” Sweaty Betty Foundation director Afsana Lachaux said. “We need to see things through their eyes, and we want the girls themselves to design changing rooms which will make them feel confident and empowered. They should be the architects of change.”

Their research showed that there were several issues that needed to be addressed; lack of privacy and body image concerns; inadequate menstruation facilities; and poor cleanliness overall. The Foundation will soon be launching a public consultation on the issue to gather perspectives from students, educators, families, architects, and sports and fitness experts, on how school changing room environments can impact physical activity - so that it can make informed recommendations to the UK government on how they’re designed.

In the meantime, five schools across the UK - William Edwards School in Essex; Shawlands School in Glasgow; Harris Academy in Bermondsey; City Academy in Bristol; and Ark Victoria Academy in Birmingham - are having their female pupils redesign their changing areas, competing for a top prize of £10,000.

The William Edwards School’s girls PE development lead Karen Smith said she was not surprised to learn that one in three girls were skipping PE. “But what is surprising is that it’s just the changing room that is their barrier to taking part. We forget that the changing room is such an important factor in them being active.

“The changing room is their first experience of PE so it’s very important that they have a positive experience from the beginning,” she continued. “We must listen to girls' voices because they understand the barriers so much more than we do… It would be great if this initiative could pave the way for how future education policies and decisions around PE facilities are developed.”

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