School Medicals

[Marine Boy]

Well, I've done a thorough search of the forum and I can't find this topic discussed. Can't quite believe no one's brought it up. So here goes.

My first experience of this was in the sixties at about the age of six - so a bit outside the remit of DoYouRemember.

But in secondary school, at around 13 years old, medicals came around again. Class by class, boys in one room and girls in another, (I think we used unoccupied offices) everyone undressed and put on a dressing gown. The doctor then called us one by one into his room and examined us. I seem to recall that he looked at our eyes, ears and fingernails, before the dreaded request to drop our underwear.

It was all over quite quickly and in the playground later, everyone compared notes as to what the doctor had actually 'done' to them. I can't imagine why we were so fascinated to hear the accounts.

For some reason, school medicals seemed to be a really major thing back in the seventies. Were they memorable for anyone else?

[Richard1978]

I can remember having hearing & sight tests, along with the nit nurse & dentist, but no closer examinations, at least as far as I can remember.

[HG]

I can't ever remember having a medical where you got your tackle inspected in school. Must have been phased out sometime in the late 70's/ early 80's.

[Marine Boy]

Mm, well the one I referred to would have been around 1975 so yeah, maybe the more intimate variety just got phased out.

Hey. I forecast a very short thread! :D

[zargon]

I had one mid 70s - cough and drop ! They weighed you as I recall as well ...

[kazboot]

I'm about the same age as you MB and the boys never mentioned any such thorough examinations! :o

Being a girl I'm pleased to say we certainly had nothing too traumatising happen.

[Derekflint]

From the people that brought you memories of white dog poo and Caramac, comes...

Hand moving in - Cough!

Just what was the point in turning your head? If the doctor had a problem with physical contact, maybe he should have found a job that didn't involve grabbing the old hanging basket of fun!

[rossobantam]

Mm, well the one I referred to would have been around 1975 so yeah, maybe the more intimate variety just got phased out.

Hey. I forecast a very short thread! :D

yeh, I was 9yrs old in 1975, and I don't remember the 'cough please' examination..but then again they wouldn't have 'dropped' by then I suppose ;);)

[Marine Boy]

Lol! Just for the record, at these medicals (about 6 and 13 years old), I wasn't asked to cough. It was more of a quick look, though other friends claimed to have had a prod. Not nice.

[ziggy1a1]

I remember the ol' cough and drop examination. As the lads in front of you came out of the examination room they'd tell you that the nurse/ doctor doing it was " a right cracker" then your teenage mind would get working with the obvious result in the trouser department!!!!!!!!
Only to find when you walked in that she was about 70 and looked like the back of a bus:eek:!!!!!
Thankfully all the....erm.....enthusiasm that you'd built up drained away instantly

[Danny]

Cos of lining up in alphabetical order I always ended up behind the class scruff who gave every appearance of regularly wiping his backside on all areas of his underpants and maybe waving them at the washing machine once every six months - was he bothered? no chance!

Weird thing is he's a medic himself now and I had a work physical not too long ago from him - thankfully no 'cough please'

[Yorkieuk]

I remember them well in the early 1970s. We had them at about 14 and again at 16. Your parents were invited too. About 3 ladas at a time were called out of class to sit outside the medical room. Inside one lad was getting undressed down to underpants behind a screen while the other was being examined.

The Dr always seemed to be an old man but without fail you would have to pull your pants down whilst he had a good feel of the balls and also pulled the foreskin back in boys that were not circumcised. Spent ages looking at your feet too.

Think they were abolished as part of Thatcher's cost cutting excercises!

[sixtyten]

So Thatcher wasn't all bad then.

[Teejay]

Cos of lining up in alphabetical order I always ended up behind the class scruff who gave every appearance of regularly wiping his backside on all areas of his underpants and maybe waving them at the washing machine once every six months - was he bothered? no chance!

Weird thing is he's a medic himself now and I had a work physical not too long ago from him - thankfully no 'cough please'

Did he have the same pants on?

[Danny]

ROFLMAO

No Teejay - maybe he had the same undies but I didn't like to ask

[Trickyvee]

I remember the hearing test with the big red and blue headphones and the dentist who kept the little mirror in some milky coloured liquid that tasted disgusting. Nit nurse always came in September at the start of the school year and really yanked at your hair! I used to get bad cold sores as a kid - huge ones that went right over my chin and they always seemed to burst forth in the autumn when I had to see the nurse. She always looked alarmed when I tipped up with my annual scabby gob and scribbled down lots of notes, but nothing ever came of it.

[Gothic]

Remember the drop and cough medicals at primary school in the mid 70's, plus the nit nurse, eye tests, hearing tests and dental examinations.

[pantherpink]

I remember the medicals very well. One when I was at primary school the nurse told me I looked like Virginia Wade. You What?! I was a kid and didn't look anything like her. The one when we were 13 or so, the nurse looked at me and said "you know you are not symmetrical?!" Well that did loads for my self esteem at that age. Ok she was right, I have Lumbar Scoliosis and that was the first time it was noticed, but for goodness sake there's ways of saying it! gggrrrr.

[darren]

I remember the medicals very well. One when I was at primary school the nurse told me I looked like Virginia Wade. You What?! I was a kid and didn't look anything like her. The one when we were 13 or so, the nurse looked at me and said "you know you are not symmetrical?!" Well that did loads for my self esteem at that age. Ok she was right, I have Lumbar Scoliosis and that was the first time it was noticed, but for goodness sake there's ways of saying it! gggrrrr.

you looked like virginia wade when u where at primary school how did the nurse know what the REAL V W loked like when she was a kid.:D

i remember the medicals well through the seventies.

i bet they do not happen now.
what with all this P.C rubbish.

[Heather74]

Yes they do darren, children are regularly weighed and measured and they still have eye and ear tests! Also any injections that are required.

[Paulos]

I can't ever remember having a medical where you got your tackle inspected in school. Must have been phased out sometime in the late 70's/ early 80's.

It was still happening in the eighties or at least at my school, I did have a school medical and the awful procedure of having my tackle checked by a female nurse and at 13 or whatever age I was, that was quite embarrassing!

The other main thing I remember having in the same room was my BCG jab and the preceding daisy prick which showed them whether you could have the BCG or not.

[darren]

It was still happening in the eighties or at least at my school, I did have a school medical and the awful procedure of having my tackle checked by a female nurse and at 13 or whatever age I was, that was quite embarrassing!

The other main thing I remember having in the same room was my BCG jab and the preceding daisy prick which showed them whether you could have the BCG or not.
----------------------------------------------
i remember getting them in secondary in the mid eighties.
we all dreaded it.
there was this one girl who was heart afraid of needles.
i remember getting my bits checked as well.
at that age its embarrassing for sure.
i went purple when it happened to me.
i remember getting a booster boy was it sore.
i still have the mark on the top of my arm where i got it.
like a small lump.

[Ifonlyyouknew]

I have just read so much here about school medicals, I started secondary school 1971 and left in 1976, and I don't remember any medicals, my husband is the sa
E age and he went to boys secondary school and they didn't happen there either.

[Ifonlyyouknew]

What school did you go to or what part of the uk, I did not have medicals in my secondary school neither did my husband and that was a boys school, could you not have avoided the medical like hide somewhere or something,

[darren]

it could just be random or perhaps certain areas in the uk did medicals and others did not.
it seems to me it was just a matter of luck whether or not you had school medicals.


kind of scary having a school medical especially if it was at primary school.




I have just read so much here about school medicals, I started secondary school 1971 and left in 1976, and I don't remember any medicals, my husband is the samE age and he went to boys secondary school and they didn't happen there either.

[nuttytigger]

Only thing I remember was in primary 7 before we went to high school was an eye check, ear/hearing test and height and weight. Although I never understood why they would check eyes when someone wore glasses, as the school would say "oh your eyes are bad" well obviously if I have glasses lol.

This was in 1996.

[nuttytigger]

Also our school had an actual dentist surgery in it.

[crackerjack]

Im about the same age I had a medical in school about the age of 4 I remember my mother having to strip me down to my knickers and the doctor examining my chest with the stethoscope and pressing on my belly after that it was when I was 8 didnt have to strip off for that, then I had one when I was 15 I had to undress down to my bra and tights the doctor listened to my chest then I slipped my tights down for him to press on my belly it was traumatising I must say it couldnt be helped but he could see I had pubic hair

my daughter is 14 and she had a medical in school last week I was there with her she was weighed and measured she had eye test and hearing test then the doctor examined her chest and checked her back and prodded her belly

[battyrat]

We only had ears,eyes,nitty nora,and the odd jab or two.Primary was the early 70's,secondary late 70's early 80's.I think had they gone any further then that they would of had a school riot on their hands and possibly a parant or two.