ABSTRACT
In school, bodies matter, in many different ways. They matter because the people who go to school, children and adolescents, have bodies that are regulated and dispersed through school spaces and times. These bodies are constantly growing and changing, so the relationship between them and the school environment constantly alters to accommodate and deal with this-as the environment itself has to be altered to cope with the changing shapes, sizes and functions of children’s bodies (larger furniture, sex-segregated changing rooms, sanitary protection dispensers in the lavatories). These bodies also have relationships with each other, and with the adult bodies of those who supervise them; they are positioned, touched (or not) in various ways at various times, they are analysed, gazed upon and disciplined by peers and teachers, and used in different ways to demonstrate (or not) a range of identities and attributes, some of which are gendered.
