School skirts? Why is it such an issue?

Never mind skirts I don’t get the whole uniform thing.
We have young relatives in Canada. No uniforms of any description, teachers look like they should be selling the Big Isuue. Great education, love school and all either gone or going to Uni.

@HarrysStyle the difference between school trousers and joggers/leggings is school trousers are usually unflattering and uncomfortable which is why girls don't want to wear them.
They wear the skirts instead but typically feel the need to 'rebel' and see what they can get away with (because that's what teens do!) but if they were actually allowed to wear more comfortable trousers they probably would.

Schools and teachers aren't helping parents either though.

I thought that the government had made it a legal requirement for school uniform to be affordable? The secondary schools near me all insist on expensive blazers/logos on everything/expensive PE kits. Its unaffordable and blazers and ties look stupid, IMO.

I have no problem with uniform and reasonable rules around it. Making kids sweat in hot classrooms in blazers isn't reasonable. Expecting parents to pay more than necessary isn't reasonable.

When I went to secondary in the late 90s/early 00s virtually all the girls wore trousers. In fact our uniform was polo shirts, sweatshirts, and we were allowed to wear black trainers as well. It was sensible and comfortable, and actually much harder to make look scruffy or not comply with.

Agree with pp's comments- I think uniform should be joggers/hoodies/t shirts and trainers. Comfy and practical, much harder to break the rules with, and the kind of thing they all seem to like wearing away from school. Can be done much cheaper for parents as well.

@Needmorelego I think you know really that's not what this uniform issue is about. Female Students wouldn't want to wear jogging bottoms etc for comfort, if they did they'd pick wearing trousers over skirts which barely any do.

My point is it comes down to discipline. And parents are supporting this lack of respect for authority/discipline that they'll need in the workplace.

@HarrysStyle in the "real world" though most adults aren't forced to wear poorly fitting and uncomfortable clothes that are not fit for the purpose of the day.
School uniforms are often too hot in summer. Bad design for winter (ie can't fit a coat over the top of a blazer).
Bad design for anything active that involves moving around like drama class. Ties are dangerous for science lessons, DT etc.
Have a uniform - but a much more sensible one.

The amount of complaints from parents on here about this issue is staggering, and just goes to prove what teachers are up against when maintaining respect and discipline.

When so many parents pander to their children, it's no wonder so many young people are failing in society and the workplace.

Teachers are there to educate, but also to prepare their students for the real world. This is proof that so many parents aren't.

Our local state secondary school has no uniform. And most kids just wear joggers. More comfortable! Been to another area with uniform and girls were wearing ripped tights with barely visible skirts 🤷‍♀️. Perhaps just make comfortable clothing the dress code for everyone - joggers and tshirt.

This is a big part of why I left, it's unmanageable when children know they are above any sort of punishment and that their parents will support their bad behaviour regardless. It makes teaching really challenging, and whatever people think about the role of a school in shaping children, having a thousand plus teenage children doing more or less as they please isn't easy to manage on a day to day basis let alone considering the effect it will have as they enter adulthood. Lots of entitlement, ill do what I want when I want and little thought for others, a largely spoilt generation.

@Morestrangethings exactly. The amount of poor girls I see with school shirts literally straining over their breasts.
Boys uniforms often look ridiculous too. Some Year 7 boys are teeny tiny things and even the smallest blazers and jumpers drown them.
I really cannot see how wearing clothes that simply do not fit looks smart in anyway. It doesn't.

To put girls of all shapes, sizes & heights in the same style of uniform is ridiculous, imo. I had big breasts from the age of 14 on, and the cut of my school uniform somehow emphasised them. (You couldn’t see any skin, of course. It was just the most unflattering cut for me) Girls with smaller chest size looked good in the uniform. I was embarrassed by my breast size as it was, but having to wear a uniform that made me look twice my size was torture - every single day. God I hated school days.

This little bunch of gals actually look more flattering than some of the modern uniforms.
I am definitely for Bring Back Gymslips 🤣

Perhaps we should return to the old fashioned gymslip (pinafores) dresses 🤣
Can't really roll them up.
I actually know a few girls who loved their pinafores in primary and were disappointed they couldn't wear them at secondary.

My kids school had a 'protest' it was a feral riot, with lots of out of control boys joining in. The some of the girls wear skirts so short you can't help but see their arse cheeks as they go up stairs.. the uniform includes 2 different skirt styles and trousers for girls, all of which are easily bought in m+s. The swearing, and abuse of teachers was mind blowing... this was not about rights and everything about rude entitled children thinking they shouldn't have to follow rules or do anything they are told. My daughter is fairly robust but was genuinely scared and hid ffs..

Of course, it is now a given n modern society that a child’s ‘rights’ will always be held above a teacher’s attempts to impose reasonable rules. It is not unreasonable to ask girls to wear a reasonable length skirt for school. Yet parents pounce on this as a violation of human rights. Please go to Afghanistan!

Girls have always rolled their skirts but as others have said they unrolled them when they got to school. Now they don’t because it’s their way of saying fuck you to the teachers - fully supported by their adoring parents.

And we wonder why we have a teacher recruitment crisis 🙄.

(And before anyone says that skirts don’t cause teachers to resign, I clearly don’t mean that, I mean the general “my rights and I can do what the fuck I want and you can do nothing about it” is what’s helping to cause a massive issue with behaviour in schools).

Blazers and ties are particularly ridiculous. Barely any men I know wear ties on a regular basis and certainly no women I know wear ties.

I know of schools wear blazers must always be on show even at the height of summer. You might be allowed to remove your blazer during a lesson but then have to put it on when moving between lessons and in winter you must take any coat off before entering the school buildings no matter how cold it is because having your blazer on show at all times is such an important lesson to learn.

Couldn't agree more. I work in a school where it's polos and sweatshirts. Many kids don't even wear their jumper to school in height of summer.

It's totally fair enough because I wear tailored knee length shirts and a t shirt and usually wear a thin cardigan just for travel in the mornings.

I'd feel so wrong making the pupils wear something impractical for the weather just to make some undefined point.

Absolutely this. My dd wears school uniform black/ white. Her skirt is unfortunately up her arse as I would describe it, she wears thick black tights and “big” black pants.
I work with kids who wear white knickers and or no tights and I’m like😱
However when I was a a teenage girl in the 80,s I was exactly the same as was all the other girls in school. Somehow despite my very short skirt I have managed to acquire 2 degrees and a very successful career.

This.

Blazers and ties are particularly ridiculous. Barely any men I know wear ties on a regular basis and certainly no women I know wear ties.

I know of schools wear blazers must always be on show even at the height of summer. You might be allowed to remove your blazer during a lesson but then have to put it on when moving between lessons and in winter you must take any coat off before entering the school buildings no matter how cold it is because having your blazer on show at all times is such an important lesson to learn.

Have you got a cite for that 🤔

Senior teachers are still telling girls legs and over knee socks are ‘provocative’.

agree that crazy short is not on.

Girls have rolled their skirts for decades. I know I did, and in hindsight it was because of peer pressure and tied up in a culture of problematic female socialisation.

The major difference is that when we did it, our parents didn't get arsey with the school and demand our right to ignore school rules and argue it's empowering for us to do it.

In some schools I've worked at the parents /teachers/students do the same thing that has happened for decades: students push the uniform expectations, the adults remind them of it, they correct it and the cycle goes on. There was a minority of students/parents who would be awkward but most people were fine.

In some schools I've worked in the parents regularly would argue that certain rules didn't apply to their children, or would buy non-uniform items and then complain when school staff said a non-uniform items is clearly non-uniform. Some parents are more concerned with being cool with their kids and arguing with school than they are parenting.

I imagine the offenders is always outnumbered by the abiders. So can we let the girls democratically propose their own length and then let them police themselves?

Based on our local secondary, and the comments from teaching staff here, it's quite the opposite. The rollers are the vast, vast majority.

It should be a plain tshirt, joggers and a hoodie for uniform or non uniform. It is pathetic all this stuff with uniform and just distracts from the education they should be receiving. Stop having uniform monitors and let them teach the students ffs.

Uniform is not a leveller, people still know who the poor kids are, It doesn't prepare them for work as most work places now don't wear blazers and ties etc..... it just makes it a battle that doesn't have to be had.