School Uniform Policy In Scotland

I've always seen uniform as something they can rebel against harmlessly. I went to an English Grammar... our skirts were the shortest around. We rebelled against that, and the silly rules about fratenising... rather than more important stuff like homework or revision.

I am Scottish but brought my dcs up in England and the state of the pupils who go to my old secondary school in Scotland shocks me. However, your DD is at an age where she will shortly be able to choose her own clothes. Either she will go onto further education, where she can wear whatever she wants, or work, where she will have to conform to a dress code. Either way you need to learn that she's going to learn to make her own decisions about these things.

It’s been like that for years, my DD is 27 and that was what she wore. I don’t see what the problem with the short skirt length is other than them freezing in winter ( or anytime really), which is their choice.

A lot of the English schools where I live have rolled up short skirts.
There's two locally that don't so much. These two

We’re English living in Scotland. This reminded me of the time an Irish lady (in her twenties) stopped me in town to say how shocked she was at the length of all the girls’ school skirts!

I’m not sure which is worse the skirts or the see through leggings where you can see their pants. Sometimes I see things I really don’t want to see driving home from work, though maybe I should be relieved as they don’t wear socks here, just thick black tights!!

My dm would have told them how much more flattering it is to have a skirt that finishes on a slimmer part of your legs!

I grew up in America where we didn't have school uniforms but we did have rules on the length of skirts/shorts and no spaghetti straps, etc. I live in Edinburgh and I remember the first time I saw the local secondary kids out at lunch and was shocked. My kids are 5 and under so I guess it's a fight for the future. Blah!

The culture locally to us is that kids start P1 very smart, often in full blazer getup as seen in the news article someone posted. The blazers are often ditched after the start of P1 (impractical with our west coast weather) and primary schools generally don't insist on blazers. Most primary aged girls wear skirts that are knee length or close to it as parents are in charge of the uniform at this stage.

By high school, the fashion among many girls is a tiny little tube skirt, often worn with opaque tights for a little more coverage. High schools do often try to insist on a blazer being worn, although maybe they can't legally do anything if someone refuses to wear it, so you do often see high school girls wearing a blazer and a tiny skirt that isn't visible beneath the blazer. Schools generally don't say anything about skirt length at all, in my experience. They focus instead on things like shoes being all black, wearing blazers and ties, that kind of thing.

I don't like the tiny skirt thing at all - I think it looks terrible. Glad I have boys as that's a battle I won't need to have!

Also very glad we don't have the nonsense that goes on in England

I will be hi set I've never clocked the length of the girls skirts.

Ours is

Black trousers (no jeans or leggings) or skirts
White shirt
Black cardigan or jumper
Black shoes
Tie
Blazer for S5 and S6

It's much stricter than when I was at school.

The very tight short skirts are probably better than the rolled up A-line skirts I wore at school. Technically knee length when I left the house and hastily unrolled when people were checking but worn very short when not in sight of authority... So I'd not be in favour of stricter rules as everyone just breaks them in other ways.

Wouldn't be my choice to wear a miniskirt but not a battle worth fighting...

Prescribed lengths mean that kids who don't fit the "norm" will struggle too, unless they can take in skirts (or pay £££ for custom lengths) as proportions start to vary quite a lot at high school.

Sounds normal for Edinburgh state schools, in fact, if she was wearing a blazer and leather boots she'd be a heck of a lot smarter than most of them!! I think it's localised @SusieSussex Glasgow schools seem to be a lot smarter than Edinburgh ones.

It's funny, I get the impression from the news that Scottish uniforms are quite posh. Blazers aren't that common at primary school in England

https://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/news/2023/aug/second-highest-twins-count-set-for-twinverclyde

https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/24530690.readers-pictures-pupils-heading-back-school/

Very standard across Glasgow too and I'm grateful they have the freedom to do it tbh.

A child in Scotland can't be sent home or miss classes due to not wearing correct uniform, it's unlawful, and when I read the ridiculous stories about uniform in England I'm glad we've taken a common sense approach.

My older kids went to a high school with no uniform at all and it hasn't turned them into reprobates . There's not a single argument that will convince me that a strict uniform policy is appropriate.

Pretty Standard OP. At our school it’s black tights, short skirt, black jumper or hoodie and a white shirt. Complete with black and white converse high tops. Boys are usually in black jeans or joggers and again with trainers.

our school does have a tie and blazer but the head will not enforce it. She does on paper but never face to face.

Almost all the girls here wear black trousers, and a fairly loose black top. The ones with skirts, it’s skater and tights with leg warmers too (Highlands 😂).
Your uniform choices have no bearing on your work ethic, it’s just young girls trying to understand the minefield of adulthood and I’d rather they did that within the safety of a school day than in town at 2am.

Uniform is not legally enforced in Scotland you can't deprive anyone from education for non compliance so in theory jeans and hoodies are fine most wear something like the uniform the only thing banned is any form of sectarian clothing ie football colours clothes. There are many things wrong with Scottish education but uniform policy is not one of them it's affordable with no silly and expensive pe kits etc. Uniform should not cost 100's

The bottom sounds decent too, just not to your taste.

You might be glad you didn't move to my area @aedcur, there is no uniform* *at all. They have brought in guidance rules regarding shortness, tightness etc of clothing. We are in Scotland but many European countries also don't have a uniform.
My school uniform was Dr Martens, thick black tights, black mini skirt, fitted white blouse, tie (and a jumper in winter), jacket (nobody wore a blazer past S1).

I'm eternally grateful for the lax uniform standards. When I hear what friends in England have to spend on school uniform, I simply could not afford it and it sounds awful having to wear blazers in the heat or heavy rain and not being permitted to remove them. I also can't imagine ankle length kilts being particularly practical, surely they get horribly wet and heavy when walking in the rain? DD wears shorts under her mini skirt and I hadn't realised long socks were back, I only see the more alternative dc wearing those round here but whatever, as long as they are doing their best in class who cares. At least they are comfortable which surely helps them

Sounds fairly standard! Plenty of girls round here wear trousers but if it’s skirts it’s usually minis with tights. Many of the private schools will be more prescriptive.

My daughter had ankle length navy pleated skirt for Y8 - Y10 then grey ankle length from Y11 - Y14. She loved it and wore pj bottoms under it in the winter

I didn't have an ankle length kilt in Ireland - we had a pinafore to the knee which was really comfortable. But that was the 80s...

DD wore a pleated skirt just above the knee, as she didn’t want to wear an excessively short one, and trousers in winter, so you don’t have to wear the bum-skimming ones. They were not allowed to have bare legs though, it had to be black tights if wearing a skirt. I don’t really have an issue with the short skirt/opaque tights combination.
Personally, I hate long skirts so I would not insist on anyone wearing one - the extra material flapping around is annoying.

I saw my neighbours daughter leave today and was shocked at what she was wearing. Knee high socks and tiny skirts should be banned. Our local school does insist on shirt tie and blazer so the top half is decent at least.