Transgender pupils allowed to chose uniform

Apart from anything else, what kind of school in this day and age has no girls "required" to wear trousers for religious/cultural reasons? I know that's a whole other can of worms, but in practice it's the reason why lots of schools did move to allowing trousers for girls.

WomaninWall (are you the woman hanging out of Phoebe's artwork in Friends?) - ah, I did vaguely remember the UK trunk but I generally think of a car boot when I hear the word trunk.

or, I think of exercise class - get rid of the junk in the trunk!!!

Bloody hell That is grim. Although I'd have had a lot of fun with it as a teenager.

If you look at the telegraph article the head very definitely says that there is a girl's uniform and a boy's uniform. Each uniform is to be worn in its entirety. The only way to wear trousers is to be male or identify as make.

A uk trunk is an old fashioned suitcase

A us trunk is a car boot

noray - what is a UK trunk and a US trunk?!

I had a look at Twitter and I'm still confused about what the school mean. It would be an extraordinary thing - and a great test case - if you had to identify as male to wear trousers.

I can't work out what they are actually saying though, the wording of reports varies so much. The idea that there is a "skirt uniform" and a "trouser uniform" and that everyone gets to pick is a progressive one (which incidentally benefits transgender pupils too). The idea that you have to pick a gender based on clothing preference and stick to it is bizarre. So bizzare I'm tempted to believe it's poor reporting.

This is hugely regressive in my opinion - the idea that a girl may only prefer to wear trousers if she 'wants to be male' or 'identifies as male'.

Very poor attitude from a so-called progressive institution.

My legs don't rub together when I wear a skirt, but in hot weather they do 'stick' together. That's a horrible sensation, trying to 'unstick' yourself.
Cotton or linen trousers are ace for summer (when shorts are not appropriate).

Another problem with skirts and tights is it makes it more difficult going to the toilet for girls aged 4/5/6. Well it does for my DD anyway!
Plus there's the thing where you come out of the cubicle and everyone laughs because the back of your skirt is tucked in your knickers/tights!
And another thing i don't like about skirts in general is that thing where you see yourself in a photo and realise you weren't sitting "properly" and everyone can see up your skirt!

Thanks. I'll add that to 'sidewalk', trunk' and 'fanny'!

In the US, pantyhose are sheer; tights are opaque and thicker. I hate them all.

Seneca, just out of interest - what does 'tights' mean in the US? I'm aware of a few words with different meanings in Uk and US English but that's a new one.

There is no justification at all for requiring girls to wear skirts. Trousers are conventional clothing for women and girls and have been for a long time. There is no way to articulate the requirement in a way that is not sexist.

I almost never wear skirts, mainly because I cannot stand to wear pantyhose (I know MNetters hate that word, but I'm American; tights mean something else). Even though I could get away with not wearing them because I live in Florida (the expectation that they must be worn with a skirt is more a NY thing, I think), I don't like the way my legs look bare. So it's part comfort and part vanity. And I am in a profession that dresses fairly conservatively. The notion that women and girls have to wear skirts to look smart is ridiculous and sexist.

Agree Barbarian.

I used to walk across the fields to school, and the number of times my skirt got caught as I got over the stiles. My sister got jammed once and fell into the pit full of stinging nettles below it.

I only remember riding a bike in a skirt once (BMX) - the skirt kinda wrapped itself round the saddle under my legs (hard to explain, but the bottom hem caught like a jumper on a doorknob) and I fell over when getting off.

Anyone who thinks that tree climbing, blackberrying, bike riding, running, camping, jumping and generally messing around outside is done as easily in a skirt as trousers clearly hasn't spent much time doing any of these things. Are they impossible in a skirt - no. Easier - no.

Long skirts get caught and tangled and you can't crawl in them. Short skirts offer little protection agains cold, prickles and scratches (and yards of gravel if you fall off said bike). They also ride up if tight (not a problem if you don't mind showing your pants) and catch up if loose.

Honestly Lass trust me on this.

One of my daughters has worn trousers to school since she was 6, she does not own a dress or a skirt. Now she's approaching secondary she has been teased about having to wear a skirt but it's not compulsory and if it were I would not be sending her to a school that made skirts for girls compulsory.

My daughter has never worn skirts or dresses, wven though we've bought them for her from time to time when she was younger. She has Asperger's and we can't make her do anything she doesn't want to do.
Luckily both school's she's attended have allowed a choice of skirts/dresses or trousers for girls (but only trousers for boys), so there hasn't been a problem.
If there was I would think it was weird and old fashioned - my high school altered it's policy to allow girls to wear trousers way back in 1990 and I assumed it was now universal!

This head has form:

m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/3813521

Apparently Brighton College was the first public school (not sure what the criteria is for public vs. Private school) to have an openly gay head boy.

I bet all the other public schools are kicking themselves for not getting their head boys and girls to talk to the press about their sexuality.

Oh, and some people have legs that rub together in hot weather - linen trousers are more comfortable than a skirt and no hotter - more casually, shorts or culottes are another cool option.

Oh this. When I switched schools to a mixed school I had to wear a skirt. I spent most of summer with red raw thighs, until bicycle shorts came into fashion and I could wear them under my skirt.

I too lived in the country, and if I'd worn skirts when clambering over stiles and through the woods I would have come home covered in scratches and stinging nettle stings. In fact, the warden of the woods tried to ban kids from going into the woods with their legs exposed (shorts or skirts - he was a bit weird) entirely as he felt it was dangerous.

Mirror headline:

Brighton College becomes first school in Britain to scrap uniform policy so all children can wear skirts or trousers

Except for all of those schools where you can wear what you want, and let's not forget how long men and boys have been wearing kilts in Scotland.

if it's really the case that they are still enforcing gender based rules on school uniform, then we are actually massively behind.

Unfortunately my natural instinct to say I was feeling that I was definitely a boy in the winter and definitely a girl in the summer would get very expensive if it meant a complete new set of shirts and a new blazer.

Basically, the only way for a girl to wear trousers would be to formally identify as a boy.

So in terms of changing 170 years of uniform policy, they are now in about 1879.

I've just had a look at the uniform.

It's not (at present) a case of the same uniform with either skirts or trousers. The shirts/blouses are also different, ties are only worn with trousers, and it looks as if the blazers are different too.

So letting each pupil choose which of the two they wear is one thing.

Adding a trouser option to the skirt uniform is a separate issue, and one that they do not seem to be tackling.

"They are apparently the first school to make mandarin compulsory"
Doubt that - Dulwich has been doing it for ages (years 7 and 8, with option to continue).

"The top performing co-educational school in Sussex/the uk" - possibly, but it does depend on who is compiling the tables and what filters they apply. I've seen totally different lists for the same year.

"The headmaster got some kind of award from esteemed educational journal 'The Tatler'."
There have been separate threads about the likely purpose of The Tatler's lists.