School brings in trousers only rule for all pupils - schoolgirls said to be in tears ...

I don't know what to tell you, but that just doesn't happen. Perhaps it is cultural though (we are in a Nordic country). I've never heard any discussion or disagreement about what children or teenagers are wearing to school except occasional reminders to make sure the little ones have rain clothes in wet weather. There aren't any guidelines and nobody ever talks about it.

Out of interest, what were the boys wearing for uniform? Would it not be an option for the girls to wear the same thing? (Or similar.)

Well this 35 degree summer no girls was wearing anything like that and the sixth form girls wore a variety of mini shorts/longer shorts/ mini skirts/ longer skirts/ dresses.

should skirts be banned and only shorts to the knees?

No uniform is more trouble than it is worth. I bet all those tracksuits have to be from a certain brand, and then there is bullying for the girls that can't afford the branded stuff. And every year it escalates with the expectation that they have £1k+ coats etc.

Then you have to get a clothing policy for what is acceptable non-uniform. It's a mess.

I used to live near a Catholic girls school that had what must be the most hideous uniform in Britain. The skirt had obviously been commissioned with the brief to create the most unflattering and unsexy style possible. It was brown, tartan/check, and A line to below the knee. So much material it would have made a baggy spare tyre if you'd tried to roll it up. Quite an impressive design feat really. I would be intrigued to know if the girls there would choose trousers, or if the parents would weep and wail if they became mandatory.

If you live in London, public transport involves a lot of steps (Tube entrances/double decker bus stairs). This means the arses of the people in front of you are at eye level when ascending. Currently that means having to view the bare cheeks of young women and the underpants of young men whether you want to or not. Another reason to prefer winter.

100%

It's a weak substitute for 'discipline'.

Rigid rules like this create pointless power struggles and completely fail to address the actual issues of discipline and relationships in schools.

Well yes generally to school because it's not often hot here and summer holidays start early June anyway, but on the few hot days either in term time or out of it they seem to mainly wear shorts.

In the summer girls wear jeans/ tracksuits and leggings?

All this is just one more example of why uniforms for school are more trouble than they're worth. No uniforms here andthe teenage girls are almost universally in jeans or tracksuit bottoms, like I bet those British teenage girls wear on the weekend.

What a complete waste of time, money and energy all this nonsense is.

My dd is in an all girls fee paying school who are strict about uniform, and clear about it from day one. Yes some of the girls roll the skirts up, but not short short, usually to just above the knee. Any shorter and they will be sent into the loo to correct it, or sent home.

'having to confront significant numbers of students about dress code violations several times a day was negatively impacting relationships between staff and students'

No shit!

My children's school has done this.
There have been lots of complaints, but in fairness to the school there has been no requirement for the trousers to be made from a particular fabric. They have also opened up the choice of styles permissable massively and provided a visual guide, so that if you cannot find the ones linked in the right size you can buy any pair that looks similar to any of those pictures.

As Pps have said the Halara one have proved to be very popular with larger girls who struggled with skirts. They are allowed to wear tailored shorts all year round if they wish, although most girls would rather wear trousers.
At the end of last term (for most of the half term) when we had heatwave conditions, they were allowed to wear their PE kits every day to be more comfortable And stay cool. Some of the girls wear very short shorts and this has never been commented on, and so I genuinely believe the issue with skirts is the underwear / cheeks on show.

I have been a secondary school teacher in the past and the problem does seem to have become worse. Skirts have always been rolled but I don't remember seeing underwear or cheeks when a teacher ( boys - yes and that was always addressed, and according to my son is addressed at their school too), whereas I have in town here before the uniform policy changed, and sadly it was probably about half, rather than a minority.
I think the school has handled it as best they can, although if you read Facebook and the local press, you'd never think so. Also, in fairness I have not heard the very tired narrative of "it's distracting" from the school, which is clearly completely wrong. However, I do think that it's fair to say, underwear and bums on show have no place in a professional environment where the clientele are minors, regardless of the gender of the student.
My daughter has just started at the school and has no issue with the uniform. I do wish they had allowed culottes or skorts, but they have at least given them plenty of choice.
The school also made the point that constantly having to confront significant numbers of students about dress code violations several times a day was negatively impacting relationships between staff and students and I also think that's fair. As Pps have said, teachers don't want to waste so much time on clothing. Hopefully it can now be better spent.

wear trousers doesn’t make girls look like boys. I wear trousers, I don’t look like a man.

Preteen/Teenage girls often don't have a clue about sex or the social rules or consequences. When they wear a short skirt, it's often because that's what the girls in the years above do, or the girls in music videos, or onTiktok.

Ascribing some quite damning motivations and intent to them is inaccurate and doesn't help. Suggesting they are deliberately and calculatedly inviting sexual attention is projection. A 12 year old girl has only a faint understanding of any of it, unless things have gone badly wrong.

Pubertal girls are not young children, but they're not women either. Body shapes are changing, they are often between child's clothing and still too small for women's clothing. It is somehow very hard to find decent, wearable uniform that families can afford.

It isnt all girls
we have laws even though not all men are perverts and the same applies here

We all managed without them. And there was far less horrible shaming of girls. Far less spent on shit polyester clothing, and far less of the stupid petty power struggles.

It's the laserfocus on girls' appearance that seems to be the issue, to me.

The boys just recede into the background, while girls get shit whatever they do or don't do.

Again! NOT ALL THE GIRLS!!

omg I am genuinely getting worried now. Let’s collectively shame all girls because they MiGHt wear short shirts.

Big step in the right direction - dress inline with the school uniform (proper length skirt) or as at this school, you can’t be trusted to wear a skirt. Do parents really want their daughters walking around with skirts the length of their knickers - hardly attractive- they are just attention seekers.

ah yes those good girls who get on with it and don’t complain. You either push the boundaries and roll your skirts up or you are meek and mild and don’t care about these things.

it is horrifying the stereotypes in this thread.

girls have had this choice for ever. They now have less choice which to me is a backwards step. I simply see it as a chipping away of girls rights one tiny bit at a time. You might think it’s nothing but I find it frightening how things are going now.

All girls who flout the rules. I would,d hazard a guess that the girls who do t flout the rules aren’t that bothered and just get in with it instead of starting an argument for arguments sake.

I’m afraid your memory hasn’t served you well. The grammar school blazer may well have been more expensive, but it certainly wouldn’t have cost £40 - unless you went to Eton!
On average, Barathea blazers cost around £5 in 1960. By the time I started grammar school in 1971 the same blazer would have been around £16. My wool / barathea blazer lasted me 5 years because the idea was to get one bigger to ‘grow into’.
My sister went to the secondary modern school - they didn’t have blazers. The vast majority of uniforms were wool or mixed fibres in the 60s and 70s.

I'm all in favour. About 20 years ago the girls at my old school wrote an open letter asking to be allowed to dress the way almost all women at work do, rather than in a uniform more like something in fetishist images than anything a woman in retail, business or farming would wear during the day.

And they were listened to, black trousers uniform from then on. Plenty of choices of styles in Dunnes or Penneys/Primark.

Two points - this is in Ireland where secondary school summer term ends at the end of May, and where skirts are much less usual work wear than they are in England. Anyway, everyone was happy, until - a new male headmaster decided 'girls look nicer in skirts' and the uniform reverted.en in a position of power.

The girls are there to study, not to look nice for powerful men.

The local co-ed school still has a trousers and jumper uniform for all pupils.

Yep same here, so I wear bigger trousers

but ALL girls are being blamed.

If a girl is flouting the uniform rules and wearing their skirt so short that her underwear is on show, then accuses a member of staff of perving at her when said member of staff pulls her up on it, then yes, the blame absolutely lies with the girl.