Well you can double layer under a skirt - tights, shorts whatever and wear a bulky pad, folded loo roll or whatever emergency thing you have to hand. Trousers are unforgiving. You can see what's underneath.

Even if you leak down a leg you can still wipe it off. Trousers end up with a stain until they get washed.

That's kind of the point....
Teachers/school staff are not allowed to deal with the problem. So they are removing the problem. Problem solved!

Once more for the slow readers:

The parents decided not to buy trousers, yet the girls are being punished.

This, and the school's money-wasting insistence that parents of existing female pupils replace last year's skirt that still fits with brand new trousers, which the year elevens will wear for just one year, are the real problems here.

This is sex discrimination. The parents of girls are taking a punch to the wallet that the parents of boys do not take. Girls alone are being punished for a rule change that their parents decide whether they can comply with.

Yes, I'm surprised that people who undoubtedly wear trousers on a regular basis are being angered at having to wear trousers as part of their school uniform. It's weird to be angry that you have to wear something you most likely already wear?

I'm also surprised by many of the reasons for protesting - that girls will faint, that girls can't wear trousers, that they're being made to look like boys, that they're not flattering...they're not exactly feminist (or rational) arguments. About the only argument that makes sense is that parents who have just bought school skirts shouldn't have to spend more money.

And they're not having an option removed so much as going from one singular option to a different singular option. They have as many options as the boys do.

A pp said the uniform just mandated 'smart black trousers', so girls have the option of multiples retail styles and fits - I'm sure they'll be able to find something cheaply priced that both fits them, and the uniform policy.

So let’s blame the girls then rather than deal with the problem.

A lot has changed.
A hell of a lot.

If you worked in schools and/or with teenagers you you be well aware.

whats the point you are making?

SOME girls will push boundaries by wearing too short a skirt or trousers that are super tight. I am sure if a teacher reprimand them they will kick up a fuss

but I will always side on the fact the girls have a right to choose clothes that they feel comfortable in. Some girls will prefer skirts and some trousers. This has been the case for over 70 years. There is absolutely no reason why in the year 2026 anything has changed that should warrant girls no longer having that choice.

Cringe!

Who cares what fabric its in, you're completely splitting hairs. The design is a solution. But no matter, trousers are also a solution and already in place for these girls

It isn't that simple. You can't just send your child to any secondary school you want. Parents don't have a real choice in many areas.
And it doesn't surprise me that some girls might be in tears. Trousers especially school trousers don't suit every girl. And they can be particularly uncomfortable and impractical during your period.

Yes you did. But I was specifically responding to the bit I quoted. You know, the bit where you said you're surprised people are angered by this. They are angry because they've had an option removed.

I do think girls rolling their skirts up can be an issue. I guess if trousers are the only option then there needs to be more choice for styles. Like there was in the 90s. So it is easier to find a style that fits.

Quite possibly, yes.

You've never worked with teenagers, have you? Or at least, not recently.

Girls get home for wearing trousers that are too tight all the time. Are they going to be accused of ‘looking’ too?

And the poor teacher who sends them home just has to suck up the accusation of "looking". It doesn't matter if the parent makes a formal complaint or the teens just spread rumours. It's a horrible accusation to make about someone trying to do their job.

The same when I was a pupil...but not when I was a teacher.

I'd prefer for girls to have the choice - I'd have been miserable wearing trousers when I had a period - I had endometriosis and needed to wear heavy duty sanitary wear which might have shown through trousers.

Sensible rules for both skirts and trousers would solve any issues. When I was still working, girls' school 'trousers' could be even more problematic than skirts. There was a fad for low slung 'school trousers' at one point, often worn with bright red thongs poking out the top.

We'd also get girls wearing 'leggings' which to my mind were no different from the black woollen tights we used to wear under our school skirts in the '70s. Of course, the 'leggings' would be worn without a skirt and the underwear would show through.

When staff spoke to the girls, there would be angry retorts that the clothing had been bought from the 'Back to School' sections of the local stores.

Our HT refused to risk speaking to the girls. The fad only stopped when our Head Boy gave a dramatic scream of "My eeeeeeyes!" when one of the S3 girls bent over a desk, thus showing off the top off her thong to all and sundry.

Those Halara dresses can only be that reasonable and comfortable design because of the light soft fabric. You cannot replicate that design in heavy poly twill.

Tell me that you don't sew without telling me...

Then they get sent home if sound to be not wearing the regulation uniform just as they are being sent home now

The decision not to purchase trousers wasn't the girls' decision, but their parents'. Yet the girls are sent home.

The girls are being punished for their parents' deeds. I'd be crying at the unfairness of it too.

In tears! - dear me!

If the girls had not been rolling their skirts up so you can see their knickers and teachers had not been having to waste time policing this then probably the whole idea of trousers would not have come up in the first place.

And the sewn in shorts in a skort prevent someone choosing to wear a normal skirt?
Its not like teenagers ever push boundaries and try to get away with wearing the wrong thing, is it?

If that was the case, mandatory trousers wouldn't be needed!

I in fact did say at the end of my comment that calf-length skirts should be available too. But considered practically all women will wear trousers, then on balance, forcing girls to wear trousers due to issues with uniform compliance seems proportionate.

(I do sympathise with the idea that it's unfair to make parents who have spent money on uniform skirts have to spend all over again on trousers, though. Perhaps phasing the shorter skirts out would be fairer.)

That’d REALLY make them cry!

Well of course a school wont accept a brand name item as a school uniform. I posted them to show how a pinafore can work without the straps falling down, it was an example of a design, nothing more, nothing less. Not an example of fabric or colour

So nothing you can object about, and yet you try so hard to. Well done!!

Yes, this, teachers cannot guaratnee a parents support when children are told off and told to put their uniform back in the right way

Now, the parent would be marching up the school shouting about safeguarding and ofsted and her child's 'rights'.

They have brought this on themselves.

I am sick and tired of seeing school girls going around with skirts, so short, you can literally see their knickers and arse cheeks hanging out the back of it. It's not even deliberately looking. It's in your line of sight walking down the high street.

It's absolutely indecent and it's not empowering. School is a professional environment where you go to learn and obtain qualifications. They wear a uniform it's not a fashion parade. No woman would be permitted to remain at work dressed like that with her knickers on display so why is it ok at school.

I think young girls and women would do well to remember that dressing in such a way is no more empowering than wearing a burqa. Both are geared up to the needs and wants of men.

If there are in tears over it, they need to grow some kind of backbone. Crying over not being able to wear a skirt to school - is that is. They can wear a skirt at any other point in their own time. It's hardly a tragedy.