to think schoolgirls shouldn't wear short skirts?

[cruelladepoppins]

I mean really short, barely bum-covering, as I saw at our local senior school open day yesterday evening?

It was just indecent. Even with thick tights. Do the boys (and teachers) just look in another direction?

How do the girls run around, bend to pick something up etc?

I was talking to the mum of one of them, and she says she's dreading when they do their work experience this year, she just can't get her DD to understand a pelmet might not be appropriate for a workplace. They think it's OK because everyone wears them to school. I'm not kidding, I didn't see a single knee-length skirt, nor even a just-above-the-knee one.

I'm the mother of boys (oh-oh) - any mothers of girls out there care to defend the teeny-skirt idea?

As a teacher I must tell at least 40 girls every day to sort their skirts out. As soon as I am walking in the other direction they are hoiked straight back up again! I curse their mothers who insist on buying stretchy jersey type skirts that are easy to roll up, rather than non-stretchy flared skirts that look stupid when rolled up...

So do the mothers blame the teachers?

No, I curse the shops that won't sell any skirts that can cover a tall long-legged girl decently without slipping off her waist.

I saw a girl of about 13 wearing her school uniform barely skimming her buttocks yesterday. She was with her mum in the local supermarket, I was with dd who is 12. Dd was as taken aback as I was. It just looks awful.

Change that to "can cover a tall long-legged girl full stop". Dd was as tall as a tall adult woman by the time she started secondary. There weren't any skirts in the shops to fit her- and of course school will only accept "school skirts", not something perfectly decent from the adult department.

My teen's skirt looks stupid rolled up - doesn't stop her doing it though

It is a problem that has been around for years and is likely to stay for years too. Most parents send their daughters out in the right length skirt and as soon as the girls are out of sight, they roll the skirt up.

My son and I were in a traffic jam trying to reach the centre of the village the other day when one of the girls bent over and her skirt was so short, we could see her THONG! So, not only do they wear short skirts, they wear thongs too... .

I think the only answer is to send them home again and again and again. You do get some parents who claim the girls have had a growth spurt, come on... [hmmm]. Maybe schools need a swapping station, for those girls who have outgrown their skirts in one week...

It's when the skirt is not longer than the bottom of the blazer (making them look as if they are wearing nothing on their lower half) that I get really incensed and send them to their head of house.

Who rings home to have mum tell him that they have only just bought it, and can't find any others in the shop that fit....

What should we do? Send half the school population home for uniform infringements?

IMO girls should wear trousers at school. At my son's senior school the girls have to wear trousers, plus blouses with ties and blazers. The uniform is virtually unisex, IMO much more practical. Boys and girls are there to learn, not socialise.

At least it's easier to pick them up on it if it is obviously rolled up.

SofaKitten - the mother said the head had "constant battles" with the girls but was getting no support from the broad generality of parents.

I think the peer group thing is a strong one. (I noticed they were all wearing their ties in a particularly odd way as well! But can't get too bothered about that.)

Cory - longer skirt with belt loops and belt? My mother made my school skirt because we couldn't find one long enough in the shops. (back in the 70s)

Just occasionally, the parent might be telling the truth, Sofa

We went round all the shops in town.

At DD's school the vast majority of girls wear trousers. DD has a couple of (rarely-worn) skirts, but we had great difficulty actually finding any to buy that SHE felt were long enough not to feel self-conscious wearing. So I do, to some extent, blame retailers for providing so little choice. Most of the skirts sold by M&S are ridiculously short for example.
But it is hard for parents to do a lot about it if schools don't enforce their own dress codes which a lot of them don't. So yes, I suppose the mothers do blame the teachers!

Agree re trousers. Also sixth formers should wear suits - male and female - as should the staff.

Cory I believe you! The retailers do have to answer as well - but surely they will sell what sells, so if they are not stocking "tall and skinny" school skirts, maybe that's because noone is buying them?

The DD's wore ankle length kilts - they are too long to roll up so the girls make them as long as possible so they drag along the floor.

cruelladepoppins I well remember spending 2/3 lessons in home economics making a school skirt that was made to measure.

I too am tall, 5'10" and there was no way on earth that my HT would have allowed me to stay on the premises if my skirt had even been 1" above the regulated length.

I think that schools that restrict parents from buying only from certain shops, have a duty to make sure that those shops stock lots of different waist and length sizes. If the parent really cannot get the length from the shop, then the school ought to pay the additional cost so that one can be made.

My skirt at school was positively obscene. Especially when worn with bottle green above the knee socks. It wasn't even deliberate, my Mum was a crappy seamstress so cut it rather than taking it up properly. It was Short.

They are just expressing themselves. Maybe if schools just said black trousers/ white tops/ school hoody or cardie for all, then it would be more sensible (and less sexist)

Trousers are the easiest solution. We're on a major crackdown at school atm - skirts are expected to be no shorter than just above the knee.

Head of Year has a selection of amazingly frumpy A-line skirts for repeat offenders to change into.

Well ours is black blazer, white shirt, grey skirt or black trousers. No shop specified. Still they can't find clothes to fit.

Ooh Raven - maybe that's the answer - REALLY awful clothes for infringers...

My (all girls) school had a uniform which could only be bought from a certain supplier and was expensive. The standard skirt was a kilt and due to the cost, all the parents would buy an oversized skirt (literally ankle length) when the girls started the school at 11 and we used our pursebelts to keep them on. Wore the skirt until 16 and by then it was a mini kilt.

You could also buy the material to have the skirt made but it had to be knee length otherwise you were sent home.

Those were the days when the heel of your shoe had to cover a (old sized) 50 pence piece. Bring 'em back!!

Super short skirts in school is definitely not new. I remember starting in year seven and one of my friends older sisters stormed down to yell at her for having her short shorter than hers, when she was in year eleven! I don't even know why we did it. Was all girls, there was no one to impress, and the skirts were pleated so it looked crap.

I wouldn't especially worry about it translating into out-of-school taste though. As soon as we were allowed our own clothes everyone just wore jeans religiously.

Or you can take the approach of the school where DH teaches, and make the skirts floor length . They look awful but it does solve the problem. Of course, instead the girls just unbutton their shirts to around their navels...

Short skirts in school used to shock me but I think they have become so much the norm that nobody in school notices any more. Might this be a good thing?