to think parent should check the school uniform before deciding a school

[AuntiePickleBottom]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385492/Boy-wears-skirt-school-uniform-row-rule-says-wear-shorts.html

if it was my son, i wouldn't allow him to go to school in a skirt. I think it maybe because i would fear him getting bullied over it.

Schools are definitely getting sillier over uniform. It doesn't help that the idiot Gove seems to think that ties and blazers for all will magically produce better educational outcomes out of nowhere.

I think this boy has a valid point, has made it very well indeed and deserves congratulations for confronting the British culture of conformity above all else.

The secondary school I went to sold school skirts and patterns for said skirt. It solved any problem of anyone wearing one which was too short, too long, too flamboyant, etc. It also meant they were generally in stock when you wanted to buy one. I'm struggling to find knee length skirts for DD, who at 11 is already over 5ft tall, but very slim!

I think he's great

The school I went to did the same as MaryBS - they specified the pattern and you could buy ready made or DIY. Unfortunately they'd chosen an A-line, fairly straight skirt. And they had quite an active music department. With a number of cellists. They added a trouser option very shortly afterwards :o

It wasn't that long ago that boys used to wear shorts until age 13 at prep school and only went into long trousers in senior school after common entrance.
One of our local schools won't allow girls to wear skirts, they HAVE to wear trousers which I wouldn't be happy about as DD hated trousers!

Oh, just read the link as I had only caught it on the news, my sister went to Impington Village College, as we lived in Oakington a nearby village and my mother worked in Histon, small world!

If you don't like the uniform which a school requires students to wear, don't send your kid there!

Fairly straightforward to me.

diabolo: that's easier said than done in that location - Histon/Impington are two large conjoined villages and this school serves both. Nigh on all the children in those two villages go there - simple geography. And it doesn't sound as if the parents are the ones who instigated this particular protest.

As meditrina says.

Anyway, you don't pick your school based on whether it allows boys to wear shorts or not!

Not to mention, as I've already pointed out, that if they changed the policy two years ago they chose this school before the policy change.

Well done son ... a couple of points... 1. The school policy actually only states that boys must wear trousers ... now it does not state a length of those trousers (where does it state that trousers means LONG trousers?). 2. I disagree with those people who say secondary school boys would not wear trousers if they could, have you not seen what boys wear at the weekends or during the holidays?

We seem to get so hung up about ridiculous things in this country, nowhere have I seen any justification as to why the school decided to ahem drop their shorts 2 years ago. :)

My 15 year old son goes to a non uniform school which is excellent. Being half American it fits him far better, it leaves him able to wear his own 'uniform'. Getting him to put anything in the wash is a chore, and it doesn't help variety when finding any clothes that fit him is a trial!
He does not like jeans or anything formal. He wore black cargoes to his uncle's wedding - though he did deign to wear shirt, tie & his late Dad's tux jacket.
He doesn't wear kilts either.
They are probably warmer than skirts, lots of warm wool layers.

Good for him! Nice to hear of a lad willing to stand out - most of them are so prone to peer pressure it is somewhat alarming. When my home educated son started High School at 14 to do GCSEs he had long hair and asked me whether he should have it cut short. We discussed it and looked at the pros and cons and he left it - only to find a hefty yr 11 lad with long hair and a beard and to realise that his rural comprehensive in Wales was full of eccentrics! Anyway he had it cut a la Robert Pattinson a few months later and is enjoying all the attention...
But realistically few boys are strong enough to stand out from the crowd - some examples are therefore a very good thing n'est-ce pas? Let's appreciate the few!

I really don't understand the pov that a rule is a rule is a rule and should never be challenged.

Just because something has always been done one way, is no reason to suggest that it must always be done that way, or that it is the best way or the only way.

People can challenge rules and say hey, you know what, this is really not the best thing. What about this instead.

It's a very, - British - attitude, imo. It has always been this way therefore it will always be this way. So resistant to change. Very bad thing, if you ask me.

Which you didn't. But I don't care

Rules exist because there are things that need rules. But a rule can be challenged and changed and should be, if it is not sensible or relevent. It should not continue just because it is a Rule.

Hecate - Yes!!!

If we never challenged rules, we would not have:

• votes for women
• women priests in the C of E
• civil partnerships
• laws on domestic violence (OK, anyone seeing a feminist theme here?)

Rules need to be tested against the steel of common sense. This no shorts rule fails. Big time.

Good for him. His parents should be proud.

My ds always gets too hot and went to a non-uniform primary school where he wore shorts all the year round, even in the snow, as it was impossible to persuade him to wear trousers! Before he went to secondary school he kept threatening to write to Gordon Brown (PM at the time - remember him???)about the unfairness of the trousers rule but he never got round to it. He has long hair and has been subject to bullying so I'm glad to say that he's never tried anything like this as I'm sure he wouldn't get away with it. But good on this boy!

I was telling my husband about this, and he said "Rules are made by men for the convenience of men. It's not like the bible where the rules are said to have been made by God and cannot be changed! Rules, and the interpretation of rules should always be scrutinised. They should be dynamic, move with the changing world."

Good for him....Provided they were uniform shorts and not sports shorts.

I agree with Hec - rules are good, because they make sure that we all know what is expected of us, but if the rules don't work or are outdated, then they should be challenged.

I actually clapped this boy when I read the article.
Good for him to make a stand!
I can't stand wearing trousers, and if I had to do it all the way through the summer, I would not be happy. If girls can be comfortable in their clothing, then boys should have the same right.

And all those schools where the children have to wear their ties and blazers in the summer! Seriously, how have you not challenged this????

Good for him. Great post, Hecate.

I wonder if he is still wearing the skirt to school. There was a video about it on BBC and I loved how all his friends and staff supported him, like it shouldn't be an issue.

My DS is thinking of copying him (he is 11) though he can't borrow his sister's skirt as it's the wrong colour.

Apparently he didn't wear one yesterday...

here

Bless him! I never go in for complaints about discrimination about boys.. (their adult years will make up fo ranything they miss out on!) but I actually think he's right. And as for saying the parents should have stopped him for fear of him being bullied... Why?! They have obviously raised him to be a very confident chap.

I don't know nay teenage boys who would want to wear shorts though...

I'm dead against school uniform at all.

Whether many want to or not, surly the option should be there? it is not unreasonable.

I think DSs school have to wear their blazers to and from school but are allowed to leave them off in school in hot weather and they can wear short sleeved shirts. But not shorts.