...to think that school uniforms are rubbish and sexist?

[Annahmolly]

Just saw a lovely little girl in Starbucks with her mother. She was around 12 and sitting on an armchair, pulling her legs up to get comfortable. The ridiculously short, flimsy piece of material posing as a skirt rode up so high that her legs were almost uncovered. This is in March - most other people in there were in winter clothes. The silly knee-socks hardly made things much better, covering only half the leg. Surely thick, black tights would be much better, if schools absolutely must make girls wear skirts? It seems as though uniform regulations require girls to look "cute" and "feminine" at the expense of feeling warm and comfortable. The shoes are silly too - not appropriate for cold and wet weather, and neither girls nor boys ever seem to be wearing proper winter coats with their uniforms. What's with that?

Excuse my ignorance on this, but I did not grow up in Britain, so I don't know why these rules exist. I dread sending my daughter to school freezing cold just because some school regulations dictate that she has to show off her legs in a stupid little flimsy skirt. It restricts movement and is, in my opinion, sexist.

I would rather DSs got ink on a white school shirt than on a Holister/Superdry/Stussy one.

I don't think they are sexist now. In my day (going back a few years now) there were less Asian kids at school so the girls weren't given the option of wearing trousers. The Asian girls wore trousers made from sari material under a skirt. I was ridiculously thin (wore my primary school skirt as a gym skirt) so had to have my skirts made as shop bought would've been arse-freezers. I would have loved the option of trousers, elastic waist or not.
Could it be that this 12 yr old was a skinny minny and in an age younger and therefore shorter skirt?

Thanks for all your answers! Really interesting to learn about this. I really thought that a uniform was just a uniform without any choices, options or alterations possible.

I have, however, read in the news about some schoolgirls who felt uneasy having to wear white, slightly see-through gym tops and skirts for PE. That seems very silly. Who wears a skirt for sports, unless it's tennis? They had managed to push through a new PE kit of quarter-length tracksuit bottoms and a top that was not see-through. Does this mean there is no choice when it comes to PE gear?

I guess my main reason for thinking about this is that I have a baby daughter and I remember how that sexual harassment and unwanted attention from the boys was just a normal part of life from a young age. (And I wasn't even particularly pretty, popular or early to develop!) I would never have chosen to wear a skirt to school at age 12 because the boys would have tried to lift it up and been gross about it. :(

School uniforms are a great idea and cut out a lot of the competitiveness amongst teenagers regarding clothes, labels etc.
No schoolgirl is forced to wear a short skirt. That would have been her own choice. When I was at school we were expected to wear a skirt that came down below our knees, almost touching the top of our socks, so very little bare cold legs exposed. There was also no issue about us wearing woollen tights, or flesh coloured tights under socks (never went for that look myself).

Like some others, I like school uniform because it eliminates any arguments in the mornings over what should be worn, although my daughters still manage to snipe at each other over who has swiped whose pair of totally identical black tights or PE shirt, yadda yadda.

The problem I do have with uniform is not that it is sexist, it is the expense. Not so much at primary school, but at secondary school it all had to have the school logo embroidered on it, and came from specific suppliers only. Same for PE kit. That makes it VERY expensive because the suppliers then have a captive clientele.

I have hardly been able to use hand me downs with my three daughters either. Each time the next one moved up to secondary school I found that there had been just enough relatively subtle changes to the uniform & PE kit to necessitate having to buy almost the whole lot all over again, costing around £200 a time. With my eldest it was more - different school and hers was £400!!!

This is what should be stopped, IMHO. It just isn't fair on parents, some of whom struggle financially.

I wore 2 pairs of black tights under my school skirt in winter. We weren't allowed trousers.

You'd have loved our primary OP. The boys had to wear short trousers until year 6!!!

Ha you should see how short the skirts and how flimsy the clothes are when there is no uniform!

Do you imagine teenagers ( and I know you are talking about a 12 year ) going to school with no uniform would choose warm and sensible clothes !!!
Mine don't have uniform btw can you tell ?

No trousers at DDs school but skirts/ tunics should be knee length and in winter tights (warm ones) are recommended. Shoes must be black but can be lace up warm ones or Mary Janes. You can dress warmly within uniform guidelines... A teenager may choose to do otherwise

We have no uniform and most of the kids show up in jeans. There's no bickering or angst in the mornings as getting ready involves grabbing a pair of jeans and a tshirt out of the wardrobe (or off the floor, if you are my 12 year old).

My dd in the equivalent of Y10 occasionally wears a dress or skirt but it's rare enough that people remark on it (probably 3x so far this year). They've all grown up with no uniform so there is no particular rebellion value in clothing, and most of them want to look just like their friends.

Honestly, all the terrible things that they tell you children will do if allowed to wear their own clothes don't happen. We don't even have any dress code - the only thing banned as far as I know is very short shorts.

Thing is if you've got DC's who have grown up with uniform and the occasional mufti days then you get a skewed view of what they're like when they don't have to wear uniform.
Even DS (14) who lives in trackies and hoodies out of school gets all angsty about what to wear on mufti days, and my friend who teaches in a high school is convinced the students are much more over excited daft when not in uniform.