to be annoyed that there will be a trousers uniform only at dc's secondary school from next year?

[bigbuttons]

DD ( dc number5) starts secondary in September. All her older sibs have gone/ are at the school. Her 2 older sisters are in years 8 and 10. Up until now the uniform has been, for girls, a blazer, skirt or trousers, white shirt and optional tie.
We got an email this week saying that after extensive consultation( I would like to know with whom because parents were not asked to my knowledge) the uniform for new year 7's would be 'gender neutral'. Both sexes will wear exactly the same uniform i.e new school jumper, no blazer, smart grey or black trousers, no skirts and all to wear a tie. Pupils currently at the school can continue with the current uniform but change of they wish.
There has been 'issue' with girls rolling their skirts up to basically just below their backsides and members of the public/parents have been complaining about this. The new trousers only uniform will help with issues of 'decency' it says.
Year 6 dd is horrified, she has never worn trousers in her life and quite frankly is not a good shape for them anyway, - leggings yes, buttoned trousers, no, although I have never said this to her of course. She is short and stocky, always has been.
I know many women who feel very uncomfortable wearing trousers because they don't like their legs/shape and always wear dresses and skirts.

What this this gender neutral crap?
I support both sexes wearing ties and I liked the blazer so am sad it has gone.

I think the girls should be able to wear skirts and am confused about the whole 'indecent' issue. If a girl wears a short skirt it's surely not her fault if people find it 'indecent'? It feels like very little has progressed for girls since I was at school. So, they now all have to look like boys?

I would be interested to hear people's views on this.

No. Boys choose to wear trousers

No they don't. I bet the vast majority of uniform policies state that boys must wear trousers and does not offer the option of skirts (or even shorts). There is no choice.

Well, the obvious thing to do is to give the boys the option to wear a skirt rather than take the choice away from girls. Give boys more choice. Simple.

Looks a bit silly with a tie.

Trousers/ jeans and badged sweatshirt for all would make a lot more sense.

If that actually was the reason, they would have banned skirts for the entirety of the school. However, they have just banned it for new Year 7s and subsequent years, leaving all the girls they currently have an issue with to continue to wear their skirts.. This is exactly the way my upper school introduced the compulsory tie rule. I started the year it came into force so anyone above my year didn't have to wear one. It's actually quite a common way of gradual change in high schools

This isn't the school that all the boys wore skirts too last year because it was too hot and they weren't allowed shorts is it? They all got sent home even though skirts were part of the uniform (albeit only for girls )

School uniforms have never been about choice. They are and always have been about uniformity (and conformity). The OP writes that ties, formerly optional, will now be mandatory. Where is the outrage at removing this choice? It strikes me as eminently sensible that boys and girls wear the same uniform (if they must wear uniforms at all, and I'd certainly prefer to dispense with them entirely).

At my school it was skirts only for girls, knee length strictly monitored, trousers only if it was a prolonged cold snap in winter

Before the current uniform came in at the school it was more casual, basically black trousers, skirts, sweatshirts etc, then they brought in blazers, pleated grey skirts, grey trousers, ties for boys because the head wanted it to mimic office attire. He says now he wants to make the uniform affordable, decent and gender neutral. My year 8 will have another 3 years in her current attire. I am sad to see the blazers go. The were good as coats, had pockets etc.

I'd have hated this - I prefer to wear a skirt to trousers. I still do and rarely wear trousers, preferring a dress or skirt with tights. Never indecent.

What's wrong with offering an option of skirt or trousers to both girls and boys? Why do we have to only the offer the one option?

cricket

I think you will find that i said walking down the street

I also agreed that sitting may cause issues,

I don't disagree that teachers and school staff may well see something more

But loads of posters here seem to be referring to children they see in the street

Oh and I never look indecent in a skirt or dress, even slightly shorter lengths ones especially when you have thick black tights on with them.

I think its good. I went to an all girls school and we had to wear a skirt. No trousers allowed. No summer dress and it was restriciting. We couldnt run about at break so we just sat and talked. It changed the year after i left angry

So you hated being forced to wear a skirt, but you're okay with forcing girls to wear trousers that might not want to? Bit hypocritical

As for making the uniform more affordable - would have made it dearer for me. I'm not very tall, getting hold of petite trousers in the range of styles is harder and often restricts you to dearer ones. Or you have pay to have them shortened. And even many petite ranges are a bit long too.

And why ties? How is a tie gender neutral?

I think gender neutral uniform is great but I would prefer keeping skirts and saying boys can wear skirts if they want.
If she is uncomfortable wearing trousers because of her shape at this age I think you need to work on self image with her.

She's uncomfortable wearing trousers because she finds them tight and restrictive. She loves leggings and looser summer trousers and is very happy in shorts. It's the waist bands. She knows what she likes and what is comfortable. She has a wonderful quirky dress style and happily roots through charity shops. The outfits she puts together are ace. If I'm not sure about my outfit I always ask her. Sometimes she sorts out clothes for me and I think they will never match, however, I always get compliments if I wear them . This isn't about her body image, that's absolutely fine.

Also, my older girls wear short shorts under their skirts anyway, actually they often wear leggings ( which isn't allowed of course). All three girls would like not to wear skirts actually but would rather wear leggings. I don't get the uniform code. It says they can wear thick tights and socks over tights but not footless tights or leggings. Thick tights are just like leggings anyway and if you wear socks over footless tights how would you know the bloody difference?

I think it would be better for skirts or perhaps a uniform dress to be available for girls. The reason that I suggest a uniform dress is there is probably less scope for it to be excessively short.

I'm a big fan of dd's school which has no school uniform. They're happy with it. They can express their personality without pushing boundaries. They are able to decide what to wear easily in the morning (it's not like a non- uniform day). Teachers don't have to spend their time policing uniform.

The school's "issue" is skirts being rolled up. Why is potentially doubling the number of pupils wearing skirts "the obvious thing to do"?

Trousers aren't a gendered item of clothing. If she has trouble with waistbands why is a skirt waistband not also a problem? What do the boys who are the 'wrong' shape for trousers do?

hackerdoff thank you so much for writing.
I asked my year 8 dd why she chose a skirt instead of trousers. She said she really hated wearing a skirt, it was constricting and she was always worried about showing her underwear. I asked why the didn't take the trouser option and she said she wold look so awful in them that it would errode what little self confidence she actually had. She wants leggings .

I will rite to the head and voice my concerns and complaints.

infact, may I copy you post, it pretty well says what I want to say ( lazy) obviously I will rewrite bits!

There was a group of boys in my son's schhol who wore skirts to make the point that they were given no choice whereas girls were allowed skirts or trousers. They were given very short shrift. I think a trousers only uniform is a very sensible option.

Have you followed a girl up the stairs in a short skirt. I can promise you get an eye full. I never really thought of this until it was pointed out in a consultation about uniform at DD school and then I happened to follow a group of girls up the stairs. It really is not pleasant and I could appreciate that not ideal in a mixed school.
Short skirts are an on going problem in most secondary schools. I agree with the posters who say trousers stop this.