Showing Ankles at school

[ArntNise]

I have received a text from my daughter's secondary school...

"It has come to my attention a considerable amount of female students are showing bare ankles. Please can I remind you that school uniform policy is long black tailored trousers, include pockets and fly, covering the ankles. Black socks to cover the ankles should also be worn. Skirts should be knee length with black tights. Thank you for your support."

I have read this and laughed. AIBU to laugh? How do I respond to the school?

PS I have name changed as part of my username was my name.

Mistigri
Personally, I'd send a generic reminder of the whole uniform policy to all parents and then follow up individuals on a case by case basis.

I thought part of the fun of secondary school was to see how far you could push the uniform rules?
It absolutely is. I was telling some of my tutees (who I am currently on at about uniform) tales of my own terrible.attempts to make uniform fashionable. Skirt rolling, ties worn in a funny knot, untucked shirts, twas ever thus. As I say to them, when some of them are teachers they'll be laughing (in a nice way) at the new cool.way to adapt uniform and remember the marker pen eyebrows and tiny skirts with fondness and embarrassment.

The difference more these days is that there's more parents who actively kit their children out in items that are clearly not in the uniform policy and parents who call up to complain if school expect their DC to wear the uniform (whereas when i was at school my mum's view was 'if you break the rules and get in trouble.it's your own fault'l

"What about the good old days and rolling waist bands over until you could practically see our knicks!"

Ah, now, the rairly posh schools get around that by having the girls wear calf length pleated kilt style skirts - try rolling them up to mini length and you'd resemble a teletubby.

try rolling them up to mini length and you'd resemble a teletubby
Not that it stops them and woe betide any teacher who tries to point out that said teletubby skirts (love the phrase!!) actually look silly.
We just don't understand you know.

Trying to push the uniform is a normal part of being a teen. The reason for bigger uniform problems (in my experience) is when rather than have teens do thr usual boundary push, you get enabling parents who decide to faciliate the attempt at a fashion influenced uniform.

There was another sad face DM article yesterday, with a boy wearing a diamond earring that is against uniform policy, and moaning with his mum that he'd been placed in isolation because the 'hypocritical' Head wore a similar earring. Well, I am wearing bare feet under loafers today. Guess what? I'm also wearing a stripy top, and a patterned cardigan. The whole look together is what I would term 'eclectic'. That's okay, because as an adult, the uniform policy of the school doesn't apply to me! Sorry, rant over.

Someone objecting to the most stupid fashion of many years should be applauded. It should apply to all children as there are some boys and young men who have fallen to this too.

I love the sad face articles. The people in them are usually ridiculous (and show to thr world why some schools have started to be ridiculously prescriptive in their uniform requirements).

I like the ones where the parent buys trainers, but they are black and the photo is child with sad face and crossed arms, parent with one hand on their hip and the other holding the offending item. It's textbook. Bonus points if thr trainers are expensive branded ones but the parent claims they can't afford school shoes.

But they have to wear tights with their skirt even in the heat? That’s pretty ridiculous. At our secondary school three quarter trousers were all the rage for a while. They tried to tell us off for them so we started wearing tights underneath them (it must’ve looked pretty silly in hindsight.) Eventually they caved and just let us wear them. We also didn’t need tights with a skirt, socks would do...

Think it’s pretty standard. Just trying to get away from the fashionable look as lots of them wear skinny trousers that show their ankle. I would imagine if they were wearing wider ankle trousers with socks no one would notice if they were slightly too short. It’s certainly the rule at my daughters school as she said someone was put in isolation this week for it. They are also not allowed tight trousers.

We ave the same policy at work- it is more to do with wearing socks than bare ankles.

This is a fashion thing. Just wear socks fgs. Their feet will stink otherwise.

In the school I used to work at, we had this rule. Skinny trousers weren’t part of the uniform for boys or girls, and the ankle showing trousers are all of this style. Hence them being banned.

However, on a particularly hot day I got reprimanded by my boss and smt for wearing tailored mid length trousers, blouse and suit jacket. Apparently it wasn’t fair that I wear the trousers when the kids couldn’t. I was very annoyed and pointed out that unlike the student body, staff were not required to wear a uniform, only a dress code, and therefore why shouldn’t I wear a perfectly smart office wear outfit!! Irritated wasn’t the word, and I continued to wear the trousers.

I think it is quite reasonable and hygenic to wear socks with shoes.

I can't see what's unhygienic about (clean, non-smelly) sockless feet in shoes.

I bloody hate wearing socks, they always seem to either slip down or ride up, and as soon as the weather warms up mine are off until the autumn. My shoes are so much more comfortable without!

I think uniform rules are getting ridiculous.

I went to a girls' grammar school that was notoriously strict about uniform (think hats, knee socks that had to be green or fawn, or ankle socks that had to be white, tights could only be "flesh" colour). Even we were allowed to leave our socks off when it got warm.

We ave the same policy at work- it is more to do with wearing socks than bare ankles

Goodness, that's pretty prescriptive. What sort of company/organisation do you work for? I know some city firms have very strict dress codes including, until recently, high heels for female staff!

I'm so glad I work for an organisation that has a dress code so relaxed it's practically non-existent. Both men and women are allowed to wear shorts, as long as they're a decent length and not obviously sports or beach wear. No-one wears anything particularly outlandish or indecent, but there are plenty of bare ankles and sockless feet.

I used to really resent having to spend good money on suits that I only ever wore to work when I had a job where I was important.