to think it shouldn't cost more to kit your daughter out for school than your son

[MimiSam]

My daughter starts secondary school in September. The school is an Academy, part of a Multi-Academy Trust.
The uniform policy is that whilst boys can wear generic trousers in the right colour (so can be bought cheaply in multipacks from many supermarkets, online etc), girls can only wear one specific skirt from one specific supplier at £22 per skirt! I think it's ridiculous that parents of girls have to shell out 4 times as much as parents of boys. I want to complain and she hasn't even started yet! Has anyone else come across this?

If it's an academy the LEA will have nothing to do with it. You need to complain to governors and then the academy trust board overall. Plus Everyday Sexism is a great suggestion. Local paper if you're feeling combative.

If you complain, the school response may be to remove the skirt as a uniform option (as has happened in other schools). No discrimination then.

But she has the option to wear the same as the boys though?
You decided to go to the more expensive option so it isn't unfair. It would be unfair if girls trousers cost more. Or boys had to wear skirts and they'd ere cheaper then girls skirts

girls can only wear one specific skirt from one specific supplier at £22 per skirt! I think it's ridiculous that parents of girls have to shell out 4 times as much as parents of boys.
I think it’s disturbing if the boys trousers are £5.50 a pair. At that price they are probably been sewn by children in far eastern sweatshops.

You would be ridiculous to complain just because your DD doesn't like trousers! We all have to pay a premium for things that aren't the most basic choice, surely? Yet most of us willingly pay it for the products we prefer in our preferred colour, style, fit, etc. If the girls HAD to wear skirts that are more expensive than bog standard trousers, then fine, you would have grounds for a discrimination complaint. As it is, you don't.

Well, girls do have the option to wear trousers, but judging from what I have seen on visits, about 95% of them don't. It is the same at the primary school my daughter goes to, only a tiny number of girls ever wear trousers. Quite why, I don't know - as i said my daughter finds trousers uncomfrtable, due to her shape, I don't know about all the others. So, I don't think it is accurate to say that girls can just wear trousers if parents deem skirts too expensive. Yes, they can wear trousers, but when the vast, vast majority don't, you don't want to make your daughter feel that she stands out from the crowd, especially when transferring to a new school.

But again you can't complain school are making you spy more for a girls uniform when they're not.
You've the option to pay the same and you choose the more expensive option so you can't complain that it's more expensive when you chose that option.

But you are still making a CHOICE to pay for the more expensive option. How can you not see that? Your DD doesn't find trousers comfortable, most girls wear skirts - okay - but the option is there to wear trousers if money is a concern. You're not taking that option, therefore suck it up.

I've been teaching secondary for a long time. The problem is that boys just wear suitable trousers whereas girls modify everything eg skirt rolled over to an obscene length or seam unpicked to make a little split. Some leave the house in a proper school skirt and change into a lycra mini skirt when they get to school. They will even push it with trousers eg wear leggings. If they could be sensible with the uniform all these regulation skirts and trousers from specific shops wouldn't be necessary.

At our school girls have to wear school logoed trousers or school tartan kilts. Boys can wear any old black trousers

The girls’ trousers have a logo on the hip and the legs are a certain width - they were introduced to stop girls wearing skinny trousers/jeans/leggings

Kilts are £30 and the trousers are £25

I still see boys in skinny trousers and jeans every day though

Girls also have to have school blazers with striped lining as they were rolling their sleeves up - which are £5 more expensive than the plain lining. Boys can wear blazers with plain lining

Plus the logoed PE skort that she is to wear is more expensive than the shorts the boys wear

Pisses me right off.

Yanbu, but, it's only done because when they specify a type of skirt it gets ignored. Blame the parents who buy their kids inappropriate uniform. We also have specified skirts (and trousers actually) but we don't buy them. We've never been pulled up on it because what we do buy is appropriate so I doubt school actually notice.

School uniform shop skirt here, £24 a pop. It has a bright waist band so it can't be rolled up. Which is bollocks, 5 minutes out of the school gate and they have all done it. And it has to be below or on the knee - if a girl gets a certain number of detentions for rolling up or growing out of the skirt, they get to wear a Skirt of Shame - floor length monstrosity provided by the school.
The rest of the uniform is the same - all unisex PE kit, girls and boys blazers but they cost the same. Boys wear supermarket trousers.

At my daughters school that evened out with games kit, boys needed full cricket whites and they ain't cheap when that's totted up.

What about when the girls play cricket or rugby? Don't they need expensive kit as well? Or are they not allowed to play these "boys games"?

yeah - I think if your daughter can wear the same trousers then you can't claim discrimination of any sort.

It isn't the schools fault that your daughter doesn't like the bog standard trousers any more than if you had a son who didn't like the trousers.

On the whole though, schools with different uniform for boys and girls are sexist and should be slammed by OFSTED if it were up to me.

Swings and roundabouts. It costs me more to kit out my primary aged son than my primary aged daughter. Daughter wears white polo shirts £3.50 for 3 from Asda under a pinefore dress. Son wears logo polo shirt costing £8 each!

Oh you have no argument here, your daughter has MORE choice than the boys in the school do. If they don’t like trousers because ‘they never seem to fit properly’ they have to wear them anyway.

Your argument holds no weight because your DD is not forced to wear the expensive skirt at all. It’s a choice.

My dd is about to go into her 6th year of secondary school with the skirts bought in first year (Ireland has 5 or 6 years in secondary). She could possibly go up a size but it's not worth it for a year. Ds1 needed new trousers for the first 3 years and I think he used the same ones for the final 2 years. Ds2 is the same but only because I refuse to replace just because they are a bit short and he doesn't care either. I also do minor repairs when they manage to rip a seam or a pocket. He has 3 more years to go and I expect I'll be replacing at least twice.

So the skirts have been much better value than the trousers. I've bought cheap, generic trousers and I've bought expensive ones from the uniform shop. Quality equally poor in both.