Sexist school uniform policy?

[Bmidreams]

I was just wondering what other's thoughts were on this new uniform policy at a secondary school?

All students can wear trousers but it is fashionable for girls to wear skirts there, and most girls choose to do so.

New policy says that students can now only wear a new type of school skirt that has the school badge on. One skirt costs approximately £20.

Trousers can continue to be any type from any supermarket at approximately £8 each.

Would you consider this policy sexist? AIBU that I think it is?

I'll leave aside the covid 19 issues of not introducing expensive uniform at this time, more uniform probably needed as it will need washing every night etc.

Nope it's not acceptable for adults to he perves either.

Not being disgusting is hardly a high standard ffs.

Our primary school returners are asked to wear uniform because it's one link to normality in a world that looks very different at the moment.

The secondary school we will be moving up to requires both trousers and skirts to be the official one from the nominated supplier, with the school crest on it. No more supermarket bargain trousers or skirts for us and the prices are eye watering. The girls I've seen still roll them up.

When I was at secondary school (a long time ago!) the uniform policy was allegedly so the children had something to push against rather than breaking more serious rules. But all our teachers were basically liaises-faire hippy types who were happy to engage with motivated learners but I'm sure a proportion of children fell by the wayside. Oh and we weren't allowed to wear trousers, at all.

British people really are weirdly obsessed with school uniform. Most people on these threads support it, yet complain that it is expensive, doesn't fit their child, is sexist, impractical. Apparently it prepares young people for some mythical world of work where women are (a) allowed to wear a skirt that barely covers their arse and (b) get absolutely no comments from men whilst wearing said skirt. Uniform supposedly prevents bullying and peer pressure, but in reality it results in teenage girls being pressured into wearing indecent clothes. Meanwhile parents are forced to pay huge sums for the impractical, uncomfortable clothing that their children don't even like wearing. Teachers spend half their time enforcing uniform rather than teaching.

Meanwhile in the real world, most jobs require you to be able to wear something suitable that isn't uniform. Surely you will be more able to do that if you have always had to choose your own clothes for school. Jobs where uniform is required are easy - employer provides it or specifies it, employee wears it or doesn't get paid. Even if the trousers don't fit (and often they don't in my experience - you just get on with it - your mum doesn't take it up with your employer to insist they allow a skirt instead).

@SnackSizeRaisin I agree. There is no evidence that school uniform achieves the things claimed for it.

At work I see a lot of new starters, first job out of education and a fair few young men turn up in what looks like their school uniform: badly ironed white shirt, black trousers, badly tied tie. Eventually they learn how to dress properly but it takes a while.

Britain is not the only country with a school uniform!

One of the most useful things the Department for Education could do right now is issue a blanket ban on schools introducing new uniforms for at least a year, and also to require that no uniform should cost more than average chain store pricing. People have already wasted a lot of money on uniform that they bought this year, particularly if they bought it in the spring term, and so many more families are struggling financially.

@Bmidreams

I don't think it is obvious. Hardly any girls wear trousers. Now girls are having to pay more than double for what they normally wear.

It is advised to launder clothes every night due to covid.

Wearing skirts is still a choice though.

The main advantage is that it doesn't create divisions of the have and have nots. Yes uniforms are expensive in some cases, and people are still bullied because it's too small, has holes in etc; but far more would be if everyone was waltzing around in Nike clothes whilst you had Primark on. Also the regulations would have so many possible infringements it would be a nightmare.

Yet in the many, many schools that don't have uniforms, this doesn't happen in practice, and schools manage fine without lots of regulations. In practice most children end up turning up in jeans and comfortable tops.

When there is a big disparity in the cost of girls and boys uniforms as a result of a choice to make one second buy a logged item but not the other, then it is an issue.

If the school had to subsidise all skirts bought so that they only cost the parents £10 instead of £20 I’m sure there would be uproar at the waste of school funds but they are quite happy th impose those additional costs onto parents of girls.

Dc’s School only have logoed jumpers rather than blazers which is one cost saving and removes a layer of uncomfortable items to wear daily. However they have to wear them at all times - if they want to take them off they have to stick their hand up to ask permission in the lesson they are in, then put it back on to go to the next lesson where they have to ask again. Eventually around mid June, once the weather is nice and warm they finally issue a decree to say no jumpers needed so they no longer need to ask permission. To me it’s crazy - when I was at school we had coats and/or blazers that got hung up on your peg in the cloakroom - blazers were definitely seen as outdoor wear - and whether or not you wore your jumper was up to you. If you had stopped to ask the teacher for permission to take your jumper off they would have thought that you were both rude and impertinent for interrupting the teacher and daft for not knowing whether or not you wanted your jumper off - it’s a decision that most people are able to decide on and action from being tiny. Just occasionally (school photo, carol service, prize giving etc) there would be a decree about having jumpers on or off and all being smart but. Those were rare occasions and for a reason.

With covid they have said to the y10s that they can go in own clothes to be comfortable. Which implies that uniform isn’t which again is crazy.

I think they should have a much more relaxed uniform - jeans, chinos, joggers, cargo trousers, long shorts, skirts, all in plain darkish colours with a school t shirt, polo shirt and hoodie. Comfortable, cheap and easy, plus they can add extra official T-shirt’s etc for different things like prefects or sports or house etc.

IME of living in a non uniform country no major rules were required. Students would wear what was comfortable.

No uniform made getting my potential school refuser DS into school far easier. He was able to wear his favourite dinosaur tee shirt (little did he know that he had many dinosaur tee shirts). No scratchy fabric.

All that school uniform does is teach students to dress without thought.

@LatteLady I just wanted to say thank you for the links.

YABU

I went to a primary school with no uniform. I was bullied horribly as my parents couldn’t afford designer clothes (well they could of the stopped smoking and my father wasn’t a functioning alcoholic but that’s another story). All the kids had nice clothes and the few that didn’t were outcast. Uniform at secondary helped a lot.

When I went to secondary it was skirts for girls and in the West of Scotland it is pissing and cold for the majority of the school year it was miserable. We asked to wear trousers and got told no, We campaigned against the sexism, we got petitions, went to the local papers, wrote to the governor’s, wrote to MP’s and did a walkout. We won and could wear trousers. Not bad for a bunch of school kids. We were proud to wear trousers and very rarely wore the skirt. I still prefer trousers and i am very tall with long legs. Next and Dorothy Perkins standard trousers fit a 31” inside leg and are even a bit long.