AMIB to ask high school to rethink banning skirts for year 7?

[MaggyMays]

AIBU… My daughters about to start high school and they have decided to introduce a new uniform policy with no skirts allowed for just the year 7’s. The years above them can have the choice! This seems grossly unfair. I'm sure its not following the guidelines correctly. Has anyone else come across this?

I think it's better, i have a DD in year 8 and all the girls wear skirts that are ridiculously short. I think a no skirts policy is better than trying to enforce skirt length rules.

I'm anti-school uniform and I'm especially anti ridiculous rules about appearance. But if we are going down the uniform route, I kinda think there shouldn't be a choice. Uniform is the uniform and that's it (provided free). It is weird if this rule is only for year 7 but it is not a fight I'd pick cause there are so many more problems with all these rules.

Let's hope that the style of girls school uniform trousers have improved - when my daughter was at school the design was awful - bad fabric, bad fit and made so badly the seams would tear.
My daughter had the choice - and the school was very strict and the female staff would be monitoring for length.
It is not fair for young teenage boys whose testosterone development is ahead of their brain development to be exposed to thighs and knickers in school (should keep themselves under control doesn't come into it they are also still children)

It's a normal way to phase in a new uniform so the older years can continue to wear what they already have. The skirts at my dds school are ridiculously short. Literally just below the pants. Not great when they walk upstairs. So I can see why trousers would be easier.

Our school did this. Year 7s had to wear trousers and onwards as they went through the school to phase out skirts. People frothed, but many people agreed with it. The following year they decided to forget the phasing out and told all years that trousers were mandatory from September. More people frothed, more people agreed, but school just shrugged and everyone moved on quickly.
Save your energy op!

Edit to say - the rule was any vaguely smart black trousers, they didn't have to be specific school ones.

If they are phasing our skirts I don't see the problem.

Trousers are much more practical anyway.

As a parent of a year 7 I'd be against banning skirts. Trousers can be very unforgiving at times, and most styles of girls trousers show the shape of underwear so heaven help any girl wearing pads during a period.

"Trousers can be very unforgiving at times, and most styles of girls trousers show the shape of underwear so heaven help any girl wearing pads during a period."

For many years trousers were the preference over skirts and I don't remember that coming up as an issue.

Part of the issue now is that when I was at school no one involved their parents in school uniform issues whereas now schools have to deal with parents complaining about their teenager being in trouble for wearing too short a skirt etc.

It’s not that at all, and you know it.

Part of me wishes my daughters school would ban skirts! I'm sick of seeing my year 8 daughter with her skirt rolled so high I can almost see her knickers!

I don't know a single secondary school that allows shorts overalls or jumpsuits as part of the uniform.
DDs school specify a certain type and brand of skirt. On some girls it is too short (without rolling) on other girls it is too long.....hence rolled.

Of course kids will find a way to get round a trouser rule and start wearing leggings or similar I am sure....but if you really think its easy to police teenage girls skirt length I invite you to come and watch my kids walk to school. Their skirts must lose 3 inches in the 10 minute walk.

To be fair if the young girls stopped walking around looking like complete prats with their skirts rolled up to their necks this wouldn't be happening.

It is not fair for young teenage boys whose testosterone development is ahead of their brain development to be exposed to thighs and knickers in school

While I think trousers are generally more practical for most things, it is not fair for young teenage girls to be exposed to the view that they should dress for the comfort and convenience of men.

Seriously!
You are worried about the boys?

Maybe this is the problem with boys today....their mothers make excuses for their misogynistic behaviour and SA on females!

DD has been a swimmer for many years. Despite spending hours and hours with boys the same age wearing a swimsuit she has never been subjected to harassment or assault by those boys.
The behaviour of (some of) the boys at school on the otherhand is absolutely disgusting and is fully deliberate and often planned and has nothing to do with what she is or is not wearing.

most styles of girls trousers show the shape of underwear so heaven help any girl wearing pads during a period.

if their trousers are so tight that people can tell that they're wearing a sanitary pad, they need a bigger size.

(And never mind the shape of their underwear, as pp have said, many girls today wear skirts short enough to show their actual underwear.)

Yes agreed but some of these skirts really are too short. My own 13 year old DD and her friends roll their skirts so high that they're shorter than the blazer. Of course I tell her not to but I can't control her when I'm not there. I saw a girl walking to school the other day, about 13/14 years old and I could actually see her bum cheeks and knickers. Her skirt was more like a thin belt that covered only half of her bum.
This isn't about girls changing their clothes to suit men. It's about decency. You don't see the buttocks 14 year old school boys so why is it acceptable for girls? Perfectly reasonable to say that no boys or girls expose their buttocks or underwear at school, for goodness sake.

As long as the shapes of trousers allow for different bodies.

Girls have a lot of shape variation, and it was very hard getting uniform trousers even for my boys due to lack of variety.

There has been a thread in the last day or so about tights. A trousers or shorts rule would save thousands of pairs of tights going to landfill.

Thanks all. Great feedback. I'm not battling with them, I didn't originally explain that I just wanted a reason behind the decision as to why not apply new rule to all, and it to be communicated more effectively. The school is a through school and the girls wear black skirts in both campuses, so I already have uniform for the bottom half for my child going up to year 7 which comprises of skirts.
The new policy was not communicated to all parents by email or published on their website, so its unclear. I thought the uniform should be ‘fair to all’ according to the education hub .GOV website? Maybe I'm not understanding correctly what this means.
They told the kids first, at a transition assembly and my daughter came home telling me about it, hence I questioned it? School didn't explain the change properly or what the phasing in process looked like at the parents evening 1 day later, which some could not attend. So it was a complete surprise to some parents who have only just found out through their kids talking about it. So not sure this is quite right? I understand some changes are important but it seems a bit late to tell parents who are already part of the through school in year 6 and have uniform in place.
It’s a phasing in measure starting this year with year 7 onwards. They are yet to send an email to all existing school and new parents and as much as I don't like the new rule, and I am not expecting them to change their minds, at least communicate with more professionalism and urgency.

Thanks for the links. Appreciate your views, really helpful x

I wear trousers most of the time and have never been concerned someone can see my pad if I'm on my period!
As long as there's flexibility in trouser style and supplier there shouldn't be an issue. My DD's school is just "black trousers, no jeans" so they can buy a style that suits

Any mother/sister/grandmother of decent, respectable boys will be worried - boys are also trying to come to terms with becoming adults. They will sit quietly at school and be good friends with girls but can feel uncomfortable and upset.
There will always be some boys who do not respect women but quite often will not respect other males as well and will egg each other on.
I as a middle age woman do not wish to see a teenagers arse - whether male or female and it is not appropriate in a classroom.
Just make school uniform trousers fit better could do with a Jamie Oliver equivalent in the clothing world.

YANBU.

If it's about skirt length, the solution is to make a rule that skirts have to be knee-length or below, or something along those lines. Not to ban skirts.

My body shape (15 inch waist/hip difference which stays roughly the same regardless of weight gain/loss) means that I have to get standard sized trousers altered to fit me properly. As a teenager I couldn't afford to do this so wore skirts and dresses. I think the only trousers I owned were baggy tracksuit bottoms.

The same girls who wear buttock-skimming skirts will be wearing very tight or low-waisted trousers, which teachers will still complain about, and meanwhile girls with very curvy or otherwise unusual shapes will lose out through not having options.

Frankly I would ban skirts full stop. Trousers & shorts for everyone. Then girls could have pockets & full freedom of movement so no mental energy is expended on sitting 'correctly' or leaning over safely. There's nothing practical about skirts.

The short skirts are out of control & I'm no prude. It's every girl at my son's school rather than just the tricksy ones from my school days. They all wear shorts underneath - THAT'S how short they are. Weirdly the moment they go to college it stops 🤷🏼‍♀️

What the current summer uniform? Ours switched to PE Kit after May half term which is surprisingly sensible for a school that doesn’t allow kids to take off blazers without teacher permission.

I know that you can get shorts in bigger sizes online but they aren’t available in cheap places like the supermarkets so the PE Kit option is the cheapest and most comfortable compromise imo.

The actual uniform policy is “fair to all”. Fair doesn’t mean they have to treat every child the same. It means that they can’t decide to impose a trousers policy only on children with blue eyes or have a policy that boys have to wear a much more expensive uniform than girls. Introducing the new uniform from y7 upwards is a perfectly rational way of transitioning a new uniform. Would it really improve anything for you or your child if they applied it to the older children too?

It is unreasonable that the policy has not been properly communicated to parents or put onto the website - the school is obliged to do this. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask school for a copy of the new policy and point out the very late nature of their communication on this. That differs from suggesting they should rethink the actual policy.