AIBU to think it isn't fair for school to ban skirts and dresses

[helloall987]

My kids attend an all through school they start at 4 in reception and it goes up to 18. There is a primary and a secondary site.

From September they have changed their uniform to trousers and shorts so no school dresses, skirts or pinafores allowed. All children boys and girls to wear black trousers or shorts. No school shoes either just black trainers. The two reasons they cite are modesty and a gender neutral approach so there is no distinction between girls and boys. This is for primary and secondary school pupils. My DD loves wearing pinafores and patent school shoes. I just think think that with this policy the idea of "feminity" is being taken away.

Most parents think it is a great idea but there are a few of us who want to contest it.

Loved putting my dds in dresses when they were babies and toddlers and I made my dd a beautiful dress as a toddler. Dgd also liked wearing it

Imagine a poll of children in the uk in schools with a traditional school uniform where they could opt to continue with their school uniform or change to a non uniform policy.
I bet there would be a huge majority opting for non uniform policy.

I’m not so sure. The children are really proud of their uniform at our school. I used to feel proud wearing my junior school’s sweatshirt, I loved that it had our school’s name on. I taught at a school where uniform was optional, but the majority still opted in to it.

At secondary school it was a relief to wear uniform. As a self-conscious teenager I hated non-uniform days, as did many others. At our school there was a huge amount of pressure to wear the right branded (Adidas or Nike) clothing. Nothing else was acceptable. Trainers for PE were bad enough, they had to be branded or you would be mocked constantly. Uniform removed a great deal of pressure.

I found it was by sixth form that nobody cared. At ours anything went, from full on gothic to girls with Louis Vuitton expensive handbags. Nobody commented or cared by then though.

In non uniform schools there is no bullying or peer pressure about what you are wearing. No one cares as non uniform is the norm and not an occasional non uniform day. The standard outfits were jeans and a hoodie or shorts and T-shirt. Saved me a fortune over the years from 4-18 as they wore the same clothes during the school day as they did at weekends and holidays.

I wasn't convinced a few years ago but now I think it would be great for my youngest and I would save quite a bit of money and time not having to visit the uniform shop that never seems to be open when it says it's going to be. We've had to have the kilt adapted as DD is very thin so waist size is ok but way too short, so that's one skirt for the total of £70 after adaptations. All the P.E. uniform on top of that, school sweater which they appear to change every year. That said as they have an allowance time to purchase the new style jumper, people don't bother so you have different years wearing different uniforms anyway!

Absolutely.
I was gutted when we moved and the only choice was schools with uniforms and my girls were bullied into wearing skirts, despite both hating them. Tights had to be the right denier, too thick or too wooly would have the popular girls sniggering. The cost of bloody tights did my head in. DD one only had to look at a pair and they'd almost instantly be laddered.
I'm not sure it's been mentioned, but at least the trousers are black. Some school, somewhere is going to end up insisting on grey trousers, which would make managing periods harder for young girls.

In non uniform schools there is no bullying or peer pressure about what you are wearing

I very much doubt that's true.

DT’s were at a uk based international school with no school uniform from the ages of 4-18, their cousins attended non uniform schools in France, Belgium, US and Canada and I’m not aware of any cases of bullying over what you were wearing. It’s a non issue. No one is interested in jeans and a hoodie.

Especially with designer labels and judgey kids and uniform stops this

How many non uniform schools have your DC’s attended?

They haven’t but realistically I expect this could be an issue in the UK

We had no issues in the UK. DS couldn’t care less what he wore. DD rotated through her favourite jeans with hoodies which she got mainly from holiday locations.

That’s good

I’m sure it depends on the school and it being an international one probably had a bearing on this

My school is going over to this, thank god. I am so sick of seeing girls in tiny skirts so short you can literally see their gussets. I am constantly asking them to pull their skirts down. Some girls feel pressured to wear them short but wear short stule pants underneath and you see them hooking their skirts fown all the time. I'm all for wearing a better, comfier uniform that is less stressful for all. I know skirts have always been hiked up, but i've been teaching over 20 years and these are belts, not skirts.

Left to me it'd be jogging bums and a polo shirt.

DD was at a non-uniform primary. Zero issues around clothes. Some kids were more into their fashion come year 6 but as DD and her friends could see for themselves, being into fashion didn’t have to make you judgey and unpleasant. The type of kid who’s like that will be judgey and unpleasant about anything they can be, and I certainly had plenty of unpleasant comments made about my hair, my bag, my glasses etc in a uniform school.

Why? Have you experienced a non-uniform school?

Kids who want to be nasty about possessions and appearance will be whether there’s uniform or not. The wrong bag, the wrong coat, the wrong hair style, the wrong glasses, the wrong shoes.

Uniform doesn’t stamp any of that out.

I just think secondary uniform needs to be more inclusive with a variety of options to accommodate a wide range of people. Primary schools seem to be so much better at this, and certainly the one I work at isn’t strict on what must be worn. I’ve had to fight for reasonable adjustments to my daughter’s uniform to allow her to be able to attend and focus on her work as she would like. As she’s very academically minded and was progressing well, we weren’t taken seriously for a long time.

I didn't say having a uniform does but I don't believe that having no uniform magically stops peer pressure and bullying.

No one’s saying it does. Though that claim is often made about uniform.

What’s being said is that not having uniform isn’t the disaster so many Brits think it is. Most of Europe manages well without uniform, indeed often better than we do.

And not having uniform stops all the nonsense that’s happening in this thread. It stops teachers having to waste time policing uniform.

That’s a shame. But it’s also an argument to get rid of uniform - then your DD wouldn’t have had to suffer a single day in clothing that caused her problems. An absolute waste of time and energy.

I have done a double take at the skirt length of some secondary school pupils (showing my middle age, it was primary/secondary in my time).

We were practically in hessian sacks at that age!

I do think it makes sense to homogenise uniform but teens are always pushing barriers, it's part of growing up.

Well this will get rid of the rolled up skirts and displaying their arses tbf.

It's come to the point where unfortunately some girls do this and it really isn't appropriate, especially for teachers walking upstairs behind them and have to reprimand.

As with anything, it's the minority who abuse the rules, as in the whole of society, so drastic measures have to be put in place.

Sad I know 😞

Also the bullying from not wearing the stupid bows and designer labels at over £100 for a short wear. True and so sad.

If you showed this thread to the teachers / parents / students at state schools across (eg ) Europe they’d be incredulous.
Really don’t understand why we British are so hung up on pupils / students wearing school uniform .
If a primary reason is to reduce bullying a good question to ask might be what we are getting so wrong with our culture that we believe kids will be bullied if they wear normal clothes . Why isn’t that a problem for French , Belgian , Dutch or German people ?