Should skirt length matter in secondary schools?

[Holdonforsummer]

My daughter is 15 and in Year 10, she attends an all-girls comprehensive secondary school and they are obsessed with the girls’ skirt length. The skirt is like a tartan kilt and is supposed to be ‘on the knee’ but most of the girls roll their skirts to make them a bit shorter (think mid-thigh). I’m a bit on the fence about this but her school go on and on and on about it. They stop girls all the time, give detentions for short skirts, have assemblies about it, and have even been known to measure skirts and give girls long ones from the list property cupboard to wear instead. Yesterday, my daughter had just finished 5 hours of mock exams in 28 degrees and was walking home - outside school property - and was stopped by a teacher threatening detention even though she had left school. She came home furious and fed up of the whole thing. I can’t decide whether the girls just need to toe the line or whether behaviour from the school is bordering on a sexist, misogynistic obsession. YABU: the pupils need to obey the skirt rules, YANBU: The school should calm down and stop obsessing about skirt length.

You can see who never broke any school rules on this thread, hardly a shocker is it- Teenager doesn't want to conform or dress like their parents! Just because you may have been completely above tribal influence as a teenager, it doesn't mean it is regular behaviour.

She had left. She was on her way home from school, how can a teacher threaten detention in this situation? What exactly is wrong with what she did?

it’s not like she’s wearing her uniform and mugging old ladies or committing arson, just walking…… trying to get comfortable…… in 28°C heat. Sounds like common sense trying to keep cool

But part of the development of a teenager is to rebel. If there weren’t stupid rules about what to wear, I am sure they wouldn’t roll them up. And it is misogynistic - half the boys I see in uniform have their pants on show too, but they don’t get detention. There are far fewer rules for boys uniforms than girls.

Some people do.
Also many people don't actually choose the school. They are simply allocated one.

It isn't a lie where I live as a drop my DD if she's going to be late and I can see that it is a rarity. Perhaps it is your locality.

Below the knee is easier as if it's above then how far above is acceptable can be subjective, difficult to measure and easy to argue about but if it is below then it's clearer!

What is this school choice you talk of!

I see you short skirts and raise you a number of girls at my school who remove their skirts and just wear tights. Not leggings. Not even a dense denier of hosiery. We can see the 'shadow' of the top of the tights even though they try to pull their shirts/ blouses,and blazers down.
We are trying to establish at the moment if it's a social media trend or something grim like gangs.
All male staff have been instructed to not engage with them.
We are moving female staff around to cover lessons with classes that these girls are in.
Parents have said what happens in school is nothing to do with them.
The boys are incredibly uncomfortable and some of the KS3 boys are distressed because these girls are twirking in corridors or on the yard.
It's an ongoing safeguarding issue but according to SMT)SLT we are awaiting guidance. LADO is informed allegedly.

Thank you and well said.

Not to be a fuddy duddy, but I think extremely short school skirts so short you can see the pants is a bit 'tarty' imo. At my eldest's school though, rolling the skirt up is a symbol of status. Technically all girls have to wear the skirt knee-length but in practice the popular girls can roll their skirts up and the teachers let them get away with it, but the unpopular girls can't and have to wear it at knee length. So the popular girls laugh at them for it.

Because of that, most of the unpopular girls wear trousers, my DD included.

Plenty of choices when it comes to secondary.

And in school hours, yes absolutely remind them of the rules and hand out detentions.

Out of school hours, he has no right to threaten detention

My guess is Goldenbear lives in a little village (perhaps Scottish) where high schools are sparse

Depending on catchment, some of these choices are barely fit for purpose

Weighing in as a secondary teacher- I wish we could do away with skirts. Girls have been rolling them up since time immemorial and it doesnt seem to be going anywhere. Instead I have to spend a ridiculous amount of time policing short skirts.
There's an old wives tale that this is because 'it makes boys uncomfortable' but honestly, it's just enforcement of rules. In a school, we have to enforce all the rules because teenagers will soon realise if you're willing to be lax. I'd love to get rid of uniform and just enforce respectful behaviour, rather than spending my day worrying about sock frills etc.
Speaking as a mum, the amount of girls walking round with bum cheeks peeking out from school skirts astounds me.

Not where I live, unless you have just enrolled your child and they are 4 years old as the falling birth rate, well below average in this area, will result in choice at secondary in 7 years time!

"agreeing" to rules when you have no power to object or negotiate is not real agreement.

I agree with getting rid of school uniform. We are quite old fashioned in this country with regards to this, what difference does it make. I have Danish family and there is no school uniform for school aged children in my extended family.

I really want to think it doesn't matter. It definitely should not be about not distracting boys etc. It does smack of misogyny. But then I would not sendbmy daughter to a school full of girls with their arse cheeks hanging out. I don't want that to be a thing or a fight. I don't want that to be the accepted standard. I don't want her to find it the norm. Her school has mid calf length kilts and I am happy about that!

you really can’t help see it where I live. I’m on maternity leave so often sitting in a cafe or on a bench breast-feeding at lunch time / school finish time, when lots of groups of local students walk past. I’d basically need to wear a blindfold not to see the numerous underwear on display. It’s actually horrible,

I hate seeing it, would love to go and tell the girls they really shouldn’t feel the need to look “sexy” at their age, but know they’d just laugh/ignore me/think I’m an old fuddy duddy.

But it really does look awful and I’d be really upset if my daughter felt pressured to dress this way when older.

Our school was twinned with a French school for exchanges. The French girl we had to stay. The quality and finish of her school uniform was amazing. Tailored, beautiful fabrics. Put ours to shame.

I think the idea of school uniform or so the narrative went was that all children were equal on the premises, no designer gear to be seen. You concentrate on the education.

Personally I think that ship has sailed.

Don't even get me started on the 'very thin leggings'. Some of them are so thin, they're transparent. They might as well be wearing nothing.

We have to look after our girls. At this age, they're all fired up with, 'I can wear what I like,' and 'no one can dictate what I wear' but they're not aware of how many predators are out there.

In a city - yes.
In a average size town - no.
There you pretty much get a choice of School A or School B.
If you live in a village and rely on provided transport - also no choice.

I really don't think 'predators' are on my limited to preying on girls in short skirts.

Oh I was thinking of a different one but I have seen the different coloured blouses one.
I like their blouses 😂