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 don’t have to send them to any school if you are so vehemently against their rules.

You just know though that if they introduced uniforms which are tailored with beautiful fabrics in the UK it would cost ££££££££££ the shit ones are pricey enough

I think it’s almost perverse - I would absolutely hate anyone to physically measure the length of my daughter’s skirt.
Girls have rolled their school skirts for ever - schools could simply do a trouser option but they don’t, lots of schools don’t allow trousers as an option.

And don’t get me started on the skorts they insist upon for PE..for any girl with hips or a bottom they are like knickers and for some reasons that’s ok but skirts over the knee are not?

You’re honestly fine with teenage girls having skirts so short they show their arse cheeks, and their entire arse at times when they walk up the stairs?

teachers don’t want to go to school and see arse cheeks. It’s gross. Arse cheeks shouldn’t be on chairs for other kids to use. Also gross. If kids insist on rolling their skirts up so their arses are on show then it absolutely is the business of the people forced to be near them.

it’s also the business of the parents but as your post shows, many of them just don’t care

@justasking111 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.

Hardly any state schools in France have uniforms, if it did it was likely private and that’s why the uniform was expensive. The same goes for private schools in the UK.

This.
women who don’t work in a school don’t realise how awful it is to have 15 girls per class showing their knickers/bum cheeks.
it embarrassing for them and just horrible.

I absolutely do as I need to work and they need an education. I'm wondering what the school skirt length of mid thigh as described in the OP has to do with their education though. Like I posted, other countries manage to deliver an education without a uniform, my family are testament to that absolutely working!

Are you suggesting that people can't have an opinion on the state of education in this country, no ideas, no thoughts, no challenges, just complete unquestioning loyalty to a system that definitely has room for improvement. That's not to say things don't work well but on a public forum where we are debating a topic, it is absolutely ok for someone to have their opinion. This doesn't mean you encourage your children not to have respect for the teachers, to follow the school rules as however pointless you may think they are, you will have the unfortunate consequences of detentions etc. However, it is perfectly ok on a discussion forum to question, is this how education in Britain should look in 2025? it is also a good place to inform those who evidently don't step foot in commercial or any other offices, that schools don't need to prepare children for working in offices with dress codes from the late 90s! Of course if they are going into the Armed forces or Emergency services, a uniform is expected to be worn!

@Goldenbear Of course if they are going into the Armed forces or Emergency services, a uniform is expected to be worn!

Ridiculously disingenuous. There are significantly more careers than two that require uniforms and almost all office work will require a professional dress code and arse cheeks on show is always going to fall outside an office policy

This is such a good point and maybe shlkld
be explained as a reason to those wearing short skirts - may embarrass them into wearing slightly longer ones or skorts.

If they did try and get the kids to conform they'd be told to f off and mind their own business and not just by the kids but their parents.

I do understand the kids reluctance to comply, out of school many of the girls around here wear next to nothing. When I was younger I'd have been told to get dressed properly by my parents, these days anything goes. Want to sit in the park in knickers and bra snogging your boyfriend, fine, go for it.

My journey to work takes me past a couple of secondary schools, one of which is fee paying. Interestingly, the fee paying girls’ skirts are obviously not rolled over, they seem to be slightly above the knee, whereas at the other school there’s clearly a competition as to who can get away with the shortest skirt, so much so that underwear can often be seen when walking behind the girls.
There’s a time and a place for certain clothing - this weekend in my local village hundreds of people going to Parklife were very scantily clad in things like micro bikinis with crochet vests over the top and knee high boots leaving nothing to the imagination. Queueing up in Greggs for a sausage roll they looked so underdressed but I imagine in the actual venue they fitted in perfectly. Even my adult DD said she wanted to offer a couple of them a cardigan to cover up - and she’s definitely of the body positivity generation!

I really wish more schools would consider shorts for girls. Or culottes. Or skorts. Problem solved.

This. Hard not to see them when they are walking up the steps of a railway station bridge in front of you.

That's not what the OP questioned though, they asked about mid thigh skirts, your 'arse cheeks' interpretation is a sensationalist spin on the question. I rarely see this locally, I think it depends on the school and the type of tribe you belong to.

Do you work in an office, if so it just be a very formal one if you can't wear a mid thigh length skirt? Also, I am curious to know how the conversation goes, the discipline procedure (of the 1990s) that addresses the mid thigh length skirt, is it along the lines of; "Now look here Isabelle, you cannot be wearing that thigh length skirt with shorts underneath or tights and certainly not bare legged 😱 or hairy legged come to think of itz do you understand how distracting that is to the perverts in the office, you are on a written warning"🙄

One secondary for us in a rural location,

That should be thay the girl should be able.to bend down without revealing her arse and people walking up the stairs behind her should not be flashed with a view of her arse imo

Oh they know round here. Parents evening they walk in with their parents with skirt not even visible under their blazer. I’ve seen mums on FB asking where to take school skirts to get them shortened because their dd wants to dress like everyone else. The sooner school uniform is scrapped the better imo. Unless worn completely properly it just looks scruffy. So much nicer this week to have the kids in PE kit all the time because of hot weather. Much more practical and comfortable than the kilt and blazer polyester combo.

I know what I'm wearing for work tomorrow, then.

Tiny skirt, rolled over a few times so I get a nice, sweaty waistband. And my headteacher best not challenge me, because a. Why is he looking at my skirt?and b. It's my choice.

We all know how practical tiny skirts are... in all weathers.

I sometimes think these threads is full of the kind of blokes who give my 13 Yr old the eye, when she's in shorts and crop tops.

Your choice to live in a rural location.

It makes me genuinely sad for the girls I see with extremely short skirts. Why are they trying to sexualise themselves?

Mid thigh fine - although kilts / pleated skirts are more flappy in the wind so I’d prefer just above the knee max. The length of some straight skirts is often ridiculous, barely skimming knickers. I think they’re awful, just attracting the eyes of seedy blokes, lusty teenagers and horrified women!!

The OPs daughter had a mid thigh length skirt, so many of you pearl clutchers now translating that into barely skimming the arse is ridiculously hilarious!

And I don’t see how the teacher can issue a detention for something that didn’t occur in school.

I live near a few schools - sick of seeing teenage girls in glorified belts wandering past - i am all for self expression but its too much. I know the slutty look is popular, but I dont see why adults should be condoning it.

Where I live parents often cite short skirts as a reason they choose to send their DD to private schools so they learn to ‘respect themselves’. My DD went to a state school and wore a very short skirt. Now she’s at Uni and many of her friends are from private schools. When they go out they all dress the same. When they go to the beach they all wear tiny bikinis. Obsessing over skirt lengths has done nothing to influence how they dress in the real world. My DD has an office job over the Uni holidays and knew without being told what the dress expectations would be. She has had PT jobs with uniforms and wore the polyester polo shirt, cargo pants and covered shoes without an issue.

Maybe they’re just being teenagers and the more we insist, the more they resist.

The problem with this uniform neurosis is that it is symptomatic of the way education is viewed now - transactional, preparation for the world of work, look at how many posters have highlighted this comparison to a world of work that doesn't exist anymore! Education has an intrinsic value that is being lost and it is the only way to open up people's minds and understand why perhaps showing your bum cheeks isn't very fulfilling over all in life!