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.

Exactly. I saw a group of girls last week who had rolled their skirts to the extent they didn't appear to be wearing a skirt at all. Absolutely appropriate for the beach, less so for school.

It’s not hygiene 😂OMFG

It’s about decency, that’s all.

In a non uniform school, my dd has gone in this week wearing a mix of maxi skirts, dress to mid thigh, summery cotton skort or PE skort. The uniform skort is by far the shortest thing she’s worn.

A few girls wear micro shorts, but apparently no micro skirts, and the tiny shorts thing is a Y8/9 phase that the older girls look at with amusement.

You don’t need to look hard when they’re simply on display.

The OP has just posted that they aren't showing anything, so mid thigh as they originally stated in their OP.

What sexualisation? Most posters in here want these girls to stop sexualising themselves, especially at school.

Yes, but the conversation has expanded to discuss the problem in schools in general, and how difficult it is to have a rule that works/whether there needs to be a rule.

The question in OP 's thread title encourages that discussion.

Yes, it's funny isn't it, my DS's sixth form college, nearly all girls are wearing clothes that cover them far more than the prescribed uniform.

Yes I agree. Where I'm from uniforms aren't q thing and kids can express themselves in normal clothes and don't feel the need to alter how to wear it as they already choose what it is. So a skirt is worn at the length it was made as etc.

But this isn't absolutely the case, you state that like it is. I personally don't see this on a scale that is described on here at DD's school, it must be dependent on area, it isn't a universal problem.

The obsession with this issue is distracting from what school is their to deliver - an education. Perhaps if the Intrinsic value of that was focused on as opposed to endless uniform rules, the children involved would find more fulfilling pursuits.

There not, "their".

Throughout my life, I have seen far more male arse cracks and underpants on display than female ones. Neither are a good look if you want to be taken seriously.

Kilts don't solve the problem...they just look worse and wonky.

It isn't an issue at the school my DD attends, it has solved the issue but again, it isn't a universal issue.

The girls are representing the school

The school does not want to be associated with girls showing their arses in public hence why they are strict on the uniform

one of the things that frustrates me as a manager is the conversation with staff members about wearing uniform correctly.

conversations are things like suitable footwear when people have came in in crocs or open toed sandals, asking people to not customise their uniform and general cleanliness.

Ensuring standards are kept at school will help during employment.

I agree with you there - just ditch uniform. Other countries manage perfectly well without it, many outperforming the UK.

I mentioned to my friend that i was very taken aback by how short the skirts were worn by girls at our local high school, and she gave me a look and then reminded me of the time I was sent home to change because my skirt was the same length as my blazer. That would have been in the late 60s.

Right. So if the issue is "overcome", why is the OP complaining?

The trouble is, every time teachers lobby to do this, parents complain.

Could be Rugby

This has reminded me that there was a really gross study once about the bodily fluids that get onto office chairs just from sitting on them..

I grew up in a India and in a conservative society so this stuff is unusual to me. I don't really like it when my daughters wear something too revealing and I tell them that they should cover it up. (And then they do)

However they don't go around purposely flashing their underwear. Why do girls want people to see their underwear?

Of course they do - they’re British! And often stupid and think an occasionally non-uniform day is the same as no uniform at all.