'Schoolgirls' skirts are shorter than ever' according to a recent survey

[PCasey69]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2431512/From-mini-micro-Schoolgirls-skirts-getting-shorter-shorter-say-mothers.html

I'm very surprised this went under the Mumsnet radar, though not surprised the Daily Mail picked it up. It seems to be one of their favourite topics. An excuse to print the 'Kingsmill' ad girl again probably the real reason.

Don't know what all the fuss is about, this has been going on since I was at school (80's). Can't see why they needed a costly survey to tell us what everyone here already knows. School skirts are getting shorter, shock horror news. And will continue to do so. Get over it, most of us have a long time ago.

Both of my dd's fit into the 'shortest skirt possible' category and it hasn't affected their education so far or is likely too. If parents (like me) and schools (like dd's) are cool about it, then leave it be. Enough of these silly short school skirts stories!

[hellokittymania]

Singapore, Japan and Australia (not 100% sure about Oz) wear uniforms but many schools in Singapore use pinafores.

In Vietnam most girls at secondary wear either ao dai or trousers. Primary students wear dresses.

[funnyossity]

Some girls may have always worn school skirts short but what has changed is that (in our local school at least) no teacher will say anything to an individual girl. They do pick people up if not wearing ties, but imo they look scruffier with than without anyway as they are all worn very low down an open-neck shirt.

I feel they might as well revert to non-uniform. (Don't get me started on the girls' random blouse and cardi combos!)

[Eastpoint]

My granny was born in 1916 and got in trouble for having too short a skirt. They had to kneel and their skirts had to touch the floor. My DDs don't have uniform & almost never wear skirts.

[funnyossity]

I think non-uniform would mean jeans for a big proportion of pupils, I think that would be fine.

[Vietnammark]

In Vietnam the uniform at many of the private schools includes skorts as opposed to skirts. Yes, they often look short, but keep the girls respectable.

[hellokittymania]

Really Vietnammark? I never knew that. I have a friend who is a student at a very well-known school in Hue and girls there wear red skirts. It was the first secondary school in Hue to allow skirts.

[NoComet]

DD2s skirt is almost regulation length, pulled down and almost falling off. It never goes to school like this it gets rolled several inches shorter.

Officially they are meant to get demerits on a card for uniform infringements. DD2 has non (she's too damned hardworking and cute)

DD1 has one black mark because her skirt (bought before the crack down and not the shortest by a long way) was the same length as X's who does no work and is not cute.

X is lovely, she just hates the teacher in questions subject.

ie. petty uniform rules are only enforced when teachers wany a go at badly behaved pupils and are totally arbitrary.

[handcream]

Why do girls want to show their knickers??? Surely schools should be showing that you cannot wear what you want. Working in a job you hopefully wont wear a skirt that shows your pants so why in school?

What next, topless, what about no knickers and short skirts.

[CoolStoryBro]

My skirt couldn't have been rolled up any further than it already was and that was in the late 80's. Then also went for the skinny long skirt with biiiig jumper. I LOVED that look.

[OddBoots]

Sounds like a growing number of schools are just removing the option of skirts from the uniform, the local high here has and also specifies trutex brand trousers.

[mathanxiety]

It's ironic that something that was designed to keep the focus away from individual appearance so often results in a relentless focus on individual appearance on the part of teachers and students alike.

All the DCs were uniform free in high school in the US and all got over themselves and stopped thinking about how they looked by the end of their first week in their first year there. In their RC elementary school the constant fussing over rolled up skirts and baggy pants and nail polish and size of earrings and whether footwear was appropriate was beyond ridiculous. When there were out of uniform days (for a trip to a matinee performance of an opera for instance) one teacher in particular used to call parents if a student turned up in some verboten clothing and seriously expected parents to leave work and bring a skirt two inches longer, or a cardigan to cover a top better .

All uniforms are stupid and a waste of everyone's time.

[sashh]

Working in a job you hopefully wont wear a skirt that shows your pants so why in school?

But if you work for an employer that has a uniform then the employer provides the uniform and it belongs to them not you.

If you don't have a uniform, but have a dress code then you get to wear what you choose and you can pick something that suits you.

I think a combination of you having to spend your own money (or mostly parents' money) on something you would never choose to wear and teenage rebellion creates a lot of hassle.

Glad I teach in FE where everyone wears jeans or leggings.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Dds school skirt is short - neither me or her want it to be.

She wears a 24 inch waist 20 length. The school shop tried to sell 18 length but I took it back. The 20 waist comes just on her knee.

To get a 22 length I'd have to buy her a 28 waist which would be ridiculously big even pulled in.

I don't see why they can't make them longer. At her junior school they did small waist long length options.

[Shootingatpigeons]

The skirts at my DDs school are notoriously short. The old headmistress, 6ft tall, 60 and gay, marched in to the stage for the first assembly of the year in short school skirt, black laddered tights and pastel pashmina (the then rest of the unofficial "look" ). The school fell about laughing and when it finally subsided she fixed them with a look and then said "I think I have made my point" .

She commented wryly when she retired that maybe she would have done better in her long running battle with short skirts if she had admitted how short her own skirts were at school, it would make it a lot harder to think they were being cool.

[NoComet]

Children rebel against school for one simple reason adults seem to forget.

They have no choice, but to be there!

As adults we are not forced to choose a career that needs a uniform, if we hate our boss or 7am starts or our commute we start looking at situations vacant column.

It may take time and it may not be easy, but adults do say fuck it and start gardening companies instead of slogging into the office.

DDs have no such choices, so they rebel.

As a very wise retired HT once said to me

"The point of uniform is to give them something safe to rebel against."

[LatteLady]

I remember the joys of a twice rolled over pleated skirt in 1969. You have no idea of the skill needed to keep a level hem...

[Vietnammark]

Hello kitty, I have a 5 year old son so am no expert on skirts and don't wish to ask too many people in case they think I am some some of perv.

I live in Ho Chi Minh City. My son goes to An international school where girls wear skorts. I was speaking to a friend of mine whose daughter goes to Viet Uc and he said parents were unhappy as the school uniform was changing back from skorts to skirts.

My post did say "private schools". Living in Phu My Hung, I think all the female students going to school around here either wear skirts or skorts. NB: most of the schools near me are international schools, but not all of them.

[AuntieStella]

I think this lazy type of headline can only have been written by someone who is curiously unaware of modern history. For only someone pretty ignorant could omit mention of the 1960s - when the shortness of skirts was indeed a novelty and which is still in living memory (mine, for example).

[steppemum]

Our summer dresses were the battle ground. We mostly bought them too big in 1st year and were squeezing into them in sixth form.
We were supposed to be able to kneel in the floor and skirt touch the ground. I removing removing my belt, pulling it down, etc etc.

Our winter skirts were too thick to roll (and school too blooming cold)

My dds are primary aged and not fat, so buying a skirt in their size I have noticed that the correct waist is way, way too short, mid thigh. At least at primary they wear woolly tights.

There is a school in Kent that has very short tartan skirts with thick black tights. I think that looks pretty good.