6ft tall 12 year old DD getting skirt length violations

[TooTallDD]

I’m really annoyed about this and I am one who is normally in favour of strict uniform rules.

DD is 12 and at a Catholic school in Australia that supplies uniforms from its own school shop. DD is a 6 ft tall beanpole and wears her correct size which is the second smallest size available. The skirt is pleated and tartan with only a couple of millimetres in hemline. She has just received her second uniform violation as her skirt sits just above the knee when it is meant to be knee length. DD is always in the full correct uniform and never gets into any trouble.

I am thinking of emailing the school and putting it back on them- DD is wearing the correct uniform skirt from the school’s uniform shop, she does not shorten it in any way and if the school has an issue, the school needs to take it up with their uniform supplier and ask them to supply skirts for tall girls or at least add some hemline material that can be let down. (Although the pleats would make this challenging)

Is this a good approach? I’m ropable because in 1992 shy, quiet 6 ft tall me was hauled in front of a school assembly for a skirt length dressing down when I was also wearing the school skirt that had been fully let down. My mum sorted that with a phone call and I want to sort this for DD.

"model of shoe"?

Good grief. I hope they offer a wide range of widths front and back, and enough depth for orthotic insoles.

God, I'm glad never to need that conversation with school staff again.

How stupid are these people?!! I’m gobsmacked!

Have you spoken to the uniform supplier? The supplier for DDs' school had certain sizes and lengths on the rack, but you could special order a smaller waist with a longer length if necessary. Our supplier was meant to restrict sales so that you couldn't buy a skirt with too short a length, at request of the school.

In the Southern Hemisphere, our latitudes are equal to the Panama Canal to Seattle or Somalia to Croatia. And our longitudes run from Montana to the middle of Alaska. Strange you don’t know that Australia is big. We cover a lot of the world.

Yep, I’m with you on this OP. If the skirt design and manufacture is predicated on waist measurements and there is no ‘tall’ or ‘petite’ option, then they need to address this. I am guessing they are all the same set length regardless of waist size - approx 20”? I’d go to the shop website and check this as it SHOULD come in varying lengths to allow for different heights (and, thus ethnicities).

It’s a shame you can’t scream ‘discrimination’ for height related matters, but some ethnicities ARE taller/shorter than the white European ethnocentric demographic that clothing manufacturing bases its sizing on.

I’d be threatening to escalate to the school board if they are planning to continue penalising my child for an unavoidable consequence of their school uniform provider’s manufacturing choices. But then, I’m prone to Bolshie-ness when it comes to my kids too!

@TooTallDD As you've already been through this from your DDs perspective, I'd not hold back and go straight to the school.

You will not accept any more uniform violations - she's wearing the correct skirt that fits her. Ask them why their uniform shop discriminates against taller pupils.

Ultimately your DD (and you in the past) cannot help being tall. It's not her/your fault her knees poke out from underneath a skirt that it not fit for purpose according to their uniform code and provided by their uniform shop.

@Owly11 she said they do have trousers, but the heat is too intense for them to be worn.

my kids catholic school have a summer and a winter uniform which you have to stick to the correct uniform. We are South Australia though so not humid and it does cool down in the winter

Lol as if. My niece just started a new school in Y9. The form teacher offered them all special bandaids to help with the excruciating pain they were all jolly well expected to get from their stiff summer sandal (or else).

You could have applied to the Head for an exception to be made but you would probably have needed sworn affidavits from your doctor, your priest and the state governor, at minimum.

If you'd just turned up in your own shoe without special dispensation from On High, the school would have fallen down.

Ha! Thanks. Just looked it up on Google.

Totally irrelevant and uncalled for, but has she tried rowing? I think it's good for tall girls to find a place where their height is a positive and where they can feel like a member of a (similarly tall) group.

Take your daughter’s skirt. Go to the school shop that sells the skirt.

line them up together for the length. Take a photo.

check for any shrinkage in the wash / tumble.

Make sure you can see the new one from the shop with tags on visible and her skirt. If they are the same length (and only length the shop sells like you have said ) this is your evidence.

I would not pay for anything and take it up with the head / senior leadership team or what ever you call it in Oz (and show them the picture of the 2 skirts lined up together and an apology would be nice to your daughter too!) and needs address at school with all teachers not to tell off kids!

Good luck

I'd take it up with the school first. I have a tall son, not as tall as your daughter, but 5ft8 at 12 so still unusually tall. It is quite possible to find uniform for him, but we only need branded jumpers, trousers can be from any shop provided they are tailored and black, so we have a lot of options. I'd say either the school need to decide that trousers don't have to come from that shop, or they have to make sure the shop's stuff covers the full range of body shapes.

That's what I'd do.

Make sure you ask all the right questions and flush out that you have done everything the uniform shop makes possible.

I'm a bit on the fence about whether they should pay for any tailoring; 6 foot is tall for a school girl's skirt and sometimes you have to take the rough with the smooth. They might not sell many in those proportions - but there are upsides to being tall and slim!

ETA but I think any reprimands from the school need to stop.

I had the same issue (albeit in England and with trousers for DD14)

She isn't particularly tall but has a 33" inside leg yet only a 26" waist. Anything that fitted her waist was too short (even let down) and anything the right length completely drowned her. When I eventually found something halfway suitable DD was told they were too close fitting.

When the school phoned me, I told them in no uncertain terms that if they could find me a pair of trousers in their own spec which fitted DD correctly I'd happily buy them, but I knew they wouldn't find any because I'd looked everywhere.

Funnily enough when responsibility was given back to them they shut up complaining pretty quickly! I'd put the onus back on them, and solidarity to your daughter - it isn't easy not fitting the mould!

I would write to the school about this, yes.

I suggest that you put the ball firmly in the schools court and ask them to provide a suitable length skirt for you to purchase.

I'd put the onus back on them,

This op.

Do the shop visit then write a stern letter saying the skirt violations MUST STOP until the school have arranged for appropriate uniform provision.

If and when they do - either by adding sizes or tailoring - I think (sorry!) it kind of does fall to you to pay for it. It would be your cost of she had a growth spurt and I think we all have to suck up cost for our dc's sizings - be it short-legged with a skirt that needs taking up, waistbands that need letting out, hems that need letting down. They are our lumpy, bumpy, freaky or misshapen creatures whether that is beautifully tall and slim like your DD or something else!

Agree with everyone else: this is for the school to sort out with their uniform supplier. Your DD should not be sanctioned because they don't supply a skirt that meets their requirements.

I'm 3/4 of an inch taller than you. Not that tall, but a giant for Fife. [ETA Scotland.]

Mum would order bigger sizes in the hope of getting a longer length skirt. Nope. Not in Fife in the 1970s.

I would complain to the school as it is discriminatory - she can't help how tall she is. I wouldn't go to great lengths adding your own material unless you have the skills for this (I don't!). I also wouldn't pay a seamstress as they are not exactly cheap. The school and uniform shop must solve the issue.

Definitely go in, but hide how cross you are and ask them their advice. What should you do? If you are completely clear there is no longer skirt length don’t waste your time talking to the shop.

If they say “her skirt must be longer”, say “there are no longer skirts” and stop talking. Wait for them to come up with a solution.

Surely as girls are getting taller (from what I see) this can’t be an isolated problem?

Agree go back to the shop see what they can do but also stop the school from unfairly penalising your daughter.,

My dd is 6ft 2. She is too old to have to wear school uniform now but when she was in school mandated uniform, I used to have to buy 2 skirts and take them to a seamstress to be made into one skirt so that it was the correct length. The school should pay the bill. Sometimes our school paid and sometimes not. Muslim pupils often needed their skirts extended from knee length to floor length. It can totally be done and again the school often paid the bill.

I would complain to the school as it is discriminatory

Well its only really discriminatory unless and until they make provision for a different size.

If the school shop can alter it, it is just a normal case of needing adjustments. It gets a bit silly to call that discriminatory.

But yes, until they can do so, she should not be getting violations. It must be bloody obvious why it is short on her ...