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Original poster

6ft tall 12 year old DD getting skirt length violations

226 replies

TooTallDD · 30/01/2026 02:26

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.

OP posts:
tedibear · 30/01/2026 09:08

I’d call the school and ask to speak to the person dishing out the violations. Ensure she doesn’t get anymore until you or them can sort something out. It’s ridiculous but they probably haven’t even thought about the fact she’s very tall and that’s why it’s coming up short.

I suspect the supplier would advise a bigger size to get the length and take it in at the waist but if it’s pleated that’s not going to work very well. Maybe better than trying to add more material though.

TheSandgroper · 30/01/2026 09:08

JohnofWessex · 30/01/2026 09:00

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.

As OP is in an Australian rural town, just asking the school to provide a non standard skirt of suitable length isn’t as easy as it sounds. The uniform suppliers may be a weeks drive away or more.

Per my first post, an appointment with the uniform shop manager who knows what is and isn’t possible then an appointment with the Head of Pastoral Care and they can both help advocate for her with the Head.

WittyTaupeFox · 30/01/2026 09:09

Why don’t you just buy longer length skirt for your daughter and take it in at the waist?

her getting in trouble for a uniform violation which is probably clear in the rules likely won’t be helping her long term in the school. Nor will making this a huge issue she could end up worrying about & affect her school academics and interactions with her teachers.

I know it’s hard but put your daughters well being at the centre of this and just help her fix the problem to not be on the wrong side of school rules.

I say this all as a previously tall child who regularly got in trouble at my all girls school over uniform.

Good luck

qoqoa · 30/01/2026 09:09

Flinderskleepers · 30/01/2026 05:52

Not Poms, British people.

For some reason this trope is still considered acceptable to use.... 🙄

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WHO is offended by ‘poms’? Literally no one.

Needspaceforlego · 30/01/2026 09:10

Gobacktotheworld2 · 30/01/2026 08:47

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.

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That's horrendous. Do boys suffer the same fate?
Why do parents pay to send kids to schools with such nonsense rules?

qoqoa · 30/01/2026 09:11

usaywhat · 30/01/2026 09:07

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.

That’s ridiculous. That’s not a physical issue

Imbusytodaysorry · 30/01/2026 09:12

@TooTallDD yes you put this back on the school! I’d probably have complained the first time tbh.

SarahAndQuack · 30/01/2026 09:14

WittyTaupeFox · 30/01/2026 09:09

Why don’t you just buy longer length skirt for your daughter and take it in at the waist?

her getting in trouble for a uniform violation which is probably clear in the rules likely won’t be helping her long term in the school. Nor will making this a huge issue she could end up worrying about & affect her school academics and interactions with her teachers.

I know it’s hard but put your daughters well being at the centre of this and just help her fix the problem to not be on the wrong side of school rules.

I say this all as a previously tall child who regularly got in trouble at my all girls school over uniform.

Good luck

This is doable, but with pleats it can look very odd. And TBH, the OP shouldn't have to!

twilightcafe · 30/01/2026 09:21

YANBU

Your daughter should not be penalised for her height. The uniform suppliers should have longer skirts available.

My daughter is a similar height and at a school with a strict uniform policy. The uniform shop will order in longer skirts on request so your request isn't unreasonable.

twilightcafe · 30/01/2026 09:22

YANBU

Your daughter should not be penalised for her height. The uniform suppliers should have longer skirts available.

My daughter is a similar height and at a school with a strict uniform policy. The uniform shop will order in longer skirts on request so your request isn't unreasonable.

RabbitsEatPancakes · 30/01/2026 09:24

The rather obvious answer is to get a bigger size and have it taken in. Don't try and add fabric to a pleated skirt, it will change the style completely.

Yes sometimes you have to pay for tailoring unless you are very lucky to be a standard size. I'm very petite and have to alter absolutely everything- sleeve, henms, waist heights. It's part of life.

XiCi · 30/01/2026 09:26

I cannot wait for my daughter to leave school this summer because of stupid shit like this, it is exhausting and the stupidity mindboggling. I absolutely would have called the school the first time this happened. Your daughter shouldn't have to be dealing with this just because shes tall.

fashionqueen0123 · 30/01/2026 09:27

I would have complained after the first one! Complain now. That’s totally ridiculous. Ring them today. Ask why she’s been told off for wearing uniform you bought from the school supplier and why are they lacking such common sense!

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 30/01/2026 09:30

Bat it back to the school for a solution.

First stop find out if the supplier offers any different lengths of skirt. Assuming they have one standard length then ask the school how they would like you to proceed, The onus is then on them to either suggest you get the skirts altered - at whose expense? Or whatever other nonsense they want you to try and execute. Longer petticoat than the skirt in the same colour perhaps. A pleated skirt outside of the school supplier? Knee surgery? I’d love to hear it.

XiCi · 30/01/2026 09:30

I can't believe that you haven't already called and supported you daughter to be honest

EdithBond · 30/01/2026 09:32

This would enrage me. Have the school got no common sense?

I’d ask them to purchase an acceptable skirt for your DD and say you’ll reimburse them. Maybe if they have to procure the uniform they insist on your DD wearing, they’ll quickly realise it’s unavailable.

And what’s their reasoning on skirt length just above the knee, at an all girls school in the tropics? Surely, it’s v common for people of all sexes and ages to wear shorts or skirts above the knee?

PluckyChancer · 30/01/2026 09:34

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Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

EdithBond · 30/01/2026 09:37

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 30/01/2026 09:30

Bat it back to the school for a solution.

First stop find out if the supplier offers any different lengths of skirt. Assuming they have one standard length then ask the school how they would like you to proceed, The onus is then on them to either suggest you get the skirts altered - at whose expense? Or whatever other nonsense they want you to try and execute. Longer petticoat than the skirt in the same colour perhaps. A pleated skirt outside of the school supplier? Knee surgery? I’d love to hear it.

100% Instead of pointing out problems, it’s more constructive to offer solutions.

Namechangerage · 30/01/2026 09:39

TooTallDD · 30/01/2026 02:49

Thanks for this advice. I might start at the uniform shop and play dumb. Say that DD is getting skirt length violations and ask for skirts in her size but in the longer length. Which of course don’t exist. My hard line is that I am not going to pay for any tailoring, especially as DD will develop in the next year or so and will go up to larger skirt sizes which should be a bit longer.

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Yes or the school should pay for tailoring, or suggest other suppliers! This lies firmly with them and your DD should not have any sanctions. I would be down there demanding to speak to the headteacher.

PumpkinsAndCoconuts · 30/01/2026 09:39

TheSandgroper · 30/01/2026 02:40

I would. (13 years Australian Catholic school parent). I would make an appointment with the uniform shop manager in the first instance.

With the manager, try on everything. Find one that’s long enough and push for the dressmaker they have on tap (and they should have one for blazer pocket changes etc) to alter it. Ask what they do for other kids who don’t fit the cut.

After the uniform shop manager appointment, go through your list of Assistant Principals and choose the one that most fits. (Not Academic or PD). Not Head of Year. Someone over him/her. Perhaps AP of Pastoral.

If no joy, then start going to the P&F meetings and bring it up there. Principal and an AP should be there so you can talk to them face to face and get it minuted that you are having problems with the uniform policy. Their comments will also be minuted. We had a change of uniform that took place over three years and I got the principal to say “oh such and such will be fine”. A teacher pulled me up on it at a meeting once and I just said “your boss told the P&F meeting …”

This!!

TheSandgroper · 30/01/2026 09:41

Namechangerage · 30/01/2026 09:39

Yes or the school should pay for tailoring, or suggest other suppliers! This lies firmly with them and your DD should not have any sanctions. I would be down there demanding to speak to the headteacher.

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There is no other supplier. The school has a long term contract with their supplier to provide a particular style in a particular fabric pattern. There is nowhere else to go.

MrsMoastyToasty · 30/01/2026 09:42

How does the length of her skirt affect her ability to learn?
Ask them that.

Tell them that the next size up may not necessarily be longer in length, but wider in the waist. Do they want her to show her underwear?

(I went to a private school in England with a very unusual uniform and very strict rules).

JassyRadlett · 30/01/2026 09:42

Gobacktotheworld2 · 30/01/2026 08:34

Yeah agree. Australian girls' schools are fussy and anal about the appearance of uniforms down to the shade of permissible hair ribbon, shade of white for socks, model of shoe. My school used to dictate what bras you could wear as girls started wearing colourful ones just to try to have a little bit of strap showing a spark of individuality somewhere. Huge no.

My kids were at schools in the UK and they just were not a tenth as obsessed with smartness, absolute correctness of minutiae and, well, uniformity.

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Having kids in the English system now I always boggle a bit about how a lot of parents perceive the uniform rules as being "unfair/strict" down to the point of being impossible to follow and crushing kids' spirits. They're pretty relaxed compared to my nieces'/nephews'/friends' kids' schools!

That said - the one that gets me here is the palaver around blazers and having to wear them all day regardless of the weather.

CruCru · 30/01/2026 09:43

XiCi · 30/01/2026 09:30

I can't believe that you haven't already called and supported you daughter to be honest

In fairness, the OP started the thread at a little after 2am (probably mid afternoon her time) and it’s now the evening / night in Australia. She’ll probably contact them when it’s daytime.

ZookeeperSE · 30/01/2026 09:43

TooTallDD · 30/01/2026 05:34

You have to wonder. I have visions of them telling off poor DD while she towers over them. I think they just spot a bare knee and freak. I am somewhat sympathetic to staff managing uniform rules as every man and his dog will have a special, unique reason why a rule shouldn’t apply to them. But in DD’s case, it’s real and genuine.

Edited
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This exact thing happen at DDs (also all girls school) here in the UK. Remarkably they hadn’t considered that the same one length skirt would look quite different on a 4’11” year 7 and a 6’ year 11 prior to the new uniforms going on sale. To their credit they immediately requested the supplier provide three different lengths and we were allowed to swap free of charge. Whether or not the minimal flashing of a bit of knee is beyond acceptable is a different matter, of course.