Girls only allowed to do handstands and cartwheels on the field IF they wear shorts under their dress

[CrackerOfNuts]

Is it me, or is that just barmy.

Both dd's have come home moaning as they like to try and do cartwheels and handstands on the field at lunch time. The dinnerladies have now said that unless they take in shorts to wear under their dresses, then they aren't allowed to do it because the boys will see their knickers.

From what Dd1 said, the majority of the boys are not even on the field, they are in the playground playing footie, so can't even see the girls letalone their knickers.

That would really have to depend on whether I felt the school was in any way at fault.

If I had been the Mum of the little boy who feel down the stairs, I would not have demanded that the school dismantle its stairs. Nor do I see how the school could guarantee that noone was ever to fall down them again.

My friend's ds got concussion from a collision when playing football- she did not rush into the school to demand that the school should ban team sports.

Another child at dd's school slipped and broke her foot right under the teacher's eye during a (supervised) PE lesson. If I were her parent, I would want to know that the teacher had been present and not doing anything wrong (i.e. encouraged them to use equipment wrongly). I would not expect them to promise that a freak accident could never happen.

Yes, that all makes sense. I suppose, though, it's whether someone could argue that it wasn't such a freak accident if children were continuing to (as they do) fling themselves about in a confined space after someone had suffered an accident in that way. Isn't that asking for trouble? And however much you tell them to be careful, at the end of the day they're kids, and therefore impulsive. And also, with the slip-on shoes that the girls are wearing these days, many fly off their feet, randomly, and are at regular risk of landing in someone's face at speed. So then you're back in the realms of dressing up for handstands (whether it's shorts under their skirts or cahnging into trainers) which many would say is too precious. I don't know what the answer is, except that too many Heads are reluctant to lay themselves open to charges of neglect and so err on the side of caution.

OK, here's how it works at our school (I'm a teacher and parent at the same school). A few years ago we had seveal older girls who were quite well developed IYSWIM. They were however, typical 9,10,11 year olds in every other way and wanted to do cartwheels, handstands and sit in 'un-ladylike' positions during class assemblies! As several of them had started their periods, our lovely head had a chat with the older girls and said if they wanted to wear plain black shorts under their summer dresses this would be a good idea (for the rest of the year they wear skirts and tights or trousers, so not a problem). This was fine, but it spread through the rest of the school like wild fire and we now have reception girls in shorts under their dresses. I think it is preferable to have reception girls in summer dresses with shorts than older girls flashing pubic hair and sanitary towels, but maybe thats just me!! I have to say that when my DD starts school, she will be wearing a summer dress with no shorts underneath and when she is older and if it becomes an issue, she will wear smart shorts and a checked summer top. Call me old fashioned but I think its the parents responsibilty to dress children as appropriate to their age and decency, not the school's to have to make suggestions re. modesty. In this case though, it was clear that parents were not going to do anything about it, so school needed to. Changed nick name for this BTW, don't make a habit of talking about other people's periods on talk boards!!