6th form dress code

[AtiaoftheJulii]

My dd is in y13 and they are expected to dress in an "office smart" fashion. There are constant niggles about girls wearing skirts that are too short or trousers that are too tight and enable the shape of the wearer's bottom to be seen. Yesterday an email went round to all sixth formers summoning the girls to an assembly today, where they were told that short skirts made male teachers uncomfortable (which was challenged and amended to "er, all of us teachers"), and that the way some of them dressed was embarrassing to themselves and anyone who saw them. That's really not the way to go about it, is it? To attempt to shame them, make them all cringe that the male teachers might be looking at their legs, and to be told that basically having legs is embarrassing.

Lots of upset/indignant/irate girls. I think I'm going to have to write a letter in too; it should be possible to police a dress code without using insulting and emotive language. The other thing that has really riled the girls, is that loads of boys wear black jeans - jeans are most definitely in the "no" section of what is acceptable - and when this was brought up this morning, they were told "oh, we hadn't noticed that" (!!)

It all just seems so sexist, and puts so many more expectations on the girls than the boys. Do you think I'd sound mental letting the school know I'm not happy? (They are going to be dealing with complaints from the female students for days anyway I know!) Apart from this issue, I really like the school, and would say I have a good relationship with them. DD nearly always wears trousers anyway, I'm not getting defensive about her, just generally pissed off about how it's always the girls' bodies that are the Menace To Society.

Yes but these are kids of 16 and 17. What is the point of them spending two years looking like second rate estate agents, in cheap suits, when the brightest and most ambitious of them are the going off to Uni to spend the next three years in leggings and T shirts and jeans hanging off their arses?

It is just daft. They have plenty of time to learn about formal dress codes. The vast majority of them don't need to be doing it at 16.

Actually at 16 my sixth former son was scuffing a ball round the playground with his mates at lunchtime. I'm glad he isn't have to do that in a suit. Wearing jeans and trackies to sixth form hasn't stopped him being a sensible human being at 21.

Everything Tinkly has said. Once they've been to uni and worn anything they wanted for three years then got their degree, we can assume they're bright enough to suss out the office culture in any job they're going for and adapt. And if they turn up for their first interview in a bikini top and sarong and don't get the job - well, lesson learned. Why do we assume that our young people are so stupid that they need years and years of being dressed as identical corporate drones to teach them the basics of acting and dressing appropriately for the environment? So patronising.

No-one in my office wears suits - we are in health research and the dress code is smart casual. Everyone manages to work out what that means.

I hate dress codes that want 6th formers to dress in suits. I work in an Investment Bank and what I generally wear to work would be considered way too casual for DDs school. Ridiculous, given that most of them will be off to uni where they can wear what they like. As for the idea that girls wearing short skirts may make male teachers uncomfortable. That would be given v short shrift by DD and her friends.

My DD choose college because she couldn't stand being nagged over clothes any more.
They have no strong requirements for dress, but do ask for "modesty" to respect others religious beliefs (quite a large number of Muslims).
DD respects this, and wears clothes that would have been fine with her old school sixth form. But she doesn't resentment the rules, as she did at school.

If I was in an office and colleagues started to say my clothes caused them problems, I would see them as the problem. If they want students to wear office dress then they should treat them more as if they were office workers.