School Uniform Policy In Scotland

[aedcur]

Hi everyone, I'm new here.

Because of my husbands work commitments we've had to move from Ireland to Scotland recently. Our daughter (17yo) started at her new school last week and is in S6. Thing seem to be going ok with her so far but I had a major shock over her new uniform and was wondering if anyone could help me rationalize it.

Back in Ireland her uniform skirt was an ankle length tartan kilt with jumper and shirt. Imagine my amazement when I saw her on the morning of the first day. Tiny, tight black micro skirt shorter than the blazer with long black socks pulled up over the knee (she says she will tights in winter), and tie hanging loose over a too tight blouse with doc martin boots. And a face full of makeup to boot. Apparently her new friends took her shopping the previous weekend and told her what to wear to school. It doesn't look like a proper school uniform! HELP!!

I dropped her off at school and noticed nearly every girl had a skirt on that could be described as bordering on indecent. A friend (a teacher in fact) of mine here says other schools in the district are the same, one in particular is actually worse which I can hardly take in. She says nearly all schools in Scotland are relaxed about uniform, as long as it's the school tie, white shirt and everything else in black then anything goes.

I don't want to contact the school as we're new here so I don't want to rock the boat but it looks awful to my conservative fashion eye (she thinks it's so cool and her friends in Ireland are so jealous it seems) but I can't understand how what are in some cases revealing fashion outfits are allowed in class. I want her to fit in but I suppose hoping the school might do the hard work for me is beyond hope I'd expect. If only for a quiet life!

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Thanks for the feedback, she's now wearing tights with the belt, sorry skirt but I look at it and think what's the point of it at times! From further chatting around all the schools in the area are of a similar style. It's just been a culture shift from the ankle kilt which I haven't adapted to yet but time should sort that out.

From my outsiders eye, and I probably have no right in some ways to be critical, it looks to me as if they've pushed the decency of the uniform almost to breaking point I do wonder at what point schools might say enough is enough. Some of the other girls in her year are beyond words it's that outlandish as regards the style. Middle daughter will be starting secondary next year, I dread to think in 5 years time what on earth will be the trend she'll be following as regards uniform.

I won't be contacting the school as she's settled in ok but will be secretly hoping for some nationwide crackdown on skirt lengths. I wonder what the reaction would be if a stricter knee length policy was introduced.

A happy mum here for starters!

The very tight short skirts are probably better than the rolled up A-line skirts I wore at school. Technically knee length when I left the house and hastily unrolled when people were checking but worn very short when not in sight of authority... So I'd not be in favour of stricter rules as everyone just breaks them in other ways.

Wouldn't be my choice to wear a miniskirt but not a battle worth fighting...

Prescribed lengths mean that kids who don't fit the "norm" will struggle too, unless they can take in skirts (or pay £££ for custom lengths) as proportions start to vary quite a lot at high school.

I will be hi set I've never clocked the length of the girls skirts.

Ours is

Black trousers (no jeans or leggings) or skirts
White shirt
Black cardigan or jumper
Black shoes
Tie
Blazer for S5 and S6

It's much stricter than when I was at school.

Also very glad we don't have the nonsense that goes on in England

The culture locally to us is that kids start P1 very smart, often in full blazer getup as seen in the news article someone posted. The blazers are often ditched after the start of P1 (impractical with our west coast weather) and primary schools generally don't insist on blazers. Most primary aged girls wear skirts that are knee length or close to it as parents are in charge of the uniform at this stage.

By high school, the fashion among many girls is a tiny little tube skirt, often worn with opaque tights for a little more coverage. High schools do often try to insist on a blazer being worn, although maybe they can't legally do anything if someone refuses to wear it, so you do often see high school girls wearing a blazer and a tiny skirt that isn't visible beneath the blazer. Schools generally don't say anything about skirt length at all, in my experience. They focus instead on things like shoes being all black, wearing blazers and ties, that kind of thing.

I don't like the tiny skirt thing at all - I think it looks terrible. Glad I have boys as that's a battle I won't need to have!

I grew up in America where we didn't have school uniforms but we did have rules on the length of skirts/shorts and no spaghetti straps, etc. I live in Edinburgh and I remember the first time I saw the local secondary kids out at lunch and was shocked. My kids are 5 and under so I guess it's a fight for the future. Blah!

We’re English living in Scotland. This reminded me of the time an Irish lady (in her twenties) stopped me in town to say how shocked she was at the length of all the girls’ school skirts!

I’m not sure which is worse the skirts or the see through leggings where you can see their pants. Sometimes I see things I really don’t want to see driving home from work, though maybe I should be relieved as they don’t wear socks here, just thick black tights!!

My dm would have told them how much more flattering it is to have a skirt that finishes on a slimmer part of your legs!

A lot of the English schools where I live have rolled up short skirts.
There's two locally that don't so much. These two

It’s been like that for years, my DD is 27 and that was what she wore. I don’t see what the problem with the short skirt length is other than them freezing in winter ( or anytime really), which is their choice.

I am Scottish but brought my dcs up in England and the state of the pupils who go to my old secondary school in Scotland shocks me. However, your DD is at an age where she will shortly be able to choose her own clothes. Either she will go onto further education, where she can wear whatever she wants, or work, where she will have to conform to a dress code. Either way you need to learn that she's going to learn to make her own decisions about these things.

I've always seen uniform as something they can rebel against harmlessly. I went to an English Grammar... our skirts were the shortest around. We rebelled against that, and the silly rules about fratenising... rather than more important stuff like homework or revision.