Should I raise this with School?

[Paraballa]

My Dd is year 6, so kids aged 10/11. They have a trip to the local hospital coming up where they will learn about first aid and practice the recovery position, using a defibrillator, etc.

School has explicitly said that skirts are not to be worn as they're unsuitable for role play on the floor.

I am about this as I've worn skirts for similar courses and not had a practical issue, plus I feel like they're being rather pearl-clutchy about the possibility of a quick flash of knickers from little girls in front of their peers.

I'm tempted to email school about it as they say if skirts are worn the girls can't take part.

DD currently only has skirts. I can buy School trousers, she wants some anyway, but I'm not happy at the general message being sent out.

I wasn't sure if this was the right forum but it feels like a feminist issue to me.

This interested me. It's funny because I now live in leggings and jogging/Pyjama bottoms at home but I used to hate, and I mean really hate, wearing trousers. Until my late twenties I only wore skirts or dresses. In winter I'd wear lovely thick tights.

I did a first aid course at brownies in a skirt. We all wore skirts actually. No problems at all. Longish flared skirts surely won't ride up?

As has already been pointed out, it makes sense for them to be taught to be prepared to use first aid in an everyday situation - when they'd be wearing whatever they normally wear.

Did the school specify they have to be school trousers though? Because I wouldn't read "please wear trousers for this one occasion" as specifying they had to be any particular type.

Sorry to derail but here's an article about bystanders being less likely to give CPR to women ...www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2019/may/women-less-likely-to-receive-bystander-cpr-than-men-research-shows

In your daughter's situation I do take the point others have raised about the girls concentrating better if they feel more comfortable in the clothes they are wearing.

Doesn't she have any trousers from last winter? It's not going to matter if they're ankle freezers.

There’s a reason nurses/carers generally wear more practical trousers and tops these days - not dresses. You’re very possibly over thinking this. Dies your daughter wear a dress when doing PE?

@butteryellow - when I was a theatre nurse (back in the 80s) we were told that, if we chose to wear a dress instead of scrubs, we had to wear tights to prevent ‘perineal fallout’! I kid you not - they thought that our perineums would shed matter that could be an infection risk to the patients.

Strange - two paragraphs of my post vanished!

I said that I didn’t understand the ‘perineal fallout’ thing, because why wouldn’t our underwear contain all the hazardous material our perineums emit.

I also suggested that @Paraballa ask the school to allow girls who don’t have school trousers to take a pair of non-uniform trousers to change into. This doesn’t tackle the inherent sexism, but might make things easier for kids whose parents can’t afford a pair of school trousers at no notice,

I wouldn't take it as the school are expecting her to wear "school uniform trousers", just any old trousers (eg jeans, leggings, whatever). No reason she can't wear leggings with her school shirt and jumper.

Just send her in trousers or leggings that she already has at home, so she doesn't need to worry about being the only one who gets excluded from a very worthwhile activity because her mum made her wear a skirt to prove a point.

I used to work on this project (or a similar one - do you live in Manchester?). The leaders won’t pick her to demonstrate in a role play with a skirt on but that’s all. I agree with you though OP.

I find trousers restrictive and uncomfortable. I am pear shaped with a high waist and basically there are no trousers out here that will fit me and not gape at the waist, drop etc. It's so annoying and distracting. I feel very comfy and free with skirts and dresses and manage to lead a normal not opressed life.

Well, I’m a nurse and wear dresses some days and tunic with trousers on others. A lot of my staff do. You are offered both when you start employment. And that has been in all hospitals I have worked in for the last 18 years. (UK).
Interestingly there is an attachment that can be obtained to transform the current manikins into female ones- being rolled out in USA so hopefully here too in the future.
I would just send your daughter in leggings for that day.

Yes I think it's a bit of a leap that skirts are always more distracting for the wearer than trousers. I have a long body. Tops are always riding up and leaving my love handles exposed when I wear trousers so I'm always fidgeting.

Maybe the school is just erring on the side of caution re safeguarding

For those asking, it does specify uniform so I can't send her in non-uniform. It also reads very much as if it's from the School, not the hospital.

Someone suggested I'm depriving her of trousers. I'm not. She doesn't like trousers till it gets cold. She prefers dresses. So I was budgeting to buy trousers next month, not this. We've had less than a week's notice of this.

I will have to see if o can borrow a pair. Someone suggested using last year's but as soon as they're outgrown they go to the charity shop. Not sure why I'd keep trousers that don't fit.

I imagine it is recommended for the pupils' comfort and practicality. I remember doing a Red Cross paediatric first aid course with a bunch of acquaintances from a mums' group. As I was rolled into the recovery position ( wearing trousers...) my t-shirt flopped about and I remember feeling v embarrassed at the thought of my muffin/ mum tum flopping around on show.

Not sure why I'd keep trousers that don't fit

You wouldn’t

But to be fair to that poster not every child grows out of their uniform over the holidays

Not all parents make sure their children's clothes fit properly, knickers included, there are times when it isn't just a pair of knickers on show, I remember it happening to a girl at my school.

Are there really hospital trusts that still have nurses in dresses? We complained bitterly about them till they got rid. The were the most impractical thing on earth when climbing up on a bed and giving CPR!

None of the children in trousers will give a second thought to taking part in everything. A child in a skirt might, They will probably practice things on each other. I'd rather my children were in practical clothes.

I wouldn't raise it with the school personally as it sounds practical. I think when kneeling and sitting on the floor, it would be more comfortable in trousers. Sorry but it sounds like you are looking for a problem where there isn't one.

When I did a first aid course I was told to wear trousers. The role play will involve your daughter being the victim at some points. Those running the course will now have been given guidance regarding 'hands on' contact and this request will have been for their benefit, not your daughter's.

I dare say that many trainers that have to make physical contact with other people's bodies now have to follow strict guidelines, for their own protective. There is nothing unreasonable in the instruction at all.

Protective= protection

Lots of kids are in ankle freezers in the summer term at my DS's secondary school. My DS is choosing to wear his slightly too small trousers for now rather than his new ones. No harm in uniform that's a bit small, it's better than being caught out and not having any trousers when you need some!

I'm surprised there are still nurses wearing dresses. NHS Scotland brought in a national uniform about 10 yrsago. Navy trousers and different colours of tunics for different roles. Even prior to that it was many years since I saw a nurse/midwife in a dress.

In an actual emergency, does anybody say they can't perform CPR because they are wearing a skirt?

Ridiculous.

I would just ask the school if she could wear any trousers for the day, practically trousers work better.

My 7yr old will only wear a dress for school or maybe a skirt, absolutely refuses to wear trousers. At home she lives in leggings, on the rare occasion she wears a dress she puts leggings underneath

I have given up trying to work her out.