Faith school where women are banned from wearing trousers becomes state funded

[ArabellaSaurus]

https://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2025/09/faith-school-which-bans-women-wearing-trousers-becomes-state-funded

'The National Secular Society has expressed alarm that a London faith school which bans women from wearing trousers and penalises families who attend non-kosher restaurants will now be funded by the state.
Nancy Reuben Primary School re-opened as a voluntary aided (VA) state school this month, after operating as an independent school for 26 years. Its decision to join the state sector follows the Government's move to charge VAT on independent school fees.'

'Women may not wear trousers, mini skirts, shorts, low necklines or sleeveless tops
The school's dress code for parents and visitors says men "must have their head covered at all times" and women "must wear skirts of knee length (a maximum of 2" above is acceptable)". It says trousers "may not be worn" by women.
Additionally, women must cover their underarms and may not wear cap sleeves. Women may not wear clothes with necklines lower than "4 fingers from the collar bone" either "in front or back of the garment".
Trousers are permitted for aupairs and nannies but they may not wear mini skirts, shorts, plunging necklines or sleeveless tops.'

Yes, I'm aware of that. I'm not disputing its problematic nature. I'm pointing out that this is a state school and so will be subject to over-sight.

They have their own antenatal classes run by their community doulas. Newly married couples have these kinds of classes to teach them about sex and babies. The men know quite a bit more than your average British man about menstrual cycles, conception and birth due to this input.

Nobody sees a major issue with the Hasidic communities and we are told to respect how they do things and find ways to still provide holistic care. And please, please, make sure they are discharged on a Friday before Shabbos (even if it means others have to wait).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04n1x7p
should work (links copied from the google search page mostly don't work , I think they are runtime only, i.e. change with every new search on the same words.

Why?

Non orthodox parents don't have to send their children there?

I dont get the similarity, no.

Because we are a country with set values and many aspects of their lifestyle are simply not compatible with those values. We just choose to ignore it when it comes from some communities.

Why do you think girls roll their skirts up? (And actually no, the little elasticated tube skirts don’t need rolling up). Do you think they feel they have a choice? Don’t you realise these peer-imposed dress codes are also misogynistic?

Where are these secular schools you keep talking about? Most of the UK just has non-denominational Christian schools.

Sorry to be sharp, I misunderstood. Yes, ir will be harder to influence non-state schools.

Lol, I've always wondered how they don't get grubby!

Surely trousers are more modest than skirts? They cant blow up on a windy day or reveal anything if the wearer has to climb a ladder or step into an akward space.

Thank you, sorry about that!

For instance, when the benefit fraud thing came out, more people were saying that what they do/did shouldn't be illegal than worrying about the fraud of it all.

Basically, they get a family member or friend to buy their house in their name and then they "rent" it to the couple (who secretly own it) and claim full housing benefit to pay off the mortgage.

They claim benefits because the man doesn't work, he studies religious text and gets a small allowance for doing so. The woman may work as a "teacher" and they often fiddle the wages paid to ensure it keeps within UC parameters, or likely a SAHM on full benefits. So yeah, they essentially get the benefit system to pay off their mortgage.

They do it because they want to. Not because there is a school rule saying they have to. Youre talking about peer pressure vs a rule stating that you or your mum cant a short skirt.

Presumably they're not asking you to follow a strict dress code?

I'm Christian myself, I'm not intimidated by religion (and I doubt pps are) but I am however offended by people using any religion as a shield for sexism or other stuff like poor education. This particular case seems OK though

Good point - the dreadful stuff like that in schools now is just making it more likely that conservative religious people will seek out faith schools & grow more insular

Its illegal. It doesnt comply with discrimination rules. Fine if its private, do want you want but not if its state funded.

Very firm ideas about what males and females should wear or look like. TW often dress in hyper-sexualised or 'feminised' ways, for example.

I think it’s a real scandal that any faith school is state funded in the first place. When my kids were small our closet primaries were CofE and Catholic. Very nice schools but selective. The game was to start attending church when they were born to get them in. I refused to do this and my oldest was allocated a school in the other side of town, despite the schools being something like 95% council funded.
Anyway, aside from that, the fact that any school can mandate what people wear to this degree feels like a regressive and isolationist move. We seem to be heading more and more to a divided society, with communities able to separate and never mix, and away from the idea of an integrated one.
My grandfather grew up in a Jewish ghetto, his father was a Rabbi. Not Frum but normal orthodox.
He spoke no English when he started school but went, as all the neighbourhood kids did, to the local schools, learned English and lived normally in a mixed community (Temple on Saturdays etc).
I think he would be really surprised if still alive that we seem to have rolled backwards.

Due to Covid and the lockdown....a lot of people became very radicalised and started taking their children outside of mainstream education. Either homeschooling or setting up their own schools....a bit like those undocumented schools for Jewish boys - in poor conditions and with extreme curricula

Yeah but that's not shared by all trans people though and it isn't written in any rule book. I dont see the point of trying to force trans issues on this one. The kids often have their educational and fictional books defaced to stop them learning Science or seeing "immodest" women. That's the priority here.

If the school is state funded then yes, that is exactly what I want.

You seem to be trying to make a point about what you perceive as double standards when it comes to Jews ( because they are "white").

Where I live there is to be a new state funded Muslim girls school created shortly - due to demand for such a school. It will have an 'muslim' ethos and there will be strict uniform rules. You don't have to be muslim to apply, but you will have to accept its ethos and follow its rules.

Very much doubt it will enforce rules on visitors and we are constantly talking about these super Muslim schools that are very very new when we've had these illegal Jewish schools and the dodgy legal ones for decades. None of these schools should exist.

So, I presume you'd like for the many thousands of Cof E and catholic schools to be closed down? Even though many parents actively like and choose them?
There would be few schools left in the city in which I live if you did this.

I used to be a teacher, and even though i'm not of a particular faith myself, I generally liked and preferred working in catholic schools, particularly. Also you'll find children of other faiths attend in quite large numbers for the same sorts of reasons.

I myself wouldn't support that either. A lot of these types of schools have not proved trustworthy...