Secondary school bans girls from wearing skirts
Matthew Moore Telegraph
A secondary school has banned girls from wearing skirts, regardless of length, to prevent them from attracting unwanted attention. 2010The head teacher of St Aidan’s Church of England High School in Harrogate, North Yorkshire imposed a complete ban on skirts because young girls were “placing themselves at risk” by raising their hemlines. From the start of the September term, all female pupils up to the age of 15 will have to wear long black trousers. In a letter to parents at the mixed-sex school, Dennis Richards said that the strict new uniform rules were necessary because young children were “wholly unaware of the signals they are giving out” by wearing short skirts. He said that earlier attempts to impose a minimum skirt length had led to “battles within the family home and unnecessary and time wasting confrontation at school”, making a blanket ban the only effective solution. The head teacher wrote: “We have been seriously concerned now, for a number of years, that girls as young as 12/13 years of age are placing themselves at risk by wearing skirts of a wholly inappropriate length. “We are also aware that parents are becoming increasingly frustrated that the school seems incapable of imposing its authority on such young children. In the end we could probably do so but the cost in terms of detentions and exclusions would be very high and disproportionate to the end we would achieve.” In a statement on the school website he added: “Parents who have come in have been astonished to see the difference between the length their daughter may wear her skirt as she leaves home and what has happened by the time she is walking the corridors of the school.” Addressing sceptical parents, Mr Richards said: “The world has moved on. It is bizarre in 2010 to see wearing trousers as ’some form of punishment’.” While Mr Richards claimed to have received supportive messages from parents, the school has been criticised for failing to enforce its previous rules outlawing
Margaret Morrissey of the pressure group ParentsOutloud said: “Skirts of a reasonable length have a place in any school uniform. “If a school can’t get its pupils to abide by the rules there is a problem there. It sends out completely the wrong message to children if their misbehaviour leads to a change in the rules.”
North Yorkshire County Council, the local authority with responsibility for education, said it did not comment on specific uniform policies. But a spokeswoman said:”Decisions about school uniform are taken in the best interests of children by school leaders and governing bodies often in consultation with parents.” The skirt ban at St Aidan’s covers pupils in Years 7 to 10. As part of the new uniform policy, girls in Year 11, who are aged 15 and 16, will be allowed to wear dark navy skirts so long as they are no more than three inches above the knee. St Aidan’s is a specialist science school with 1,898 pupils. It was praised as “an outstanding school in all respects” by Ofsted in 2006. Other schools across the country are also tightening their uniform rules for the new academic year; Chipping Camden School in Gloucestershire has students from wearing hoodies, short skirts, denim and crop-tops.
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incedently the mini skirt goes right back to Anglo-Saxon times with some burial findings of Anglo-Saxon early English having worm short skirts!
So it is actually part of England’s culture but nevertheless yes girls of school age should dress as children because that is what they are - school children.
But the reaction has gone to far here, if you can’t control the girls from making their skirts shorter then get new staff to enforce the rules properly for children to dress respectfully, but then also if a short skirt places a child at risk!? then also please look into why that girl is at risk and attempt to reduce that risk i.e. a culture change is also needed to stop children becoming sexualised before adulthood and a culture change is needed to stop the vile preditors from roaming our streets and then maybe we could get to a day when school girls can wear short skirts as nothing more than a fashion statement and not a sign of becoming sexualized to early and they would not fear preditors who deem it as a green light to attempt abuse as preditors would all be locked away.
As with too many issues in schools it is the enforcment of the school uniform policy that is weak; not the students. The issue of school skirts and their length and style is not a new one. I recall the issue of pencil skirts with splits at the side (essential if you actually wanted to be able to walk in the skirt)when I was at school in the early 1980s.
My daughter’s mixed school(state school)took issue with skirt lengths and this year introduced a complusory school skirt. Complusory style school trosuers are are to be enforced from this September. Their ‘consultation’ with parents was to write and tell us that a complusory school skirt was being introduced and that parents ‘who had been asked’ (unclear who was asked)were fully supportive.
The skirt, which at £16 each is more expensive than anywhere else and is only available from the school uniform shop. Is this not in contravention of the Government’s school uniform policy of enabling parents to choose where they buy uniform to suit their personal budget?
The school already has in place a strict uniform card scheme whereby any student not wearing full uniform gets this noted on the card and this leads to a detention.
Result of the new introduction? The girls all roll the skirt up to be shorter and not one of them has had their uniform card marked. Result for the students - they continue to roll their skirts up. Achievement for the school - less than nothing.
The next ‘issue’ on the horizon? Girls being told they can not wear coloured bras under their white shirts (although they have to ask permission to take their jumpers off - even in warm weather).
The only risk I can see for my daughter is observing true ineffectiveness and inertia in action. Or maybe I am just one of those a parents unbale to discipline their child?
This is sending out the wrong message.
How can just wearing a skirt, have become ’sexualisation’?
We already expect girls to emulate boys by wearing ties (probably the only time in their lives they will have to).
Now we are saying you must dress completely like a boy!!
What’s wrong with being a girl and wearing girls clothes! Sensibly of course.
Are we saying its wrong to be a girl?
It is a girls fault for looking like a girl?
Girls are too sexy unless we dress them like boys?
Where is this leading…. the burka.
Short skirts were frowned upon in schools in the sixties too.
A male perspective follows. What a lot of fuss. I was at school in the 1960’s, when short skirts were short! It wasn’t a problem, there were no behaviour or discipline problems, it was just the norm. If you are going to have a uniform then let the kids agree on why and on what it should be.
If girls are sending out ‘inappropriate messages’ then they will just find another way to do so - the remedy lies in part in giving them self confidence and self esteem - so that they don’t automatically value themselves by how sexually provocative they can be, and in part by recognising that sexual attraction, flirting etc is normal behaviour as kids grow into their teens - again educate them in socially acceptable ways to express themselves. In short, the school seems to failing the pupils by dealing with surface issues and not the underlying issues of personal development.
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