Parents have expressed their outrage after a school has announced it will ban skirts. Newhouse Academy in Heywood, Manchester, will be implementing the trousers-only policy from September.Parents were told that “boys and girls will be expected to wear plain black school trousers”. It is a move that will “move away from skirts being a part of the girl’s uniform.”
The shool claims that the policy has been a success in other schools.
Parents have been fed-up following the announcement.They claimed that the school hadn’t held adequate consultations on the decision. One felt that it “disregards the female students and their right to express their femininity and “be girls”. The parent felt that forcing girls to wear trousers and “look like a boy” failed to “embrac[e] the two genders equally”.
In a statement, Newhouse Academy said they were “committed to working in partnership with our parents and community about important decisions that impact our young people”. While they have no legal obligation to consult parents, they said they had been consulting with the local community “for months”.
It included a formal listening period during which people could put forward their opinions. Following the first consultation, the response was mostly positive, however, new parents felt they had been excluded. The school then extended the consultation to allow all parents to express their views which they said again was mostly positive.
While they did acknowledge that some people disagreed with the decision, they said ultimately it had been met with support. It comes following several uniform changes across schools in a bid to maintain higher standards.
Another trousers-only policy was put in place at Fred Longworth High School in Wigan. This decision was implemented in an attempt to curb the trend of girls rolling up their skirts which had become a “serious safeguarding concern”.
They had previously changed the uniform to a pinafore style dress but this didn’t dissuade the girls from changing the length of the dresses.
