School uniform kilts

My daughter would have been in a terrible state in a pair of trousers as she suffered from UTI's and candida from the antibiotics she was almost continually taking.

My lovely grandaughter wears a kilt where she goes to school. It is very smart if not a little long.

Catholic Schools are associated with wearing kilts but gd goes to local authority comprehensive and girls wear kilts.

My dd wore a kilt at her grammar school until 6th form and then they wore their own clothes . The bonus of a kilt is it expands as the girls get bigger . My dds was calf length at 11 and a mini at 16 . It was quite expensive and I refused to buy another one just for one year . A local comp now has a kilt very similar to my dds school

My Grammar school changed over to Kilts in 1970, different
colours for the ages. I wore a white background kilt and loved it. They said it was to honour the name of the school being
that of a Scottish born King. As far as I know the uniform is
still the same today. The boys wore a tartan tie and grey
trousers.

I like the younger girls there in tartan Georgesgran, and the pink blouses, but not so keen on the minis for the older girls.
I don't think you have to register the tartan Nannarose because other schools can use the same one. I remember being irritated that another school copied ours, but then decided it was a compliment! Also school near us chose the same tartan school uniform as in a long standing Australian soap!

Katie59

Girls will always find a way of bending the rules on skirts if they can, wether kilts of not. There is a private girls school nearby that has calf length skirts I don’t remember seeing trousers either, very strict uniform code.

My granddaughters school has a policy of trousers for all pupils. It’s cuts out a lot of arguments between parents, teachers, children.

I am genuinely surprised that folk are saying schools are making money out of expensive uniforms. There used to be stringent rules about not being able to make a profit eg we could buy calculators for £4.39 but weren't allowed to sell them for £4.50 (which made life a lot easier from a change point of view) because it broke these rules.
Does anyone actually know what the rules are now?

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202309/medium-935024-img-2612.png https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202309/medium-927857-img-2611.png

This is a publicity shot for Westfield School (independent) just outside Newcastle. Very distinctive, but very short!
In most independent schools the second hand uniform shops are well used. I was approached by other parents to buy my girls’ Winter coats, before they’d even left! It seemed quite a common thing to do.

Cold - it's a new(ish) thing for me - in the sense that I had occasionally seen girls wearing them, but didn't know the history of the school and assumed there was a specific reason. Interesting that they were common in your area 50 years ago.

So it seems that maybe they were / still are associated with posher schools; and being more expensive may act as a sort of excluder (hmmmm).

Something that has interested me as this post has gone on is the way the discussion has centred on girls looking smart and attractive, even 'young ladies'. By its nature it has focussed on girls (although I am still interested in whether kilts are part of male school uniform anywhere). I wonder if we would use similar words when discussing boys' school uniform?

Anyway, it has been interesting, and I thank all who have contributed. Still also wondering if schools have to register the tartan!

if parents can afford the fees they can afford the uniform
Exactly, they want a smart, distinctive look.

I believe it’s not too expensive in State schools - certainly that was the case when my son attended but not when I did in the 60s - my uniform was horrendously expensive and only available from three shops. It’s different with independent schools, if parents can afford the fees they can afford the uniform,

The ones in my area are comprehensive not private
Same with my grandaughters just normal high school

As far as I can see not many schools have taken on the government’s advice that uniform should be easily affordable!

Yes. They look like young ladies.

Germanshepherdsmum

Is that Gresham’s School Primrose? The girls look very smart in their kilts.

Where I used to live there was a comprehensive which required the girls to wear kilts or trousers. The girls used to roll the tops of the skirts over (as we did in the 60s!) and didn’t look nearly so good.

Yes it is. germanshepherdsmum The kilts come well down to mid calf and are so thick and heavy that they would look ridiculous rolled over.

Kilts are certainly de rigueur in most private schools and I like them. At primary level the pinafore ones with a bib look nice.
I've noticed kilts being adopted in schools abroad now too. They look smart and are hard wearing.

This isn't a new thing though is it? It was not uncommon when I was at school in the 1970s - many of the local schools in East London/Essex had faux-kilts, in school colours - especially the private schools.

I think that state schools have caught on to the fact that there is big money to be made from getting a cut of school uniform sales - especially if the school can stop parents getting the standard grey/black/navy blue skirts from the supermarket for £4.99 and force them to go to the school's uniform outfitter that has a monopoly and buy a skirt for £40!

This seems to have happened at the bog standard Comp near my DB's house - since the 1990s girls wear a kilt-style, tartan skirt with the school logo embroidered near the hemline that cost £38-50 each and only available from one shop. Makes me very happy that my kids went to non-uniform schools in Scandinavia.

Trousers seem like a very sensible idea - they were a part of the uniform at my own bog standard comp in the 1970s when they made the uniform more flexible to make it more affordable. In fact it used to make me smile seeing my own daughter going off to school in non uniform Sweden, wearing a virtual replica of my high school uniform from East London in the 70s - black trousers and white blouse/top.

We have a couple of schools with kilts here and my grandaughters in southern Ireland were disgusted to have to wear them over there

My gd wears kilts at her grammar school too, as does the comprehensive school nearby. I like them.
However in her school once in the 4 th year an A line skirt replaces the kilts, at £45 a pop, of course the school benefits financially but I think it’s a totally unnecessary expense for parents.

Thank you to those who have taken the trouble to reply, although we do still only seem to have a small inkling as to why!

I am in agreement with those who say that plain black trousers seem very sensible - however, they are not comfy for all. The women in my family whilst not especially overweight all have big bums! Until the advent of stretchy fabric, the only trousers that fitted any of us comfortably were home-made Oxford bags / palazzo pants. Now I love that I can make nice looking trousers that fit and drape properly and stretch when I sit down. So I hope students can have trousers in stretch fabric.

I do realise that boys' traditional school uniform isn't comfortable either. I personally think that as long as the students are clean and tidy, they should be as comfortable as possible. But I wasn't really wanting to go down the old debate about school uniform as such, just interested in this (to me, strange) trend.

And talking of comfort - I wasn't the only girl at my chool in the 60s who foud the old-fashioned loose-fitting blouse under a gym slip much more comfortable than the 'modern' skisrt, shirt and tie (hate ties!) that was introduced half way through my time there! And those voluminous thick knickers in dark colours!

I worked in a state comp where the head introduced pleated kilt style skirts believing, erroneously as it turned out, that they were more difficult to shorten than the plain A line skirt. The skirts were of a thin polyester type which were easily rolled up or just cut off at the hem to make shorter , which most of the girls did. I guess if it were genuine lined wool then the skirt would be more difficult to roll up. Talking of skirts I drove past a school when they were all coming out last week , and the length of the skirts of some of the girls left nothing to the imagination - you could honestly see their knickers . No one would have to up skirt there to get an eyeful. Plus some of the girls seem to be wearing little black Lycra PE shorts which were even more revealing.

My state Girls' Grammar school in the non-rural Midlands had a phase of kilts as school uniform, no idea why, long after I left in 1964. I don't know if they still do.

AskAlice

At my GD secondary school, which she joined this month, everyone - girls and boys - has to wear black trousers. The reason given was that the staff were spending so much time policing the length of skirts that they decided to bring in the new rule. I must say, having seen some of the girls in their very short skirts previously, it seems sensible.

GD is not bothered by it in the least - she quite likes the plain black trousers that were bought at the local Matalan store!

Plain black trousers - excellent idea. I hope it catches on.

As regards kilts, wrapover skirts would also allow teenage girls to to grow, but wouldn't have the 'modesty pin' that a kilt has.

At my GD secondary school, which she joined this month, everyone - girls and boys - has to wear black trousers. The reason given was that the staff were spending so much time policing the length of skirts that they decided to bring in the new rule. I must say, having seen some of the girls in their very short skirts previously, it seems sensible.

GD is not bothered by it in the least - she quite likes the plain black trousers that were bought at the local Matalan store!

Trousers for all. Regulation shorts for summer. Why do people make such a song and dance about uniforms.
These solutions cheap for all, and removes the disgusting habit of upskirting, not easy when kilts are the norm.