School uniform kilts

I think the school uniform should actually be uniform. Either trousers for all pupils or skirts for all pupils. Otherwise doesn't it go against the actual meaning of Uniform

The Presbyterian Ladies College here has them. I think they look lovely, my daughter went there and I always liked their uniform.

My offspring’s school uniform is a kilt for the girls and grey trousers for the boys.
While I agree that the kilts are expensive, offspring was in uniform for 11 years and we only needed to replace the kilt twice. The one bought for secondary lasted the whole five years. Much better than the M&S suit bought for 6th form.
It was easy to launder and dried easily overnight hanging up. I never ironed them, the pleats just stayed put.

There is a convent school in Herts which has a kilt which literally goes down to the girls’ ankles. How they manage to get teenage girls into them I don’t know and they really don’t suit any size or shape.
My gd has just started secondary school (an ex-grammar state school). The uniform has cost £300 and there are no grants and no second hand arrangements made. You can’t help feeling they are trying to exclude poor children.

Nvella

There is a convent school in Herts which has a kilt which literally goes down to the girls’ ankles. How they manage to get teenage girls into them I don’t know and they really don’t suit any size or shape.
My gd has just started secondary school (an ex-grammar state school). The uniform has cost £300 and there are no grants and no second hand arrangements made. You can’t help feeling they are trying to exclude poor children.

Yes, I do wonder about such attempts to 'exclude'. I understood that the uniform grant was available to anyone on a low income (maybe, like so many things these days, it is patchy).
I am surprised that there are no second-hand arrangements. I know little of private schools, but the 2 families I know who have used them have both volunteered at the school second-hand shop; so it feels odd that an ordinary secondary school wouldn't have one.

And Nvella, I think that was one of the schools I noticed some time ago when visiting Herts, which I assumed had a special reason. Of course, Herts borders on Essex, where a previous poster said kilts were common school wear.

NannyC1

I think the school uniform should actually be uniform. Either trousers for all pupils or skirts for all pupils. Otherwise doesn't it go against the actual meaning of Uniform

I think that is the problem, there is no blanket approach to school uniform within the schools, so lots of variations on a theme come along.
In the private sector, the school has total control over the uniform. A supplier is selected from which to buy the regulation items. This saves the school any bother because what is on the list is what must be purchased and worn. There are usually second-hand shops run by the parents.
The wool tartan pinafores are around £50 and are quality garments which wear well. Some parents wash them unnecessarily often which means they can lose their pleats.

There is a Catholic High School in our town which has tartan skirts for the girls - not sure if they are actual kilts as I've taken little notice. I've always noticed them as they are so different from the other schools' uniforms. Having a distinctive uniform helps identify which school a pupil belongs to, but that only really matters if they are misbehaving. The boys don't stand out at all!

A lot of the "kilts" worn as uniform aren't really kilts, just a tartan pleated skirt with plain front. Doubt they are made from pure wool either
If the schools wants to create its own tartan then yes, it would have to be approved as a tartan and would be costly. Look at the back of the skirt, box pleats usually instead of the sharp knife pleats in a kilt. Primary girls in Scotland used to wear their kilt to school not as a uniform but as it was warm, stood up to a lot of wear and only needed washing about once a year. No mean feat pressing a kilt after cleaning. Can't imagine many households doing that nowadays for school uniform. Never mind the cost.

When I was in my county youth orchestra in the early eighties, the girls wore long skirts in black watch tartan with white blouses while the boys wore black trousers, white shirts and black watch tartan ties. I still have the skirt but my chances of ever getting into it again are somewhere between fat chance, slim chance and no chance whatsoever! We looked very smart and the uniform was nice and warm for our winter concerts as the tartan was pure wool but the summer concerts could be guaranteed to be on the hottest day of the year.

I think tartan pinafore looked lovely on primary school girls. My friend has a grand daughter who goes to a school in a deprived area but has a kilt and blazer as her uniform. Most of the pupils receive funding to help purchase the uniforms. as their parents are on low incomes. Our local primary has a polo shirt in an uncommon colour and one polo shirt costs the same as a supermarket pack of plain white or light blue ones which does seem ridiculous. As regards skirt lengths there was a teenager from one of the secondary schools wearing a lycra skirt in town last week. It was so short it showed her buttocks - she must have been wearing a thong as several inches of her k ickers would otherwise have been visible. It was the shortest skirt I have ever seen and made worse as she was bare legged.