School uniform for girls

I’m just home from Greece. As with other European countries, no uniform, children wear what they choose. I don’t believe uniforms make better behaviour.
Our local high school has introduced trousers for boys and girls. A much better idea than skirts

Minis were the fashion when I was a girl, but school was max 3 inches above floor when kneeling rigidly enforced. I often wore my gym skirt home - a lovely pleated mini that I got away with as netball and hockey teams met at the end of a school day.
The girls in the school near me are in lycra elastic bands often showing knickers with lots of hem tugging. Less about the length than the cling.

DGD has a "buy only here" expensive school skirt. They supply a range of waist sizes to get around the issue of having to buy a shorter one to get the fit. This is a pleated, plaid skirt that is hard to duplicate, so no real chance of elastic bands, and they look smart.

Another school has gone quite the other way - it looks like very smart sports wear with joggers and polo/sweat tops in great designs.

I really like the idea of smart uniform sportswear for schools. It can look really good for most shapes. Same for boys and girls. A co-ordinated hoodie for winter and matching shorts for summer. I can’t believe that some schools still expect girls to wear ties. How many adult women wear ties?

Mollygo What experiences do others who have mentioned children at non-uniform schools have? Or should we believe that all children at non uniform schools automatically make sensible clothing choices?

My sons went to a state school. No uniform. The only rule l remember was no football colours.

One son wore sensible jeans/t-shirts/sweatshirts. The other wore trendy (at that time) frayed/holed low slung jeans with his backside hanging out, expensive designer t-shirts, don't think he had enough money left for designer sweatshirts (they both had quite lucrative part time jobs from age 14 so were free to buy what they wanted to wear).

It was fairly apparent that various peer groups had a self styled uniform of sorts.

We have a few "alternative" type schools in our neck of the woods - you know, the type where children can swing from the trees if they feel like it. They don't wear a uniform because it's all to do with freedom of choice, so that pupils only choose to dress and behave in a way that matters to them!

I'm not so sure about this. In life, there are many rules that are compulsory, and learning to follow them is a beneficial practice.

Rules in life are important, but for them to have value they need to be as few as possible and necessary.

School uniform is an unnecessary rule that wastes teacher time. Not being in uniform does not interfere with education, which is the purpose of school.

My local school has a no uniform policy but pupils are required to wear a school sweatshirt when on outings for easy identification of pupils for safety so as not to lose anyone!

Some may well be wearing modesty shorts underneath. Who knows unless you try to look?

Fallingstar It’s not whether girls would prefer to wear trousers, - it’s the fact that they have to wear trousers because of male behaviour

Surely the main point should be that girls should not have to change their mode of dress because of the behaviour of boys!!! It's the boys who need to change, starting with learning respect for females via their parents and secondly by their teachers and society in general. We'll have all schoolgirls wearing burqua's next just because immature schoolboys can't be controlled.

The head of the school should be making rules for the boys and girls uniform.

Mollygo, I’m with you on that. At my daughter’s school girls can wear either trousers or skirts. My daughter is unable to wear the trousers due to the fabric and only tolerates the skirt fabric by wearing shorts underneath so that she doesn’t have to sit on the fabric.

My sons both went to non-uniform schools and it seemed to me that everyone just wore jeans/joggers with t shirts or sweatshirts. There didn’t seem to be any “keeping up” going on nor very short skirts. I worked in a school with a very strict uniform policy and the staff seemed to spend a lot of time telling the students off for uniform infractions and that was the majority of their interactions with them - which was not great.

Our children went to school internationally and there was no uniform. The kids wore what was comfortable and very little evidence of inappropriate under-dressing by the girls.

The school I visited recently on the far side of the world had a school uniform from reception to Y6 then another from year 7 until year 11.
After that pupils were not obliged to wear uniform, but the clothes had to show respect for the school’ reputation.

School uniforms do not have to be expensive. It is a choice made by the school. I live in a poor area and the local comprehensive school recognises this. The children are required to wear dark grey or black trousers or skirts, Black tights or leggings with skirts, white polo shirts, black sweatshirt with the school logo attached (I'm not sure if it is iron-on or sewn on). Very simple, perfectly tidy, and available cheaply at most big supermarkets.

Just as an aside here; has anyone seen the save water with all those children . . . In uniform.
Why did they need to put them into uniform?
Why not just have children in what they want to wear?