Parents fury as school to ban SKIRTS in move to be 'more inclusive' as it pushes for 'gender neutral options for all students'
A school has banned pupils from wearing skirts in its drive to be 'more inclusive' and offer ' gender neutral options'.
Students will no longer be allowed to wear the item of clothing as of September after a letter was circulated this week informing them of the uniform change.
Furious parents at Honywood School in Essex have hit out branding the move 'group punishment' and 'crazy'.
It comes after the headteacher James Saunders also said in his communication on Monday that pupils had been wearing the skirts incorrectly.
Students can currently choose from trousers or a school-branded skirt - but come the new academic year their only options will be black trousers or black, knee-length, tailored shorts.
A letter seen by the Colchester Gazette said: 'Over time, we have unfortunately experienced persistent issues with school skirts being worn incorrectly.
'By replacing the option of skirts, ongoing challenges in this regard are removed so that the collective staff and learner focus, and energy within school remains fully on learning.'
It adds that tailored shorts will provide a more gender-neutral option for all pupils and uniform may become more financially affordable for families by replacing the skirt.
A parent, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Gazette: 'I am disappointed - they are rolling it out as a gender-neutral initiative but it's not really, they are trying to do group punishment.
'Yes, girls should wear skirts appropriately and parents should be enforcing it.'
She added her daughter, in Year 7, wore skirts with the school branding which she had 'spent money on' and concluded the change was 'crazy'.
The parent also claimed last September the school banned female students from wearing socks and they now have to 'wear tights all year round'.
Locals have taken to social media to weigh in with their thoughts, saying 'I'm surprised they haven't banned trousers instead' and 'is this not discrimination against girls'.
But a few parents said they were not surprised as 'some of the girls roll them up so short'.
One person said: 'It will stop them from rolling them over at the waist band so they are so short.'
Another added: 'There should be a strict uniform regulations and if not adhered to parents heavily fined: end of.'
Come the new academic year students' only options will be black trousers or black, knee-length, tailored shorts (file image)
But a third commented: 'This is really interfering with their education.'
And someone else said: 'That's ridiculous, yes have rules but making girls wear shorts/trousers... what is this world coming to.'
The school issued a public letter to parents on social media this evening where Mr Saunders said in his view the approach to banning skirts was 'not contentious'.
He explained: 'It follows a simple uniform model used by many schools across the country.
'I would like to reassure you that we will open a dialogue to include parents' views so that they may be able input directly into this process.'
Honywood School has followed in the footsteps of a handful of other secondary schools that announced they would be moving to a trousers-only policy in September.
Canon Slade School in Bolton and Philips High in Whitefield, Bury, are among those to have already made the change.
The school's response
A spokesman for Honywood School told the Gazette: 'On Monday, a letter regarding changes to our uniform policy was sent to families. The school received a number of queries about these changes.
'At this time, we have not been able to respond to these enquiries as they were received less than 24 hours ago.
'Our policy is to respond to all communications within 48 hours. We will be responding through the appropriate channels in due course.
'We take the opinions and concerns of our families seriously.
'It is disappointing that we have not been given time to respond in our normal community-minded way and that families feel this is a matter that needs reporting in the media.
'We have always preferred to work directly with families rather than respond to external pressures via third parties.
'We only wish families were more passionate and vocal about the real challenges schools are facing currently such as lack of funding and SEND support or that the media was exposing these issues publicly.
'The approach we have taken is not contentious and follows a simple uniform model used by lots of schools across the country.
'It is clear that our families have concerns and we will continue to work with them directly to achieve a mutually accepted solution as the media is not the appropriate platform to deal with this matter.'
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