Schools get the ruler out to ensure skirts measure up
Girls pushing the boundaries with too-short skirts have been told they need to comply or face the consequences in what is a perennial butting of heads between tweens and teens and schools.
Education
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Students trying to get away with wearing skirts deemed too short have been set holiday homework to let their hems down.
As winter uniforms were dusted off over the second term, schools began handing out uniform breaches to students contravening hemline codes.
But how short is too short?
Some schools are more vigilant than others but stipulations vary from just below the knee, on the knee, no shorter than 5cm above the knee or 10cm above the knee. Some students roll up skirts at the waist to make them shorter or tie waist bands to hitch up dresses. Netball knickers are usually worn underneath.
At the end of the term, Mullauna College principal Barbara Laidlaw told families that girls had grown taller since last winter and their skirts needed to reflect that.
“The winter skirts have adjustable waists so that the skirts will last students for two or three years,” she wrote in the Mitcham school’s newsletter.
“In the uniform code it states that the hemline for skirts and summer dresses should sit on the knee. However, it is apparent that some of our students have grown taller while their winter skirts have become significantly shorter!
“To save any embarrassment it would be appreciated if parents could check and adjust their daughter’s skirt length (let the hem down) so that staff do not need to address this issue with individual students.”
Fitzroy’s Academy of Mary Immaculate College deputy principal Paul Finneran in recent weeks asked for parental support to ensure students were properly attired in accordance with the school policy.
“Skirts should be worn at an appropriate length. Many students are displaying a penchant for rolling their skirts up to an unacceptable length. Skirts should be worn on or just above the knee,” he said in the newsletter.
He outlined requirements of clear nail polish and plain sleepers and studs.
“Students who continue to fail to comply with the policy can expect consequences to be issued,” he warned.
Mum Shelley Mead, whose nine-year-old daughter Taliyah goes to Cheltenham East Primary School, said it was important for secondary schools to enforce hemlines and at least knee length was appropriate.
“It shouldn’t be too long where it’s touching the ground,” she said.
“Most of the kids don’t change uniforms for PE, so hem length should accommodate for extra curricular activities. Taliyah plays netball with her friends at lunch time and recess in the same uniform all day.
“Lots of girls are wearing pants now, especially because of colder weather.”
As students changed over into winter uniforms, schools have reminded them of expectations.
Phoenix College P-12 in Ballarat has told girls that skirts should be no shorter than 5cm above their knee.
“Our expectations regarding an appropriate hem length on skirts still apply and we ask parents and students to ensure that hem lengths are no shorter than 5cm above the knee,” the school said.
St Michael’s Grammar School states that skirts, tunics and dresses should be no shorter than the knee.
Coburg High Schools has decreed that shorts and skirts must be “long enough in the leg to reach the fingertips when arms are hung loosely alongside the body”. The school currently has a partial uniform.
Fitzroy High School does not have a uniform but students have been told their hemline should “not be too short”
McKinnon Secondary College stipulates that skirts cannot be more than 10cm above the knee.
Northcote High School states that skirts, shorts and dresses should be of an appropriate length to allow for daily activities to be undertaken without restriction.
Mt Lilydale Mercy College dictates that the tie at the back of the summer dress must not be “tampered with to change the style of the dress”.
The winter skirt should be worn at the knee or longer.
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The school policy says staff will not argue with students who do not follow the code.
Students who don’t make appropriate changes in a prompt manner may face “exclusion from our community until they do so”.
Dobsons, one of the bigger uniform suppliers, said it worked with schools to determine appropriate hem lengths.
Most garments included a sizeable turned up (3 inch or 7.62cm) hem to ensure they could be let down over a number of years.
Dobson’s managing director Alistair Dobson said fashions did change over time and now girls tended to wear their skirts higher on the waist rather than lower on the hips which they were doing two or three years ago.
He said most schools seemed to aim for lengths below or on the knee.
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