Top school scraps century-old uniform code to accommodate transgender pupils

A TOP independent school has become the first to scrap its uniform policy to accommodate transgender students, breaking with hundreds of years of tradition.

Supplied brighton

A TOP independent school in Britain has become the first in the country to scrap its uniform policy to accommodate transgender students.

Brighton College in East Sussex, a school for boys and girls aged 11-18 with around 1,000 pupils, now gives all students the option of wearing a skirt and blouse or trousers and shirt, regardless of gender.

The school said it was “reacting to a changing society which recognises that some children have gender dysphoria and do not wish to lose their emotional gender identities at school”.

The school’s head teacher, Richard Cairns, told The Mirror: “If some boys and girls are happier identifying with a different gender from that in which they were born, then my job is to make sure that we accommodate that.

“I hate the idea of anyone being in my school who is miserable because they’re being asked to dress in a way they are uncomfortable with.

“Brighton College has instead decided to abolish the notion of boys’ and girl’s schools altogether.”

Brighton College announced the new policy this week, bidding farewell to uniform guidelines which have been in place for 170 years, dating back to the school’s inception in 1845.

The headmaster informed students that the uniform would be replaced with a “trouser uniform” and a “skirt uniform” for all students up to the age of 16. Traditional uniform will remain but the type of uniform will be a matter for the individual boy or girl.

Parents are required to tell the school if their child wishes to switch from one uniform to the other.

The change has so far been embraced by the students, with girls opting to wear trousers and more than one male student expressing the desire to wear a skirt, The Mirror reports.

Brighton College, where fees are £11,780 (A$24,330), had the first openly gay head boy at a British public school when Will Emery, 17, was voted in by staff and students in 2013.