‘Making students feel comfortable’

A review into Queensland’s state schools uniform policy will consider including gender neutral uniform options.

Queensland girl students will be allowed to wear pants and shorts. Picture: Supplied

A review into Queensland’s state schools uniform policy will consider including gender neutral uniform options as the state’s education department announces a uniform policy update.

Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace announced this morning she will formally change policy to allow girls who attend state schools to wear shorts and pants. Currently whether female students are allowed to wear shorts and pants is decided by each individual school and the central policy update intends to strengthen student choices.

“I think there are many schools at the moment who have shorts and pants for girls, but I think we can do more, this year the department will be updating the student dress code procedure.” she told ABC Radio Brisbane this morning.

Ms Grace has asked the department to conduct the review as quickly as possible and consider a range of issues, including introducing gender neutral uniform policy. “They look at health and safety, they look at anti-discrimination, they look at a number of gender neutral uniform options, it’s not as easy as putting words on paper.” she said. “We wanted to make it practical, we wanted to make it commonsense, we want to make every student feel that they can comfortably choose what they want to wear within the rules of a formal school uniform, I think that really makes good sense.”

Ms Grace said the review into policy is about allowing students the option of choosing from a variety of garments. “It’s not about saying no more skirts, it’s about saying students should be allowed to wear everyday as part of the uniform, a choice between a variety of garments in the school uniform policy, and everyone should be entitled to choose shorts and pants as part of that available attire to wear at school.” she said.