Boarding school boys allowed to wear skirts

Head teacher says male pupils are free to ‘express themselves’ by wearing uniform of opposite sex

BOYS will be allowed to wear skirts at one of the country’s leading boarding schools.

The head teacher of Uppingham School in Rutland, whose alumni include Stephen Fry and Rick Stein, the celebrity chef, said any boy asking to do so would find a sympathetic ear.

Richard Maloney, who joined Uppingham in September 2016, said: “I would hope that any pupil could come to me and say, ‘This is who we are, this is how we wish to express ourselves. We want to wear these clothes’, and we would probably allow that.”

Mr Maloney told The Sunday Times that last year, during inclusivity week, one boy had decided to wear a long skirt for a few days to make a point.

Christian Jessen, the television doctor who spent three years at Uppingham, said recently he would “probably” have worn a skirt for its shock value had he been permitted to do so.

Dr Jessen said neutral uniforms would help move away from gender stereotypes, but warned against early medical intervention in the case of children who were experimenting with gender in adolescence.

The £36,000-a-year public school admitted its first female student in 1973 and is now fully co-educational.

Unlike a growing number of public and state schools that have introduced “gender neutral” uniforms, Uppingham still has separate uniforms for its male and female pupils.

Boys wear charcoal trousers, white shirts and black jumpers. Girls wear grey skirts, white shirts, and cerise jumpers. Both wear black blazers.

Gareth Doodes, the head teacher of Dover College, welcomed the news but warned the school ethos was more important.

“I think it’s about more than one statement, it’s the entire culture,” he said. “It’s about ensuring that a school is pastorally calibrated to ensure a child feels confident to wear the uniform of another sex.” Mr Doodes said Dover, which has 300 pupils aged between three and 18, had no plans to introduce gender neutral uniforms but had worked to create an environment where clothing choice was not seen as exclusive or divisive.

He added: “I don’t think it’s about gender neutrality but rather, allowing pupils to express themselves in a safe and supportive environment.”

One pupil at Dover has been permitted – with their parents’ consent – to wear the uniform of the opposite sex. Last year, alumni of the £20,000-ayear Highgate School in North London reacted with outrage when the school drew up a mix-and-match uniform policy allowing boys to wear skirts.

One letter to the head teacher objected to “this preposterous proposal”.

The school allows children to request that staff address them by a name of the opposite gender, which around half a dozen have done. One boy has also been allowed to wear a dress to school.

In 2016, around 80 state schools were allowing pupils to wear clothes of the opposite gender.