School bans pupils under 15 from wearing skirts... to save girls from attracting unwanted attention



A school has banned pupils from wearing skirts, claiming that girls were sneakily raising their hemlines by several inches after setting off from home.



Girls aged up to 16 at St Aidan's CE High School in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, will have to wear trousers from September.



Only from Year 11 will skirts be permitted - and they will be strictly limited to a length of no more than three inches above the knee.



The school is to insist on girls wearing trousers amid concerns pupils could be placing themselves at risk by wearing skirts too short (posed by models)

Dress code: St Aidan's CE High School, Harrogate, is changing its uniform to stop female pupils from wearing skirts

Some pupils and parents branded the ban heavy-handed. But yesterday the school defended the policy, saying a majority of its girls were putting themselves 'at risk' by wearing excessively short skirts.



A statement on its website read: 'Very young children, and even more disturbingly, special needs children are clearly wholly unaware of the signals they are giving out.



Safety conscious: St Aidan's head Dennis Richards says the first duty of care in any school is child safety

'Parents who have come in have been astonished to see the difference between the length their daughter may wear her skirt as she leaves home and what has happened by the time she is walking the corridors of the school.

'It does not need much imagination to understand where and in what situation the children are placing themselves "at risk".



'The first duty of care in any school is to keep the children safe.'



The mixed school with almost 2,000 pupils is regularly one of the strongest-performing comprehensives in the country at GCSE, with 89 per cent last year getting five or more good grades, compared with under 50 per cent nationally.



Girls will be told to wear black trousers: jeans, cords or cotton drill material are not accepted, nor are midriff-displaying, 'hipster-style' trousers.