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Uniformity urged for uniforms

Hard on the heels of a recommendation to independent schools by Elly Barnes, CEO of Educate and Celebrate, which campaigns against discrimination in schools, that independent schools should adopt gender-free uniforms in order to avoid creating difficulties for transgender pupils, comes the news that some publicly funded schools are banning skirts for girls. Ms Barnes was a speaker at a Boarding Schools Association conference where she gave advice on how schools could be more ‘LGBT friendly’.

Schools do have an absolute right to enforce the ethos of their school by imposing a uniform as long as it does not breach the equality laws and, if it does, does so for a legitimate purpose and is no more than is necessary to achieve that purpose. It is also important to remember that Sikh and Jewish dress is considered a matter of ethnicity and therefore is different to Muslim or Christian prescriptions, which are considered a matter of religion or belief.

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