Lambeth is one of 50 male students attending ISCA Academy in Exeter, England, where mandatory uniforms allegedly require boys to wear trousers all year round – girls, however, have the option of wearing skirts as the temperature climbs.
Exeter schoolboys donned skirts at the Isca Academy in England this week after school officials said they could not wear shorts to school despite a heatwave.
Now the school say “as summers are becoming hotter” shorts will be brought in as uniform next year.
The school also clarified that none of the boys who wore skirts in protest have been “penalised”. “However, children tend to take you literally, and because she told them it was OK, there was nothing she could do as long as they were school skirts“.
“Contrary to news reports, we have not banned shorts; shorts are simply not part of our school uniform”.
The school’s uniform code now states that male students can wear trousers and female pupils are allowed to wear skirts or trousers.
An estimated 30 boys at the school in Devon, south-west England, arrived for lessons in tartan-patterned skirts, borrowed from sisters and girlfriends, on Wednesday and yesterday.
“Ryan came up with the idea of wearing a skirt, so that evening we borrowed one”.
Claire Lambeth, the mother of one of the boys who began the protest, said she was proud of him. “The head teacher told them “Well you can wear a skirt if you like” but I think she was being sarcastic”.
The boys complained it was too hot to wear pants and pointed that it was unfair the girls were allowed to wear skirts and remained cooler as a result. None of the skirted students was punished, he said.
Wednesday was the hottest day in Britain for 40 years, with temperatures reaching nearly 34 degrees in parts of London.