Strict school dress codes can affect self-esteem, academic warns

As the weather gets warmer and term draws to a close, students are throwing off their blazers and rolling down their socks – but are rigid school uniform policies affecting students' wellbeing?

Dr Elizabeth Nassem from the University of Bradford researches school bullying and says uniform rules, many rooted in "Victorian era" thinking, are increasingly out of step with the realities facing young people today.

She is the founder of consultancy Bullied Voices and has worked with schools across the UK.

"When teachers are required to enforce inflexible rules without the autonomy to apply professional judgement, routine interactions can slip into something far more damaging," she said.

"Girls have described feeling sexualised or humiliated when told to 'cover up', even when that is not the intention. That experience has serious consequences for self-esteem, trust and mental health."

Jessica, a 17-year-old student at Notre Dame Sixth Form College in Leeds, went to a school in Bradford with a "strict" uniform policy which she said was uncomfortable.

"On hot days we were sometimes allowed to wear socks - rather than tights - but they kind of laid off of that in the later years when I was there and I remember we all came in and my form teacher literally shouted saying 'you all look like porn stars' - I was in year nine at the time.

"How can you say that to essentially little girls, sexualising them?"

Nassem says Jessica's experience is not unusual.

"They feel humiliated, they feel sexualised and they do say a lot of it is the men.

"It's almost like this body that becomes a female, which starts to become a woman, becomes punished. And I think that's how they see it."

Eva, another 17-year-old student at Notre Dame, remembers a time at her secondary school when teachers would check the length of skirts.

"There were these skirts and they were called Charleston skirts so they'd be like really tight at the top and then they go out like really low down, but all the girls were rolling up.

"They had uniform checks some days in the morning where you'd have to stand up and go around and if you didn't have the right uniform then you'd be held behind in form and get a negative."

Blessing, who is also 17, said it was not just skirts - you could also be picked on for trousers that were too tight.

Eva's classmate Jem said he thinks the girls were treated differently to the boys.

"There are a few situations where I was like, 'this is getting a bit weird now, can we stop talking about the length of girls' skirts'?

"When I'm kind of standing around in the hallway and I'm looking at a male teacher confronting a group of 12-year-old girls and asking them to roll down their skirts and stuff, it would just feel slightly uncomfortable."

Nassem said removing uniforms from schools was not the way forward and has sympathy with teachers and schools who are trying to manage complex adolescent behaviour.

"I think the first thing they need to do is actually speak to the pupils and find out what their issues are and then start to look at developing the dress code in a way that's informed and it really comes from pupil voice.

"A lot of the uniforms are kind of associated with those Victorian times and how people used to dress a long time ago."

In February, a secondary school in Derby announced it was ditching shirts, blazers and ties after a consultation with pupils, staff and parents.

Preparing for work

Jeffers, 17, wants to work in the legal profession and said wearing a uniform helped him prepare for his future.

"I liked wearing a tie. It made me feel smart.

"I aspire to go into law as a legal scientist so there is that aspect of some sort of professionality so I would expect to wear something similar."

He also thinks school uniforms create a sense of community and pride.

"If everyone wears the same thing it gives you that sense that you all belong."

Diego also likes his uniform. He is now studying at college in Leeds but spent some of his secondary education in Barcelona, where there was no uniform policy.

"I felt a bit like my clothes were maybe not as like good as the other people in my class.

"In Spain, I just felt a bit like inferior to some people and it was really notable like the class differences and the like the money issues."

For Jem, it is not just about class, comfort or gender inequality – he thinks schools stick to what they know for fear of change.

"It's just a tradition thing. People are largely afraid to adapt.

"You don't need to completely strip back people's identities in order to make them recognisable."