A £20,000-a-year private school in London will let boys wear skirts under gender-neutral uniform plans

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May 15, 2017 11:50 AM

Highgate School is pretty forward thinking when it comes to gender issues.

A London private school is considering introducing a gender-neutral uniform due to a surge in pupils identifying as transgender, according to The Times.

The £20,000-a-year Highgate School may introduce new uniform guidelines, which would allow boys to wear skirts and earrings.

Only Highgate's female pupils currently have the option between wearing either grey trousers or grey pleated skirts. And only boys over the age of 16 are allowed to wear earrings.

Adam Pettitt, the headmaster at Highgate School, told The Times: "This generation is really questioning [if we are] being binary in the way we look at things."

Highgate school is one of many in London that is "struggling to deal with growing numbers of children questioning their identity as boys or girls," according to The Times.

The school said it is consulting pupils on a "mix-and-match dress code that would not be called a girls' or boys' uniform." Parents will also be asked before a final decision is made.

Pettitt said it "must be a good thing" if allowing male pupils to wear skirts makes them "feel happier and more secure in who they are."

Highgate is already forward thinking when it comes to gender issues. It allows pupils to select whether they are referred to by male or female names. Pettitt said roughly half a dozen pupils have requested this and one boy has been allowed to wear dresses.

"This is happening predominantly in the sixth form but my guess is that that will change over time and I think primary schools will find parents coming and saying: 'My son does not want to be called Johnny anymore.' We will need to become understanding of what is a sensible reaction to this at different ages," the headmaster said.

Transgender clinics across the UK have reported huge increases in the number of referrals in recent years. London's Tavistock clinic, the only centre for children and teenagers in England, saw an unprecedented increase from 697 referrals in 2015 to 1,398 in 2016, according to The Guardian.

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