The parents of a 12-year-old girl have accused her school of discriminating against her over her body shape.

Shylah Johnson has been placed in isolation because she returned to classes wearing the wrong type of skirt.

Her school insists on a pleated skirt but, unable to find one to fit her wide hips, Shylah arrived in a plain black one instead.

Mum Daisy Johnson said they tried several options from high street shops like Marks & Spencer and Next but had no luck.

The school isn’t budging and is insisting on the uniform issue being resolved before she can be fully integrated back into school life.

Now her parents are locked in a row with her headteacher – all while the schoolgirl is forced to miss classes.

Daisy said: ‘We have spent hundreds of pounds ordering skirts that didn’t fit and returning them, we’ve tried everywhere. 

‘But because she has wide hips and a small waist the skirts don’t fit properly.

‘So we had to get her a regular skirt that does fit, but she was immediately sent to isolation because of it not being pleated.

‘She has missed two tests already this week because she can’t be in full-time education, all because her skirt doesn’t have pleats in it.

‘She’s being discriminated against, really, because she doesn’t have a body shape for their uniform policy.’

Daisy has been unable to reach a compromise with the school, despite them providing an alternative and offering to have one tailored.

She said her daughter had a ‘growth spurt’ over the summer and claimed the affair has created anxiety issues for her daughter.

Daisy added her daughter isn’t ‘breaking the uniform policy willingly’ but only because ‘she has no other option’.

Will Teece, headteacher at Brookvale Groby Learning Campus, said that the school has offered a number of different options to try and help get Shylah back into classes – including offering to adjust a skirt so it fits her measurements.

Mr Teece said: ‘The school has had the same uniform policy for many years, we’ve provided the family with a skirt, offered to take them to the shops, and offered to have it tailored – bit it simply seems like she doesn’t want to wear the skirt.

‘We’ve got 1,500 other students who have not had any issues with their uniform and have settled well into the start of the new academic year.

‘We’ll do all we can to offer support to students to get them the right uniform, and everyone else on campus is in the right uniform.

‘We’d like nothing more than to get the student back into full-time education, and we feel we have offered more than enough options for the parent and student to do this.’

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