A mother is calling for girls to be able to wear trousers to school as part of their uniform.

Katia Chornik, whose daughter attends Kingston Grammar School (KGS), believes it is unfair that girls at the school must wear skirts.

She has been campaigning for the change for about a year after reading the uniform list.

She said: “I wrote an email to the person in charge of uniform simply asking about it, I thought it was a mistake that the uniform list did not say anything about trousers for girls.”

The London Road school changed its uniform recently after a year of consultation with parents and pupils.

Dr Chornik said: “The reason 50 per cent of the school cannot wear trousers is because of gender.

“Trousers are obviously warmer, particularly more comfortable. They [the girls] are more protected against harassment, sexual assault and they [trousers] are a lot cheaper than skirts.”

The high-achieving school has said it is adhering to the law that allows differences in uniform for boys and girls, but Dr Chornik believes it is gender discrimination.

Headteacher Stephen Lehec said the school had been in discussions with Dr Chornik since October last year, and has offered to conduct another consultation to determine if more parents and students feel the same way.

He said: “We are going to be fair and do it properly and it’s in our school letter that we want to go out to parents. We are actually getting that together now.

“We cannot change it without a consultation, which is what we are doing.”

He added: “This is not an issue that greatly exercises KGS parents, and we had a full uniform review only three years ago.

“That review included questions on uniform for both boys and girls, and the issue of trousers for girls was mentioned by only a small handful of people, none of whom expressed a strong view on the subject.”