A petition has been launched on behalf of schoolboys who have been forced to either stay at home or wear skirts to school after they were told off for wearing shorts instead of trousers as temperatures soared.
Male students at Gowerton Comprehensive School in Swansea are not allowed to wear shorts, despite highs of 30 degrees, but female students are allowed to wear skirts with no tights.
One pupil, Luke Snell was so hot he borrowed a skirt to wear. "He is not an attention seeker," his mother Jayne told the South Wales Evening Post. "He is trying to make a point for all the boys."
Luke and his friends are now planning a widespread "skirt day" on Monday as they feel the school's policy is sexist. Another pupil, Steven Keane, who passed out from heat stroke last week, is skipping school as he has been threatened with isolation if he turns up in shorts, according to the Post.
"I refused to send him back into school and am keeping him home," his mother Karen Davies, who started the petition, said. "When I complained to the school they told me it wasn't part of the school uniform and if he was to hot he could always wear a skirt, which is totally absurd.
"There's boys in years 10 and 11 who are walking around in skirts — if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it."
Davies is urging the public to support her change.org petition and help change the schools' attitude towards uniforms for males.
Michael Fabricant MP lent his support tweeting:
A Swansea Council spokesman said the vast majority of parents and pupils at Gowerton maintained the school uniform policy. "However, we are always open to fresh ideas on how to improve what we do," he said. "If pupils want to amend the uniform policy we'd welcome ideas which they can put to the pupil council and the senior management team who can then approach the governing body for a decision."
He added if parents wished to discuss any issue, they could approach the school.