Uniform- blazer/tie, to sweatshirt and polo- then back to blazer and tie!

[Erebus]

A local secondary school appears to have done this. Like most they were in the blazer/tie uniform, then quite recently moved over to the trendy, relaxed sweat and polo combo- but it seems they're now back in a (different) blazer and tie set-up.

Wonder why? Incidentally, it's not a school that closed and reopened as something else, and it's in Hampshire, not inner London.

Our school ditched blazers and ties about 6 years ago, but I must say, teh DC do look a bit scruffy! And I liked having a blazer at school- so many pockets!

[NoComet]

Who know's they would learn just as much in jeans and hoddies.

Both the local polo shirt casual uniform, non uniform sixth forms have better Ofsted's than us with our ties.

Only the Grammars have blazers, but they have pretensions to be public schools and can safely be ignored.

[mimbleandlittlemy]

My ds's school has just done this. They got rid of blazers and ties about 10 years ago (the only secondary school to do so in the borough, all the rest keeping more formal shirt/tie/blazer uniform) but the school has now gone back to jacket/shirt/tie this year having done a full survey of parents, children and staff and discovering that everyone pretty much universally hated the 'relaxed sweat and polo combo'.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of it, within the local area - and I've lived around here for nearly 30 years so do have a pretty good before/after knowledge - the perception of the school plummeted around about the time of the arrival of the then 'new' uniform and it is on the up again at a time when the new, new uniform has arrived (if you see what I mean).

Go figure and if I'm honest ds looks very smart indeed so that's nice.

[Erebus]

I wish my DSs were in ties and blazers! I really do. They look really daggy (Antipodean word, defined as : 'The literal meaning is a dung-caked lock of wool around the hindquarters of a sheep - an abbreviation of "daglock"' ) in them. Regarding achievement and uniform, yes, the boys' school is actually academically the best in the county, so it's not really a perception or discipline thing, but I do wish they looked smarter!

[ArbitraryUsername]

The best state school in my city has a polo shirt and sweatshirt uniform. The worst has a blazer and tie. Dressing like a young conservative has no bearing whatsoever on behaviour or educational achievement.

[Erebus]

Actually I believe that research has shown that uniform does have a bearing on behaviour, but possibly only alongside a whole raft of the governing, teaching and parental body 'getting serious' across the board with schools that need improvement. The effect is clearly going to be less pronounced in a 'MC value'd' school with a committed, school-ready student body and on-side adults, isn't it?

So saying 'smart uniform doesn't mean better results' is being a bit simplistic!

[Ragusa]

In fact, there's good evidence that uniform itself has bugger all impact on school outcomes.

[Erebus]

But the thing is, with your 'good evidence'- how on earth could you structure the experiment to prove that? 2 absolutely identical schools in 2 absolutely identical areas with exactly the same make-up of student cohort, same rules enforced to the same degree, same intake in terms of prior achievement and parental expectation; then put one in a smart blazer and tie uniform, and the other in any old ragtag of a uniform and monitor the results?

SO how can you single uniform alone out as being of no consequence?

Personally, I believe you can only look at trends and bigger pictures; why our uniformed services demand absolute adherence to uniform as part of their instilling of discipline; the attempt to instil pride in its wearers; its creation of a sense of 'belonging' to something, for instance.

[Ragusa]

By that logic, there is no point doing any research to establish the impact of any educational intervention at all.

It's not my good evidence, it's someone else's, BTW. I will dig it out if I have a minute.

[NoComet]

Ragusa, your not far off there.

I've read that research into reading methods is incredibly difficult, because subcontiously control schools pay more attention to and get better results too.

Schools are a whole web of interlinking priorities. Very slight changes in emphasis can have disproportionate results.

[ArbitraryUsername]

A basic tenet of being research literate is that correlation is not causation. Just because a school adopts a bloody blazer (alongside a complete change in staff, ethos, everything else) does not mean the blazer had anything to do with the change in results.

Plenty of school systems don't have uniforms at all, and the kids within them out perform English children (according to the OECD).

[pixiepotter]

uniform isn't about raising educational standards.it is there for other goodreasonsi