Just read the bloody uniform policy!!!

@CecilyP exactly, you dress appropriately for the situation. I’m not saying dc should go to school like a wedding guest. In my workplace uniform has relaxed (men no longer wear ties) but they wouldn’t wear black trainers. It would raise eyebrows. They are not “smart”.

Are you sure? Would you really notice if the trainers were black?

Your wedding argument is ridiculous. You don’t expect girls to turn up at school in high heels which are commonly worn be women at weddings.

It is madness.

I would love a teacher who lines kids up to inspect the trouser style, the skirt length, the shoe logo to actually come on here and explain why on earth they think what they are doing is ok. Just tell the Head it's 2023 not the 50s. Black trousers, white shirt and tie really should suffice.

Put as much effort into teaching as into draconian skirt inspection fgs.

Agree. No reason whatsoever that ankle boots should not be allowed.

I'm actually annoyed that the uniform policy at DD's new secondary doesn't allow ankle boots but does allow ballet flats.

What's the problem with them having warm dry feet?!

I am fine with uniforms, don't have an issue but some of the heads in my area are getting ridiculous. The bullying/behaviour in those schools is horrendous and they do fuck all about it but they'll send someone home whose shoes are not quite the exact ones they have decided in this years policy.

Well said. How schools deal with the shoe issue is the main problem. Sending a kid to isolation because they have a logo on their schools is the most ridiculous thing ever, especially when the child didn’t not purchase the shoes.

I get the point of school uniforms even if I don’t really think it's necessary. And I agree that it's not that difficult to just follow the clear uniform policy the school has put out.

What I really don’t agree with is sending children home/to isolation on their first day at school because they have shoes the school don’t like. Especially when it is highly unlikely an 11 year old has bought her own uniform. That's punishing a child for the actions of their parent and I am 100% against that. Also, it prevents them from learning - which is sort of the entire reason you go to school - and is probably pretty upsetting when it's your first day and you're already terrified. I wouldn't want to go back to the school either.

I also don’t think uniforms do prevent rivalry between the "haves and the have nots". The catchment area of my school (Scotland so all the children in the catchment attend the same school) included one of the poorest parts of town as well as the richest part where people live in mansions. And wearing a uniform didn’t stop us knowing who lived in the council flats and who lived in the million pound houses.

@SoupDragon I don't think it was as strict though. We had to wear ties etc and shoes had to be black but as for being sent home or isolation for not being the exact shoes, it certainly never happened at my school.

Also anothet thing I think is ridiculous is uniform in preschool at the age of 3! My son will still be in nappies at 3, wants to play with paint and spills food down himself. One of the many reasons i’ve chosen nursery instead of preschool. Totally impractical to uniform at that age.

I think there could be a good compromise though. If many uniform rules weren’t so stupid, fewer people would have a problem with them, along with general cost issues and extra task of washing ironing specific clothes.

As I’ve said in a previous post, I don’t think that logo/brand is indicative of cost/‘hey look at my expensive shoes’. My son is only 2, but the addidas trainers i get for him from Schuh are half the price of the stuff he’s had in Clarks.

I just think stressing of a logo is ridiculous and should be way down the list of priorities compared to all the other horrendous school issues

Oh FFS, the point is they were NOT allowed to take them off in the classroom. It was high 20s where I was yesterday. Don't be so ridiculous.

Luckily my DCs school allowed blazers and ties to be removed yesterday.

Parents should, on the whole, respect the school rules and leave them to it. It's a very confusing message for kids if parents are on a different page to their school.

This. So many people essentially tell their children not to listen to the school and then are quick blame the school for their child’s failings. They are setting their children up to fail/ for a difficult school life IMO

@MariaVT65 I agree that some rules are weird/ not useful/ inappropriate

But just as people are frustrated at some rules that don’t need to be there, there are many that are useful or necessary but people choose not to see it when they are on their “Uniform is outdated” rampage.

@WeWereInParis Also regarding the blazer thing, my school had that rule too and it wasn't half as 'draconian' as it sounds. In the Summer they didn't actually enforce it and there came a time around June usually when they said you can just leave your blazer at home. It was fine.

To be honest you either trust the school/ teachers to make good decisions or you don't. There could well be reasons why teachers have these rules (e.g. maybe everyone is losing their hats in school, maybe they're all keeping their hats on in lessons and throwing them round the classroom, etc. Who knows? - you're not in the classroom.) A lot of teaching is crowd control and there are sometimes factors at play that parents don't think of.

At the end of the day if you don't like the school rules then pull your kid out and send them to a different one.

Parents should, on the whole, respect the school rules and leave them to it. It's a very confusing message for kids if parents are on a different page to their school.

I was literally reading a thing recently where someone was saying “I wear board showers and flip flops to the office” albeit they now work in California I think. So I just plucked it from that

also, Figurative language to convey effect

To be fair to the school in Gateshead, the article was doing the rounds on social media and in the comments people had shown that the school had published what's acceptable, told parents, and put photos on their website with local stockists at a range of price points.

Every year I find myself amazed by the parents spending £100s on obviously non-uniform items and then claiming cost of living/can't buy another pair. They could have bought two pairs of proper school shoes for the price of their heavily branded, obviously non-uniform ones.

But the teacher outside in the hat presumably was stood out there all morning as pupils arrived. The pupils will be in the warm very soon if they're pretty much at school.

@hylian yes but what's the point? What's the benefit in them taking their hat off? This teacher didn't normally stand there, I don't know whether something else prompted it that day or whether it was just that children were wearing hats. But what difference does it make to anything if they wear the hat? They still have a coat on, so once they're inside will have to remove outer layers, why is a coat fine but a hat not. There's no logic.

I've also never known a school that doesn't allow blazers to be removed when it's too hot.

The school my mum teaches at doesn't allow blazers to be removed unless the teacher in the classroom says it's ok (and I've seen it commented on on here so I don't think her school is unique). It's really weird to not allow teenagers to decide when they're too hot for their jacket.

No one who has an office job is allowed flip flops. Safety rules still exist. But we are allowed to wear comfortable shoes.

I don’t think silly school uniform rules about no shoes with logos can be compares to jobs that require safety gear.

Does anyone here give a shit what shoes the nurses are wearing when they are getting treatment after an operation in hospital?

I think the point is things change and things are progressing. Comfort should come first.

And yes, I'm aware it should be 'my children and I' but I went to school before them😆😆

I read threads like these and I'm so glad that me and my children went to schools with no uniform policy.

We just wore normal clothes. And you know what? People managed to learn and pass exams even though they didn't all wear the same thing.

RAAC, kids missing school, food poverty, poor hygiene and schools are policing flipping shoes?! Are they black shoes? Yes? Come in and learn. Teachers or rather the SMT should give themselves a break from uniform nonsense. There are bigger issues you're dealing with.

Interestingly, my school experience was the opposite.

Our school uniform was bottle green with some red on it, and going out in public before/after school was actually where the name calling started eg such ‘hey look it’s the christmas trees’

We also had a stupid rule where we were allowed a black bloat in winter, but it had to be worn over our blazers, hence, most of them didn’t fit. It’s rules like this that were completely stupid and 19 years after leaving school, I still think they were stupid.

Hmm

My year 12 went in yesterday, smart casual... came home to tell me he has to have 'proper shoes'

Nearly all of them in smart trainers. I've seen men in suits and trainers so why they aren't acceptable I don't understand