Just read the bloody uniform policy!!!

Also sick of hearing that it apparently doesn’t prepare you for the “real world”- most work places don’t have a uniform

well actually can think of loads that either have a uniform or restrictions on what you need to wear:

Nurse
Doctor - restriction on what they can wear (bare below elbow, “smart” dress etc… sometimes scrubs)
Firefighter
Paramedic
Police officer
Military
Scientist - restrictions (no open toe footwear, protective clothing etc)
Bus Driver
Bin man
Builder - restrictions (boots, not certain things for safety, things worn a certain way for safety etc)
Receptionist - uniform/ restrictions depending on where you work
Barrister - restrictions/required to wear certain things
Vet
Pilot
Air Steward
Chef
Security Guard

this was just off the top of my head, I could go on.

Uniform is there for a number of reasons - safety, hygiene, identifying people as part of the organisation, tradition…

I’m sure it’s lovely having a job where you can rock up to the office in flip flops but I would argue that the people claiming most jobs let you wear just whatever you like are the ones that don’t live in the real world.

Ain’t British culture great. The same angst every year to stop the same micro managing control issues every year. The continent, at least northern countries, has neither the same issues with micro-controlled uniforms - primaries don’t have uniform at all - nor the same angst over clothing full stop. Somehow they have lower aggression overall, greater intelligence, and better education. Consumerism in this little America-wannabe is pathetic.

We should be celebrating our differences, including clothes choices, not thinking that children can't cope with seeing people from different income brackets or who chose different clothes without a full scale war breaking out!
Teach children tolerance and give them some credit for beingable.tothink for themselves.

@Stopthatknocking That's a lovely ideal. But meanwhile in the real world, a lot of secondary schools are hellish enough without giving kids another reason to pick on each other.

The hair tye thing is stupid, I agree.

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.

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

I saw this too and thought it was utterly insane

ballet flats are an poor choice for school as they will have disintegrated by Christmas - they aren’t built for constant wear

a vast majority of schools don’t allow “fashion logos” - ours pretty much let it slide if it’s not obvious (eg. If the logo is very small or is the same colour so isn’t glaringly obvious) - those Vivienne Westwood ones have a massive great thing on the front and couldn’t be more obvious. I don’t see how anyone would think that was appropriate for school?

it gets very boring hearing the people who every year who complain about the rules when it’s really not that difficult to just read them

My ds can wear either a plain white polo from asda at £3 each, or an identical one bit with a logo on for £10 each.
Seems bonkers.

And as to the whole concept of needing all children to wear uniform so they look identical to prevent bullying? What?

Surely schools and parents teach not to bully anyway?

Children need to learn that not everyone is identical.

Once they leave school they meet people who don't all wear the same clothes or have the same amount of money, and they don't immediately start bullying them.

We should be celebrating our differences, including clothes choices, not thinking that children can't cope with seeing people from different income brackets or who chose different clothes without a full scale war breaking out!
Teach children tolerance and give them some credit for being able.to think for themselves.

We had a reminder about a week before school that girls are not allowed to wear skirts that are 5cms above their knee, with a link to skirts that fit the criteria, which were £20. So a couple of them, £40, which isn't cheap!!

Also, my DD is 5ft 8 with very long legs! I don't believe this rule allows for this kind of stuff.

Lu kily I found one in M&S, which may be 6cms above the knee, but we're £14, so still nearly £30, along with the blazer and new shirts and the requisite pair of shoes (which as a size 8, are looking for something sturdy that fits the policy is not cheap), along with the school policy pe kit, we've spent nearly £200, so I can easily forgive parents who cut corners here and there.

Maybe some people's school shoes, are their outside of school shoes too.

@flingoringo
you would be completely understanding of a school sending children home in supermarket bottoms that were not school branded?

have I missed the unfunny joke?

Children not dying seems to be setting the bar remarkably low. Why is wearing a blazer within the school building expected? Whose benefit is it for? Why can’t a pupil decide for themself that they are uncomfortably warm and take their blazer off?

As a teacher my absolute worst days were non uniform days because it causes so much anxiety for so many students and the bullies have a field day saying nasty things and making them feel insecure.

So why on earth have non uniform days in a uniform school? Why give the bullies a field day if that is what happens?

We went to the open evening of this particular school and the head sat on his phone while the head of the whole academy org was talking.

So yep. Not very good.

Only bad Heads of bad schools obsess about logos on shoes.

My children never had a locker they carried their stuff from classroom to classroom.

An MP has been given 34 million to revamp her office and that could have been used on schools. If you're not happy do something about it let your government know how you feel. They're getting away with it and noone is saying a word to them or do something to make them hear. Tax payers money is spent on the royal family it could be given to schools and the healthcare system. The education system is poor and every year is the same complaints over shoes or hair what more can I say.

In most areas there isn't an available choice of schools without uniforms. It's not realistic to tell people they must home school if the reality is that that could leave them homeless because they can't pay rent or a mortgage.

We really need to get in line with the rest of the world and abolish uniforms throughout.

I'm not sure how this is a response to the comment? My point was that the rules shouldn't exist at all, nothing to do with challenging them if they do exist.

Refusing to send your child to a particular school isn't a criminal offence. What are you going to prosecute them for?

No, it doesn't. Children know exactly who the "cool" kids are, or the ones with money, irrespective of what shoes they wear. How are you going to level the playing field with things like coats, phones, bags etc?

Uniform creates an equality among the students

I'm not actually against uniform generally, but I think this is bollocks.

If you went to a school with a uniform, did you really not know who was richer? Or more fashionable?
Within the bounds of the uniform there were trousers that were more stylish, shoes that were more expensive, blouses with a nicer cut. Then bags and coats weren't even covered by the uniform, but even if they had been, cheap coats without an obvious label (for example) are still easy to distinguish from expensive ones.
I always had sensible shoes, and trousers from BHS, and looked very different from people in fashionable shoes and trousers from topshop.

I'm not saying the parents in the OP are right btw, they should follow the uniform policy. But let's not pretend it makes kids equal.

@Chippy4me

I don't think school uniform solves any of the problems you've mentioned (and your post is soooo condescending!). I work in one of the most deprived schools in my authority. I'm not sure uniform brings any real benefit. Also how weirdly Anglocentric of you to assume that a) I grew up wealthy with a range of outfits and b) to assume that mainland Europe has no poverty whatsoever and that's why we can all get away with no uniforms!

With your example about the pupil becoming distressed - really upsetting obviously, but do you not see that because uniform is so strict and rigid, non uniform days become a huge deal? Whereas when you don't have a uniform kids just generally wear the same clothes day in day out.

Do you have anything official to link uniform to less bullying, or to show that countries with no uniform have less poverty and more bullying? Or just your own anecdotes?

But it isn't real agreement if you didn't have a realistic choice, is it? It's not as if parents have a choice of non-uniform schools in most areas, nor is home schooling an available choice if you have to earn money to keep a roof over your head.

Why? Because they don't agree with you?

I don't remember this much angst about uniform when I was at school. You wore it, whinged a little and got on with it.

When did children become such delicate little flowers that they need branded shoes etc in order to be happy at school.

Exactly this!

It’s the parents I blame though for making their kids like this.

Schools making parents spend money they havent got so the kids dont LOOK poor is nearer the mark

It would be nice for schools to have the benefit of the doubt rather than this continual implication that they are all draconian prisons

Some are a bit draconian. My DD's nursery is on the same site as a secondary school, and a couple of winters ago when it was absolutely freezing and snowing they had a teacher at the gate making children take off their woolly hats as they entered school grounds. Fair enough they don't want hats inside, but it was less than 0 degrees and snowing and they were wearing perfectly reasonable woolly hats.

The teacher telling them to take them off was wearing a hat. I appreciate that teachers don't have to follow the same rules as pupils, but it seemed a bit mental that they had a teacher outside the gate telling pupils to take their hats off, yet the teacher obviously felt it was too cold to be without a hat.
I feel the same about schools that insist on pupils wearing blazers when the teachers can obviously feel that it's too hot for them to be wearing a jacket themselves.

My DD started reception this week and her school uniform states grey or green hair ties for long hair for regular uniform, but black ones for PE. Pointless.

I grew up not in the UK (mainland Europe). Didn't have a uniform and still managed to get a decent education and know how to dress as an adult! I now teach in Scotland where I, and the pupils I teach are allowed to wear trainers/DMs/comfy boots/sandals as appropriate, and funnily enough it doesn't affect their learning or my teaching!

I assume you and these students have a range of clothes that can be worn on different days.

So many kids do not have this and only have a couple of outfits.
I used to have one change of clothes.

I know a student who recently ran away from school as it was non uniform day and he was in the same outfit as the past 2 days.
He only has 1 change of clothes.
Fortunately it was just 1 week of non uniform but if it was a regular thing then I’d dread to think how people like him would cope.

You can’t know what it’s like looking around and everyone your age is wearing branded clothes and has new outfits all of the time and you only have 1 or 2 changes of clothes.

Surely it’s not difficult to put yourself in the shoes of someone less fortunate and see how they may be affected in this situation.