Just read the bloody uniform policy!!!

I get Nike air 90s because I don’t know what else would fit. None of the other kids at the school wear proper shoes anyway

Our school is the same and the moaners about cost etc are all moaning that the air force ones are not allowed - just get fecking school shoes - your kid does not need £115 shoes.

If you choose a school and it has a uniform, your kid wears the uniform!

Conversely, if I don't get my choice of school for my kid, does that mean that they don't have to wear the uniform?

The VW shoes are hideous and I'd never buy them for my own DC. Not appropriate and even many employers now want people to wear shoes that fully cover feet for H&S reasons.

I don't understand the news going on about it every year. I left school 15 years ago and we weren't allowed them then, we also would have been sent home. Not that it happened to me as I prefer comfortable shoes over whatever hideous ones are in fashion that year. I used to work in a shoe shop and encouraged parents not to buy the silly pump types or trainers.

My own child is in an SEN setting and wears joggers and trainers as standard, boy am I glad. If this should ever change, they will be following guidelines.

They don’t allow them - brogue type shoes are what they want. If you choose a school and it has a uniform, your kid wears the uniform! Pick your battles, FFS, or your precious offspring aren’t going to be able to cope with any kind of authority.

friend sent her kid to the shitter secondary by us because it’s a polo and jumper uniform rather than blazer tie. Bizarre call, but her choice ( even though she works in a profession that requires a lot of conformity!) - MC mum trying to seem cool I think.

Greensleeves
Of course the VW ballet flats are preposterous. But schools aren't helping with the crazy pettiness, us-and-them attitude and utter lack of regard for families' financial reality. Uniform has become another pointless battleground and another reason for kids and parents to loathe the years their children spend in school.

I don't like over-fussiness regarding uniform either, but I think that, without it, parents would be spending much more and there'd be obvious haves and have-nots in evidence, along with the predictable bullying.

By the time my son was in year 11 he took size 14 shoes, which are quite difficult to find in shops. When one of his shoes broke midweek he had to spend two days in isolation while I ordered him some new ones online, because his other pair of black shoes had a tiny kickers logo on them. And before you say we should have checked, they were not bought to be school shoes.

Those shoes actually look well made and with a good sole for ballet flats

I’m not naive I’ve been physically disabled all my life, and I volunteer with various disability charities, so please don’t try to tell me I’m unaware of the issues. I’m not fundamentally against making school uniform, or anything else as inclusive as possible, but I struggle to see how it would work in the case of school uniform because the nature and effect of disability is so diverse.

That’s why the Equality Act exists - to level the playing field for disabled people by enshrining their rights in law. If schools are not adhering to the Act, then parents should be advocating for their children and insisting on whatever adjustment is appropriate for their child - and reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act doesn’t require parents to evidence gather, as a formal diagnosis is not required - there just needs to be a significant and relevant difficulty eligible under the Act.

Yanbu.

Any parent who doesn't read their school uniform policy is either daft or one of 'those' parents. Most schools are happy with black leather lace ups or loafers, which are waterproof, supportive for growing feet, and easy to find without logos. Our small town centre has five shops selling basic school shoes. (Just been round them all in search of size 12s 😀)

It's really not difficult. All those parents who think VW or Nike logos are important clearly don't understand bullying, or don't care.

My ds' school doesn't allow any logos at all. If you don't like it, you don't join the school. Maybe that is a bit harsh, but there is very little bullying because everyone has the same from day 1. And it makes my life as a parent much easier.

I can't believe teachers are wasting education time on this shit.

A pair of VW ballet flats costs £100. So those who have bought them must have the money to do so. I think ballet flats are problematic, because I’ve seen them worn down at the back so they become a bit like sliders. Probably has the potential for tripping perhaps.

It doesn’t really matter whether you agree with the rules or not. If you send your child to a school that has those rules, you sign up to agree to them. I can understand that sensory issues or orthotic issues make a difference, but surely a compromise can be reached. There must be a middle ground.

They don't allow ballet pumps at all. The uniform code says "Shoes with distinctive fashion features such as buckles and coloured stitching, tags or logos are not permitted, and neither are boots, training shoes or ballet style shoes." The VW ones contravene two of those.

Zimunya
We need to teach our kids the correct way to challenge authority. Kids who are taught to disregard rules and just do what they want are unlikely to become functioning members of society.

Agree! Reminds me of the would-be rebels in my classes who claimed they were questioning rules/authority. I used to give them 2 sheets of A4 and say 'Great - write me a well-argued essay on these points which you clearly feel so passionate about.' Needless to say - they declined the opportunity.

In this case, it seems parents rather than students are to blame. I bet they all nodded when asked to support the school and its rules when trying to get a place for their children.

TBH the ‘fuming mum’ who sent her 11 year old to school in Vivienne Westwood slip ons and threatening to pull her kid out of the school has done them a right favour.
She sounds a right nightmare and thick as mince.

Actually, if you google VE ballet pumps, some of them are extremely cheap. I’d imagine the school allows plain black ballet pumps which are similarly unsupportive and flimsy.

It was like this when I went to school, back in ye olden days (90s). Some people still kicked off and sometimes got the local paper to run a piece about it with a picture of them looking sad... The rest of us complied with the rules and just got on with it, without the drama.

I suspect the egalitarian society came first

They say plain black shoes without logos for a reason. School uniform is meant to be a leveller.

Why is this important?

How do you think students survive in other countries when they can wear whatever their parents are willing to spend money on?

Do you think British society has become more or less socially mobile as a result of strict uniform rules in schools, or has it remained the same?

Do you honestly believe that taking away an item or class of items that students tease others about will result in no teasing?

If school uniform were really a great leveller, British children would be the least class conscious/ least obsessed with clothing and what it signifies of all the children in the world.
The opposite is true, and my impression is that countries without uniform often have young people who are more egalitarian in their outlook.

In my experience, schools and teachers obsessed with uniform exaggerate the importance of appearance in the minds of the children. It was the non-uniform schools my kids went to that fostered a better attitude.

And there are often dress codes in Germany for example and the general society dress code is less brand focussed than the uk

Sort of self imposed uniform rules if you like

But that's also a separate question

If you cared about education over dress code you would tackle uniform rules in a different way . By sending children in the wrong clothes you are basically refusing your own child an education so uniform clearly does affect education.

Yes and most people in the UK are in favour of school uniform.

In a 2022 YouGov survey, 65% of people said secondary school students should wear uniform.

I guess if the majority of people in the UK weren't in favour of it, it would eventually be phased out, but that's not the case. Most people want it.

I am completely aware that most are not in a position to choose their child's school and therefore have to send them to school's they wouldn't if they had a real choice.

However, life is full of compromises so some will need to, well, suck it up and adjust.

@Rosscameasdoody do you really think the infrastructure is there to handle all the parents of kids with additional needs "taking it higher"? Do you think all of those parents have the time, skills and resources to fight that fight on top of all the other crap they are battling - trying to get an adequate response to bullying, trying to get educational support where there simply isn't any, trying to get access arrangements for exams when the school doesn't want to make an exception?

Why should everything be a battle? Why is it embedded in our culture that children and their families are the enemy, that if you give them an inch they will take a mile, and if schools don't operate like prisons society will collapse? It's ridiculous and needlessly negative. Our local secondary school is literally built on the panopticon model ffs.

I'm not a fan of dressing them like mini accountants (when not even accountants have to dress as mini accountants these days) and the polyester blazers are just minging.