Schools insistence on uniform rules are behind the times

The EEF has researched the impact of uniform on attainment and progress of disadvantaged kids. It has no impact. Zero. We’re wedded to it because we’ve always done it and we think the world will end and standards will slip if we let kids come to school in hoodies instead of a polyester jacket.

I work with children in care and children with a social worker, overseeing their education. The number of battles with schools I have about uniform are unreal. The most vulnerable children are repeatedly put in isolation or suspended for refusing to wear shoes instead of trainers or trousers instead of leggings. When you’ve had to leave your family and everything you know and come into care, you’re desperate for some sense of control and comfort. To wear trainers for school instead of black shoes is a very common request for my cohort. It causes no end of issues and the ultimate end result is a uniform policy being prioritised over a vulnerable child’s education.

We don’t have to scrap uniform completely. We could have school hoodies and the option of joggers or leggings and trainers. Somehow teenagers at college are allowed to wear what they want every day, and still pass A levels and get into good universities.

Isn't that it though, you loved what you were wearing? Lots of kids don't love uniforms, why should they be forced into wearing them. They should wear what they're comfortable in, within reason.

@Toddlerteaplease are you my lifestyle twin?! I had to wear blazer and tie right the way through to sixth form and loved it!
Am also a nurse, always wear a dress which is much more comfortable than the trousers.

I'd love to know why they torture themselves with the blazers. What is the benefit of them at all?

@Combattingthemoaners
There is no evidence at all to support that a non-uniform environment would take any more clothing policing time than a uniform one. So many other countries manage just fine without them. I'm broadly in support of uniform as a parent but this authoritarian enforcement of entirely arbitrary strict uniform rules is just a colossal waste of time and goodwill of the students . There is no earthly reason why kids shouldn't be allowed to wear comfortable shoes. Plain black trainers should be fine. There is absolutely no benefit to making kids wear blazers. It makes no difference whatsoever, despite enthusiastic attempts to claim otherwise, the research just doesn't back it up.

I don't agree with this at all. Kids who don't wear uniforms are perfectly capable of behaving appropriately. Uniforms have absolutely nothing to do with it.

My experience as a secondary teacher of 25 years, the worse the behaviour the stricter the uniform.

Is there any actual evidence for that though?

To some extent, making sure they observe uniform rules helps with discipline. Zero tolerance theory.

The point is that the uniform is reinforcing the toxic message that what you wear matters, what you look like matters. Schools should be working against that, not with it, because it is absolutely true that what you look like is the least important thing about anyone. I can definitely tell you that in my experience of non-uniform schools, children feel much more free to go against the prevailing trend and to wear what they personally like and feel comfortable in - I have attended both uniform and non-uniform schools and so has my daughter and we have both found that in the non-uniform schools, children felt significantly less pressure about what to wear, ranging from a little bit down to none at all depending on personality. Being in a uniform five days a week increases the pressure massively in our experience. Admittedly my time was before social media, but DD is 17 and in the thick of it.

We're in a relatively well off area, and we're the povo's. But it has never been an issue. It was in my uniformed school where I was bullied, because the uniform was falling to pieces. With DD, we can dress her in decent clothes that aren't falling apart, and we can top up her wardrobe incrementally at a relatively low cost. Uniforms don't really allow for that.

You see the rich kids in H&M or whatever just as often as the less well off ones.

The rich kids can afford to go to school in H&M and Primark, it is the poorer students who can’t

This is how they dress outside of school. You surely can’t tell me that is all down to wearing a uniform? That they wouldn’t care about projecting a certain image via clothes if it wasn’t for a uniform? I think that’s naive and fails to take into account the pressure many teenagers face to look a certain way due to things like social media. Maybe like the previous poster said it could be down to locality and demographic.

Exactly. The novelty wears off pretty quickly. I mean most of the continent don't wear uniforms to school and it seems to work fine over there.

The reason these teenagers are so hung up on clothes/brands is because they are being taught as a direct consequence of the uniform policy that what they wear and what they look like matters. It just doesn't happen like this in a non-uniform school. You see the rich kids in H&M or whatever just as often as the less well off ones.

They all love to be let loose in Primark/Penny's where we are. It's no longer the badge of shame it once was 😁

Yes, I agree. DD also at a non-uniform school. 99% of the time, 99% of them are in jeans/shorts, T shirts and hoodies. Trainers/Converse are the footwear of choice. DD wears jogging bottoms quite a lot. There is a huge range of wealth in the school but nobody cares if people are wearing Primark or, well, I don't know what the opposite thing would be in teenage world because literally none of them care.

I think clothes are a lot less important in a non uniform school. I suppose maybe it's area specific etc but we've been in two, one of which was in a v posh area, but there just wasn't any of that guff going on at all. It was certainly preferable to uniform imo.

As a teenager when I voted with the majority to make it compulsory? I liked it because it looked nice and had loads of useful pockets and was just what I always thought school uniform should be. No idea why everyone else voted for it and if they had similar reasons.

Do I wear one as an adult? No, already answered that. Doesn't stop me thinking they look nice for children and that they are useful.

Nothing deep about it, it's almost entirely aesthetic. I find it odd how much they seem to rile people up.

Whilst I appreciate your point due to experience. I just don’t see how that would be the case in my school. I see how obsessed a lot of them are about projecting a certain image. You can even see it in the coats they choose to wear to school; Canada Goose, CP, Stone Island. Very expensive designer labels deliberately picked to project a certain image which can often be coupled with defiance. A lot (not all) would definitely be hung up on the clothes as clothes are a major part of their identity.

Yet there will be those that turn up in tight and revealing clothing (both male and female). I've even seen pupils run around in the rain without a coat.

I am also going to say that I do agree with you. but some will always complain and some pupils will always take the piss.

I beg to differ.

I have an MA in street style.

Clothing is basic anthropology. It expresses everything, including lack of imagination.

Same as anywhere. Weather appropriate, nothing too tight or revealing, comfortable.

What do you class as sensible?

Yeah, but you'll always get dickheads and there's really no mitigating for that. You have to make the rules for the greater good. I (personally) don't believe uniforms are for the greater good. It's clearly not a universal viewpoint though.