School uniform in sixth form

Local private school supposedly has a ‘strict’ dress code; business wear. However, whilst the boys are in suits and ties, the girls seem to have much more leeway. I tutor some after school and the girls lately have appeared in everything from a red, midi length bodycon dress with a thigh high split to a tiny mini dress in net.

strict- ish uniform not strictest!

DCs at different Independent London schools with strictest uniform policy y7-y11. In both 6th forms anything goes ( within reason). I think DS’s school used to insist on ‘business wear’ but gave it up a couple of years ago.

OP, most around here are in the 'wear what you like' camp.

Yeah, l don’t know anyone who wears ‘business dress’ anymore.

Our local top performing girls' grammar has no uniform in 6th form.
The boys' grammar has 'business dress.' Nonsense in this day and age.

Our local comp makes them all wear ties and horrible polyester blazers.
Once they leave they'll probably only wear a tie at weddings and funerals!

So outdated

Our local 6th form is part of the school but has no uniform and a very relaxed dress code. We're in a low further education participation area, some serious pockets of deprivation, but the school gets good results and behaviour is much better than at the attached secondary with its strict adherence to unifoiform. Both my DDs got good A levels, got into their first choice unis and turned down a RG uni in the process. It really isn't all about appearances and I'm still baffled by the UK's obsession with uniform and conformity. I'm from the Netherlands - no school uniform and somehow we manage to turn out functional, educated young people.

well, both of the school sixth forms my kids go/went to blow the odea of smart dress= well behaved kids out of the window.

Both are super selective grammars.
Both have had a very sensible uniform policy all the way through. Not expensive, and not stupid with enforcement. General common sense has been there all the way through, no draconion measures for wearing the wrong shoes for example.

Now in sixth form
boys school has some rules, eg no ripped jeans or hoodies, no blue jeans. But are quite relaxed, as long as they don;t look a sight.
girls school doesn't really seem to have many rules at all.

Both schools have extremely good behaviour reputation and high results.

The one I hate is business dress, the idea that you have to buy a whole set of sixth form clothing that won't get worn at uni and which you only need for 18 months is silly.

School uniform in my children's sixth form.
My daughter is a September birthday so will (hopefully) be driving soon after she starts. It is funny the thought of her driving a car to school while wearing a school uniform.

DS1 (Scottish state) stayed in school uniform in the 6th Form - with a different tie and we had to sew braid onto the blazer.

DS2 (English academy) had strict uniform requirements in the lower school (detention for untucked shirt etc). In 6th Form they can wear what they like within reason (sportswear is kept for sports lessons) and must respect that 6th Form is a workplace. They are required to wear smart dress for particular days (like today’s Remembrance Day service).

Back in the 90s, the official line on sixth form wear was 'smart business attire' which was mostly interpreted as wearing what we wanted to, but not jeans.

DD's selective London indie doesn't seem to have a sixth form uniform policy as far as I can tell from looking at them (whether they have one and it's being interpreted very loosely could be another matter).

It varies here. The state grammars here have uniform with a different tie, the comps, business wear.

I went to college and loved the freedom to wear whatever I wanted, but this was a very long time ago.

My DS wore the same uniform in the sixth form as he had worn throughout school, but with a couple of very minor tweaks (different bow tie, for example).

Other DC (independent schools - day and boarding) wore 'business' type clothes.

I much preferred the proper uniform.

The school sixth forms here have either uniform or business wear. My son is doing at levels at a sixth form college and can wear what he likes.

However multi culturalism does have effect on destinations like dentistry, Oxbridge etc which you mention in the first 1/2 of your post.

Kids in grammars (God forbid that grammars exist) usually have a very different home profile, which would tend towards compliance. But they are well behaved because it is a selective school, not just by chance.

Your statement is so narrow minded and bigoted. There is no link between uniform and attainment.

educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/school-uniform

My daughter just started at a new school for sixth form. It's in central London and the clothing rules are fairly relaxed, which surprised me. Her old independent school the sixth formers wore business suits - they had to be dark, but their shirts/blouses could have a pattern.
My daughter loved her uniform though, no stresses about what to wear and all on an even playing field so to speak.

@JennyDune
The grammar school gets good results because it's a selective school, not because of the uniform adherence. They'd get the same results in jeans and hoodies.

The 'loutish' behaviour at the comp wouldn't magically improve with a smart blazer and tie. A closer look at the school's management and behaviour of students may be more instructive.

Our excellent local comprehensive has no restrictions on what the students wear in the sixth form, excepting no offensive or provocative slogans. I don’t get this smart businesswear thing. Nobody at university wears a smart business suit. Unless they join a particularly posh Oxford drinking club.

Specifically, as an example, the local comprehensive near me (which has rubbish academic results), has far more boys not wearing blazers, stupidly short ties, silver jewellery and hoodies. And are generally more loutish (if thats a word).

Whereas the local grammar which has very very good academic results, generally has students that are well presented and who stick to the uniform.

My daughter goes to an all-girl grammar school, they can wear whatever they want; they are still one of top performing schools, so I guess uniform doesn't confer academic success.

My son went to the parallel boy's school, there sixth formers still wore uniform.

The secondaries (we only have grammars and secondaries, no comprehensives in our county), all have to wear business clothes/suits.

I judge schools based on academic results and the proportion of pupils who go on to study good degrees (medicine, dentistry, etc) or good universities (red brick, etc).

And you can most definitely judge a school/cohort's behaviour on appearance. As someone who lives near several schools, the children/school who are well dressed usually behave more orderly

Is this post from the 1950’s? We live in a multi cultural multi ability world these days in case you didn’t realise.

I think you are Michael Gove really.

In my area colleges have no dress code but school sixth forms are business dress.

I think the worst option is business/office wear. Forcing teenagers and parents to buy suits or things that the modern office worker hasn’t worn in decades is ridiculous. Stick to school uniform or own clothes.