Would your school (primary ) accept these shoes?

[MrsBDarcy]

I had to buy these yesterday along with several other parents due to lack of options (3 shops tried) and huge queues at Clarks and unable to get to any other shops. Son's inside insole wore through rendering his current shoes super uncomfortable despite still looking ok. I'm hoping school don't say they're too trainer-ish as I can't afford to buy more and son was asked to make sure he got new shoes at weekend after he wore trainers on Friday. Help me have a polite response ready to say these are what he'll be wearing for a while ?

@SixDegrees

In highly exceptional circumstances, the head can allow a DC to attend in incorrect uniform.

But this has to be signed off by the chair of the board of governors and would certainly not apply where a parent simply 'cannot' procure the correct clothing- they would be expected to travel as long as necessary to purchase it.

Does school provide bus fares or train fares for that? Is there a car fix budget?

And I'm.sorry but some poor child with a sick parent or one that must lost their job , well neither the child or the parents deserve or need the stress of having to get shit signed off.

Ffs

Spring Tides, can you actually name any primary school with these absurd policies (doesn’t need to be yours) because I just don’t believe that a state school is that extreme that it has opted out of the EYFS, is imposing multi day uniform related detentions to children as young as four and somehow ofsted hasn’t had something to say about it. I’m surprised it hasn’t made the Daily Mail. You’ll be telling me they put children in isolation next...

If that's real, what a gigantic, pathetic waste of everyone's time. Any right minded adult in the country would be ashamed to put a 4 year old in detention for something they are totally unable to change for themselves.

And what a lesson for the kids!

But this has to be signed off by the chair of the board of governors and would certainly not apply where a parent simply 'cannot' procure the correct clothing- they would be expected to travel as long as necessary to purchase it.

There's always one poster who pops up on this type of thread to spout some weird fantasy about an ultra strict primary school where children learn in some kind of workhouse environment and it is the best thing possible for them.

On another note, there are primary school children in China who are sent miles away to school, live and learn in one or two rooms which have no central heating (there will be a pupil rota for who lights the coal fire every morning - good for the lungs), and only get to see their grandparents a few times a month. Yes, there might not be sand pit play, but it's not something to hold up as a model system.

[quote SpringTides5]@SixDegrees

In highly exceptional circumstances, the head can allow a DC to attend in incorrect uniform.

But this has to be signed off by the chair of the board of governors and would certainly not apply where a parent simply 'cannot' procure the correct clothing- they would be expected to travel as long as necessary to purchase it.[/quote]
Ok.

So, child in wrong uniform because their house has burnt down or because their parents were admitted into hospital overnight and grandad picked up the wrong clothes, they’ll make an exception and the child still gets to attend school. Fine.

Child in wrong uniform because parent hasn’t been able to find the right style / size locally at short notice, or because parent has to wait till payday before they can afford new uniform, this is unacceptable and the child can’t go back to school until wearing correct clothes. Plus 3 days detention once they’re back.

Is that right? Because it’s sounding like a very inflexible policy.

@SpringTides5 I’d be interested to know how this school uniform policy affects the school attendance rates.

I mean, if the strap on my DC’s school shoes, say, was to break off on Thursday night / Friday morning, I’d send them into school wearing trainers, and explain to the teacher that their school shoes had broken and we’d go shoe shopping at the weekend. Which would be fine at their school.

If, however, I knew that sending them into school in trainers would result in me getting a phone call to collect them, plus 3 days detention for my DC, then why would I send them into school at all?
The obvious course of action would be for me to keep them off school on the Friday, call in and say DC won’t be in today, and go shoe shopping then instead.

Or would your school count this as an authorised absence?

At the very least, a DC in incorrect uniform is sent home until the problem is solved. They will then serve three days of after school detention upon return to school I'd be embarrassed to admit o sent my child to a school that would punish a young child to teach a parent a lesson. I'm not a fan of detention for small kids, but giving a 4 yo detention for something the parent did is absurd, cruel and I truly don't understand how you can stand up and defend it

SpringTides' school governors must have a lot of time on their hands if they get involved in such minor details of school life. I know quite a lot of governors and I imagine they would give a fairly terse response if they were asked to adjudicate on every trivial uniform infraction . But then I don't think I know anyone who would agree to be a governor of a school with such a draconian regime. In my opinion, my children's secondary can be a bit obsessive about uniform etc but this primary makes it look like a holiday camp. I'm not sure what is more bizarre - that a state primary school would have rules like this or that parents would choose to send their children to it. Quite incredible.

@MrsAvocet

The school is actually substantially oversubscribed. Many parents are desperate to get their DC into a school with such high standards and expectations.

I suspect many more state schools will be moving to this kind of zero tolerance approach over the next few years as it has been proven to work both overseas and in UK private schools.

Given what's just come.out about some of these private schools and the fact that they aren't any better than state schools as far as a particular disgusting past time goes I would hardly hold that up as a shining example.

Plus you cannot apply something from.iber seas here when their kids start at 6/7 and ours start at 4.

They'd have been fine at my primary too. There is a uniform code but the school, which is very high achieving and the kids all love, has a huge amount of common sense.
If a child's parents cannot afford new school shoes half way through term because they outgrew them or broke them, they can wear trainers. If PE tshirt has vanished into thin air - wear a different one.
Kids lose stuff, outgrow stuff, break stuff and the school understands it isn't actually possible for a parent to get to the shops at 3.30 when little timmy comes out of school that afternoon with broken shoes.

I disagree a strict uniform code makes for better learning. I love the common sense approach at this school.

Also my oldest dd went to a school which had no uniform at all. And very little in the way of attitude or wayard kids. She took 2 GCSE subjects early at age 14. Although perhaps if they'd had a strict uniform code she may have taken them at age 8

[quote SpringTides5]@MrsAvocet

The school is actually substantially oversubscribed. Many parents are desperate to get their DC into a school with such high standards and expectations.

I suspect many more state schools will be moving to this kind of zero tolerance approach over the next few years as it has been proven to work both overseas and in UK private schools.[/quote]
No, it has not been proven to work. It may well be true that schools of this sort get better results but, as others have pointed out, that's because they're excluding those children who can't hack it on this basis. It's very unlikely that children who are struggling will miraculously find this very strict regime amazingly helpful and it will then turn things around. There's a reason sending difficult teens off to military schools is not considered a good strategy any more.

It might also be oversubscribed. All those parents who see the results and think, "brilliant, I'll send my DC there". What's the turnover like? how many children leave each year? I expect it's higher than the average. I also suspect that all those parents who are desperate to get their kids into the school are, in some cases, desperate because they think this means they won't have to engage with "those" people from other schools.

I had a neighbour who considered the closest high school to us to be a hot bed of people she clearly thought were "lesser". Not only was it snobbish and annoying, it's also amusing because notwithstanding the socio-economic position of the children, the school achieves excellent academic results.

I once got DS all the way to school before releasing he had NO shoes on. Thankfully his wellies were left at school full time so he wore those all day

So @SpringTides5 do they exclude for wrong shoes or bully the parents into leaving?

@springisintheair2021 Equally, I think sending them in trainers really puts them in the wrong mindset for school. School is a place for working hard and that needs to be separated from play time. Trainers are for playing. School shoes are for working.
Please tell me you don’t work with children. Primary children learn best through play. Attitudes like yours make me thankful I home education.
Incidentally my six year old is working at year 4 level maths and he doesn’t bother with socks most days never mind footwear!

@SleepingStandingUp

I once got DS all the way to school before releasing he had NO shoes on. Thankfully his wellies were left at school full time so he wore those all day

I love it! I can totally get how this happened too! Those trainers would be remarked upon at my boys' school for sure. They're strict about uniform - however they are also extremely reasonable and understand that these are weird times and if people were unable to get hold of the right shoes for a while, there'd certainly be no penalty and certynot for the kids. It's really nothing to do with them at the end of the day.

@springisintheair2021 massive apologies wrong spring!
@SpringTides5 above post was meant for you.

Primary, yes. The children pretty much wear anything that's comfortable. Secondary, probably not.

[quote SpringTides5]@MrsAvocet

The school is actually substantially oversubscribed. Many parents are desperate to get their DC into a school with such high standards and expectations.

I suspect many more state schools will be moving to this kind of zero tolerance approach over the next few years as it has been proven to work both overseas and in UK private schools.[/quote]
So if every school excludes kids who don't have perfect uniform, where exactly do you think low-,income families, kids with additional needs etc should go for education?

@Legoninjago1. School thought it was really funny thankfully. He was still in a pushchair for nursery (medical reasons) so he'd just sat in his chair the entire journey in socks 😂. Our school are pretty lax, because she's rather have kids on school rather than kids dragged round late night shopping precincts trying to find a certain shoe / missing school cos they haven't got them

Hey @SpringTides5 sounds great, I'm fed up of kids being allowed to play and have fun. What school is it so I can get DC on the list?

[quote SpringTides5]@SixDegrees

In highly exceptional circumstances, the head can allow a DC to attend in incorrect uniform.

But this has to be signed off by the chair of the board of governors and would certainly not apply where a parent simply 'cannot' procure the correct clothing- they would be expected to travel as long as necessary to purchase it.[/quote]
Would a global pandemic and nationwide lockdowns cover the ‘highly exceptional circumstances’ bit? No?

Wise up. Children have had a hard enough time without nonsense like this. Are you a parody account?