Very strictly enforced school uniform - dress code for staff

[onceamai]

AIBU to think that if a school has a very strictly enforced and prescriptive school uniform that the staff should have a strict professional dress code too and should not be turning up for work in any of the following: skinny strap tops, tee shirts, flip flops, track suit bottoms, cargo trousers or jeans. And if every child has to wear a collar and tie then so too should every male member of staff. IMO it's called setting an example and showing a little respect for the school community.

Please tell me thats not the male teachers in flipflops.

Yes on occasion - with shorts!

I agree. I went to look around a school recently & couldn't believe that one of the teachers had piercings that a pupil would not be allowed. (Obv fine to have piercings but take the rings out at school).

YANBU. My DH taught at a school with a bizarre uniform (very traditional), he had to wear either a suit or trousers and jacket and shirt and tie.
I have seen male teachers in flipflops. It's not nice.

A lot of schools do have an expected dress code for teachers, just not written. All our local ones do, you can tell the difference on INSET days.
Smart casual. you can wear a tracksuit if you are teaching PE/Dance. Most of us change for that if possible.
Gives a lot of students/work experience/parent helpers a shock when they are reminded how to dress in a work environment.

Parent helpers. no serious norkage and thongs must not be on view when bending down.

bother, too rushed and deleted a section of my sentence.. No serious norkage on view, discretion required..

I agree with the OP.

I think strappy vests, shorts and flip-flops should be compulsory for male members of the sports department.

Agree that dress codes for students should be reflected in those for staff.

It helps if the most senior staff adhere to this.

I agree. It's completely unprofessional (even if there is no dress code for pupils), for teachers to turn up to work dressed as you describe. It's a school, not a holiday camp!

what about staff teaching subjects like art or pe? or dance?

Art, PE and dance teachers should wear the clothing that is appropriate to their subject: overalls and hair tied back for art, sports clothing for PE teachers, leotard and tights for dance.

It's hardly rocket science.

No. Teachers are grown ups. Pupils are children. Different rules apply

When they are grown up they can wear whatever they want to as wel

Mind you, i think strictly enforcing school uniform for children is pretty bonker too.

Seeker one would hope that as adults they wouldn't need a prescribed dress code because they would dress appropriately without one.

Well, i do expect teachers to be clean, and to wear clean clothes and not to show their boobs or bottoms. And I would draw the line at flip flops for health and safety reasons. But I really dont't see why they can't also be comfortable and casual.

Most schools I know (at least secondary) do have dress codes for staff. I would think a school which has strict uniform for kids but a lax dress code for staff would have more trouble enforcing uniform (a few eccentrics can get away with it).

I have 2 sons in completly different types of secondary schools.
Olderst is in a SEN school where the uniform is very relaxed and not strictly enforced with no uniform at all in year 11. The teachers are called by their first names and most dress very casual. I have only ever seen the head wear a shirt and tie and many wear jeans. But the dress code reflexs the type of pupils and subjects they are teaching.
My younger boy goes to a faith school with a very strict dress code of blazer, shirt and tie, school trousers and proper shoes. The male teachers also wear shirts and ties and the women smart and appropriate clothing. PE teachers wear track suits and everyone is referred to by title of Mr, Mrs or Miss.

PE Teachers should be allowed tracksuits, geography teachers should be allowed flip flops/sandals with/without socks, female art or drama teachers should wear low-cut tops that display too much when they lean over, female student teachers or NQTs should have underwear visible for the first two years of their professional life, whilst their male counterparts should dress exceptionally smartly - and fashionably - while constantly telling his female A-Level students how much he hates wearing a suit in a flirtatious manner.

Sorry, but teachers have stereotypes to fulfill and adolescent fantasies to feed. Similarly, rules on school uniform should be strict because the entire social pecking order of the school can then be measured by the varying extents to which kids modify their uniforms.

at deepheeat!

Actually, on a serious point, it does annoy me when people say "Well if the teachers do [inset activity here] then how can they tell the kids not to do the same?"

Because they are grown ups and teachers. I stay up late if I want to because I am a grown up. I send my children to bed because they are children.

Teachers can eat chocolate biscuits for lunch if they want to because their health is their own responsibility. Children can't because theri healt tis their parents' and their teachers' responsibility.

Rant over.

seeker - what an extraordinary POV. Adults are role-models for children and, while trying to teach good behaviours, should primarily be a walking living example of the behaviour they wish children to adopt.

It's not a question of enforcing good behaviours on children and then letting it all loose when you grow up

Seeker - don't you think teachers should be the ones to set an example if they expect the rest of the school community to respect them.

Teachers like parents have to lead from the front.

Children smell hypocracy at ten paces.

You don't want male PE teachers in shorts and vests - the ones at my school were all middle aged and overweight and really not attractive.