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.

I have caught my DD on occasion laughing with friends about her teachers dress sense.
tops that are to small for her so when she reaches up everyone can see her muffin top, trousers on inside out, thongs on show & the wrong coloured underwear under shirts.
Poor women.

DS's teacher has a great selection of tattoos, I really like the large one which shows below her low slung pants and her body piercings. Joking aside, I am pretty chilled about this.

What I really object to is one teacher who turns up late, parks on the zig zag yellow lines outside the school, with unwashed greasy hair looking like she's been dragged through a hedge backwards and makes her own children late. Sheadopts a teacher knows best attitude and has been known to pull rude faces at parents who have even minor differences of opinion with her. Great.

Maryz, perhaps the teacher is on hormone treatment for an illness or something like that. Some people with serious conditions do need to take those sorts of quantities of medication.

So it might be an idea to ask DD to limit who she tells about the 14 pills, just in case it compromises the teacher's privacy.

maryz does the English teacher show lots of (surgically enhanced?) cleavage too? If so, I think DD is at the same school. If not, what's going on with English teachers?!

In most schools here, the uniform is decided on not by the school, but by the parents association. That's fine; they have to pay for it/force their children to wear it.

Nobody supplies me with a uniform as an employee. As long as nothing I wear breaches health and safety regulations (worst I could do is stub my toe while wearing a pair of flip-flops ) or public decency laws, then it's nobody's business what I wear. I hate the way some parents feel they should be allowed dictate every aspect of a teacher's life in a way that they wouldn't attempt with other professions.

I'd love a few posters from the feminist thread to come over here and deal with the head of my friend's school who informed her (about 10 years ago) that female staff were not permitted to wear trousers.

YABVU

Children are pupils and dress in school uniform.

Teachers are adults and can wear what they like.

Don't be , Mary, now you have explained it sounds very odd and inappropriate indeed.

I wonder if you should have a word with the school, surely it's not something she should be sharing with the pupils.

NeverArgueWithAnIdiot - many many years ago I worked in a Chartered Accountants, we were all very smartly dressed (sigh, I had the figure for it then) - out of the blue they decided that the females could no longer wear trousers in the work place as it was deemed inappropriate and that we had to wear tights year round We fought it, but we were (unsuprisingly) a minority, the thing that really suprised me though was that one of the Partners was female and always wore lovely trouser suits - she fought against it too - but we lost. I mean I'm older, but I'm not OLD. This was the mid 90's.

Absolutley teachers should wear a smart suit if children have to wear a smart uniform.

I am shocked at the garb that especially female teachers turn up in at DCs school. Not surprisingly many older girls are trying to getaway with what would pass for nightclub wear.

Male teachers and boys seem to be pretty conventionally dressed in suits, shirt, tie.

I'm an early years teacher and consultant, and IME a lot of the early years practitioners that you see swanning around in suits and court shoes (or knitted/wrap dresses for the youngsters) are not necessarily very good at their job. It rings alarm bells for me. In order to be a good pre-school/nursery/reception (or even, dare I say it, Year 1) teacher, you need to be ready to sit on the floor with the children, get covered in paint and cournflour on a daily basis, or get in the role play area and pretend to be a dog, without worrying about your lovely clothes. It's about dressing appropriately for the job that you are employed to do, and that often involves wearing jeans or similar ( I go for deep-dyed black jeans, personally) if you are working with little kids. I have also worked with schools where jeans were the 'uniform' for teachers because it was important not to look threatening to certain groups of parents, who were easily alienated. So just be cautious about applying the same expectations of dress to all teachers!
Having said that I popped into school this morning in my skinnies and my uggs to drop some resources off before a course, and one of the children said to her mother 'Woah, Mrs X looks cool today'. I figure I must look very teacher-ish the rest of the time on that basis...!!

cornflour, clearly. durrrr...

I work in a special school so our rules reflect the needs of the school.. the children wear uniform, but those with physical difficulties who can't manage trousers, can wear joggers, a few with ASD who will only wear one sort of t shirt or whatever.. do that.. we are flexible.

The adults mostly wear jeans. Shock... simply because in the very specialised school I work in some of the children have extreme behaviour. Most days I leave work covered in poo, snot and some days blood (mine!) Jeans protect my legs from bites far better than thin fabric trousers..

Can't wear a skirt in my class as have a teen boy with agressive sexual tendencies, and tights send him nuts:( Couldn't wear any type of footwear than I can't run in and be ready to defend myself. (knee length thick boots til it gets too hot, then art company shoes for safety!)

To outsiders we probably look very casual.. but you never see cleavages, or thongs, flip flops or tattoos.. you see people dressed for the job.

I do wish the deputy wouldn't wear shorts in summer tho ( we don't) as he isn't pretty...

We have a dress code, on which the Head is very keen, and while I don't wear a suit, I do wear a smart skirt and top. Strangely enough, it's when I wear a jacket with it that the kids moan the most, because "you're allowed to wear your coat and we're not"

They also whinge about teachers being allowed to wear jewellery when they can't - but I point oput that I've done my time, and in a much stricter uniform they they have to endure. But teenagers can moan about most things really. Which is something they do have in common with teachers

"I wouldn't dream of expecting my children to have higher standards of behaviour than I expect of, and am able to achieve, myself! They would have no respect for me if I did - and quite rightly so!"

Not higher of course - but different!

I work in primary school and totally agree with Seeker.

I'm a TA. I wear jeans and a jumper. Some of the class teachers dress smartly and some don't.

The children wear a uniform which consists of a polo shirt and sweatshirt with the school logo on. They wear whatever trousers/skirt they are comfortable in.

The head wears a suit. That doesn't change the fact that he's a target driven idiot. Just because someone dresses smartly doesn't automatically make me respect them.

However, if the school's uniform is THAT strict, then I'd expect a certain level of dress code for the staff too.

I do presentable (smart top & skirt) with the odd bit of gentle subversion (black nail varnish, obviously dyed hair, bat buckles on my sensible shoes...)

I can't wear a jacket though - I have barnstorming tendencies when teaching & it invariably ends up flung on the floor a chair.

I'd be perfectly happy to be provided with the same uniform as the kids (shirt, tie, black trousers & badged jumper).

So long as I'm buying my own clothes, I'm going to be clean, decent, & presentable, but not necessarily as suited'n'booted as the Head might prefer.

agree with seeker. teachers are adults, not children. as long as they're not wearing something revealing/rude/with a giant logo on it i don't see the problem. i'm a teacher and i wear black jeans most days, sometimes a pencil skirt, sometimes loose black trousers. just depends.

oh meant to add - our school's uniform is dark trousers (grey/black) or skirt, polo shirt and a jumper. kids can wear whatever shoes as long as they have a set for indoor and a set for outdoor. our head teacher is pretty relaxed about clothes too - mostly long skirts. depute head wears trackies quite a lot as she does sports clubs, sometimes jeans, sometimes posh trousers. just depends.

One of the skills I think we should pass on to children is how to act and dress appropriately in all sorts of different situations.

When we are in school, we are all 'at work'. I don't wear my jeans or trainers, you tuck your shirt in and do up your tie.

Most adults know instinctively what is appropiate for work and not too short/tight/casual/revealing. But I have to admit to being a bit at what some teachers wear to school (not where I work now).

We are not teaching them draconian rules, but to know that different situations require different levels of formality.

I have just read this post back and I sound about 90!

Surey you have to show by example?

Bunbaker - yes in terms of courtesy, good manners and attitudes to work.

But do you really think teachers should not be able to wear make up because the kids can't?