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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think these school rules are OTT?

138 replies

greenandcabbagelooking · 06/03/2013 08:19

The Tesco store on X road is out of bounds to pupils in uniform, including before and after school.

Pupils may not eat or drink in school uniform on public transport or whilst walking.

So DD can't grab me a loaf of bread in Tesco on her way home, or have a banana on her walk home. Are schools allowed to dictate what pupils do in their own time like this?

OP posts:
Lancelottie · 06/03/2013 10:48

Goodness.

Some days, DS finishes school at 3:30, wanders down into town, buys his own tea, and heads back to school for a 5-7 pm club. Thank heavens for a relaxed school, or presumably he'd just have to sit in school being ravenous.

Surely the rules need to be more along the lines of 'No littering or shoplifting when in uniform'...

AmberLeaf · 06/03/2013 10:53

I suppose it is difficult though if there are major issues with shoplifting and litter dropping like I described above.

Schools have to maintain a good relationship with people who live very close by same goes for shopkeeprs.

My boys school does have a pupil led environmental team that do shifts of going around the surrounding streets litter picking, I think they get paid a small amount for doing it too, which I think is a good idea.

livinginwonderland · 06/03/2013 10:55

i think it's more the idea that "if you're in school uniform, you follow school rules" which i think is fair enough. there's nothing to stop kids getting changed after school, surely?

if you really think your child is going to starve on the way home, send them to school with a hoody in their bag so they can take off their uniform and just wear the hoody. then they can eat/shop in tesco to their heart's content!

Davsmum · 06/03/2013 10:57

If I was at that school and wanted to go into Tesco or eat or drink on the way home - I would change into different clothes before I left school,
Is that banned too ?

Startail · 06/03/2013 10:57

I can't conceive it's in forceable and would tell my DCs to refuse to enter into any discussion with school or attend any detentions, but get them to ring me.

No way would I be happy using fuel when children can shop on the way home.

Every teen is not a shop lifter or a lout and they should not be treated as such.

seeker · 06/03/2013 11:05

Grin at the thought of all these teenagers needing to sipwater and nibble bananas to ward off dehydration and starvation on the way home.....

Have people ever actually seen a teenager?

CarriMarie · 06/03/2013 11:08

My son and his mates used to take their ties and blazers off as soon as outside school, black trousers and white shirt are not identifiable, and they usually have a sweatshirt in their bags and trainers which they use to play football at lunchtimes.

MadameDefarge · 06/03/2013 11:09

starttail. what kind of message are you sending your dc? rules apply to everyone unless you dont like it? in which case you want your kids to disobey school. hm. if you want a pint of milk organise it earlier..its not sending them down the salt mines fgs.

AmberLeaf · 06/03/2013 11:12

Seeker, my boys are always ravenous when they come out of school!

seeker · 06/03/2013 11:14

My ds is hungry when he comes out of school too- but he's perfectly capable of waiting til he gets home- he's not 5!

claraschu · 06/03/2013 11:15

It just seems like an infringement of their human rights to me, which is why I asked if it was legal.
I wouldn't get worked up about it, I would just get around it by changing out of school blazer or whatever.

I hate the assumptions that get made in the UK about teenagers.

MadameDefarge · 06/03/2013 11:17

an incentive then to get themselves home pdq to make a sandwich rather than wasting good money on chocolate or chips...or do they just buy bottled water and bananas ?!!!

TheCraicDealer · 06/03/2013 11:21

We were always told at school that when you're in uniform you're an ambassador for the school. So if anyone was reported larking about (swearing loudly on buses, play fighting, generally being a dick) there was a veritable man hunt to find the culprit.

I don't think they're that bad. Previous posters have mentioned pupils who need to eat because if sugar lows, etc. The school would have to make an exception for these pupils, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on if they refused.

Regrading the supermarket, Tesco shouldn't have to provide more security. The school should be able to police behaviour to a certain extent. If there's a choice between your child not bring able to go to tessies on the way home or being collared for shoplifting after getting carried away with a pile of mates after school which would you prefer? Tescos will prosecute. There was a thread not so long ago with a young mumsnetter who worried every time she applied for a job which revealed she'd shoplifted a mars bar from a shop aged 14. It happens to the best kids as well. It's the school's responsibility as well as the parents to protect the interest of their pupils, even if the consequences are felt long after they leave education.

When I was at school we weren't allowed to leave the premises during school hours until we were in Upper 6th, and even then there was only one shop we were allowed to go to, then straight back. There were certain streets that being seen on resulted in punishment, no questions asked. Seemed a bit draconian at the time, but looking back they were just aware of the (shit) area the school was in, and the negative view the local population had of us. They just wanted to keep us safe.

seeker · 06/03/2013 11:22

"I hate the assumptions that get made in the UK about teenagers."

I do too.

But even if they are the best behaved most fantastic teenagers in the world, a couple of hundred of them all in one supermarket at the same time is going to be a pain in the neck.

ChunkyPickle · 06/03/2013 11:25

The first is reputation-saving, the second is odd, but probably also because of all the litter etc. I'm sure most kids can manage throw on a hoodie and trainers should they want to eat takeaway!

I used to do my packed lunch shopping on the way home from school, and it would have been a pain to change, but I'm sure I'd have managed it.

I don't like uniform coats/edicts that they must be black. Pre-children I thought it was a good idea to have a uniform coat, but now I drive, and have a kid, I'd prefer that they were in bright clothes, preferably with reflective strips - a kid in an all-black uniform, or a black coat is very hard to see walking home from school in winter.

MiaowTheCat · 06/03/2013 12:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BubaMarra · 06/03/2013 13:20

It's amazing how rules that discriminate against any social group are illegal or at least unacceptable (rightly so), which is not the case when that social group are children.

atthewelles · 06/03/2013 13:35

I don't see a problem with those rules. We had similar when I was at school. I think talk of 'discrimination' 'abuse of human rights' etc is a bit OTT. It's not going to do kids any harm to learn that, while they're in school uniform, they're the public face of the school and certain standards are required. A lesson that might stick with them in future life.

Re the kids being Tesco's future customers.... I honestly don't think any grown up is going to refuse to shop in Tesco in later years because they weren't allowed in there in school uniform aeons ago. In fact a lot of them, in hindsight, will sympathise with the supermarket.

nailak · 06/03/2013 14:04

they can wait until they get home? well surely that depends how far their home is!!

youllneedthisfish · 06/03/2013 14:06

Don't like either of those rules. Children are children - and by definition in the process of learning - they should be allowed to learn to eat and drink responsibly if they are representing their school in a uniform. I hate that a school thinks it should be able to tell pupils the 'law' outside school property. They are not god or the government! I think you would not find a law that would uphold any consequence given to a pupil for eating outside school; and you would not find an employer able to enforce a rule like that on employees, so why children?

They should be given the responsibility to behave appropriately - a rule like that removes responsibility.

On the Tesco thing I think it's unfair. What if a girl had started her period, and needed painkillers or sanitary protection on her way home from school, what if a pupil were diabetic and needed a snack? What if a child were a carer and had to get the tea on the way home - these children may of course be given a concession on the rule, but if I were that child I would hate the stigma and explanations to other pupils that would ensue - and these would compound the situation.

seeker · 06/03/2013 14:07

About 45 minutes or so in my ds's case, once he has walked to his chosen meeting place and I've taken him home. He appears not to have expired from starvation or dehydration...........

TheFallenNinja · 06/03/2013 14:09

Nope. You don't want an invasion of kids five days a week down the sweet and biscuit aisle.

atthewelles · 06/03/2013 14:11

if a girl had started her period, and needed painkillers or sanitary protection on her way home from school, [quote]

Presumably she would go to a chemist or, if she didn't live far from the school would manage until she got home. There was no supermarket beside my school, and I coped just fine.

maddening · 06/03/2013 14:13

We were expected to behave while on the way to and from school in school uniform- you are still representing the school. We ewere never banned from certain shops but then I assume something has occurred or there have been long running problems with the behaviour of the dc at that school to warrant that.

And these rules do not just apply to school children - in my last job the employment contract included a minimum expectation of behaviour within a certain time frame of leaving work and at all times when wearing something identifying my employer - eg id pass and the also had a pin with the company logo.

limitedperiodonly · 06/03/2013 14:13

I'd quite like that ban on eating in uniform because I live halfway between KFC and the school and the trail of chicken bones the kids drop is like a macabre version of Hansel and Gretel.