Being pissed off that high school children are not allowed to wear Winter coats, scarfs etc when it's freezing cold out there

[whenitrainsitpours]

Maybe they are allowed but if so why is it that they are not wearing Winter coats over their uniforms on their way to and from school? The only article I found about it or feedback that I got when I ask the question to students that I know is that they are not allowed to enter the school with coats, hats, scarf and or gloves... or if so they will get detentions of one hour after three warnings. I think it is ridiculous to expect them to walk to school dressed in bloody shirt and jacket which is not even closed off in 0 degrees and freezy wind temperature. It makes me livid! Then they wonder why some end up with colds, flue and chest infections. Don't they have a place in these high school where they could put their coats ie lockers or pegs? This country need to sort something out cause our children should be allowed to keep warm. Just came back from dropping my two dds at primary school, me dressed with warm ski jackets, hood on, gloves, and Winter boots and see this other teenager going to school with her mum: mother wearing winter coat with hood on and daughter only in school uniform, walking a long distance....cannot get it! So sad.

Yeah it's cool not to wear a coat. Bloody freezing in fact

MY dd hates being cold and will wear 1 I can imagine thousands of parents just giving up the fight of the coat with warnings off well if you get hyperthermia it will be your own fault

Is this purely a UK thing?

My kids-now teens have always & still do wear coats when necessary.

And hats gloves & scarves.

As do all the teens here.
(Germany).

No one is laughed at/derided for dressing appropriately.

Why are teens-like TomArchers daughter refusing to wear a coat even though cold?

What are they afraid of?

I did have a bit of a barny with the school when it snowed here last year, she walks to school and had walking boots on and because they were not regulation colour she got a parental alert thingy.

Oh at dds school they aren't allowed boots or wellies either. Shoes only. At least she has sensible (but fashionable) black brogues.

TBH she did forget her shoes but it was on a P E day she had bags and bags with her, I was a bit nippy with the school about it

It's so uncool to wear a coat, doncha know?

It's not just teenagers either - I'm a midday supervisor at my DD's Primary school and none of the children like wearing coats. The infants aren't so bad but the juniors whine about wearing coats. Some of them go out in just a polo shirt when it's snowing . We tell them that they must be wearing a coat outside, so they come out in one, but as soon as our backs are turned off the coats come. I can understand when they're running around they get hot but sometimes we'll say, "where's your coat?" And often it turns out that they didn't even bring one!

Another mother of teens who has give up here! Dd would never epwewr a coat- they were "too bulky" Massive chunky scarf yes, coat no.

Mind you, Superdry coats are part of the unofficial uniform at ds's school, so he does wear a warm, waterproof practical coat with a hood! Hallelujah!

"Coats are sad" apparently. One Y7 lad we see on the school run every day was walking home in the snow in just a short-sleeved polo shirt with all the buttons undone the other day. Yet when we see him out and about at weekends he's always got a coat on.

I have no idea what it is or why. It just seems to be ingrained into the culture of the agegroup. I've seen the school turing out at home time and hardly any of them are wearing a coat. It's madness.

Dd will wear a big scarf and gloves. Just no coat She does also have a locker. Tbh I just dont think they can be bothered with going to the locker.

DD1 has a superdry jacket she says its really good for keeping the wind off, her

And you know what? It doesn't actually do them any harm, and is not worth a single angst- ridden moment!

I completely agree Seeker. Dd has coats but chooses not to wear them.

I pick my battles these days and coats are not one I'm going to keep fighting.

My high schoolers won't wear their coats.

I have gave up arguing with them about it, if they get cold then it is their fault. However, I did ask the school if perhaps they could come up with a thick school fleece for next year that they are all expected to wear outside in winter. They said they would think about it.

My 17yo has just started wearing coats again

I had never heard of the "teenagers don't wear coats" phenomenon until I joined Mumsnet, even though it seems to be a universal thing. I'm 22 so my teenage years were not that long ago, and I don't remember any issue with coats... everyone, including the "cool" people, wore them when it was cold! The only times I remember refusing to wear one were the many times I left my own coat at school and my mum tried to persuade me to take one of my dad's old anoraks... I wasn't overly obsessed with being cool but there is a limit!

Our school had a very strict uniform policy, we could only wear black, brown or navy coats so there were no great fashion statements there, and hoodies were ABSOLUTELY forbidden (not even just on school property, the headmaster used to wait around the corner at the end of the road at hometime and give out detentions to people who'd taken off their ties/put on their hoodies as soon as they left the school gates!).

I even payed the £5 locker fee so they could both have somewhere to put their coat and they still wouldn't take it.

They come home looking so cold but it is isn't a hill I am going to die on.

DD will wear a fleece on days like today as it's light enough to keep in her backpack.

Yes they have a small locker, but they only keep the PE kit in there. They tend to lug everything else around in their backpacks all day because it's just too inconvenient to visit the lockers.

Secondary schools can be huge - hers certainly is. If their class is at one end, lockers at the other, plus the crowded corridors and locker area (up to 1400 kids milling around at the same time), it can take 15 minutes or more just to get from one end to the other to drop off/pick up their coats.

i never wore one to school because it HAD to be school regulation or you got a detention. the school regulation coat was absolutely hideous and of course nobody wore it.

everyone started wearing their PE hoodies under their blazers because of the cold, and after trying to give everyone detentions, the headmaster eventually gave in and decided it was acceptable so long as it wasn't open day or we weren't representing the school in public.

Agree with other posters, kids wear coats to school arrive put in lockers move around school and lessons without hassle of coat. Then pick it up from locker and go home.

Not the schools fault

Kids at the school where I work don't have coats, choose not to wear them or wear hoodies in the pouring rain.

I think I have to come to the conclusion that parents are buying coats, kids refuse to wear them and lame it on school!!!!

My teenagers never bothered to blame it on the school

When dd was about to start year 7 I went to great lengths to find a coat that fitted into the uniform list.

It had to be no shorter than waist length, no longer than mid thigh length, navy blue, no logos or writing of any sort, not quilted or padded and have a hood.
So I finally found something that fitted the description. She wore it on the first day. Came home, coat was stuffed in the bag.
The next day she left it at home.

I said "why aren't you wearing your coat, put it on you will get cold"

She said ok, I imagine she stuffed it in her bag again because the next day I said put your bloody coat on and she said, look mum, ill put it on to leave the house. But I'm just going to take it off at the bus stop. It's not cold, I don't like coats and it takes up too much space in my bag.

I sold it on eBay a month later.

When DS1 started year 7, I didn't bother. He had a coat, it was the wrong colour, the wrong material and had a logo on it.
He wore it twice.

Now dd wears about 7 layers under her uniform, DS wears football skins and a hoodie and I don't bat an eyelid.

Yes, they are cold. But I am not because I wear my coat!

Nothing's changed then. When I was a teenager, it was all about the 'look'. I stood at busstops in the winter turning blue wearing my short skirt , stockings < no tights in thoses days> and stilettos. Can't remember what I wore as a jacket.
At school we had to wear our blazer and beret outside. Berets have never suited me.

DD in secondary school refused to wear socks. I was horrified as she went by bus as well.

Oh God. I used to wear a coat. I was uber uncool n'est-ce pas?

And I never realised!

Mind you since leaving school I have been heartened and amazed to be told by several ex schoolmates that I had a bit of a cult following...apparently being a bit bloody odd different was a bit, sort of, cool.

Teenagers aren't quite so cool where we live and you do see some in coats when it gets into minus temperatures. They have Art Foundation students there as well who seem to wear coats a bit more as they are 18/19 so that might have helped.

DD has one of those hats with scarf attached which she will wear for chilly days above zero then will wear a black coat so you don't notice it over the blazer so much if the temperature is minus. The other morning when it was snowing there was a boy with just a short sleeve shirt and I shuddered and came out with a phrase my Mum would of used, I had to apologise to DD.