to love the back to school rule flouter photos?

[giraffesCantDoThat]

They are brilliant.

Happens every single year. I love the claims that their human rights are being violated - go and tell that to the Syrians!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3224954/School-sent-13-year-old-girl-home-leopard-print-hair-cut.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3219558/Furious-parents-blast-petty-headmaster-FIFTY-children-sent-home-day-school-wearing-wrong-kind-shoes.html

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-29911712

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3222494/Dozens-pupils-sent-home-school-day-term-breaching-new-uniform-rules-including-wearing-wrong-PE-socks.html

[treaclesoda]

I agree though that petty rules that I've read of on mumsnet should be challenged. What on earth is the no coats thing about? I've read that one loads of times and I can't get my head round what the schools expect that one to achieve. Are childen who feel cold and need a coat less disciplined?

[Frequency]

I hate petty school uniform rules too, but have no choice because all of the school in our area have pretty much the same rules.

As a parent on a low income, with no uniform grants in our area available, I find it expensive and difficult.

A pair of slip on shoes from Primarni are £3. A pair of lace up or buckled shoes with a heel size of within 1-2", not so cheap.

Skirts. Don't even get me started on skirts. The schools can have all the rules they like, but if the shops don't sell below knee length, pleated skirts, what am I supposed to do? In the end we bought a few sizes too big and took in the waist, it worked out cheaper than paying for skirts from the uniform shop.

It doesn't stop bullying, it never has done. Even back in my day if you didn't have the right shoes, coat and bag you were bullied and children in ties look stupid. These are children, not miniature adults.

[Mistigri]

My FB feed is full of parents complaining about petty school uniform restrictions applied to students who are practically young adults.

These aren't people who don't support education either since many are teachers themselves ;)

My husband remarked last Wednesday, after dropping off our 14 year old daughter at the boarding house of her new school (French, no uniform) how much smarter than UK school students the students looked. School uniforms on older teenagers makes them look like they are going to a party where women dress up as children for the titillation of adult men.

[WhoTheFuckIsSimon]

True story time, one of my colleagues had what I believe is called an undercut shaved into the back of her hair. She has long hair so when down you couldn't see it but when tied up at work you could.

She asked for a tribal type pattern to be shaved in and the hairdresser argued saying it would look daft. She politely pointed out she was paying and that's what she wanted. He did it.

She got home and looked in the mirror and he'd shaved "TWAT" in her hair!

[anklebitersmum]

Good for the schools! It's not about 'free expression' it's teen & parental defiance.

If you don't like the uniform policy don't send your children to the school. Simple.

[tobysmum77]

I am strongly of the opinion that you pick your battles in this life. Sending a 13 year old to school with leopardskin up their head/ flouting school uniform is one I simply cannot be arsed with.

I'm not particularly pro school uniform but most people seem to be. If they have to wear it then support the poor teachers who have much better things to do than enforce it.

[00100001]

If your work place says "stud earrings only" or "correct uniform at all times" you adhere to it. you don;t turn up to your shift in Tesco wearing whatever the fuck you like, you wear what you're told to. otherwise you face losing your job. why is school any different? This is the time to learn to shut up and put up over small issues. if the school says "Black plain leather shoes only" then that's what you do.

If you're encouraging your child to flaunt rules that you don't happen to agree with, then you're teaching your child that "it's OK, you're more important than everyone else, the rules must apply to everyone, except you"

[JennyOnAPlate]

My 7 year old got told off for her pink hair band yesterday. She's worn a variety of coloured hair bands over the last 3 years and nothing has ever been said before. I can't find anything about hair accessories in the uniform list either

I don't agree with strict uniform policies at all (I don't think a pink hair band will hinder my dd's ability to learn in any way) however, if you choose to send your dc to a particular school then you follow the rules.

[Mistigri]

School is different because the children are students not workers. And I would hope most schools have ambitions for their students beyond preparing them to wear a tesco uniform.

A dress code is fine, but some of the pettiness reported on my FB feed (students sent to to internal suspension for wearing a black sock with a single grey stripe) has nothing to do with education.

[bettyberry]

Rules are there for a reasons. Health and safety etc etc BUT

• I hated the story where the girl was told her trousers were too tight. Really? a teacher making a normal Item of clothing into something overtly sexual by claiming they are too tight is not on.
  

-last year there was a story about a girl who's bra was visible through her shirt and was sent home.

-School uniforms kill any individuality in a child. Usually their hair is the only thing they have the freedom to change.

• The wrong shoes one is a bit here or there. They are black like the school rules. I had no end of problems at school with shoes (wide huge and huge feet for a girl) and the only option for me to stop crippling pain and blisters was to wear black trainers. Tbh, those black trainers are probably safer than the thin soled ballerina shoes girls wear but they are allowed
  

• Last year there was a story about teachers complaining girls short skirts distracted them
  

• The one about the PE socks is over the top! Why do they all need to have the school logo on? surely its more important kids just have the kit they need and it has there name on?
  

This obsession with kit covered in the school logo really harms poorer kids esp when uniform grants have disappeared and usually only one shop stocks them so there is no competition.

There was one school where the kids weren't allowed to wear a coat over their blazers!

My own DS has been pulled up by the head teacher because he wore patterned socks to school. DS pointed out to the head he wore patterned socks and he just wanted to be like him. Haven't heard a word about the socks issue since.

[southeastastra]

i can never understand why they ban trainers. at my old school we used to have to change into trainers/plimsolls daily to protect the lovely floors always seemed quite sensible to me.

[MythicalKings]

If you don't like the uniform policy don't send your children to the school. Simple.

No, not simple when every single school within travelling distance has ridiculous school uniform rules.

I'm a teacher, btw, not a rebellious parent or teen.

There is no research that shows DCs in uniform do better in exams. My DSs went to non uniform schools and have 5 degrees between them. What clothes you wear has no impact on learning.

[00100001]

Students are there to learn more than numbers and letters.

It's learning to follow rules, even if you don't like it or it has no impact on your job.

I don't like having to swipe in and out if work. As the only reason is for "fire alarms" despite the fact they don't print off a register.

I don't like it. It doesn't affect my job or productivity.

But I do it. Coz its the rules.

Otherwise if you're caught its a disciplinary.


People need to get REAL problems

[Minisoksmakehardwork]

Hmmm. I have sympathy for the parents who have followed the more casual school rules - ie black shoes. Only because I've found myself flummoxed with this one this year.

My dc are only at primary school but on the first day of the new term, the new head had an assembly based on them not being a team, as the school allows 2 different colours of uniform and also appropriate footwear. For a change I have to shoe all 4 dc at once. The older two have school coloured canvas shoes which still fit and I had sent them in those - previously they've worn this type if they've outgrown their school shoes towards the end of the summer term and they were fine. So for the sake of a few weeks until I can take advantage of my twin discount and get 4 pairs of shoes for the price of 2, the school can lump it. And I'm not one for flouting rules normally. But this year it has simply boiled down to the cost. I'd rather wait and pay a discount for shoes that are going to last the year, than buy cheap and to replace them again when they wear out.

What really annoyed me was the head told the pupils about this crackdown first, rather than having a letter sent home at the end of term, or even on the first day. So I've had a very distressed child not wanting to get into trouble, who simply doesn't understand that we cannot afford to spend £30+ on one pair of shoes.

[bettyberry]

Minisoksmakehardwork I have had that too with DS shoes finally giving up 2 weeks before the end of term. I flat out refused to buy shoes he'd only wear for 2 weeks (he was going through a growth spurt) so sent him in wearing trainers. It was also mid month, all bills had been paid and I didn't get paid until the day after school finished.

No end of grief from the school but if they were the same trainers in black there wouldn't be a problem. Its daft and absolutely no consideration given to individual circumstances.

[Frequency]

But that rule doesn't cost you £££ 001.

Have you any idea how difficult it is for someone on a low income to pay for 2 x blazers, 2 x ties, 2 x skirts of a particular style (so no Aldi) 4 x shirts, 2 x black leather covered buckled or lace up shoes, with a heel between 1" and 2.5", 2 x logo'd PE kit including logo'd socks, swimsuit or shorts and towel.

And for what reason? It doesn't stop bullying, it doesn't make the kids smarter and it doesn't teach them anything, there are plenty of meaningful rules to teach them to follow rules, like punctuality, handing homework by the deadline, being respectful. They don't need to dress like clones of one another to learn how to follow rules.

[Mistigri]

The obsession with logos and uniform from a single supplier also makes me wonder about the potential for school management to personally profit from this (kick backs, contracts for the boys etc).

Someone should do some research into this.

[Snowfilledsky]

Totally agree with the OP. Why do they always run off to the papers too? That leopard print hair is minging.

It makes me laugh.

[anklebitersmum]

Our school has ridiculous school uniform rules..hats all round, no coats, a blazer, logo'd school bags, flat leather lace-ups for all shoe-wise...even the boys socks are logo'd. The biters look very smart (as do all their peers) whether in sports uniform or 'full' uniform.

We move far more often than the average family, regularly playing postcode lottery and school uniform is not something I worry about unduly when checking out a school to be honest. Most of the schools we've attended have had a much more lax policy which admittedly was FAR cheaper but I take the view that when you sign on the line to attend you keep your end of the bargain parentally.

To flout the rules you agreed to when you signed your child to the school shows a lack of integrity.

[LittleCandle]

When we moved house, DD2 went to the local crap secondary school (Scotland). DD2 got stopped one day because she had a black bra on under her white shirt. She was told to wear suitable underwear, so I wrote to him informing him that he should be more concerned with education than the colour of the girls' bras - and that if he mentioned this again, I would be reporting him. He also stopped her another day to say she was not allowed to wear a scarf to school and if she did it again, it would be confiscated. There was a foot of snow on the ground outside. The same winter, he complained that she had on DMs. They were black, and had been perfectly acceptable the previous winter. She was told wellington boots were the only acceptable footwear for snow (note, nobody else in the school had on wellies!) I wrote to him (he really hated me) and said that if this was the case, he should feel free to buy her a pair from his own pocket, as i was a single parent and could not afford to buy her any other footwear.

Before anyone jumps on me and says I should have respected the school rules, I would like to say that apart from wearing white shirts and black skirts/trousers and black shoes/boots there was no uniform policy. The headmaster was not interested in the kids learning anything - DD2 got picked on by him because she was one of the few who did what she was told and wanted to learn. The badly behaved kids were ignored. He even denied that there were any problem kids to the press after a huge hoo-ha when one little darling stabbed another boy, who almost died before someone actually called an ambulance for him. He also claimed in the press that there was no teenage pregnancies at his school, despite 10 girls in DD2's year becoming pregnant so they could skip their GCSEs.

Sometimes, the obsession with rules goes too far - and despite my bolshiness, i was a teacher and made sure my kids did what they were told.

[NobodyLivesHere]

you can choose where you work, in the real world most people dont get much choice about where you send your children to school.

and as i said previously, if anyone can explain to me any actual reason why wearing a coat inside the school building is an issue, id love to hear it.

[anklebitersmum]

LittleCandle can't help laugh at the irony that most of the girls in our super strict school wear DM shoes as they're soooo comfy and hard wearing and flat and leather and lace ups

[Snowfilledsky]

No teens round here even would be seen dead wearing a coat to school or take one at all.

[NobodyLivesHere]

probably because its too much hassle carrying it about when you are inside the school snow lol

[treaclesoda]

You can't really choose where you work just as easily as all that though. In my experience most people find it quite difficult to move job, for a myriad of reasons. e.g. working in a very specialised industry, having caring responsibilities that mean you can only commit to certain hours, hundreds of applicants for every vacancy. Most people who don't like the petty rules in their workplace have to just put up with them, or at least put up with them until some other opportunity arises.