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

[Frequency]

I think the issue with girls uniforms is that there is more choice on the high street but less chance of you finding things that adhere to strict policies.

Trousers are trouser length, they only sell that length, there's no variations according to fashion.

I searched every shop in our town to find a just below the knee length, pleated black skirt. I found plenty of just above the knee, all the shops had them. No where had just below the knee because it's not what the children wear these days and it's not what shops sell. I do wonder what is so distracting about my girl's knees however that they must be covered?

Ditto shoes, most boy's shoes are sensible anyway, but there is so much choice for girls it's easier to make a mistake, plus the flimsy, not allowed shoes tend to be cheaper.

[GhoulWithADragonTattoo]

I successfully campaigned for school to allow girls to wear trousers when I was at secondary so there is more options than put up or shut up.

I think most of the rules particularly around shoes and logos are ridiculous and parents and students should campaign for change.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

I think the issue with girls uniforms is that there is more choice on the high street but less chance of you finding things that adhere to strict policies

my dd is 9 so only primary uniform to go on. but I think it's also because some of the stuff is just sooooo ill fitting. problems like skirts long enough are too big around the waist. shirts long enough to tuck in have baggy arms so you can see through the sleeves.

shirts are also see through.

trousers, legs are too long or they are baggy round the arse or crotch is practically round the knees.

Dd is concious now of how awful some styles can look in dread to think what ill fitting expensive itchy crap is going to be forced upon us at secondary stage.

limited styles means a very limited choice meant to fit a huge range of body shapes and sizes and heights of people at various stages of puberty where confidence cab be at its lowest.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

You may never find your strengths if you're constantly made to conform to petty rules in order to be able to do anything else.

Few people have a strict uniform in work. School uniforms that dictate skirt length, hair styles, shoe type, logo placement, etc. add expense to tight budgets and do not prepare children for the reality of dressing for most work environments.

[Snowfilledsky]

I don't think the uniform is meant to prepare them for dressing at work. DS1 has to wear a logoed rather horrible polo shirt for his P/T job. That's just what you have to wear, he isn't keen on it but he sees it as uniform just like school was.
He could always complain that the particular colour doesn't suit him I guess.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

It's the only reason, outside of pleasing the eye of adults, that I've ever heard for it Snow.

[Snowfilledsky]

'Pleasing the eye of adults' is a bit of a weird way of looking at it. I just assumed it was easier WRT peer pressure/bullying etc when everyone just wears the same thing. Plus a sense of belonging. Plus when they are being naughty on the bus you know which school to ring.

But the DC and I have never ever had a problem with school uniform TBH. In the 12 years since DC1 started YR there have been so many more important things to be worrying about.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

I don't see how a child would get a sense of belonging from being forced to wear something they don't want to, it would seem more likely to create a sense of alienation in those who don't like whatever has decided on, especially given the compulsory nature of schooling for children. It's not as though they get to see it as a trade off they can make. My own experience of school uniform gave the lie to the idea that it can stop bullying but it did illustrate that it can cause problems for some families that couldn't really afford it or for children who did not find the clothes they were required to wear nice. So children would be excluded by the school because e.g. their parent's couldn't afford to replace their blazer after it was lost or they couldn't find the right pair of socks in the morning or even if wearing something different made them happy.

I think there are plenty of things about school to be worried about. And if the uniform is causing the child distress or putting pressure on a family it just adds to it.

[MuddlingMackem]

Snowfilledsky Tue 08-Sep-15 10:24:27

Seems there's more problems with people adhering to school uniform for girls. Lots of talk about flimsy shoes < < < <

Buy shoes from the boys range. Plenty of lace up or velcro full foot covering styles which are pretty unisex on there.

Gileswithachainsaw Tue 08-Sep-15 11:06:18

trousers, legs are too long or they are baggy round the arse or crotch is practically round the knees. < < < <

Trousers which are too long is easily solved by just taking up the hem. Even my crap sewing skills can cope with that.

[Snowfilledsky]

I just think in the list of school worries in my experience, put it at the bottom, and worry about important stuff.

[Snowfilledsky]

I have DSs Muddling. There was a long thread about school shoes a few weeks ago and a quick google showed that boys and girls have a massive range to choose from in every style imaginable, many of them unisex.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

It's on the bottom of my list Snow because it only causes me minor irritation at having to keep different sets of clothing for them, and the waste of having to have enough regular clothing for them 7 days a week for holidays but only needing normal clothing 2 days a week for most of the year. It doesn't cause us any actual problems. My kids quite like their uniform and we can afford it easily. That isn't the case for everyone though and I'm not selfish enough to subscribe to an "I'm all right Jack" philosophy.

[Snowfilledsky]

Nobody I know in RL has fussed about uniform.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Trousers which are too long is easily solved by just taking up the hem. Even my crap sewing skills can cope with that

doesn't solve the problem with the duck sides and the yards of material in strange places though does it.or the fact the style in general is not a good fit

[GnomeDePlume]

In a good school the uniform is irrelevant (it isnt the uniform which makes it good).

In a poor school the uniform is a distraction from dealing with the real reasons why the school is poor.

We are onto our 4th Head'n'Uniform change in 8 years. We have had more changes of Head than that (8 or 9 I think) but some didnt stay long enough to muck around with the uniform (for which mercies we are grateful!).

If uniform were so great, with all this attention on it by one Head after another, we should be one of the best schools in Britain.

But we arent, I wonder why.

[stealthsquiggle]

I always read these threads with interest, because my DC are at a school which has more of a dress code than a uniform. It's a lot more strict than, say, French schools, but the DC can choose to an extent (any shirt with a collar, any colour jumper/trousers/skirt, but rules about no logos, no jeans, lace up shoes only, etc etc). The senior schools they are likely go on to all have much more traditional uniform rules and I wonder how the transition will go.

One of the effects of this difference is that they can have non-black shoes, as long as they are sensible lace ups and not trainers. It's remarkably difficult to buy non-black school shoes for boys, though. For the last 6 years DS, who has very wide feet, has ended up with exactly the same style of startrite shoe in increasing sizes. This year he (and I) rebelled. We found a really nice, well made (British made!) pair of men's semi-casual lace up brown shoes in the sale at the same local independent shoe shop that we have always used. The children's fitters checked them and declared them a good fit, they cost less than the startrite ones, and DS is so happy - not only because they are less boring, but also, he says, because they are the most comfortable pair of shoes he has ever owned. Which makes me doubt all the arguments for sticking with fitted children's shoes.

[holmessweetholmes]

I don't much care whether we have uniform or not. I don't believe it makes any real difference to the school and its success. Schools in other countries manage perfectly well without it.

But, as some have already said, this isn't about uniform really. It's about doing as you're bloody well told! If you think the uniform rules are unfair and oppressive (boo hoo), you talk to the school about it and maybe ask some other parents if they feel the same. You don't just ignore the rules.

Just allowing your child to ignore the rules is arrogant and entitled and encourages your child to have a hostile or dismissive and disrespectful attitude towards school. And yes, the kids who persistently and wilfully flout the uniform rules are almost always the kids who flout the behaviour rules too.

[NellysKnickers]

Ds2 started reception this week. We hsve already had a text remind parents that tram lines and visible tattoos are not acceptable for school. I'm baffled as to who would think they are........................don't get me wrong, I am rebellious, he's got black pe shorts instead of navy and black trainers cunningly disguised as shoes so I'm not a goody goody but seriously encouraging small children to flout rules at such a small age is surely asking for trouble later on?

[Frequency]

Buy shoes from the boys range

Bahahahaha!

I take it that poster has never been the proud parent of an image conscious teenaged girl.

Shoe shopping was hell

M and S and clearly muddled up boys shoes with girls shoes.
Next's shoes were all uncomfortable, ditto Tesco and BHS (to be fair she has very narrow feet and all of the shoes she was trying on were too wide)
River Island only stock old lady shoes
Shuh's shoes are all ugly and no one ever wears shoes like that (said about DM, Hush Puppy and Shuh's own brand)

In the end she settled for a pair of "boy shoes" from M and S and worried all weekend that her friends would take the piss out of her for having boy shoes.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

tram lines?

[Frequency]

I know what tram lines are, it's very early 90's boy's hair cut, where they have two lines shaved into their side of their head. I've not seen them since I was in school.

I am wondering why reception children would have any tattoos at all much less visible ones?

[0x530x610x750x630x79]

Ds2 started reception this week. We hsve already had a text remind parents that tram lines and visible tattoos are not acceptable for school.

that would be me, those stick on tattos last so long, 3 days when i was a kid, a week and waiting for the damn things to wash off.

[Frequency]

Oh, transfers. I'd been hoping they meant on parents and was wondering what kind of school dictates what parents can wear on drop off and pick up

Baby oil or make up remover shifts them, ime.

[Booboostwo]

If I were to rank the qualities I would want the school to impart to my DCs mindlessly following pointless and often sexist uniform rules without protest would not make the list. Even general mindless following of rules is a quality only desirable for future concentration camp officers, so I'd rather my kids showed individuality, initiative and independence.

[Spartans]

I didn't realise any schools still banned girls from wearing trousers. My Catholic school let girls where trousers in 1998.

At dds school most girls where skirts, but plenty wear trousers. Mainly Muslim girls. How do schools that say girls have to wear skirts get round that?