To complain to this teacher (and what do I say)?

[MerryMarigold]

Dd (Y2) started a new school on Monday. The school uniform says PE kit should be school T shirt and black shorts. Before she started and I was in school, I saw some of the older girls doing PE in cycling shorts, so I assumed black leggings would be ok and sent her in with these in her PE kit.

Anyway, she had PE on Wednesday and came home saying she is not allowed the leggings and needs black shorts. Fine , I will go to the uniform shop at the weekend, which is probably the only place you can get them at this time of year. Then yesterday she had PE again and had to sit out because she didn't have the shorts. Apparently you can't do gymnastics in leggings. She was sad as they were playing stuck in the mud which she loves. I really don't see why you can't wear leggings to play that!

This is not some posh school, it is a state school in a fairly deprived area. At our last school we didn't even have a pointless PE uniform.

I just feel it was very unkind to make a small girl sit out of PE which she loves, single her out in her first week at a new school and give me one evening's notice to get shorts for her.

So, anyway, do I bring this up with class teacher (who is lovely)? Or PE teacher herself? And what do I say?

I feel like writing this in capital letters, wellies. I sent her in leggings as I saw a bunch of the older girls in cycling shorts and coming from a schoo, where everyone wore leggings for PE, I assumed most of the girls would be wearing leggings
You can sigh and shout all you like OP, but this still makes no sense. The uniform rules said shorts. Some older girls where wearing shorts. You decided to buy an alternative, not-shorts, item because many wore that item at a different school. Nope. No logic. You deliberately chose somethings not approved so anything that happens after that is your responsibility. Extra time from the school, or making an exception in the circumstances might have been nice (depending on your views about uniform) but you caused the problem. I feel a bit like putting that in capitals.

But equally the OP has said that the school are pretty flexible about the school uniform, so not unreasonable to assume that the same would extend to PE uniform. And she did send her in in something appropriate which is, you would hope, the only thing that matters. The OP has learnt that common sense is not always exercised by teachers. Or MNers .

I'm getting confused now. Either the OP didn't know there was PE the following day and sent her dd in wearing her normal uniform, so therefore not in any way properly dressed for PE, or she did know and sent her in with leggings even though she had now been told that wasn't allowed.

Regardless of whether you think the PE teacher could have been more flexible re the leggings, I don't see how the OP thinks there is any reason to complain to the school. The PE teacher was just enforcing a rule.

I would probably have let her off the first week because it's not the child's fault. However kit is a complete pain in the arse. Muslim girls wear leggings for PE and that's fine. Otherwise it's shorts.

Thanks, SirChen, that's exactly why I didn't send a note.

Spoke to class teacher and she was lovely about it. I said it made Dd feel bad, and I felt she could have given us a week's grace and teacher said, "Of course".

Imogen, the kit stays in school and they get changed at school. They don't wear PE kit all day! I was not aware there was PE the next day (it's not often 2 days running).

Seems like the class teacher has more common sense (and compassion) than the PE teacher. It's something that seems to be increasingly lacking when it comes to The Rules unfortunately.

Well I was going on your OP which said you were given one evening's notice.

I still don't think it was worth going to the school about, but am glad you feel happy with the teacher's response.

Class teacher is lovely, but going on Mat leave next week...hope we get another who is as nice and sensible. God forbid, PE teacher takes her place.

Glad it's sorted.

I just wanted the teacher to speak to PE teacher so I hope she thinks twice next time about 'enforcing the rules' in specific circumstances, not really for any other reason.

PE teachers are all a bit bonkers imo - a bit 'stuff and nonsense'

Oh, that is an expression my Mum uses! I love it!

Child has been in school a week and already you have found it necessary
'to speak to the teacher',ie, waste her time, over your own mistake.

You are clearly setting up for a confrontation with the PE teacher.

Wonder if you read the thread asking why so many teachers are leaving:
you are a prime example of one of the reasons why.

I just wanted the teacher to speak to PE teacher so I hope she thinks twice next time

We have no uniform. Our pe kit is blue shorts and a white t shirt. Should be simple, eh?
I teach in Year 6 and by the time the children get to me, we waste at least 5 mins of each lesson discussing clothes.
No, leggings are not appropriate for tennis outside - you need shorts. People going past on the bus can see your pants! But so and so wore leggings last year...
That's not a white t shirt, it's blue. But so and so wore a t shirt with a big Chelsea logo on it in Year Four and nobody said anything...
You need shorts for dance. SHORTS! But I only have jersey tracksuit trousers and I wore them once for dance...
Slip on Vans are not trainers, they give no support to your foot. You cannot wear them for netball. But I have just bought them for little Johnny and I think they are trainers and if I say they support his foot then you should be fine with them.

So I end up with more and more children wearing inappropriate (and sometimes unsafe) kit for the lesson and wishing that their year 2 teacher (and Year 3 and Year 4 and Year 5) had been a bit stricter.

Well said, goblin.

You didn't conform to the uniform policy, you just sent in what you wanted so you can't really complain. All schools I've worked in make children sit out if they don't have the correct kit, otherwise some just don't bother bringing it.

Kingscote Exactly. So many special snowflakes- and I mean the mothers not the children.

MerryMarigold - to my mind, leggings are a lot like trousers as they cover the same bits of leg... Would you have let your dd go into school for her normal lessons in leggings on that basis, or would you have thought that was stretching the school uniform policy a bit far?
Whilst you have a very valid point about the PE teacher being unfair to a child in their first week at school, I think your obsessive insistence that you were reasonable to assume that leggings can count as shorts was just silly, as leggings are quite obviously not shorts, what with them not fulfilling the requirement to be short and all that... If the school was willing to be flexible on PE shorts, it wouldn't have specified that they had to be shorts!

Goblin, dsis is a teacher and my best friend is a teacher, amongst around 5 other teacher friends. I often cut them slack, understand their workload and admire what they do and have only once ever said anything. (A teacher screwed up a child's picture drawn in golden time - long story but it was very unreasonable and part of a wider picture, she is no longer a classroom teacher). I don't usually make a fuss, but felt like I needed to in this situation. It was a very unkind way to treat a new girl, regardless of her opinion of me/ school uniform whatever. And it was also unfair, considering the lack of communication. I had a very pleasant conversation with the teacher and didn't have to labour the point at all. She got it all immediately, since she is a kind and reasonable person.

I'm not sure what I can have a confrontation with the PE teacher over now, they will all have full PE Uniform (picked up T shirts today)!

lack of communication

Looks like we'll all have to agree to disagree on this one. Otherwise this is going to be a neverending thread.

Apart from the shoes, nothing kingscote has said strikes me as being necessary to argue over. Certainly not the colour of a t shirt. And do you really think that the passengers on the bus have such x ray vision that they can see a child's pants through their leggings? Your post just adds to my thinking of how petty uniform rules, and those who make it their business to blindly follow them, can be.

My son had to sit out of PE as he didn't have the t-shirt with the crest on as someone had nicked it. I sent him in with a plain red one but that wasn't good enough.

As a pp said, a lot of leggings are so thin as to be see-through. I've witnessed this myself when seeing a gaggle of teenage girls in the shopping mall. No x-ray eyes needed.