To not get schools issue with dyed hair?

[fitforflighting]

I suspect I may get flamed for this but I genuinely do not get it.
They have a rule against earrings including sleepers. That I get especially with younger children or in sports were children can end up getting them at worst ripped out.

I can kind of even get extreme haircuts with big shaved stars or strange styles that look unprofessional and might not be allowed by adults in a professional work place.

But this week and last term several of senior age children who had dyed hair brown/red/dark purple etc were sent home from school to re dye or put in isolation by teachers with errr brown/red/purple dyed hair! One of the children's teacher has bright purple hair. It does not make her any less of a English teacher or lesson her professionalism in school I don't reckon so what is the problem for teens?

"And I shall say again - when you can guarantee that a member of the public's first reaction when seeing a group of children with brightly-coloured hair, very highly coloured thick makeup and uniform worn in all manner of different ways is 'they must go to a really excellent school where the classrooms are orderly and my child will thrive in a well-discplined environment', schools will stop worrying about uniform and appearance."

1. That's not important.
2. No, schools will not.

1. That's not important. Why not?

2. No, schools will not Why won't they?

Do try and beyond mere assertion and empty some reasoning.

Employ!!

1. That's not important

For a school it is; funding depends on the number of students who attend, so to enable more funding, school's need to ensure they attract as many students as possible, therefore their reputation is as important as their exam results

2. No, schools will not
see above

Giles you need to discuss this with the people who make the rules not the teachers who uphold them. The wording is subtle and red is not a subtle colour - that really can't be argued with.
The biggest issue most schools have dealt with uniform in the last few years has been the boys with trousers belted below their bottoms - with pants on display.
Oh and none of the school's I have worked at measure skirts any more ... That went out about 15 years ago.
Schools have changed.

Fantastic post Maths. One of mine is not engaged in learning at all but flies so firmly under the radar that no one at school even noticed until she literally had a mental breakdown and i had to get Camhs involved.
She is constantly subjected to disrupive behaviour and she sits quietly. She rarely gets help in class because the noisier kids demand the most attention.
For weeks and weeks she was bringing homework home she didnt understand and i had to ring them because she did not have the nerve to speak up in class.

In the dc school merits mean prizes every so many merits like gift vouchers, stationary, cinema tickets and such and a main draw at the end of each term for tvs, tablets and bikes.

My dd has never got anything. She finished last year with exceptional behaviour and effort in every subject but 36 merits. The loud kids had hundreds of merits.

Who got the gadgets? The noisy kids who had had merits thrown at them in an attempt to get them to tow the line or simply because they are heard.Their behaviour is no better this year because they got a kindle fire at Christmas. They were a pain in the backside all year and rewarded for it.

My dd told the form teacher she was good all the time, tried her hardest all the time even though she struggles and gets no help or no reward and she may as well not bother anymore.

She is in lower sets for everything due to SEN. One teacher took an interest in her and realised she was capable of more. She said down and explained things properly to her. In that year dd made TWO YEARS progress in Maths in half a term and has jumped two sets.

Makes me bloody cross that schools are more concerned about what colour hair a child has than dealing with real issues

Lord,

How will you choose your son's school (actually, you are in Scotland, so probably just because it is your catchment school)?

If 'local reputation' will feature anywhere in your thought process - even at the 'everyone says it's a good school' level, then you ARE making judgements based on public opinion of the school and that WILL be influenced, in part, buy the public presentation of its pupils.

by not buy. Need to put my glasses on so that I don't hit 2 keys at once.

And as cricketballs says, reputation and numbers are hugely important in the finances of a school. I have taught in a school whose 'public reputation' was poor (to the extent that many people never even came to look at it for their children) because it had a high proportion of Traveller children. Parents of other children were influenced by the public presentation of that particular group (especially older children and adults) in the local community as well as the wider public view on Travellers as a group.

Then a parent with a child at another school with a very different intake came to actually look at the school (part of their training to work in schools, not 'as a parent') and what went on in the classrooms during a school day. Over the next 6 months the school grew in size buy 50%, mostly by transfer from the other school, going from 'undersubscribed and therefore strapped for cash' to 'full'. We could afford another teacher, and another class, so there were no longer mixed year classes. We could afford additioonal TAs and new computers. And it was all due to a change in public perception, which for years and years had been driven by the public presentation and perception of a group of our pupils. Meanwhile, the other school suffered from a whispering campaign, again based on public perception, that 'they weren't as good as Tw2k's school any more', and lost nearly 50% of their funding.

But surely if things are to change it needs the backing of the teachers too.

I'm not holding individual teachers responsible but parents aren't always taken seriously as this thread shows.

why are people so ok with portraying the message that it doesn't matter how well behaved or hard working you are. how polite honest and kind you are to others, that people will take one look at your hair or lipstick and assume your a disruptive uncontrolled minx out to distract there class mates.

schools run anti bullying work shops. they are supposed to be taught that judging appearances is wrong. that sexualilty or colour or religion doesn't matter. that we are all the same and what matters is how you treat others.

yet the whole time the schools have to work based on a bunch of girls with dyed hair and bright lips and short skirts are the epitome of what's wrong with the world. so best hide their form. in.the most unflattering trousers and skirts known to man as that's the only acceptable look.

"Makes me bloody cross that schools are more concerned about what colour hair a child has than dealing with real issues"

Indeed. Imagine is schools tackled bullying with the zero tolerance zeal that they employ regarding appearance. But no, too difficult.

The lower hanging, low value fruit is easier.

Starting another thought here, not necessarily on school rules but on 'age appropriateness' - and it's a question, rather than something I have an opinion on.

Say a 6 year old child comes into school wearing bright red lipstick, eye shadow and thick foundation - is that something that a school should, in general, allow on the basis that it doesn't interfere with learning, or ask them to remove, because it isn't an age appropriate thing to do? If the school chooses to ignore it, and it becomes 'the thing' amongst that class, is that still OK - just a game - or something that is now a prblem because some girls may feel pressured to do something 'more grown up' than they want to, by the group?

If it is 'not age appropriate' at 6, when does it become age-appropriate (as normal day wear)? Is that line at 9? At the end of primary? Where?

We see a lot of 'woe is me' pieces about how quickly children grow up in our society. Does a school have any role at all, for very young children, in moderating some of the pressures to do so? Or should we adopt a 'laissez faire' attitude, in which e.g. every child, of whatever age, can wear makeup?

"why are people so ok with portraying the message that it doesn't matter how well behaved or hard working you are. how polite honest and kind you are to others, that people will take one look at your hair or lipstick and assume your a disruptive uncontrolled minx out to distract there class mates. "

I would agree with you that this is wrong - but where the public cannot judge any of the former about members of a school, but CAN see the latter, they will make judgements based on what they can see.

I don't, by the way, see any excuse for uniforms to be ugly and unflattering. That is manageable and changeable, and where the uniform is hideous should be modified (in discussion with pupils and parents) in such a way that pupils of all shapes and sizes can wear it, if not with pride, at least without too much resentment, as well as being affordable and widely available.

for me make up at 6 would be a medical issue with my dd.

however I'd just assume any make up was because they were playing dress up.

in secondary I just view it as usual experimenting that goes on.

school and home should he safe places fir this to take place. the same way boys dabble in lynx and hair gel.

if it started causing problems then that cab be dealt with. the o my real problem.i forsee is not the colours ir style but the fact that maybe the constant application on school grounds made then. late for class.

so by all means have a word if a child is becoming late as they are spending too much time applying make up/hair gel after pe.

but not just because some person who hasn't even tried find out what the school is actually like things red lipstick is "slutty/common/" or whatever

and equally if schools care about how the kids are looking when walking too and from school (cos that's when it's seen) then surely the same notion should be aplkied to bow they are behaving whilst in uniform on the way home.

yiu can't focus on one and not the other

Giles, all the schools I have worked in or have contact with focus on behaviour to and from school as well as uniform...

teacher I am so tempted to comment on your last post but I'm afraid I will wake the beast!

I know, it's a minefield - the children aren't 'ours' at that point BUT they are 'representing the school'. It's a bit like when we have cyberbullying that takes place outside school. The school can't NOT act if 1 of its pupils is cyberbullying, in the same way they can't NOT act when a teen in their uniform beats up another just outside the school gates. But it's a difficult grey area!

Yes I agree it is difficult.

because in school the uniform isn't seen so it's blatantly for the benefit of the public.

so you can't have one and not the other.

but some do seem to care too much about how it looks yet when contacted about the behaviour aren't interested

at both points the kids are outside the school so question is why one would Mathern and one wouldn't. because uniform or no uniform if I saw kids from a school being rude or racist etc then that's what would put me off.

some girl walking quietly with a bolt through her nose talking with her red haired friend. well that wouldn't even register to me.

behaviour is what the focus should be on. and of course providing resources and quality teaching that engages all students and gets the best out of them.

needless to say I wouldn't necessarily assume the teachers alow that behaviour in school. but I wouldn't want my child hanging around with someone who could do that.

Giles as I have said before the children in this school chose their own uniform. They like their uniform. They are proud of their uniform. They want to wear it. Everyone is provided with one or a payment plan to afford it. We have some children from really deprived backgrounds and uniform works. I don't see pupils distracted by what they are wearing at all. Unless it is a non uniform day and then it is normally football shirts that cause the most trouble, not how the girls dress.

It really is not a big issue in schools - I probably have one incident a half term where I have to send a pupil to inclusion over uniform (which is normally to pick up a spare tie as they have left it at non-resident parent's house). Two red lipsticks in many years and a few extreme haircuts - but we are talking extreme .... "Mcfc" shaved in the head, blue Mohawk (both boys) and a girl who dyed her hair electric pink and blue (looked fabulous by the way but not suitable for school as did not comply with rules). Oh and a boy who bizarrely just shaved the middle of his hair off so he had like a motorway between his lovely curls (his mum was distraught and insisted he came in to school where his friends could see him - he spent one day in the inclusion hub and shaved the rest off). None of the parents of these children have done daily fail sad face interviews though.

Luckily in the schools where I have taught parents are supportive of uniform and the rules. If a pair of shoes break and the parents can't afford new ones we have often bought them for the children. If a patent refused to allow us to buy the shoes and insists their child comes in wearing very expensive trainers then that is a different issue.

If I am the beast to be awakened - thanks. I am off to work now - am going in late as my son was sick all night and I am waiting for my parents to arrive to care for him. ( in case anyone remarks on lazy teacher!) I can't miss the meeting I have today with a parent over a child who has been involved in a cyber bullying incident at home. So yes we do have responsibility for our pupils when not in school.

Amazing post by math, one that should be read by everyone involved in education, but I fear (if this thread is anything to go by) it'll just be ignored.

OP, your DC's school sounds a disgrace.

I have to say I would love to see this uniform. that everyone loves so much. the a mixing one that flatters the big chested curvy girls and the short skinny girls and the boys who arena foot taller than their class mates without gaping or clinging or appearing to swamp etc.

and if football shirts cause a problem.then surely that proves the bahviir has indeed not been tackled the way you think it has akd this unifirm. is masking the real issues

behaviour

ffs

piece as a secondary teacher myself you should be able to guess who I am referring to