Told to take off coat or get a detention

[beth111]

My teenage boys finally got the health message I have being trying to get through to them for years regarding wearing a coat on cold wet days. During lunch time and recess, in the play ground, they decided to wear their coats to keep warm and dry. However the assistant principal informed them that their coats were not apart of school uniform and if they wore them again they would get a detention. Angry and shocked I wrote the assistant principal a note requesting my children wear a coat for health reasons. With the note in his hand and before discussing with me the heath reasons I had, he told them to take off their coats and that I had no say in the uniform policy. I can't believe Victorian public schools, that offer no warm dry areas for the children to play, would deny children the basic human right to stay warm and dry by telling them to remove their coats. Coats have no 'social value' in schools, in fact my children run the risk at being bullied for wearing one. What makes me more angry is on school excursions children are often told to wear a school uniform and a coat is a mandatory excessary, And why? To ensure children stay dry and warm, so why not extend this basic human right to Victorian children who live in cold wet climates? Teachers wear nice thick warm coats so why are they telling the children not to? I think as parents we need to start standing up to some of the education departments out dated policies, that put our children at risk.

ring the school as for there version of what happened.

I don't believe that you children wouldn't be allowed any sort of warm coat outside.

Liino your post was beyond ridiculous. Would you go out in the cold with no coat on? Then why would you expect a child?...

Some people come out with some crap on these threads just to disagree.

So your issue is that the school has a regulation uniform coat, your kids/you don't have it or want it and have something else, and you object to the school telling them they need the uniform coat not another coat?

If you send them to a school with rules, follow the rules, or take it up calmly in terms of questioning the policy overall. Don't go in raging that your precious snowflakes are different and need special treatment.

We've just moved back from Victoria and my kids wore coats in the winter. As did I. Proper warm ones. For a start it seems to rain and rain for months. And it's not warm inside buildings like it is in the uk.

When I first joined the army (mid 90s) soldiers were disciplined for wearing waterproof, or warm clothing while on guard as we were supposed to look smart.

Now commanders are disciplined if troops aren't comfortable.

If even the army can consider comfort I'd like to thing a place of learning could do so too.

PatriciaHolm

I suspect that there's a shirt, jumper and blazer as part of the uniform and that all three when combined with a raincoat it has been deemed that it should be warm enough to be honest. It's not minus 15, it's 5-10.

In the event that your children need to be warmer then buy them some thermal undies. I'm afraid I'm of the opinion that if you choose to send your children to a private school that has a uniform rather than a state school which does not then you have to abide by the rules you signed up for.

It's an age old thing sorry op. Schools own children apparently as soon as they walk through the gates. I'll never forget standing in the playground shivering in the snow and wearing a plain black beanie hat when I was about 14 - so 20 odd years ago- and our deputy principal screaming across the playground at me "TAKE THAT HAT OFF". When it comes to school uniform, common sense doesn't appear to prevail.

Uniform rules just seem nuts to me now, living somewhere that doesn't have them. Why do schools think that they should be policing this sort of thing? What on earth difference does it make if the OP's children are warm during recess? Why should they be requiring a particular brand of coat to be worn outside?

My ds likes to wear lots of clothes, and has since Christmas been wearing a greatcoat (made more sense when it was -10 most days, less so when it's plus 20!). He wears it all the time, together with a wool scarf, inside and out (although to be honest he doesn't really go outside much!). I and most adults think he is slightly nuts, but it's what makes him comfortable and it has zero impact on his learning or behaviour. I'm so glad we don't have to get into fights with school about such stupid things.

Anklebiters a public school is a state school in Australia (and also in the states)

The post is very confusing for British readers which is nearly all of us

This one rule for them and another rule for others. When I went to school in a Victorian building we all had to form single file and take our coats off when we went in and hang them up on pegs (not specific to anyone) and then file in quietly to the classroom.

On entering a school building many years later I was astonished to see that there are no cloakrooms at all now. Wet coats were just draped on the backs of chairs, that is if a child has a coat at all, and many don't as they are driven to school. (We had to walk as hardly anyone had cars).

The classrooms these days are vastly overheated and you'd sweat like a pig if you stayed in a coat.

10 degrees on the southern coast of Australia is very cold, you just cannot compare it to 10 degrees in the uk.

They don't bother measuring wind chill, because it is ALWAYS a freezing wind as there's little between the iceburgs and the coast to warm it up!!

Op, YANBU, winters in Australia are horridly cold and the the assistant principal is acting like an officious jerk!

She won't be talking about Y7 pupils, as she said in OP they are teenagers, who usually refuse to wear coats at all.

Then they refuse to wear the uniform coat.

It's all normal teenage rebellion, and probably quite healthy for them to be doing this. Schools see this All The Time and do not pander to it.

Mrscaindingle I know, we're here too

The Victorian state law says that they can't enforce uniform in state schools apparently so she must have signed up for a private one, right?

Not that it matters, it's not that cold. Buy the raincoat issued as uniform and wear a vest.

A few years ago there was an inspiring news story about two Australian hunters. One - who admitted to being "tipsy" - was attacked by a crocodile while retrieving a goose. Fortunately, his companion was on hand to shoot it. While waiting for the ambulance they drank some more beer.

Now, that's how I imagine Australians. All this talk of catching a chill in the playground has really disappointed me.

Under 10 degrees? That's summer in Glasgow! Taps aff weather!! Cold in winter means sub zero and snow.

It's quite simple and your children do what mine does. Wear a coat to school over their blazer or regulation uniform. When you arrive, take coat off and stick it in your locker/bag. When it's time to go home, put coat on again.

Not rocket science.

I think maybe OP is talking in Fahrenheit? Could that explain it?

They won't let them wear a coat outside if it's cold/raining?

If that's so OP get a petition going amongst the other parents and students,get as many to sign as you can and complain,kick up a bloody stink I would.

I've never heard of this ever and I've worked in different schools and I worked with SS.I have 5DC of my own and none of they're schools have ever had this policy!

They won't let them wear a coat outside if it's cold/raining?

No they will, it's just that OP wants her children to have special dispensation to wear something other than the school uniform coat. Because they're so special and individual, you know.

It's not the coat outside the OP's talking about holidays, it's wearing a coat indoors.

In Australia schools are generally not big all-in-one buildings like the UK. They are clusters of separate blocks and classrooms and students walk between the buildings (outside in cold and rain) to get to their next lessons.

If OP's DC are cold then they should be allowed to wear a coat. Same as children in the UK. It's a ridiculous rule and I go back to my long standing thinking that comfortable children (whether that's warm in winter or cool in summer) are much more attentive students and better learners. Why are we so keen to turn 11 and 12 year olds (or even younger?) into mini adults in trousers and blazers?

No,I've just re read it and the OP said lunch time and recess in the playground!

The only school I ever knew to make the students wear a school uniform coat was a really rough school and for some reason they thought the wearing of an expensive uniform(the coat was nearly £65)would sort all the schools problems out,but of course it didn't!

I've worked in schools (in Birmingham where the LEA didn't give a shit) where the heating wasn't even on for weeks - boiler problem took them a couple of months to fix - and the kids wore coats in the classroom all day.

Re. the smell of wet coats... Go on any teacher forum you'll see the smell most teachers (of secondary age) loathe the most is the whiff of Lynx gently rising.

My son is actively followed round the playground (of an almost failing local Sports College) by a weird member of admin staff who has taken it into her head to police uniforms at lunchtime. She is obsessed with him because he has a 1cm square logo on his shoes. I've told him if she has a real problem to ring me and I will deal with it. She still hasn't. He's keeping the shoes til he outgrows them.