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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think it's not hard to adhere to uniform rules

804 replies

Puzzledconfusedandbewildered · 06/09/2016 16:49

Yet again in the fail a school has had protests from parents (and police presence) due to 50 students being turned away on day 1 for breaching the uniform rules

Aibu to think the rules are the rules and if you want your child to attend that school you adhere to them?

OP posts:
pleasemothermay1 · 07/09/2016 15:16

Dutch Education Minister says the burka, a head-to-toe covering worn by Muslim women, will be banned from Dutch education institutes.

9 September 2008
THE HAGUE -- The burka, a head-to-toe covering worn by some Muslim women, will be banned from Dutch schools and universities, Education Minister Ronald Plasterk said Monday in a letter to parliament. The minister is preparing a bill to outlaw the garb from mid-2009. He added that the rule will not only apply to pupils and teachers, but anyone entering the school or university premises. Plasterk said the burka obstructs smooth communication, which is a major requirement for a proper education. The burka, also known as a niqab in some traditions, is a wide dress covering not only the entire body, hair and neck, but also the face, leaving only a slit for the eyes. All schools that receive government funding, including Muslim ones, will be obliged to enforce the ban, Plasterk said. The news comes after Health Minister Ab Klink recently announced he is investigating the possibility of banning the burka from the healthcare industry.

SenecaFalls · 07/09/2016 15:17

We certainly don't have "massive issues" with students' clothing in the US. One example in the Bronx does not a nation make.

Someone has to make the decisions and its better coming from the adults, parents, governors, teachers?

Well, in my country, the right to petition authority is a pretty significant concept. When my brother was in high school, he was a leader in a movement to change the dress code to make it less restrictive. He and other students appeared before the school board and made their case. And they were successful.

pleasemothermay1 · 07/09/2016 15:18

It's ok I understand it's not fitting your narrative that were in these other mystical countries when you have no uniform there are no running battles and the teachers simply have no issues

So why are we all being so silly in the uk 🙄

Because it's clear whatever sytem you have teenagers will try there luck and you swap one issue with another so eveyone wearing the same is much easier

Arseicle · 07/09/2016 15:23

Because it's clear whatever sytem you have teenagers will try there luck and you swap one issue with another so eveyone wearing the same is much easier

It's not clear, its your opinion. Based on watching too much American TV, it seems.

I do think Spain is a mystical country. Or Germany or Belgium. Maybe to you and your "narrative" Hmm

Arseicle · 07/09/2016 15:24

And if you want to talk about Burqa's in schools, start your own thread. This is about UNIFORM, which is different to religious clothing. Which is not UNIFORM.
Do you need a link for that?

witsender · 07/09/2016 15:25

Everyone sees teenagers as always "trying their luck". So sad. And yet expect them to be responsible enough for work, when a week before they had their sock colour policed and had to ask to go to the loo.

witsender · 07/09/2016 15:27

And wtf does religious wear have to do with non-uniform?

I went to both grammar and private school...both of which were awesome. Never did I see such pretension, and aspirational obsession with socks and hair bobbles.

crazyhaddock99 · 07/09/2016 15:34

I personally think that the parents who are protesting should grow up, back off, and stick to the uniform policy! It's not rocket science- the schools send out lists months before the start of the new term stating in detail what is or isn't acceptable. The kids who were sent home were wearing tight stretch trousers or leggings, unbelievably short skirts, and branded trainers; all against the rules. And I don't believe for a second that a doctor told the hip replacement boy "you must wear top of the range Nike trainers to ease your hip pain"...Dress your kids properly and shut up!

Arseicle · 07/09/2016 15:49

A kid was turned away at the school gates at at school for wearing a cardigan which was bought at the school uniform shop specified by the fucking school

If your kid was turned away from school for wearing what you'd been told to buy, would you just say: hey no probs, I'll skip work today and take them home, via the shops to spend yet more money on your uniforms?

Yeah, didn't think so.

Lancelottie · 07/09/2016 15:52

I can quite well believe that the doctor told the boy to wear trainers, if not top-range ones.

DD's orthotics doc said he'd frankly prefer all his patients to wear trainers rather than most school shoes - long lace run and flexible under foot, with bags of room for prescription insoles. He offered to take it up with the school himself if they argued. Maybe this child had a note from a similar professional.

Lancelottie · 07/09/2016 15:54

Not that our school did argue. They just said fine, maybe bring a note in your planner in case anyone who doesn't know challenges you on it.

They said exactly the same when DD needed dark sunglasses for an eye problem, and (briefly) a sunhat in year 7.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 07/09/2016 15:57

When my brother was in high school, he was a leader in a movement to change the dress code to make it less restrictive. He and other students appeared before the school board and made their case. And they were successful

An excellent, democratic and thoroughly sensible way to go about it - parents deliberately flouting the rules, effing and blinding outside the school and running to the Daily Mail, not so much. Do these folk really think the schools have time to listen to everyone who thinks their little snowflake should be exempt, or that they haven't already heard every excuse under the sun?

As PPs have said, in any group situation someone has to take the lead on all sorts of decisions, and while these can (and should) be challenged properly where necessary, the tired and inevitable remarks about "power play", etc, tend to say most about those making them

BarbarianMum · 07/09/2016 15:59

Several children have been turned away for wearing plain black shoes. Seems they weren't the right kind of plain black shoes - only the instructions sent last term weren't clear. One poor girl was sent home today even though her shoes were deemed acceptable the day before. There is strict and then there is arbitrary.

CBear88 · 07/09/2016 16:04

Southend news network is a satirical website! It is not real. It is just for fun and jokes. It tells you on the top of their website and in about section, the glases artical is made upSmile

CBear88 · 07/09/2016 16:06

This is a satiracle website! The stories are made up for fun. It tells you on the website Smile

WankersHacksandThieves · 07/09/2016 16:17

Arseicle

re the cardigan, she bought it in the school uniform shop. The school didn't specify that she has to buy that cardigan. The rules posted specified jumper only. I am sure the uniform stocks clothes for all sorts of schools with different requirements so the cardigans were maybe stocked for a different school?

I could go to our uniform shop which is recommended by the school and buy a black blazer and a purple jumper and navy trousers if I wanted. None of those items are specified for my school though.

Fulltimemummy85 · 07/09/2016 16:21

I have to wear black socks in my job and did in my previous position.

chelseabuns2013 · 07/09/2016 16:23

I'm not really into uniform and I don't buy the discipline aspect of it. It cost me 1/4 of my monthly salary to get my daughters uniform for secondary school this year. Just to satisfy some vaguely milteristic view that uniform equals good school. No lectures on being thrifty.

MummyStep123 · 07/09/2016 16:24

This is a funny thread, could go off into so many different discussions!
Personally I see the black vs white socks and black shoes vs trainers argument as fair. The one that's really been getting to me today are all the girls being sent home for trousers which are school uniform but are "too tight". I was expecting to open the article and see leggings but just saw normal looking school trousers. Everyone can wear the same clothes but they certainly aren't going to fit everyone the same way! Just ridiculous!
If I'm being honest the school trousers I used to wear were probably just as tight, if not tighter, I remember them feeling like they were made of a scuba diving suit! And they had flares 😂 Go 90's!

steppemum · 07/09/2016 16:26

I think that the major missed point in this was thta the head was cracking down on uniform because of the bullying that had gone on the previous term.

He told parents that, he told them why and he told them what the uniform was.

Under those circumstances I would be DELIGHTED that the head was cracking down, he is trying to shift the attitude in the school, and to remove one of the causes of bullying.

ds goes to a grammar, they are strict about uniform but in a very laid back way. So last term more and more boys were wearing black jeans instead of black trousers. Once quite a few were, ds started to as well. The head reminded them in assembly, and said they had 2 weeks to go and buy a pair of black trousers from asda, and then he would be giving out behaviour marks to anyone in black trousers. Sure enough on said date he stood at the door and gave out behaviour marks. Ds did a quick detour, got away with it that day and started wearing his proper school trousers again from the next day. He has never tried to switch to jeams again. Behaviour marks aren't a too big a deal (12=detention) but your parents get an email stating why, but most of the boys try not to get behaviour marks (because your parents get an eamil!) so it was enough to stop the jeans and return to school trousers.

That seems to me like a reasonable clamp down, and their uniform is 'any black school trouser' anyway, so pretty flexible.

JudyCoolibar · 07/09/2016 16:30

The report says the head sent a girl home for not wearing a blazer which she had left in school the day before, and wouldn't let her go in to fetch it. That really is the ultimate in petty officialdom.

It also says he barred a child who was unable to wear the official school shoes due to disability, which is a direct breach of the Equality Act 2010. If "rules are rules", why shouldn't the school comply with them? It's not exactly setting a good example to the children, is it?

JudyCoolibar · 07/09/2016 16:31

steppemum, surely it's better for the school to crack down on bullying than uniform?

dibs1973 · 07/09/2016 16:32

Lord Trash, exactly leading to one upset child! Sad

Lexilooo · 07/09/2016 16:38

@pleasemothermay1
"If I tell you to buy a balck jumper for school or work no one bar a 14 year old or a feckless parent thinks that means a tank top style jumper showing mid drift

That's why you don't allow your 14 year old to do a school uniform shop and the feckless parents gets there child sent home"

Er where did I mention that any midriff was on display? It was a garment that could be seen on many smartly dressed professionals as work wear and which could also be purchased in a school uniform shop. It was entirely acceptable the previous term too. Just a sleeveless jumper worn over a shirt. Entirely appropriate but they didn't like it even though it was technically within the rules.

Lexilooo · 07/09/2016 16:41

@pleasemothermay1

goo.gl/images/uHrI2y

Perfectly smart