School uniform policy changes

[NorthLondonNora]

Old headteacher retired in July and new head sent home a letter in the last week of term, banning certain kinds of school shoes from September onwards.
My 15yo DS's feet seem to have stopped growing and so when his most recent pair wore out in June, I happily bought him a new pair. Unfortunately, the style he chose, though acceptable at the time of purchase, no longer meet the requirements for the new academic year.
AIBU to send him back in them anyway (he's not bothered by doing this) - because I can't afford to throw away £50+ on nearly-new school shoes when he only has one year left in uniform anyway? Or is 6 weeks is enough notice of a change of policy?

I've just forked out £130 for DM's for my two aged 6 & 10. They are both hypermobile and my son rolls over on his ankles. Books are not allowed in school but realistically I don't care. Him not sublaxing is more important.

Yy vin

I had to have those orthopaedic insoles when I was a kid except they wouldn't fit in any pair of school shoe that was allowed.

It took up to 2 hours of trialling shoes in shoe shops every time I needed shoes to fit my feet as it was. Adding insoles into the mix made it impossible.

A pair of ankle boots or trainers would have made things far easier...

But nope not allowed. So I couldnt wear insoles

Whether they should or not is one thing but teachers regularly send kids home round here.

AlexanderHamilton how do parents react when children are sent home? If I was off work I'd be delighted. A lovely extra day with my child. If I was at work, I'd be furious.

Well occasionally it makes the local paper & you get the sad face pictures. But ultimately there is nothing they can do (I'm talking secondary not primary)

MaisyPops if teachers don't weaar a uniform it is fine to me. My point was, if it is such a great idea why are teachers not included? Not the same uniform, of course. I'm picturing something like a virgin airlines stewards outfit. I'm guessing that idea sounds a bit demeaning? But why?

There is a dress code where dh teaches which amounts to a uniform.

Agree with Giles.

VinisGroot Im sure they wont say anything. Schools would be in breach of the Equality Act if they did.

Mind you some of them seem to breach that with impunity when it comes to attendance awards.

Vinisgroot. My dc went to a primary school with a strict uniform & no boots/trainers. But there were two children who wore boots. One girl I knew was for medical reasons do I assumed the same about the other. I think the key thing is to communicate with the school.

Dd was allowed to attend her secondary school in the school tracksuit rather than academic uniform for a few days due to a particular issue with her asd.

I would get a compliant pair, depending on how 'close' your ones are to passing. Our school will put pupils in isolation for this sigh until they can come in the correct ones. After a few weeks of term he is less likely to get spotted. Highly annoying.

Cheap shoes are such a waste of time and money. Average Shoe Zone life expectancy for us is about two days if lucky. Supermarket shoes like Asda may do three weeks. Cheap shoes are no use for daily school runs and all day wear for us. We walk far too much. Only thing that lasted my son up to two months was a pair of hiking trainers. Luckily in this primary school they can wear whatever footwear they like. Not looking forward to trying to get a child with severe sensory processing difficulties into an expensive and Nasty polyester secondary uniform next year.

Donkey - what I do is to try & make the generic clothes (shirt, socks etc) as comfy as possible (pure cotton shirts, m & s Sean free socks.) then he tolerates the blazer over the top. He point blank won't wear a jumper but they've always been optional. At his previous school thectrousers were wool mix lined with cotton so didn't feel too bad. At his new school he can wear any charcoal grey straight leg trousers

Every time I see these uniform threads I count my blessings that the school my children go to (and others in the area) are quite chilled out.
There are guidelines (e.g. school colour, nothing overly expensive and no extreme brand names) but not restrictive.
No one gets sent home. Learning is more important. This give and take means everyone wears uniform but no one is a slave to it.
My DS wears hiking shoes to school!

Italiangreyhound
Uniforms are useful for students.

Teaching is a professional job and with it comes the fact that we wear professional dress to work. Colleagues in practical subjects wear approrpiate attire.

I really can't stand this idea of 'if it's good gor kids why can't teachers wear one'. I follow a professional dress code.

I would sooner leave teaching than work in a place that wants to direct how I dress because it says everything about their view of their staff. If thry don't trust me to dress myself they would probably be the type of place to have formulaic lessons, behaviour scripts for staff to students etc. Not a chance.

MaisyPops "I would sooner leave teaching than work in a place that wants to direct how I dress because it says everything about their view of their staff."

I thin you may have answered the question about why so many parents and so many children have issues with strict school uniform.

Being very prescriptive with uniform is dis-empowering for parents and children, IMHO.

I certainly don't want teachers to have to wear uniform so don;t worry, I won't be starting a campaign. But I can't really see why you think it is so great for students but so bad for staff.

I love my job in admin and would certainly submit to a uniform if one were required.

I think maybe schools just have no idea how much of an issue strict uniform adherence might add to students and families. You, presumably, have the choice to change career if you wish to, but most families do not have a choice to send their child to a school that doesn't have a uniform. All the schools in our area have them. And I can pretty much guess they all think it is really important.

I am lol for uniform rules but I often think that the rule about school shoes versus all black leather trainers a bit ambiguous. Having experienced both the expense of Clarks school shoes and all black branded leather trainers - the trainers are 100% superior in quality at pretty much the same cost. The difference in the look is negligible, unless girls are to be restricted to flimsy, strappy pumps called 'Dolly Babe'.

Thanks AlexanderHamilton. That's helpful advice.

Lol 😂
all

italian
I'm happy with uniform or no uniform personally.

I don't like really pednantic uniforms, but can see why some schools have ended up down that route though (often because parents/students have chosen not to follow reasonable uniform rules and expectations).

So take a school like mine where we aren't really prescriptive but do insist on students meeting our expectations e.g. school shoes (not black trainers), no slim fit or fashion trousers, plain non fitted white shirt, school blazer, tie. Almost all our parents (95%) follow that and send their children in appropriate uniform so we have no need to start being draconian. It's greay because I have time to teach, supoort students, run extra curriculars, pastoral support because I'm not dealing with endles silly breaches of rules.

The only schools near me that have gone down the route of draconian uniform have done it because of ongoing issues with people not meeting basic, reasonable requirements (and then for some despite best efforts they've ended up being swallowed by a well known dictator style academy trust, who i'd hate to work for for that reason).

MaisyPops maybe my dislike of the uniform rules is a wider thing based on my dislike of much to do with schools. This is based on my own shite experience of school and my daughter's primary and middle school experiences. (My son's primary experience has been very good and my dd so far has had mostly good experience of secondary.)

Sadly, those of us who had bad experiences of school are very much affected by them and maybe they colour my thinking on these issues.

In all these schools that are represented here, on Mumsnet, and in the UK anywhere, there will be children struggling with a vast array of issues and concerns, problems, struggles. The amount of time and energy put into making children wear school clothes. These clothes generally (ties, most will not go on to wear ties, blazers - totally impractical, hot in hot weather and not done up so not really suitable for bad weather), are not conducive to education. So to me a massive waste of time and effort. I wold like that time and effort, that energy, to go into things of real value.

One school I visited on a hot day had children in blazers while the teacher taught in shirt sleeves (rolled up, I think), how is that conducive to learning? (We did not send our child there.)

Maybe schools can be wonderful places, I am sure. I just have the kind of feeling about schools that some people have about hospitals (conversely, ironically, I like hospitals!). So because I see schools as places where problems happen, and things can be very negative. I resent the amount of time 'wasted' on discussion on clothing.

And the idea that a school would see a parent not wanting to 'waste' £50 on new school shoes, when existing good shoes were available, as somehow being rebellious - that makes me frustrated.

I would expect parents to back school up in many areas but the uniform is vanity, to me.

So I don't expect you to understand my reasoning, but I am trying to explain why this is so significant to me, because clothes to me are so insignificant, and a school that places a high emphasis on shoes and would comprise a child's education over this is really setting a terrible, terrible example to children IMHO.

italian
I actually hear where you're coming from. I tend to agree that some places focus too much on minor details.

I have mentally ruled out working at some local schools because I've heard their approach and it doesn't suit my ethos/outlook.

Though I sometimes feel like as a teacher, whilst I don't like a draconian approach I do have some sympathy with how some schools end up feeling they need that approach (worked in a couple). Others are just being unnecessarily fussy because 'our big CEO at academy HQ says so' (wouldn't work there or send my kids there).

Thanks MaisyPops my own dd experiencing the dyslexia I had, and having a tough time at school has been hard. Yet, ironically, she is never had issues with uniform. I hope schools are becoming more understanding of all that hampers learning.

Totally agree with all your points Italiangreyhound. I think it's disgusting that children have to ask permission to remove their blazers during scorching hot days whilst the staff can wear shirt sleeves. Other countries (my dd has friends in the US) don't have uniform obsessions like we do here and their students learn just fine.

Before term starts, I'd email the headteacher and explain the situation. Say you'll ensure the next pair of shoes complies with the new school rules and ask for your DS to be given permission to wear his current shoes. Attach a photo of the shoes so the headteacher is clear on what s/he's agreeing to and ask for his/her understanding.

AlexanderHamilton

If teachers are sending children home where you are then you should be complaining to the head, governors and anyone that will listen because they can't do it.

but I think that you may be confusing them with Head of year, Senior management or the head. None of which are standard teachers.