AIBU to think that parents should buy the correct uniform and stop moaning

[Loveluck7]

I am getting increasingly irritated by people on FB moaning that their child's human rights have been violated because they were put into isolation for having the wrong uniform.

I understand that some rules can seem ridiculous but unfortunately some bad parents who have let their child wear spray on trousers and tiny skirts, have necessitated schools stipulating the exact items they need to wear.

Isolation does seem a harsh punishment when it is the parent's fault but how else can schools enforce the rules when some parent's think rules do not apply to them? The child cannot attend class without trousers and parent's would be angry if the child was sent home.

You also often find that it is these parent's who also complain when a school is no good at discipline, yet will not follow the rules themselves.

My kids' primary school became an academy, introducing new uniform from a single supplier, complete with ties and jumpers that start at £20. Blazers for years 5 & 6, starting at £30.

I'm the past, all the kids have complied with uniform with no problem. This year there are letters and texts every day reminding about the new uniform policy. The kids left school late yesterday because during assembly whenever a kid was fiddling with their tie, the teachers would stop assembly and confiscate it. So the kids now know that if they muck about with it, they can take off the uncomfortable tie.

The waiting list to get into any other school within 10 miles is extensive because everyone in this school has asked to transfer. (Not just because of the uniform, but because the school has been declining for a number of years.)

In our case it is very much a case of introducing a formal uniform in the hopes that looking smart will disguise poor practice.

I liked the fake news story about Prince George being sent home from school because his trousers were wrong and Prince William storming into the head's office.

southendnewsnetwork.com/news/prince-george-sent-home-on-first-day-of-school-for-wearing-wrong-trousers/

Also the Angry People in Local Newspapers Uniform Edition

Part 1

apiln.co.uk/home-you-go-2017-edition-kiddiewinks-face-the-wrath-of-schools-over-the-wrong-uniform/

TheColonel,

Thanks so much for those links. Brilliant.
(Slightly worrying that the satire's lost on some of their readers, mind you).

"...the Prince’s chosen leg wear was ‘eight tenths of a shade lighter than jet black.’ "

Ha ha. I hadn't noticed the comments before. Oh dear.

"UK children have roughly the highest rate of mental health problems in the developed world - and the most test-based education system"

YY SGB. When mental health tsar Natasha Devon discovered the links between childrens mental health problems and school she was sacked because it wasnt what certain quarters wanted to hear.

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/sep/09/dfe-emails-reveal-officials-wanted-silence-mental-health-tsar-natasha-devon

From the article.

"She has visited an average of three schools a week and has worked with more than 45,000 teenagers. She is concerned that young people’s mental health is being used by the government as “positive PR” rather than something taken seriously.

The report claims that despite the best efforts of teachers, the culture and environment of most schools – with large class sizes, an increasingly academic curriculum and a testing regime – conspire against high self-esteem and good mental health"

I thought the persistent myth that uniforms made a difference to results had been debunked. At my state comp we had no uniforms in the sixth form and in my head it is linked to the step-change in my attitude to school - it felt like one step towards culture of mutual respect. Teachers wanted to teach you things and you wanted to learn them - imposing and enforcing petty rules wasn't part of the agenda and as a painfully shy and self conscious teen I didn't have to spend my time worrying about how ridiculous I looked in clothes I would never in a million years have chosen to wear - like a tie. None of us wore anything very out of the ordinary - jeans and jumpers mostly - and I don't really see why it would have particularly mattered if we did.

'So anywhere that isn't Chelsea is socially deprived?'

eh how d'you come to that conclusion??

LD I am talking about schools in more deprived areas with more challenging behaviour, mossbourne academy in hackney is a good example, it has had great results

CP Also Hackney is socially mixed, rather than deprived; house prices are breathtakingly high!

LD hackney is not exactly chelsea though is it? come on!

Pengggwyn, if I ran a school there would be no uniform. Given the proven high success rates of non-uniform schools all over the world, would you care to explain to me why the children in my school would suffer?

I doubt Mossbourne Academy's results have anything to do with its uniform. It's the result of a ton of money being thrown at it, and the sort of attitudes revealed here

this is an excerpt taken from an article in the daily telegraph about mossbourne academy -

'It is easy to forget how challenging the lives of some of these children are. Some have lost both parents to heroin addiction. Others, including one of the successful Cambridge applicants, are single parents. Many live with violence and crime. A whopping 58 per cent of students have statements of special educational needs; 43 per cent are on free school meals.'

Good old Daily Telegraph, unable to do even basic homework. According to DfE statistics, 4.9% of children in Mossbourne have statements or EHCPs.

Penggwyn all my kids have attended a 'school uniform bought from Asda' type schools, and none of them have suffered in the slightest. One of them even wore trainers on ocassion, and yet is doing fantastically well, already earning nearly twice the national average before the age of 30, without a single GCSE to his name.

@ThaliaLuxurySpa
"Home you go" Episode 4 - Blue hair edition.

Oops forgot the link
apiln.co.uk/home-you-go-episode-iv-a-new-hope-even-more-kids-join-the-rebellion-against-school-uniforms/

cecily, I think you are arguing a skewed point, I was using Chelsea as an example of an area of high wealth in London, in fact, one of the wealthiest areas in the UK - although it has social deprivation, it does not have as much as Hackney, - the gentrification of Hackney that you refer to is indeed happening but the school was founded 13 years ago in 2004 - when it wasn't so up and coming and just because a borough has pockets of high house prices, it does not magically make the rest of the borough prosperous - its a large borough and still has poorer areas -

Yes, I would agree that Hackney is a large borough with pockets of wealth and poorer areas. I still think the Daily Telegraph article is pure hyperbole.

Pengggwn actually anything can 'cause bullying issues'. Wearing glasses, being disabled, being overweight, generally lacking self confidence, being richer than other children in the class, the list goes on and on.
Contrary to what many posters on this thread seem to believe, my sisters kids were bullied because they were better dressed than their peers ( and that was clothes that my mother bought, from BHS and M +S, so nothing out of the ordinary). They were perceived as being snobby and stuck up.
If you really want to prevent bullying then you need to stop focussing on external details such as clothes and how much money parents have and obeying petty rules just for the sake of it and start focussing on children as individual human beings and their potential.
Children go to school to be educated and the vast majority of parents do support that, however seeing parents such as Cosmic being picked on simply because they don't have immediate access to the odd £30/40 to buy school shoes to suit the exacting standards of the latest and newest head teacher really doesn't inspire confidence in the whole system. In fact, it probably inspires some parents to say 'fuck it, fuck the whole thing'.

In fact, it probably inspires some parents to say 'fuck it, fuck the whole thing'.

Exactly what I said upthread, because of the school changing its mind like the wind about shoes and isolation this week

How can they expect the support of parents/carers when they keep moving the goalposts and setting people up to fail. It's impossible to take them seriously in that situation

Agree Know.

Did you manage to get the shoes Cosmic I know they said it was ok in the end but i understand why you would still want to.......to be 100% sure it cant happen again.

The way its going it wont be long before we see a full kit of uniform for a state school costing £1000 Within about five years i reckon.

Morning Helen.

We bought them on Saturday.
M & S £44.99.
He is a size 10 and they look like big flippers

Again, I think the important thing is to teach kids the difference between good rules and stupid rules, rather than blind obedience.
There is no justification whatsoever for petty nitpicking about uniforms. There are good reasons for rules about eg no bullying and do your homework on time (and various safety rules).

Well done Cosmic but it's a shame you were put in such an awful position over a pair of shoes and have to fork out for more