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.

That's ridiculous scottish Wtf is going through the HT's head?

Scottish this is the school I am talking about (I live locally-ish) some of my friends go to this school, there child was sent home because they could not get the trousers from the supplier, (out of stock) so they were sent with a supermarket brand, until they could get the uniform trousers they had paid for but yet waiting to receive!

Child was send home and when the mother compkined child was put in isolation, some parents called the school to make them aware, they were still sent home/put in isoltion.

If you go into the Sunderland Echo website, lots of angry parents, some can't afford the prices, others can't get the uniform as it's out of stock.

On a side note I know the owner of Total Sports, we get our football teams kits from his shop, canny fella, however I cannot see him doing this for free, he is after all a businessman!!

YANBU - there's the usual sad-face picture in our local paper tonight, and I thought exactly the same - why not just buy the proper frigging uniform.

It's not as though our local school demands really expensive uniforms - everything is available from Tesco except the tie and th the badge which they get from the school office. How is that so hard?

Friends kids go to this school

What about the over reaching supplier who assures the school they can fulfill orders, yet cannot meet demand, even when parents ordered before the end of last term? That still results in being put in isolation.

How is that the product of blatant disregard for rules?

2ducks. Did you read my post where I said that we have no choice? Where else am I supposed to send them? They already do a 15 mile journey to school that takes an hour and a bit. Each way. On 2 buses.

Do you think everyone lives in a city with a choice of schools within spitting distance?

YY mehmehmeh. The reality is that too many schools have their cartels with suppliers who aren't up to the job as well as charging too much. It's not even just the indys either. One of our local ones gave the (sole provider) contract for logo printed sweatshirts to Tesco, who still managed to fuck it up.

miaow I agree, I know the area well, as I work in a, of sorts financial sector, and see how people are struggling financially.

This area just had a school clothing bank, as some parents are in extreame hardship

Yeah I mean, no ones is going to identfy them 😂

Maisy, people get pissed off with schools because they encounter the attitude from teachers that if they don't like it they van go elsewhere. Mostly they can't though. Lots of parents get assigned a school and that's that.

Expemsiveuniform I hope when you got that letter requesting your £200 voluntary contribution, you wrote back saying that you would love to contribute but unfortunately have had to spend all your money on their overpriced uniform!

I really disapprove of schools dictating shoes - fine to say black leather but comfort and fit varies so much between individuals that it really isn't appropriate to limit choice too much.

This is the kind of thing I was thinking of when I said on another thread at hat this is something that strikes me on mumsnet - people absolutely falling over themselves to follow rules for rules' sake - and support schools in the officious upkeeping of rules. I'm a law abiding type but it baffles me. All this "some people took the piss so it has to be this way" - They're clothes. No one ever died because someone had a logo on their shoes. I just don't get it.

I haven't read all the thread but as a teacher I work at a very over subscribed school. We email and write to every family over the holiday to remind them of their obligations uniform wise and work with those families who may struggle financially.

What I personally dislike though is that we are actively encouraged as form tutors to 'pick up' those who flout the school rules e.g. Trainers. Depending on who it is (Slt) and which child (oh don't worry about his shoes) nothing may change. Child then thinks your a twat with no say anyway.

It's not a level playing field. I know it annoys parents.

My four have a large age range so this issue has been doing my head and wallet in for many years now and still many more to come.

But yesterday took the piss when the isolation dictator teacher rang me at nearly 6pm to say I had to go out that evening and get shoes for my son.

I'm a single parent of four with no one to help with child care and I'm a carer for a cancer patient so I cant just go out there and then at his demand, where the hell does he get off instructing me to do that when he dunno my circumstances or if I can even afford it that night. I don't have access to a vehicle either and the approved store is out of town.

Then today one of the year managers rang with the same demands about my daughter so I want to tear all my hair out and I've lost the will to live.

There's nothing wrong with their effing shoes ffs

YABU. Schools that make a massive fuss about uniforms simply make themselves ridiculous. The amount of good teaching time that is lost faffing about uniforms is criminal. If we had any sense at all we would follow the practice of other countries and abolish them altogether, or at worst limit them to a wide choice of comfortable and sensible clothes. Blazers and ties should be abolished altogether.

95% of pupils voted to keep this uniform!

Christ's Hospital School: independent boarding school, but, interestingly,
"...More than 90 per cent of its pupils receive help with their fees, with the vast majority paying less than 10 per cent of the cost of their education , and one in six paying nothing at all. It is estimated that 25 per cent of its pupils would qualify for free school meals – compared with a national average of 14 per cent."

[source: www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/private-school-pupils-vote-for-tradition-and-uniformity-2158690.html ]

No , that is rubbish.

I also don't get the following rules for rules sake (no doubt to teachers I am one of those parents). It is not always right to follow rules blindly. Sometimes it is actually wrong. There are a lot of rules I must follow for my job. If I don't follow them I would be held to account and asked to explain why. However, if I blindly follow them and end up doing wrong / harm, or indeed if I do not flag up when these rules are morally wrong, then again I am quite rightly held to account. History is full of tales of people doing awful things in the name of the rules.

That probably sounds over-dramatic but it is the schools themselves saying how important it is that rules and correct uniform are followed. It's not life of death, it's a blazer or shoes! However, churning out a load of kids that just blindly rule follow is not education, it's dictatorship.

Cut the crap about 'if you don't like the school rules, take them out'. Really!

Schools are a public service for the benefit of the children, not to boost the head teachers ego or a uniform suppliers profits. It would benefit the children if they weren't sanctioned for minor infringements of a ridiculous uniform policy. No wonder kids gave less respect for teaching staff these days if they can get the same sanction for wearing the wrong colour socks as for calling them a cunt.

@NoYouDontKnowItAll ask the school to help. Trust me the isolation teacher is not the dictator who decides if your child does time in there. It comes from on high!

We keep a whole cabinet of primark shoes in different sizes and do a swop if parents have supplied Nike huaraches rather than school shoes. If they refuse they go in isolation.

Rainbow am so glad you can see it, shame the common sense doesn't extend to the school

I agree with you about following rules it's not always a one size fits all and more harm than good can be done

No-one ever quibbles over wearing a uniform to work so it could be viewed as good preparation.
The papers are always full of parents telling you they've spent a fortune on branded trainers & so can't afford another pair. They could have saved loads had they just bought what the school specify.
The problem appears most prevalent in schools which are being turned around. Seems certain parents are against this and want everything left just as it is.

No, it does absolutely extend to my DC's current school but I fear the move to secondary.

NK, loads of people quibble about wearing uniform to work!