Help me word an email to the school that isn't full of expletives please.

[ReanimatedSGB]

I know I can do better that 'For fuck's sake, you petty-minded bunch of cunts', of course...

DS got a day in inclusion (ie isolation) because of his shoes. They are, admittedly, not quite regulation shoes, though they are plain black - but he was wearing them because his normal school shoes were discovered to have a fucking great hole in on Sunday evening. He wore the not-quite-right shoes yesterday and there was no problem - I got home from work too late to take him shoe-shopping as my shift overran - but I got a phone call at work this morning saying they were 'unacceptable' and he would either be sent home or have to spend the day in inclusion. I was halfway up the M4 at the time. I explained the reason and that we were going to buy a new pair tomorrow (because I wouldn't be home till 7pm), but they said if he didn't have proper shoes in the morning it would be the same thing again.
Mercifully our nearest Sainsburys is open till 10pm and is one of those big enough to have a clothing and footwear department, so we have actually got new shoes, but what the fuck is the point of taking a well-behaved kid out of class for the day when he's only wearing not-quite-right shoes for a perfectly good reason.

To me children are taught in isolation when their behaviour cannot be managed in a classroom setting or their behaviour affects other children in the class.

My son was put in isolation for the day for forgetting his planner! He is a polite, well behaved young man who is in high sets for almost every subject. Yet he spent the day in the "naughty room" missing his lessons because he forgot to put his planner back in his bag after I had signed it that morning.

I pretty much sent your first draft!!!

This is what happens when you give small
people a little power .. Nazis

nanny

And now we have Reductio ad Hitlerum or Godwin's law.

Literally hate the reference to Godwin's law. Does it mean it's any less true if they are behaving in such a way?

Yes because there are lots of very real issues with some school rules and lots thay can be debated.

When an otherwise interesting debate becomes 'see they're just like nazis' then where do you go? It's lazy and cliched and is never the point scoring line people think it is.

(I felt the same on brexit debates too. There was lots to be said to debate immigration issues but as soon as someone compares the other side to nazis then whats the bloody point in trying to sensibly debate?)

My daughters buckle broke at school, they gave her some pumps to wear until we organised repair or replacement. What you have been through is batshit.

At that school there is now a single uniform supplier that isn't even in our city. The clothes are expensive andP&P is overpriced

We have something similar except ours is an online supplier. So the only opportunity to try anything on is the induction days in July in a crowded stuffy hall.

Order in July and you can expect it to take weeks to arrive then panic when stuff doesn't fit because you then have to send it back (at your own cost) wait days for a refund then 're order...

At least with next or asda you can do free next day click and collect and afford to buy one or two sizes as it's free to return in store.

But how the hell do you know what size to get. Let's face it uniform you wanna get as big as possible so it lasts but you also need it wearable and comfortable from the get go. Get it wrong and it's another tenner in returns and 're delivery

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince where is this school!! I need to move and send my kids there. A common sense approach 👍

You don't get to choose which rules you follow and which you don't. You might not like it, but your son is learning a valuable lesson about how reasonable people live in society.

There are laws and there are rules. I tell my children to obey the laws of the land. I also encourage them to question rules. If we all follow all rules unquestioningly, we will end up in a very bad place as a country.

OP YANBU. I cannot believe that so many schools are getting off with this kind of rubbish.

I'm so glad my children have outgrown school. I find the idea of children being put in 'isolation' for minor misdemeanors appalling. I don't know what education has come to for this to be thought acceptable. I can see the upset caused by the shoe issue but perhaps the main thing should be to consider a campaign to prevent these draconian punishments being imposed. Surely it's against a child's human rights to be punished in this way?

Actually, @Jaxhog, you do get a degree of choice about following ridiculous rules in society, because society gives us a procedure for testing them. History demonstrates that when, at times, we have had ridiculous rules they have been universally ignored and allowed to fall into disuse; or the authorities have declined to take any action to enforce them; or they have been challenged through the courts and set aside; or, when they have tried to enforce them, Judges and juries have refused to uphold them. The problem with stupid school rules is that the people making the rules get to be policeman, judge, jury and executioner, and don't offer any lawful means of challenging them.

Miscible, I think you have hit it on the head.
We need a way to challenge these rules - or their implementation.
Urgently, before things get any worse.
Anyone got any ideas?

I have never heard so much rubbish as this before. Is this how schools are operating these days. I have read on here about there being food police in schools also..

But putting a child in isolation, for not having the correct shoes. is the most stupid thing ever. Do they put children in handcuffs for some small issues also?

I don't have kids and it's been twenty. Years since I was at school but that's ludicrous! Why are they twatting on about shoes? Surely there are far more important things to worry about in education.

Putting a child in isolation for a day for the wrong shoes is ridiculous. Anyone who supports these rules is an idiot

I would write the head and governors a letter saying that you are disappointed because you chose this school because you believe it to be a relaxed learning environment and free from draconian punishments.

If parents don't challenge this stuff it isn't going to go away.

Anyone who supports these rules is an idiot

Yes.

It's the type of people who'd work for people like Hitler and not be particularly bothered.

Seriously, when we ask ourselves what kind of people would be able to do X and Y for certain governments or organizations, it's this type of people.

PS- Godwin's law is about length of threads. Not the same as reductio ad Hitlerum.

The number of posters suggesting that he should have walked in working shoes and changed into broken shoes at school is astounding

Is that seriously what we are becoming as a country? Somewhere we expect our citizens to wear damaged and uncomfortable clothing just to rock a box and follow some arbitrary rule that isn't designed to safeguard others - but purely as a control measure.

Well, I sent this on Tuesday night. Dear sir/madam

I am concerned that my son [name] was sent to inclusion today for having non-regulation shoes. As I explained when I was contacted by phone, his usual school shoes had a hole in, and I did not want him to spend the day with wet feet, therefore I told him to wear his other shoes, which are plain black hiking shoes - he wore them yesterday with no complaint. I arrived home from work too late yesterday to buy new shoes for him.
[DS] is, according to all his reports, a well-behaved pupil with a positive attitude to his learning. I do not think it is a good thing for him to be punished for something that is no one's fault, and in general this petty obsession with minor infringements of uniform regulation is a waste of staff time and a source of distress and anxiety to pupils and their families.

No reply so far.

But you didn’t ask them for anything?

That’s just a moan.

Would have been better if you’d put a para that said

Could someone please contact me as a matter of urgency to discuss how issues such as this can be avoided in the future. I feel it would be beneficial if the school were to take views from parents on this matter and would be happy to take the lead on this.

Good for you, OP.

The trouble with using isolation for this sort of issue is that it devalues it as a punishment. When I was at school being in detention was something we were quite ashamed about; but if half the school is in there because they've got the wrong shoes or they've got SN that the school isn't meeting, it just becomes Meh and no sort of deterrent whatsoever.

Prisons are full of people who thought the rules didn't apply to them.

Wise words Jaxhog.

Think on, OP. You let your son get away with this and in a few years he'll be breaking rocks in a penal colony - which I think we can all say is a just punishment for wearing the wrong shoes.

Good email BTW. I wonder if they'll respond.

Prisons are full of people who thought the rules didn't apply to them

So is parliament :D

Great email SGB. Will be interested to hear what the response is.

Prisons have also been known to contain people who fought back against unreasonable authority and, in the long term, won.