To wonder why secondary school kids never wear coats even when it’s raining?

[Herbalteahippie]

When I was at school in the early 90s it was uncool to wear a coat even when it was pudding down or cold. I even got punched and kicked for wearing a coat!
I live by a school and I see nothing has changed- drenched teenagers plodding home soaking wet.
Why?!

No lockers, no desk, moving around all day bent double under fucking huge backpacks... I can't blame them for not wanting to carry around a wet coat all day (or ruin their school books cramming it into their bag). The whole school must smell of damp teenager.

Mine don’t because it’s “sad” to wear a coat unless in the first few weeks of year seven.

Cloakrooms in school no longer exist because damage to and theft of property in secondary schools was unmanageable. Children have to carry everything around with them all day.

I was thinking the exact same thing this morning OP! Totally bucketing down and not a coat to be seen. It was the same when I was at secondary, though I was always more bothered by the thought of being cold and wet than about looking cool, so I always brought one along anyway. I just used to hang it on the back of my chair.

While we're on the topic of teenage fashion, are boys deliberately wearing their trousers several inches too short, or is it that they've actually grown out of them within a month? I know it's been the fashion for teens to walk around with ankles and white socks on show for a while now, but in school uniform...? Really?

My DD never wore a coat the whole time at secondary school. I took her to buy a coat and she reacted as if she was to have a limb amputated without anaesthesia and then drink poison.

Once she got to college she happily wore a coat.

My daughters at secondary school and she refused to wear a coat, firstly she finds it really uncomfortable with a jumper and a blazer to wear a coat. Secondly they don't have lockers so have to carry the coats around as well as their bags, pe kits etc. And thirdly she doesn't get that cold, I think these teenagers are generally warmer than us.

To those saying no lockers, we have lockers for everyone in our secondary and still no coats worn, let alone umbrellas! Baffling

Chloe
Yours don't even have umbrellas?!

Ours love having nice umbrellas. They're needed at the very least to keep water from the silly slightly open large handbags that are in fashion.

Umbrellas were in use today after school, but were being blown inside out! British weather, eh!

DD's school also insist on smart coats (puffa type jacket is OK but not a hoodie). They are very strict on uniform, which I don't normally mind but DD's form room is not connected to the rest of the school so she does have to walk outside during the day. I think they can put the coats over their chairs must ask her but they can't wear them inside. Blazers must be worn at all times, if you wear a jumper you have to keep the blazer on as well (as a PP said).

My daughters say that there isn't anywhere to keep their coats. They aren't allowed to wear them during the day and don't have enough locker space/

All the high school boys in my town wear identical black puffer jackets - even in summer they seem to have body warmer versions on when it’s scorching. Very very odd

What is the thing with the "no coats inside" rule? I don't get it! Same as the rule that makes kids wear their blazers even when it's 40degrees. I hate these arbitrary rules that power hungry heads like to impose 😡

All the teenagers round here are always in their stupid Moncler/Pyrenex/North Face coats, with their hoods up, even in heatwaves.

Ds school has a no coats on past the gates policy, no carrying coats round school & no lockers or cloakroom. There is also a total ban on hoodies or boots in bad weather. Ds is autistic & refuses to wear a sweatshirt as he has sensory issues so goes to school in a short sleeved polo shirt whatever the weather. I have seen him come home from school blue with cold & have received phone calls from his head of year complaining because he only has a polo shirt on in freezing weather & threatening me with SS. What the heck do I do, he is 6'2" & built like a rugby player, I can't exactly force him to wear one.

No lockers and they get the arse ate off them for wearing a coat in school. To got my kids to wear a coat in the depths of winter - they have a long walk - I had to get them one which they could shove in their bags. So after 5 years at secondary school not one shit did the school give about the kids wearing coats - not until they sat their GCSEs then the school decided it was the parent's fault that kids were coming to school without a coat.

What is the thing with the "no coats inside" rule? I don't get it! Same as the rule that makes kids wear their blazers even when it's 40degrees. I hate these arbitrary rules that power hungry heads like to impose 😡 Completely agree and I'll add the no boots to the daft rules!

Ds 14 has a thin waterproof pack a mac kind of coat that fits in his bag. He had a Jack Wolfskin last year that got left in school one day not long after he got it and it was never seen again, so not buying a decent one again. Some wear winter coats but not very many. If it’s really cold he’ll put a zip up hoodie over his jumper.

soggy
It's not a rule I like, and thankfully isn't a rule at my school but I know of some schools that have it. It makes sense in some situations and not others.

In one it's what I would describe as a silly standards setting rule. I wouldn't choose it, especially not in a school where students have to leave buildings to get to other blocks at transition times. I always think it must be needless carry on.

In another, the whole school is indoors in one building so unless going outside at break/lunch then there's no need for coats to be on indoors. There's previously been lots of issues at the school, which I won't go into on here, and it's much easier as part of a range of measures if all students are just in their uniforms indoors. It makes a lot of sense having seen it in action.

In my school at least, we were banned from wearing coats during classes, or being inside. There was no where to leave them meaning you had to carry it. Dragging a soggy coat all over the place was very unappealing.

The "coolness" seemed to stem from people not wanting to carry them and stopping, which mean the only kids still with coats had parents who forced them to bring/wear one. Therefor wearing one was "uncool" and not wearing one became cool.

Can’t easily get a coat to go on top of the darned blazer.
Last years coat, which fits, won’t go over current blazer.

( I use waterproofing machine wash solution, when I wash them, to help with the rain. Mountain Warehouse stocks it)

Ours don’t wear jumpers either,( they can, none of them choose to), just shirts and blazers, even in the snow.

I would have loved a coat for school, we had wool blazers that had to be worn at all times summer and winter, the only exceptions were P.E and Cooking. In the winter the rain dripped off the blazers onto the floor and we all smelled like wet Labradors

What the hell is wrong with the adults who decide coats cannot be seen on school premises?? admittedly I went to school in the far North of England, by the coast, so not wearing a coat would have resulted in frostbite, but seriously, children are people too. If my employer told me I couldn’t wear a coat to work I’d tell them to piss off.

Never known a school not to have lockers,how bizarre.

DS has a locker so its not just that, all I can get out of him is "No one wears coats mum" I tried pushing for a reason but just got told they just don't.