Primary School closed bubble expected to wear school uniform at home for video calls

[BrainAyche]

YABU - they should wear school uniform at home for video calls
YANBU -let them wear their own (appropriate) clothes for home learning

My primary age child's school bubble has closed. They'll be having some video calls/lessons with school, and he's just told me they will have to wear uniform for the video meetings.
AIBU to think that is a bit daft? Unnecessary? OTT?

While I generally agree that uniform for schools is a good idea, for us personally, it is a faff and not having to nag my awkward child to put it on and hang it up every day would be a tiny perk to the challenging two weeks that is ahead of us.

AIBU to think stuff it, and let him wear what he wants?

[BlackberrySky]

I would support the school in their initiatives to facilitate home learning. It's not a great hardship to put it on really.

[MoonJelly]

@Ecosse

Ultimately i think parents should be given a choice in situations like this. Do they want their DC to attend a school with high expectations and high standards?

If so they have a duty to play their part in upholding these standards- if the head tells DC to wear their uniform, they wear their uniform.

If they are not willing to support the school, headteachers should absolutely be free to manage out uncooperative parents and direct them towards a school with lower standards.

Enforcing uniform rules does not and never has equated with high expectations and high standards. In fact what happens too often is that inadequate schools fixate on uniform rules because they think that parents like them and that it will disguise their other failures. What is particularly noticeable with schools like this is that, for all their obsession with rules, they don't comply with the rules imposed by the Equality Act and don't make any form of adjustments to their rules for pupils with disabilities. In other countries (and indeed in this) schools without uniform rules achieve very high results.

Fortunately heads aren't allowed to manage out parents who question silly rules.

[MoonJelly]

Each school still has rules - and a dress code. It's about keeping it consistent, how hard can it be?

But what right has a school got to keep its rules and dress code consistent in the child's home? What does that process end? Can they insist that the child wears uniform whilst doing homework, at the weekends, during the school holidays? If you (rightly) dismiss that as ridiculous, where does that leave the wonders of consistency?

[MoonJelly]

The whole point of asking children to wear uniform when doing lessons at home is to emphasize the fact that where the child is doing schoolwork, they are a part of the school.

@GintyMarlow2, do you make your children put their uniform back on in the middle of the holidays whenever they're revising, or doing a school project, reading from a school-prescribed reading list, practising games in the hope of joining a school team? After all, they're doing schoolwork, they must be part of the school at that point, mustn't they?

[GalaxyCookieCrumble]

So kids sitting in PJs offends teachers? Why? Your there to talk to the kids, so long as that's happening I don't care what my kids are wearing

[FishTaco101]

Its school. Your child is expected to behave and do as he would in a normal school environment. Uniform included.

[FishTaco101]

@MoonJelly

The whole point of asking children to wear uniform when doing lessons at home is to emphasize the fact that where the child is doing schoolwork, they are a part of the school.

*@GintyMarlow2*, do you make your children put their uniform back on in the middle of the holidays whenever they're revising, or doing a school project, reading from a school-prescribed reading list, practising games in the hope of joining a school team? After all, they're doing schoolwork, they must be part of the school at that point, mustn't they?

What a ridiculous comparison. One is supposed to be a classroom environment ( err as close as it can be ), the other is something that is meant to and would always be done at home.

[MoonJelly]

I can't for the life of me think of one valid reason of why you would REFUSE to wear a school top. I get you might find it silly or pointless, fair enough, but putting your foot down whilst it won't impact your child negatively in any way shape or form is beyond me

If someone told me I had to get dressed up in a scratchy blazer and tie in my own home, I would certainly think that was impacting negatively on me.

Let's think of an example - if a teacher decided to mark your child's homework during an evening from home, would you expect the teacher to still subscribe to the marking policy of the school or can they just do whatever they want because they are not in the school building?

Obviously, because marking the homework is part of what they are paid to do. However, it wouldn't bother me in the least what the teacher was wearing whilst marking because it doesn't impact on the way they perform their contractual duties whatsoever. I would not expect them to be wearing pyjamas whilst teaching because I'm quite sure that would be in breach of the terms of their employment contract; however, I would have no problem with them wearing something comfortable and relatively informal.

As for the issue of other children wearing shirts with inappropriate slogans: children will see these all over the place in the big world outside the school, it's up to parents to discuss with them what is and is not appropriate and why. I think they can cope with seeing them on their schoolmates.

sadly, it's because of that parent that so many schools have refused and are refusing any kind of video message , call or meeting. It's depressing.

I always find it hilarious on here when people hold up the prospect of teachers thinking of you as "that parent" as something to be terrified of. Teachers' opinions are no more valid or important than anyone else's, and in any event I question how many teachers are actually bothered whether the kids appearing in front of them briefly on screen are wearing uniform or not. I suspect the vast majority would far rather spend their time teaching than taking notes of what people are wearing and trying to enforce unenforceable rules.

[GalaxyCookieCrumble]

@ChemiseBleu

Be grateful your school is willing to do video lessons at all!

Absolutely! My youngest is currently home schooled after a bit of a debate when the schools went back, and we get 1 phone call every couple of weeks to see how he is getting on with the work that was set for him.

[MoonJelly]

Not in the least ridiculous, @FishTaco101. The post to which I was replying specifically said that when a child is doing schoolwork, they are part of the school. It didn't differentiate in any way as to the type of schoolwork, or suggest that the principle only applies in what is theoretically a classroom environment.

[MoonJelly]

Given that schools must by law provide online learning for pupils out of school due to self-isolating, local outbreaks etc, I'm not sure how grateful parents need to be.

[FishTaco101]

@MoonJelly

Not in the least ridiculous, *@FishTaco101*. The post to which I was replying specifically said that when a child is doing schoolwork, they are part of the school. It didn't differentiate in any way as to the type of schoolwork, or suggest that the principle only applies in what is theoretically a classroom environment.

You are looking into the knitty gritty that doesnt matter. Stop being difficult and contradictory.

So you have nothing to back up a theoretical classroom environment?

[GalaxyCookieCrumble]

[quote Ecosse]@Grobagsforever

Parents agree to abide by a school’s policies when they enrol their D.C. there.

In the same way as schools can make DC do homework, they get to decide on the dress code when DC are attending live lessons with school staff.

This sounds like a school with excellent high standards and I’d hope the headteacher would take strong action against any parent who refused to co-operate with the school’s policy on wearing uniform.[/quote]
Give your head a wobble, School Uniform is not compulsory despite what the schools insist in telling you.

[GalaxyCookieCrumble]

@onlyreadingneverposting8

Some of these responses are bizarre. My children attend permanent internet school. I've yet to see inappropriate clothing (children based all over the world). They may be in pjs, not noticeable to me - but the idea that clothes make you ready for learning is frankly ridiculous. A child who is motivated, confident and enjoys his/her lessons will learn affectively. My 14yr old does virtually all his lessons (camera off as seems the way with the teenagers) in his pjs and is doing far better than he was in his state comprehensive. He's more relaxed, more confident and contributes more to the lessons.

Please could I ask the name of the Internet School as my youngest is homeschooled and I would love to explore more options for him? Tyia

[lazylinguist]

I always find it hilarious on here when people hold up the prospect of teachers thinking of you as "that parent" as something to be terrified of. Teachers' opinions are no more valid or important than anyone else's, and in any event I question how many teachers are actually bothered whether the kids appearing in front of them briefly on screen are wearing uniform or not. I suspect the vast majority would far rather spend their time teaching than taking notes of what people are wearing and trying to enforce unenforceable rules.

100% agree with all of that and I'm a teacher. Teachers don't tell kids off for uniform infractions because they think it's deeply important or because they enjoy it. (Well, very few do anyway.) They do so because they are told they have to. It's part of their job. It's tedious, it's a chore and it creates unnecessary friction over something that has no effect on their learning.

As long as a child on a video lesson was wearing clothes that covered their body to an appropriate degree, I wouldn't give a hoot what they were wearing. And unless told otherwise, I'd assume that I would wear normal casual-ish clothes like I'd usually wear at home. My dc's school has already asked teachers to wear smart-casual clothes in school rather than suits for hygiene reasons (more washable). I somehow doubt that's affecting their teaching skills.

[MoonJelly]

You are looking into the knitty gritty that doesnt matter. Stop being difficult and contradictory.

Oh, the irony - coming from the person contradicting a post whilst not bothering to look at the post to which it is responding. If you really want to argue that context doesn't matter, crack on.

So you have nothing to back up a theoretical classroom environment?

Given that that wasn't the topic of the post in question, why would I need to back it up?

[lazylinguist]

Some of these responses are bizarre. My children attend permanent internet school. I've yet to see inappropriate clothing (children based all over the world). They may be in pjs, not noticeable to me - but the idea that clothes make you ready for learning is frankly ridiculous. A child who is motivated, confident and enjoys his/her lessons will learn affectively. My 14yr old does virtually all his lessons (camera off as seems the way with the teenagers) in his pjs and is doing far better than he was in his state comprehensive. He's more relaxed, more confident and contributes more to the lessons.

Well exactly. This ludicrous British insistence that uniform makes kids take school seriously and learn better is just nonsense. It does nothing of the sort. People seem to pretty much stick their fingers in their ears and go "lalalalala" when anyone points out that other countries manage perfectly well without school uniform. Seriously, can anyone explain why UK kids apparently need a uniform to perform well at school, but French, German, Spanish, Italian, American, Canadian etc children don't?

[Iknowthingsthatwillhappen]

It shouldn't be an issue surely? Not everyone has a camera on their laptop, school can't make anybody do this!

[Iknowthingsthatwillhappen]

Just say OP that you have no access to camera, or it is broken. Easy and sorted straight away.