School has banned Kickers shoes! I have bought them for DS. AIBU to to let him wear them and start a fight with them if they try to sanction him?

[CarefulDriver]

DS is starting secondary school next week. The school uniform regulations on the school website dictate that they wear black shoes (no trainer like shoes). Fine.

I bought him a pair of Kickers as I wanted comfy shoes which will last him most of the year. I know from previous experience with DS1 and 2 that the ‘businessman’ style shoes don’t last if they’re playing footie at break! Most of the DCs at their school wore Kickers and so did they once I caught on.

Chatting to friend who’s DC is also going to the same school yesterday and apparently the school has banned shoes with visible branding on which Kickers have. This is not on the main school uniform webpage which is what I checked to get his uniform but on a sub page for new Yr7s which I had read but only skimmed over the uniform bit as assumed it was the same as the main page.

I spent £68 on shoes, which IMO are common school shoes, he may not now be able to wear. He won’t be wearing out of school either obviously! I got them online direct from Kickers with a 14 day return policy which has runout now.

WIBU to just send him in on his first day in them?

But if it was on what was sent out to you as a new parent then how does it class as a new rule? By your own admission you didn’t read what was sent out - that’s not their fault

Why should I have to deface a brand new pair shoes just because of a stupid rule they’ve just brought in

It’s hardly defacing. Just take a sharpie to the branding. Or, waste a perfectly good pair of shoes when there is a solution to avoiding it.

You picked the school and you need to abide by their rules and rules do change.

To be fair, it’s not always as simple as “you picked the school”. I grew up in a small town with a large secondary school that took kids from all the surrounding villages. If there had been something wrong with that school, I’d have had to travel well over an hour on the bus to somewhere else if I was even able to get a place. Doable perhaps for a serious issue, but if the issue had been more minor, for example, a very expensive uniform, there wouldn’t have been much choice for my parents other than to just accept it. Not everyone lives somewhere with a choice of schools.

I do think that OP should have checked the rules carefully before buying the shoes though. Although I think it’s a bit crap of the school to have separate uniform rules on the yr7 info and the main uniform code.

It would be a bad start to y7. I would check with the school and if not OK find a way to get him some actually black shoes. Lots of secondhand shoes for sale online.

How ridiculous ,they couldn't be more like school shoes of they tried.

**if

Nothing has been sent out to me at all! It is on the student part of the website for new year 7s. The info for parent part just says black suitable shoes so has not been updated. Friend says other parents told her and it includes Kickers so assume someone has checked.

It said black and they aren’t all black so the branding being on a separate page doesn’t matter.

It always makes me smile when people say “how does their shoe type affect their learning?”

It doesn’t. Neither does it affect my ability to teach wearing fishing waders and a spinning bow tie. I’m just not allowed to.

And teachers don’t make the policies; we just get shouted at by parents who don’t like it when we have to enforce them.

If it’s on the policy then you’re going to have to follow it. It saves everyone some aggro. Also if the shoes haven’t been worn then you are well within your rights to return them I’m sure. I agree with banning stuff like this. As the kid at school who dreaded non uniform days and never had the “right” stuff I actually like to see things like this that protect kids like I was. It stops brand snobbery which is a bloody big deal.

You admit you looked at but “skimmed read” the information. You have to take some responsibility for not looking properly at the information surely?

@GlendaSugarbeanIsJudgingYou

What's wrong with Kickers? Is there a stigma around them I have missed?

Is it just the little green label?

OP yanbu.

Nothing intrinsically wrong except they are heavily branded. Which the school doesn’t allow. Plenty of shoes in that style with no labelling.

I’ve seen on a few threads kickers are banned. Why is that?

I would cut the labels off or just send him in them. He won’t be challenged. If he is, send a very polite email to his head of year stating you apologise, you hadn’t realised and once he has outgrown them you will replace them with a different brand however due to finances he will wear them for the time being.

@SoupDragon

I'd give your child a note or contact the school yourself and say your child is wearing these shoes as they were the only pair that were comfortable. End of story

Yeah... that won't be "end of story" at all.

You love quoting me, bless you

As the kid at school who dreaded non uniform days and never had the “right” stuff I actually like to see things like this that protect kids like I was. It stops brand snobbery which is a bloody big deal.

But it wouldn’t stop brand snobbery on non uniform days, as the uniform policy wouldn’t apply on those days, so it wouldn’t protect kids like you were?

I dislike when people say very strict uniform stops bullying for kids who are poorer - it just doesn’t. There will always be kids with scruffier coats, cheaper bags. Some kids will have plain black shoes from shoe zone, some will have plain black shoes which are more expensive.

@CarefulDriver

They have the name on the heel as well in big letters in bright green and red as well as the tag on the front though.

Why should I have to deface a brand new pair shoes just because of a stupid rule they’ve just brought in .

Kids have been wearing Kickers to school for years!

Why do we have to put up with this crap?

But they aren't all black then are they?

If schools made school uniform affordable I’d have more time for the whole ‘poor kids will be disadvantaged’ angle, but they don’t, so it’s total shit. There are plenty of others ways where the poor kids will stand out anyway (phones for example). It’s about forcing and normalising compliance in both kids and parents, which is fairly much the guiding principle for state schools these days (well that and providing 9-5 childcare so both parents can work).

OP good luck in forcing the issue - I just wish more people would do the same.

@CarefulDriver

They have the name on the heel as well in big letters in bright green and red as well as the tag on the front though.

Why should I have to deface a brand new pair shoes just because of a stupid rule they’ve just brought in .

Kids have been wearing Kickers to school for years!

Why do we have to put up with this crap?

I've just changed my vote. Little tag can't see the issue, big green and red letters are NOT black shoes

@CarefulDriver

They have the name on the heel as well in big letters in bright green and red as well as the tag on the front though.

Why should I have to deface a brand new pair shoes just because of a stupid rule they’ve just brought in .

Kids have been wearing Kickers to school for years!

Why do we have to put up with this crap?

Because you said you bought them because they are hardwearing and sturdy not because they are fashionable? in which case obscuring the branding won't make a difference.

Students starting secondary school have enough to deal with without being sent in with the wrong uniform . Regardless of what anyone thinks of the rules it is the student who will have to deal with being singled out on their first day . Don’t add this stress onto a child who will probably be anxious about starting a new school.

Schools will help with uniform where it is needed - certainly the ones I have worked in.

And no rules didn’t help on non uniform days which is why I quite like not having them!

I bloody hate these kinds of rules. The girls at my school (we only have girls) almost universally wear kickers or similar. They are robust, comfortable and much better for their feet than the ballet flats that were fashionable when I first started teaching. Whilst they aren’t cheap, the older kids will often have a pair of kickers see them through year 10 and 11 once their feet aren’t growing so fast any more.
I do wonder what drives some leadership teams to come up with so many complex and specific rules. Why would you want to start term every year with a whole load of phone calls home about uniform or kids internally excluded? That always seems to be the consequence of these kinds of policies.
We used to have one of these sorts of on our SLT… I remember one memorable SLT meeting when she wanted us to say no logos on sportswear for Sports Relief day.

What about phones? There’s more brand snobbery about that at secondary school these days. I know my older DCs had the shit ripped out of them for not having iPhones.

Will they start dictating that the only phones allowed at school are cheap Alcatel ones?

I would cut a strip of black duck tape over the labels.

The school uniform regulations on the school website dictate that they wear black shoes

You keep insisting your son now can't wear the shoes due to a new rule. However if they're the ones linked above with bright green and red logos, then they were never suitable in the first place as they're not black shoes.

People have been cutting the red/green tags off for years.