To think school uniform has had its day

[Grumpybutfunny]

Okay I'm northern like this poor kid, tho not that close to the Scottish border. Is it unreasonable to say, when schools start saying kids should wear an inappropriate coats, just because it is school uniform that its time for parents to fight back.

I've left for work at 7:30 and it has been minus 2-3 all week. When I'm scraping ice off the car, a kid shouldn't be walking to school in a summer fleece with a rain jacket over the top. I've been freezing in my duvet coat.

Uniforms were a great leveller, but in the age of social media they still see what kids are wearing outside of school or what car the parent does the school run in. Surely what's more important is that they are comfortable and warm.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/jesmond-park-academys-uniform-policy-26016890

The only logical justification for school uniform is the one about avoiding peer pressure to wear expensive designer clothes. However, schools could and should meet that by having a lot of flexibility and uniforms which consist of what is available in the supermarkets and chain stores. Things like designer logos, ties, and utterly pointless polyester blazers should be banned.

I thank my lucky stars that we have uniform. I couldn't cope with the daily battles.

I spent some time in a non uniform all girls school and there was horrendous peer pressure. I would avoid a non uniform school for my kids.

Hi Op

I don't think school uniforms has had its day at all,

think there is still a real need for them, in regard of lessening the difference between pupils who have wealth/who do not have so much, obviously there will always be teenagers who try and push back and rebbel or want to parade go to school like a bit of fashion show thing, it's obviously just a phrase they go through finding their identity,

I think where the school is being extremely unreasonable is by not finding a ways to provide a school logo warm fleecey lined winter jacket /coat to reflect seasonal weather for all pupils in this school, such as opportunity for pupils who struggle to pay for certain schools items clothes wear included obviously by instalments payments into a club payment method ect..

I didn't have a primary uniform (1989-1996) and am a bit pissed off that DS will have to wear one, but it is a £10 navy school sweatshirt, any red polo, and black or grey trousers and any sensible shoes. Interestingly the local Catholic high school (we have 3) with the 3-page uniform list - hideous tartan skirt which must have the badge "2 inches below the waistband and to the left", shoe-heel measuring and maroon blazer is the only one rated Requires Improvement.

Our local one lets them all wear PE kit in heatwaves which I think should be a given!

Well that’s the problem with uniforms! You literally can’t please everyone. Though some aspects of uniforms please no one.

Ive got an MA in anthropology and Fashion. Uniforms are there to suppress individuality but identify the wearer as belonging to something.
And in doing so make it one less job to do 5 days a week (deciding what to wear) and look nice, to my mind. At 16 when I changed to a school with a 6th form that had no uniform it was tedious very quickly. Uniform would have been far preferable and I wasn't the only to think that.

Uniforms are well past their sell by date.
I do hope not. I would actively avoid a non-uniform school for DC if such a thing existed round here. Too much hassle.

I wanted to wear my own clothes though. Each to their own. But that is the reason for uniforms.

Why is it essential? How come so many schools all over Europe and the US manage absolutely fine without?

Any school that claims its uniform is part of its discipline system is condemning its own poor pupil management techniques. Again, non-uniform schools manage absolutely fine.

Why would poor pupils feel worse seeing a kid in school in a North Face coat than they would seeing them out an about on the streets on their way to and from school and at the weekends and holidays? How would they even know what North Face coats cost? How would they know whether this kid's parents bought new or second hand? As this case illustrates, the problem is that schools that are hot on uniform don't go for cheap uniform but insist on idiotic logs and automatically adds a lot onto the price.

But with the advent of tumble dryers you could wear the same garment every day and it still be washed! A unwashed shirt worn everyday for a week would be grubby and smelly, uniform or no uniform!

To say school uniform has had its day is utter nonsense, (although I don’t think girls in ties and shirts is a good look. My DC’s school uniform states blouses for girls, no ties).

The coat requirement is ridiculous. Our school states plain black coat, which I think is sensible.

An an aside, we’re able to order this type of coat ( the one in the link) through work and it’s pretty warm tbh.

This school is acting ill breach of the official guidance - www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform - in requiring unnecessarily expensive uniform. That's not setting a good example to the kids in terms of compliance with rules, is it?

I rember a time where all female school pupils could only trousers as it was considered in an old fashioned way to be femine code of dress,

So clothes can and do reflect changing social norms/attitudes thankfully 😅.

This school needs to obviously have a re think and stop dragging their heels 👠 in, just to make a point for the sake of it, and needs to reflect and sort something much more conducive reasonable,

Ridiculous pupils have to provide a medical note from doctors 🙄 renewable each new school year, to provide adequate proof they are entitled to wear a warmer jacket/coat.

I will say not providing warm enough school jacket provision by the school , is a form of Draconian childhood emotional neglect cordoned by the school 🏫

I was a teacher and had no say in the uniform but was expected to enforce it. Depending on the school and the SLT and their policies/state of mind the degree of enforcement varied.

Often I would quietly tell pupils that aspects of their uniform might over excite others and to keep a low profile.

One of the schools I worked in has now adopted skirts with tartan inset panels and an embroidered logo - only available from one supplier? And so an expensive monopoly?

They will reason that previously girls wore their skirts too short etc etc.

Many schools claim to insist on a strict uniform because pupils/parents respond to peer pressure and end up buying expensive designer clothes - and the uniform will stop this and help level up. But it doesn’t. Their branded uniform is often just as expensive.

A dress code, easily available uniform - fine. But this school is making a fool of itself and forgetting just how expensive its requirements are.

I’d have been happy with a polo shirt style of uniform for my own children and for me as a teacher.

I’ve never got that it’s such a hard job deciding what to wear in the morning! Even for a lazy person like me! I was really happy not to wear uniform in 6th form. Though one girl did say she would have preferred to continue wearing uniform for same reason as poster above, but there really was nothing stopping her, if that was her choice. Neither she, nor anyone else, availed themselves of that choice.

Schools ought to have better things to do than confiscate winter coats.

IMO, the more hung up a school is on making the kids conform to a uniform (as opposed to dress code) policy, the more it's compensating for other unaddressed issues.

It always makes me laugh seeing girls outside our nearby strict uniform school who universally wear the correct uniform skirt, but at bum-skimming levels. Schools everywhere seem to give up the battle when it comes to skirt lengths, and I think it's all credit to the girls that they manage to assert their individuality. If the school just gave up on uniform it would solve that problem overnight and would probably find most of the girls start wearing much more practical trousers and jeans.

The coat requirement is ridiculous. Our school states plain black coat, which I think is sensible.

Plain black is the opposite of sensible. Living near a secondary school, I’d prefer high viz jackets so I could spot them when driving to work!

In theory, I agree with op. I don't like school uniforms. They're usually impractical, polyester tat which you end up paying over the odds for if it's logoed. I don't buy the whole "some kids will feel bad if they can't afford designer clothes" thing. This already happens. I used to work in a girls' secondary school where the shoes and bags, MASSIVE eyelashes, fake tams, hair extensions etc etc were already status symbols which some girls had and some girls didn't.

But, I do think there needs to be strict guidelines instead of uniform. Maybe they could say no giant logos or designer trainers if the whole levelling up thing is the issue. Probably best avoided at school anyway as they might get nicked during PE tbh. Ours was quite a nice school and nice trainers did get stolen quite a lot and it was hard to prove who did it as the CCTV is (obviously) not going to cover the PE changing rooms

Tans*

I’ve never got that it’s such a hard job deciding what to wear in the morning! Even for a lazy person like me! I was really happy not to wear uniform in 6th form. Though one girl did say she would have preferred to continue wearing uniform for same reason as poster above, but there really was nothing stopping her, if that was her choice. Neither she, nor anyone else, availed themselves of that choice.

Exactly. There's nothing stopping anyone from wearing a capsule wardrobe to school.

Have to wonder how many people had nervous breakdowns about what to wear when they left school and went to uni or work? 🤔 I know some jobs issue uniforms but then there are just as many out there that leave a vague dress code with the employee to consider.

I agree. It's noticeable that when a previously problematic school becomes an academy, one of the first thing the new team does is introduce an expensive uniform and draconian uniform rules. And they do it because it impresses some parents and is way easier than improving teaching and discipline. But the fact that it doesn't work time and again becomes evident very quickly.

Any school dictating on type or colour of coat is ridiculous. They're not worn inside and as a pp poater said I am not buying 2.

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair a shocking amount of it is Dupes now, theirs a whole TikTok movement selling it. I know a lot are concerned about levelling up, i'm more concerned that DS is comfortable and appropriately dressed even if it does cost me a fortune. I also don't like that the school says it has to be doctors note to be excused, that's adding more pressure to GP's when parents should be able to make the decision.

The younger generation are more concerned with individuality and dressing how they want than being smart I.e. look at town on a Friday and Saturday night casual is the order of the day, the big tech companies aren't about suits and shirt etc

A school logo idea for uniform is supposed to give a pupil a sense of identity a connection/a belonging ,that they are whilst in school environment they are part of a wider thing, not just themselves

Also older pupils wearing school uniform prepares them for when they leave secondary school environment, for the grown up world 🌎 of work, where there is a possibility they will have to wear some kind of uniform whether a. Formal strict uniform or a more informal casual wear kind of uniform.
School uniform reflects society greater picture to prepare school pupils.

I think it's ridiculous school kids parents thinking it's not cool or fashionable the school look is for either females/ or boys
L.o.l its not meant to be,
That's whole point ...

No wonder some school kids have attitudes about school uniforms 🙄

Outside school gates they can show their identity and what clothes fashion they like or at school discos...