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

Uniform is fine but branded uniform is disgusting. I thought there was law to stop that bollocks. I also really hate that the secondary schools seem to make their pupils wear black coats. At 8am on a winter morning it’s so unsafe.

I was with him until he started on about cost. His son is wearing a north face coat...not £20 from the supermarket.

Overall I agree uniform coats is a shit idea. My kid school require black or navy coats with no big logos. I don't even agree with that tbh. School I teach at has no coat policy.

Also teachers who wear warm coats while confiscating kids coats are the worst. In assembly at work this Thursday all students were made to take their coats off. Pissed me off that some members of staff did not. The kids pointed it out to me. They get it.

I don't think school uniform has had its day but I agree that it should be weather appropriate.

I liked our school's policy which was uniform with any black coat. There was an official school coat but it was frumpy and expensive and no one wore it.

^I 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,

How does what clothes you wear really show the difference between those who have wealth or not? Clothes these days are relatively cheap. Wealthy parents are no more likely to buy expensive clothes than poorer ones. Surely our wealth is displayed by the homes we live in, the cars we drive, or if we take the bus, the holidays we go on or can’t afford to go on. Even the 101 paid activities that better off children attend. Children see each other out of school, they talk, they know!

No one’s going to enforce it though are they? Nice idea but can’t see what body would be able to.

@Patineur

Of course school kids know the difference on how expensive jackets and clothes are they are not stupid .L.o.l

Northface jacket is bloody expensive and not all school kids can obviously afford them,

school uniforms you can say actually help poorer children not to be bullied by the school shit,
Who can make life a living nightmare for someone at school.

I don't mind school uniform. Looks better than everyone turning in tracksuit bottoms which it would inevitably end up in (amongst the boys).

I'm also not convinced it has to be expensive. Our (private school) is plain grey trousers, white shirt, tie and blazer. Pretty much everyone buys the blazer from the second hand shop so it costs about £30 for the lot. You can wear any coat.

PE kit is more expensive but also available second hand and a blind eye turned if people want to wear non-logo-ed alternatives, other than the shirt for matches.

The sooner this school uniform carry-on is ended, the better. Expensive polyester-based tat which isn't warm in winter and which makes them sweat in summer.

I can't imagine putting up with a situation where my child was not allowed to wear a warm coat to school. Parents who put up with this nonsense should take a long hard look at themselves then get on to the school to complain vociferously until the rule is changed.

FWIW, we lived abroad for a while in a country where school uniform was not the practice. Guess what - no issues with discipline, no children swithering every day about what they would wear, no parental angst.

As for the notion that it prepares you for the world of work, most of the jobs my children might work in eventually do not require a polyester uniform with a logo on it, and certainly do not dictate what you should wear on the way to work.

It's no wonder that there are rising levels of mental health problems in children when they are being exposed to this nonsense at school.

School uniform teaches students to dress without thought. It doesn't teach students to dress smartly or appropriately.

School uniform is impractical. Who on earth thinks it is a good idea to make teenagers wear the same black polyester blazer week in week out? 'Office' shoes are only suitable for wearing in an office. They aren't up to the rigours of walking to/from/around school all day.

We had to wear a wool blazer to school from primary 1 - sixth year. We were never allowed a coat. We had a jumper and a scarf too (both school issued). Uniform was part of discipline in school. It created order and equality. It was always available second hand.

Blazers in Scotland? They must have been wet through most days of the year! And what kind of condition would a second hand blazer be in if worn to school every day and in all weathers?

That's ridiculous and I'd send my DC in winter coats. If they even dared to try and confiscate their coats I'd honestly kick off.

If school uniform is needed to prepare pupils for work, how come people manage absolutely fine when going into uniformed occupations all over Europe where the majority of schools have no uniform at all?

As for the sense of identity, if the school really can't manage that through a shared ethos then it can achieve the same thing by having a cheap and cheerful uniform. Logos achieve precisely nothing in that direction.

The point is that schools shouldn't have to have it enforced, they should be complying with the guidance voluntarily. To ignore it whilst using the excuse that they need uniform for discipline purposes is the height of hypocrisy.

Also school uniform is generally cheap and neans you don't have to buy so many non school clothes.

Some school uniforms are definitely not cheap. And is it really true you don’t have to buy less non school clothes. It’s not just weekends. You still need enough winter clothes to get through the Christmas holidays and enough summer clothes to get through the summer holidays. While it won’t be quite twice as many clothes, it would definitely be more than if there were no uniforms.

So how do they know the kid wearing Northface got it new?

Frankly, the school shit is going to bully without being provided with this excuse. That is what schools should concentrate on, rather then making and enforcing silly uniform rules.

I know it’s hypocrisy! But unless there is an official body set up to enforce it, I can’t see it being enforced. It might have been possible when state schools were all under local authorities. But now?

I've always been opposed to uniform - so many countries manage without it, turn out well behaved and educated young people and don't have bullying levels higher than the UK - in fact they are often lower.

Parents don't have to buy designer gear - parents have to make the effort to not raise brand obsessed kids. It really isn't rocket science. The UK has a weird obsession with conformity.

My DCs school have a very strict uniform policy but a few years ago they changed it to make it more equal for the girls, they are now allowed to wear trousers etc. It's a fairly extensive uniform list, has the winter coats etc but they are mega expensive and also they are not thick ones, more waterproof and also too long to be comfortable when cycling.

My eldest DS sometimes wore a plain black puffer jacket but he told them he had been suffering from lots of colds/coughs and wasn't willing to lose work over it (he's a singer). They actually said it was fine as long as he took it off as soon as he got to school.

I don't understand parents allowing their kids to walk to school without big coats and in unsuitable shoes in extreme weather. They can take coats off/change shoes when their get there. I couldn't give a shit what the school said about it.

@CecilyP the difference is the amount of clothes you have. I grew up poor and had very few clothes thay weren't hand me downs from cousins or jumble sale purchases, so if my school was non uniform I would be wearing the same thing pretty much every day or being mocked for dressing funny.

By the time I got to 6th form grunge was in and I had a part time job so made a virtue of my eclectic second hand style but as a shy 11 year old, wearing my older cousins' slightly out of fashion cast offs (my cousins were ten years older than me at least) would have been hellish.

The government could do more to enforce it by, for example, making it part of Ofsted criteria. Academy chains would probably get much less keen on expensive uniform if it results in them getting a Requires Improvement grading.

Also it would be possible for a group of parents to take judicial review action, with parents entitled to legal aid fronting the claim. That could be interesting.

I bloody hope not.
My Dd had 1 non- uniform day this week and the fuss it caused was off the scale.
Took her twice as long as normal to be ready.

That's because it's their one chance to show off their nicest things. There's no novelty when it's 5 days a week.

But that is because it was a one-off, wasn't it? If it was every day presumably it would all become very routine.

Of course it did- it was the one day a year students have to wear their own clothes so it becomes a massive deal! If you had one day in work to reflect your personality etc through your clothes you’d overthink it too! When it’s day in day our very quickly students aren’t bothered.
To me this is the issue many parents of uniformed kids don’t get, they don’t stress every morning as it isn’t a big deal. Occasionally they may get dressed then change their mind (like I do for work sometimes) but generally they bung on whatever is comfortable. It’s so much easier to dress for the weather in your own clothes- rain, heat, snow.

This school is ridiculous but school uniform is a godsend. My DD12 would never get out of the front door if she had to pick an outfit for school every day, the faffing would be off the scale.