Being expected to wear blazers today

[AskMeMore]

DDs school have said they still have to wear blazers to school today. It is very hot here. I have just told her to take it off if she wants to. No way am I indulging the school in this level of ridiculousness.

@JellyBabyToManual it's not what's happened to teenagers, it's the fact that Head Teachers seem to think they have a right to dictate what layers the teens wear.

Uniform was very lax in my secondary to the point, shirt & tie, and jeans became the Uniform. A couple of years after I left new head teacher, gave it a shake up, got the kids on board, put it to the vote, change of blazer colour, aussie dresses (the era of Neighbours) and got all the kids wearing it.

I do agree with Uniform or it does become who's got what trainers etc
But I don't agree with the dictating that blazers have to be worn in all weather's.

How do you account for the fact that people in uniform-wearing occupations in other countries manage to get used to it with ease despite not wearing uniform at school?

And you need to join a union.

Reason 24678643 I left a head of year job last year. The thought of being on lunch duty making kids put their blazers back on reminds me why. Shudder.
off to my professional office job in a floaty dress and DM sandals now 😀

You’ve missed my point entirely. I understand that it’s the headteacher who thinks they have the right to dictate. My question is when did teenagers start lying down to be walked all over?

You’ve missed my point entirely. I understand that it’s the headteacher who thinks they have the right to dictate. My question is when did teenagers start lying down to be walked all over?

What exactly do you think teenagers can do about the entire secondary state education system?

When I was at secondary school in the late 1980s and 1990s things were more relaxed - too relaxed at times. But that's because the adults thought it was the right thing to do, not because teenagers stood up for themselves more than they do now and made it more relaxed.

Does anyone know what legal rights kids / families have? Can they be expelled for not wearing blazers in the heat? My kids are in primary still but this is one of my biggest worried about their move to secondary. I refuse to make them wear insanely inappropriate for the weather uniform. It's inhumane. And absolutely teaches them nothing about the world of work. All it teaches them is to unquestioningly follow orders and frankly that's not a trait I think we should be encouraging in anyone!

In my school (early 80s) we would have petitioned the Head, organised and disobeyed en masse. Not everyone of course, but enough to cause a fuss. It was a pretty prim all girls school, so we weren’t given to regular disobedience, but would have stood up against ridiculous authoritarianism.

I’m quite sure my DS’s friends would have done similar at a mixed comp, also pretty strict. But they didn’t have these stupid rules.

My kids’ school have ‘summer shirts’ - open necked with the school emblem on the breast pocket. If they wear that then no blazers or ties are required. But then their school takes quite a sensible approach to uniform anyway.

Even at work with full uniform we have been told we can wear shorts if it exceeds 27 degrees. They have to be black and no more than 2 inches above the knee but we can wear them.

Exactly. This is what we would have done (late ‘80s mixed comp).

@Catspyjamas17 I’m not suggesting one small group of eleven year olds can change the entire secondary school system. Obviously. But as a group, they can self organise what @WiseUpJanetWeiss says above and stand up and be counted and change their own schools.

It’s very old fashioned and out of date with the current world. Any workplace will allow adjustments for extreme heat and cold. All these bullying rules do is annoy students and parents as well as causing barriers to learning.

While schools that insist on blazers in this weather are undoubtedly batshit, it should be pointed out that even without blazers, classrooms are boiling, and kids are unable to learn effectively.

Taking off blazers doesn’t solve that problem.

Agree there should be a summer uniform approach, easy to define.

Making DC wear full uniform in this heat is abuse.

Mine are at what many would consider traditional stuffy schools that have been around since before 1500 and the DC have been allowed to wear PE kit or shirt sleeves all week, any school insisting on full uniform or mentioning tradition is full of shit.

Was it a private school?

Kids / parents have far more power in a private school than in the average state school. Paying customers and all that stuff.

I really don't see what power kids have in a state school.

No - state.

You were in a cab that required a uniform but didn't have aircon?

Well, I could see what he was wearing to keep in with his employer's instructions and it wasn't 'a pair of cotton chinos, shirt note no requirement for a tie or for long sleeves, and no requirement for blazers'.

Windows and vehicle motion seemed to do the job for ventilation, but the road was clear at the time; had it been rush hour or he'd gone the equal distance but alternative route which acquired temporary traffic lights on it for emergency repairs during the morning (and was why I'd booked a cab, as it's the only bus route and too far to walk at the best of times), it would have been different and perhaps there would have been air conditioning.

The question isn't whether it was in use, though, is it? It's whether it was available to him.

And it would be a pretty unusual cab that required a uniform but that did not have air conditioning facilities available.

Dunno. I'm not au fait with the precise specification of whatever it was he turned up in - it was a car, it was on time, he got me to my destination in one piece and was a perfectly pleasant man. I'm far better at identifying clothing which he was wearing at the time and he said in chatting away was part of a compulsory dress code.

The feigned ignorance is almost charming.

"Precise specifications" 😂

I went to an independent girls' boarding school in the 1960s. We had blazers, but only wore them occasionally in the summer when going out. In the summer we wore cotton gingham dresses, otherwise we had skirts and shirts, and jumpers which we could wear as and when we wanted to all year round. In the autumn and spring we did games in the afternoons and then changed into our own clothes (which had to be skirts or dresses), so what was what we wore for lessons from 4.15 onwards. The school was pretty strict, so it feels really quite strange to realise that actually its approach to uniform was way more relaxed than that of a lot of modern state funded schools.

Despite being deprived of the experience of complying with rigid and illogical uniform rules, we all seem to have managed to cope subsequently in the big wide world, including a number of us going into jobs requiring uniforms or (back in the 80s and 90s) some fairly ridiculous business wear.

My school ( where I teach ) the children have ties and woollen blazers.
As soon as the weather got hot we allowed the children to take ties off and blazer but we expect them to arrive and leave school dressed correctly .
It's called Shirtsleeves Order !

Sounds sensible @Lulu1919. Are the DC always allowed to take blazers off in class or only when it’s shirt sleeve order?