Just read the bloody uniform policy!!!

[flingoringo]

I've just read an article about a school in Gateshead where lots of kids were sent home or out in isolation on day one of term because they were wearing the wrong shoes. The offending shoes seem to be mainly a Vivienne Westwood ballet flat (with a big silver VW emblem on the front) and a Nike walking boots. Lots of kids wearing the same, from yr7 to yr11.
Parents are up in arms, obviously. One mentions the CoL crisis so the need to scrimp and save to spend A HUNDRED QUID on the Nike shoes. One mum said her yr7 daughter won't be going back she's finding her a new school.

The school (taken over by an academy in 2019) says the policy is clear, plain black shoes with no logos. That they have done their best to help yr6 parents understand what was to be expected once on yr7.

Now I don't necessarily agree with schools being overly strict with uniform policy. But I do accept that I have to agree to follow the rules at the schools that I chose to send my kids to and if we chose not to then of course they'll be consequences.

AIBU to think it's it's completely ridiculous that this happens every bloody year?!

‘Yep. Plain black shoes tend to be priced highly, exactly because retailers know that parents have to buy them for school.’

Thats BS. It’s the opposite, they sell them cheap to get you to buy uniform from their supermarket/ shop.

Schools have to think about safety hence the shoe rules, staircases are hazardous places with loads of kids on them. The NIKE mother could have saved herself over £50 by going to Clarks - no sympathy, sorry.

Crazy waste of time for schools, and putting kids in solidarity for any reason should be illegal.

It's hard to take schools seriously on H&S though when many have insisted that students wear jumpers/blazers all though recent heat waves.

Maybe but I don’t know there’s even a Clark’s in my city anymore

I can't believe teachers are wasting education time on this shit.

It's a power flex, other countries don't make kids dress like little bank managers.

It's hard to take schools seriously on H&S though when many have insisted that students wear jumpers/blazers all though recent heat waves.

^ and they have to ask permission to take them off. A high school near me removed a teens green coat as it wasn't uniform blue and let him cycle home without in winter.

I wore miss sexy trousers and michal kors shoes in year 10 as I was bullied in year 7-9 after a video of me having sec went around. Wearing the branded clothes instantly stopped my bullying.

I agree with rules as I remember screaming and fighting with my parents to buy them and my mum didn’t have the money and also hated it. Stupid how having a tick on your shoes makes your better then wearing the same shoe without and schools should crack down as people just don’t have the money. These parents are crazy but also if it was the same situation as me and it’s stoped the kids bullying I get why the the child and parents were upset.

just wish everyone would follow t

@Goldbar

100%. Forcing kids to wear jumpers in 30 degree weather seems like a major health and safety issue.

Two days in isolation for something that he couldn't help.

JFC what is wrong with this country?

Agree.

In my DCs' US high school, students contravening the 'offensive logo' rule on clothing were given a school-issued PE T-shirt to wear over the offending item, a transaction that took all of five minutes over the student's lunchtime. Then parents were notified and the incident recorded.

This is because excluding a students from class is a matter taken extremely seriously, and doing so for reasons that are completely frivolous would be a gross contravention of the student's right to education.

My kids have gone to both uniform and non-uniform schools, expensive logoed uniform, and supermarket uniform, and there's been no issue with figuring out who the poorer kids are in any case.

Uniform doesn't equalize - it just causes trouble for the parents, who, if it's a chaotic household don't care anyway so it causes trouble for the kids.

If people are already struggling, having to go out and spend a couple of hundred on clothes just for school isn't going to equalise anything.

My point is that there is no hoop jumping these days beyond advocating for your child. The Equality Act 2010 levelled the playing field by making employers, schools, etc., responsible for providing reasonable adjustment for disabled people so that their disability doesn’t disadvantage them. If, as people are posting here, some schools are not complying then I would have thought it’s important for parents to advocate for their children so that they are not discriminated against.

For example, if your child cannot wear an element of the uniform, don’t just send them to school on the first day of term dressed outside uniform rules or they will be sent home. Contact the school beforehand to explain that your child has a disability that qualifies under the Act and ask for reasonable adjustment in the form of whatever element of the uniform is unsuitable. You don’t need a formal diagnosis to be eligible under the Act, so you don’t need medical evidence, you just need to have a significant difficulty which qualifies.

If a school has a uniform policy then parents have an obligation to follow it - if the child has a disability which makes elements of that uniform unsuitable the school need to know. If you don’t tell them they can’t help. I’m not against making school uniform more inclusive to disabled people, but I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon, so you have to work with what you have.

This.

The best uniform policy is one where the uniform has multiple options built in, so that the autistic girl who will scratch until she bleeds if you make her wear a certain jumper can wear a different one instead without needing special permission to do so and without standing out because other, neurotypical, children are also wearing a variety of jumpers. And the Black child with an afro (which I fully support because no child should have to chemically-straighten their hair just to go to school) can wear a cardigan instead of trying to pull a jumper over their hair without needing special permission to basically exist comfortably whilst Black. And the girl with surgery scars or a prosthetic leg can wear trousers without being the special exceptional one girl in trousers.

I think isolation for a pair of bloody shoes is absolutely ridiculous. A note sent home with the child should surely suffice.

Personally, I think school Uniform is pointless and the time and effort the school puts in to policing it would be better spent on other issues. My DC school frequently fails to communicate important information to parents until the last minute but sends several letters to everyone about uniform every term (including printed copies of letters, e-mails and text messages to parents of every pupil).

However- everyone knows that the schools have a uniform and that there will be consequences if it is not adhered to. Yet every September there are newspaper reports with parents complaining that they are having to buy new shoes/trousers/whatever because what they originally bought was (always very clearly) not in line with uniform. It is always parents who have bought a more expensive branded item (so not a case of having to buy what they can afford).

In my personal experience when there have been sensible reasons for not being able to wear the proper uniform (eg. problems getting items to fit/needing shoes that work with orthotics/shoes breaking and not being able to get a compliant replacement immediately) the school has been very reasonable.

I would entirely support parents campaigning to do away with uniform but sending your DC to school in something that is blatantly wrong with no good reason and then complaining that they are not allowed to wear it just makes them look like arseholes.

These academies are trying to be like private schools...

But most private schools wouldn't treat paying parents and their kids like this, because they are being paid to teach, not to take children out of lessons. Academies should have the same attitude towards tax-paying parents.

No you wouldn’t! Kids still need enough of their own clothes to get them through the holidays. You also need to buy a whole set of new clothes when they change school even if the old ones fit them just fine.

I live disabled. So believe me when I tell you that disabled people face a double burden: the disability itself, and the constant asking for reasonable adjustments, many of which wouldn't have to be asked for if stuff was designed inclusive in the first place. School uniforms are an example of something that could be designed inclusive in the first place. And it affects Black children and religious minority children as well as disabled ones. How recently was it that DfE had to write to schools reminding them that hair policies shouldn't be racist?

I don’t think it’s a reasonable uniform rule given the lack of choice over such things that most families have (i.e. there is frequently a lack of diversity in local schools around these kinds of issues, so it’s not as though most parents can chose a school that wouldn’t insist on pointless shoe details). So, as with all unreasonable rules, while I wouldn’t necessarily flout it myself I don’t think badly of those who do.

Someone in my village posted on FB yesterday that she has started up a petition to ban jewellery and hairstyle restrictions at our local school.

Her reason being that her 14 year old DD had her nose pierced a couple of weeks ago and can't take the stud out yet - first day of term and she was put into isolation as a result. Her Mum is outraged that her DD's right to express her individuality and personality is being stunted.

The amazing thing about this was the sheer number of people who have apparently signed this petition, or intend to. The ratio of those agreeing with her/not agreeing was about 80/40 in favour of the former. It beggars belief - are we basically teaching our adolescents that it's absolutely ok to ignore any rule about anything and that it's fine to just do your own thing? To me, it's not so much about the school's policies but rather the inference that it's fine to do just do your own thing. These teens are going to struggle in the working world if that's the case.

I know - I'm a pearl-clutching, dried-up miserable old hag who wants to spoil everyone's fun.......

Maybe so, and I’m not minimising their experience, nor am I against making anything more inclusive and so making the lives of disabled people easier, I just don’t think it will be easy to do, given the very attitude you describe. And if I may, the schools who think their policies trump the law should be challenged and made to comply with their legal obligation for reasonable adjustment. As with so much of disability legislation, if it’s not enforced it’s pointless. It’s up to parents to advocate for their children - even more so if they’re disabled because the EA is there to ensure their disability doesn’t put them at a disadvantage.

I think there should be some flex on styles like a plain black trainer I don't see the issue with personally- but I agree that branded items shouldn't be appropriate because it puts undue pressure on children and their parents. I'm probably bias as I spent school being called 'povvo' as I didn't have the latest bag or watch, let alone the pressure teens especially are under these days with social media. For everyone who moans about the rules plenty I'm sure are thankful.

Out of 4 DC, 3 wore the correct uniform with minimum fuss.
I agree, read the uniform policy and stick to it, but it is hard sometimes.
DS2, fought everything, every term.
Those awful days standing in clarks while he refused to try anything on and insisted Nike trainers or Timberlands would pass as school shoes, costing me a fortune when the school wouldn't accept them. Then promising he wouldn't get his hair cut too short and pretending his barber had misunderstood, coming home with the totally shaved sides, meant he spent so much time in isolation instead of in class it was ridiculous. I was so glad when he started college and I didn't have the total stress of it all, and he could buy his own clothes. 😅

Buying school shoes is an absolute headache. So many shoes sold as school shoes aren't permissible in many schools ie stupidly clumpy heels, or flats which offer no protection, or daft 'Alice' shoes which again offer no protection from the elements, or stupid bits of decoration. The boys shoes are nearly all trainer types, and many have logos. Our local Asda store had some school acceptable ones, but they fell apart by half term.
It's ridiculous, plenty of teachers must have school age kids and have the same issues...at least I would have thought they do!

Surely the people signing the petition are teaching the adolescents that if you think a rule is unreasonable, it's reasonable to campaign to get it changed. This is a good thing to teach. We want children and adolescents to grow up into people who feel able and willing to organise politically and socially for and against unjust or unreasonable policies.