It's a school shoe spot the difference thread!

[TheUnstoppableWindmill]

Can you work out which of these shoes is NOT an acceptable school shoe for a policy which states that students must wear black shoes of polishable leather in a non-trainer style?

I've got a year 7 child just starting secondary school. We were encouraged to email the Head of Year to check that shoes are acceptable under the school policy if we had any doubts. Thanks to a helpful Mumsnet thread I sent a handful of pictures in the style that I know if comfortable for my son. I was told these were "all perfect."

The ones I bought have now been rejected. I genuinely can't tell the difference.

So, AIBU to think that if 3 out of 4 of these shoes are perfect, then they should all be acceptable?
And can you guess which ones are too "trainer-like"?!

This kind of thing have been great for my lace-hating kids, they look smart on smart shoes. They can do laces but they come undone all the time so they do triple knots which they then can't undo. So it makes kife easier to avoid them.

Utter madness! I’d have picked the Clark’s as most “trainer like” too, if pushed. But these are all black shoes that look very similar and are practical for school. Ugh I hate this shoe nonesense! None of those are trainers, or actually like trainers!

Do have a look. I got ones with small screw type toggles. They are discrete. We couldn't get on with velcro as we have a hairy dog whose fur clogged up the teeth in about a month of wear.

It is the Hush Puppies that I bought

I guessed these because I think they look like a canvas shoe in style.

The Hush Puppies are the most trainer-like, but they aren’t a HUGE outlier in my opinion.

Honestly, after the shitshow that formal education has been in this country the last few weeks, it makes me furious that this is what they’re choosing to fixate on.

I used to find picking the fluff out of Velcro with a pin oddly satisfying 😂

All this stuff gives me the utter rage, and I'm not even a parent. It seems to me that many schools have their priorities all wrong and that heads/governors/SLTs/whoever makes these decisions are little more than control freaks.

Schools should be focussing on education, and last time I looked, what you wear on your sodding feet has bugger all to do with it.

I went to a rather snooty girls' grammar and our uniform rules were nowhere near as strict as this. Although we did have to wear brown shoes, which imo look shit with a navy uniform.

But I would say if you emailed the other three but then bought the hush puppies you’ve gone for a different style.
I'd say the same.
They look more trainer style to me, but that's from knowing what sort of line many of our local schools would take.

Personally though I think all of them should be okay and the school are being unreasonably fussy. It's not like the OP has done what some parents do and tried to buy the cool trainers in black and then is moaning that school don't accept trainers.

The hush puppy ones are definitely black trainers rather than school shoes I think

No, you’re thinking of a wedge sole that exists on a variety of shoes and sandals that are not trainers. Clarks were even doing a wedge sole school shoe years before trainers were a thing.

I speak as a school improvement advisor and ex DH in a secondary school and I can not understand why schools have a problem with any of those shoes. I can understand the next step which is children turning up in black trainers and parents arguing the toss.

The issue really is that too many parents (not you OP) simply don't want their child to conform to any uniform - so whatever the rule is they push the boundary and once a few get away with it, more do it.

So black school trousers slip to black jeans or cords, or black leggings or black trackie bottoms or cropped style trousers.

Black sweatshirts become trackie tops, or have sports logos, or other logos.

I can not think there is any argument presented by parents about school uniform that teachers have not heard before. Schools bend over backwards with leaflets, letters home, newsletters, parent evenings, meetings, website photos, school brochures etc to illustrate what is expected and what isn't acceptable. It ends up as seeming like nit-picking but the problem is almost always parents- who will not say no to their child or could not care less and just like a row. If all parents did as the school asks, there would be a handful of misunderstandings and that is all. As it is, schools keep 'refining' the wording to close down the gaps and wriggle room and it becomes ridiculous- as in this instance. There should be no problem with any of these shoes.

I don't understand - you sent them pictures of the shoes you wanted to check were ok, got the ok, then went and bought others?

My son has dyspraxia so his shoes have either elastic stretch laces, Velcro fastenings or elastic stretch sides.

In your shoes, pardon the pun, I wouldn’t back down and I’d tell the school where to go with their ridiculous footwear policy. Thankfully, the school my DS goes to is fairly low key on uniform policy and so providing the shoes are black, more or less anything goes.

I’m often surprised by how many Mumsnetters are willing to roll over and accept any batshit over zealous uniform policies for fear of being thought a difficult parent. Weird!

I sent 3 pictures to check not the specific shoes I was buying but the style. I then went to the local specialist uniform shop that stocks all the school-branded uniform items and my son tried a selection of what I thought were the same style of shoe, and we bought the ones that were most comfortable and fitted best.
We were 2 days before the start of term by this point (yes, I should have done it earlier) so I didn't have time to get the specific ones we chose approved.
I should have bought one of the specific ones they had checked but I was over-confident in my ability to judge what would be ok as they had called all of the others "perfect".

I think the hush puppies are the least trainer-like and thought the start-rite were the most! Blimey, what a minefield.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of the shoes you have posted photos of. There's no chance I'd be spending more money on another pair of shoes. If school are so unhappy with the ones you bought they can bloody well pay for a new pair. Honestly, it's ridiculous.

I can't believe the head has nothing better to do!
These are all perfectly acceptable shoes for school. None of them stand out as being different.

I'm just imagining Mumsnetters at the gym - if so many people think these shoes are trainers.

Regardless of your view on whether school uniform's a good thing, this level of pettiness over small details is a waste of time for teachers, a waste of money for parents, and causes children unnecessary anxiety.

I would have guessed the hush puppies but it’s a very close thing and I honestly don’t think they look like trainers. I do think the school are being unreasonably fussy here, especially for a child with the additional needs you mention.

Its ridiculous how strict some schools can be, my son wears black adidas Tensaur trainers for school, all of the shoes you listed are fine.
It’s so silly, kids need to be comfortable and schools also need to take into consideration how much it costs to buy decent school shoes.

The school policy says that a Drs note is required if students need a different type of shoe for any reason. So I would need to get my GP to write a letter if I were to do this. Which given the state of the NHS and my access to GPs....

Im so glad my dc re no longer at school. Having to email the teachers to get permission for the style of shoe is absolutely ridiculous. Glad teacher have so much time on their hands they can inspect shoes and check emails of this nature - id heard they were over worked ffs

They don't look like actual trainers obviously in the same way that you wouldn't go running in Adidas Superstars. But they do look the most like the black 'school' shoes that the trainer companies like Nike, Adidas etc brought out to capture the school shoe market.

And what do most of the boys do at school lunchtime? Football! And what is the best footwear for football? Shiney lace up stiff shoes or these?