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"?!

It's ridiculous, they are all perfectly acceptable leather school shoes. I'm a teacher and the only think I want for kids feet is for them to be supportive for growing feet and comfortable. I do get that a uniform means rules but as long as they are like these shoes and not emblazoned with sports or designer logos I don't see the issue.

I’d be telling the school to supply the shoes themselves if they’re that fussy.
Other countries are really not this neurotic in making children into identikits and the kids all seemed happy in school to me.
I really don’t understand this British obsession or where it came from.

OP I can’t see any difference in the shoes, they all look fine. Do they give you a vegan option?

I do not understand why some schools feel the need to have the pupils dress up like 1940's civil servants, but I do kind of understand the desire to not put kids or their parents under pressure to shell out on brands (if indeed that is the case for the policy)

Yet this school want OP to shell out for a second pair of shoes because of imperceptible differences to the first pair or her son will be punished for her mistake.

Whatever about the style of shoe that the OP bought, can someone please explain to me how any of the shoes in the OP's post would impede a student or even a class of students from paying attention and learning, because that's what I thought children were sent to school to do.

Omg that is just batshit. They should be spending their time educating your child not complaining about shoes! I get there needs to be a line and they can’t wear just anything but this is extreme.

Our school rules are they must be black and usually towards the end of the year we get a reminder that black and while trainers are not acceptable. That’s it!
Surely the footwear needs to meet the child’s needs (eg Velcro for your son, mine have black goretex adidas because they walk 45 mins in all weather so need dry feet!) not a ridiculous policy.

@TheUnstoppableWindmill so is their level of strictness typical for the region? I hope you don’t need to buy another pair of shoes.

The photo I’ve attached is what my children wear to school - they cycle to school and back and play football or basketball at break times.

The rules seem bizarre, as others have said as black trainers are an ideal balance between smart and casual for class and sport.

Your child must have gone to my children’s school - a Greenshaw trust. They take discipline and acceptable uniform to the absolute extreme. We are talking warnings for not holding a white board up at the “E” in “show meeee” and a second warning for not sitting bolt upright facing forward at all times.
As for uniform, my son’s shoes were pre approved before tag removals when he started in 2019 but the actual tutor teacher turned out to be someone else and SHE turned her nose up at them and had been misinformed. It took me printing the website images of acceptable shoes and bringing it in in person for her to relent. A week later she was off sick and another teacher decided the shoes still weren’t acceptable. The reason being two straps= utterly unacceptable and trainer like and one strap= okay. My son spent his whole first school year with a print out of the image in his backpack.
Lesson learned:
It doesn’t really matter if the shoes are on the example sheet, it’s case by case dependant on the actual teacher in control of line up.

Whoever thought kids went to school to LEARN.

I'd be tempted to email daily with lists of hundreds of shoes for approval

I’m not sure which were the Next ones, but I assume the ones without a company logo on the photo( not shoe)
My only concern, would be, having bought two pairs of Next leather shoes for boys in the past, they last a couple of months at most, before they fall apart.

All of the shoe manufacturers make the robust almost trainer type shoe now, and the fact that schools want boys and girls to attend in dress shoes, is ridiculous.
Most of our older children are traipsing to school through all weathers, might want to run around a little ( thinking of football) and trudge through snow in the winter.
Dress shoes are much less comfortable for a school walk, and useless for bad weather.

I’m not a complaining parent normally, but shoes without good grips for boys and girls are a HUGE annoyance to me.

Ha. Sounds like my school. Is it in the North East of England by any chance?

These ultra-strict policies are increasingly common I think- it's not a Greenshaw school and I imagine there are many trusts that share the same sort of policy. Partly popularised by Birbalsingh. I think it's the same principle as the zero tolerance 'broken windows' theory that Guliani adopted for policing in New York. Which obviously went really well and didn't have any ethical social-cleansing issues 🙄.

When you get to this level of nit picking over a pair of shoes, you know the school's crap.

My brother's kids go to school abroad, with no school uniform at all, and I'm so jealous about what he tells me about the schools. For a start, his kids like their teachers. It probably helps that they're not getting shamed over their appearance every day like kids in this country do.

Bottom right are trainers.

Hush puppies 100% they look like a trainer

I wouldn't have risked buying any of them. They all look like trainers trying to look like school shoes.

I would suggest to the head that they were purchased at a school uniform shop, hence imo suitable.

I watched happy teenagers in old parts of Lanzarote, getting off the school bus, walking about in jeans or shorts and T-shirts, which low hanging colourful rucksacks.

It seemed a much better idea.
Just because some people feel that paying £90 for a t shirt made in China is better than paying £10 for a tshirt from China without a logo. Is their problem really.

We need to move away from uniforms, as Workplaces are now much more relaxed.

I love a local Senior school who have the uniform of black trousers or skirts, black jumper or sweatshirt and polo shirt. No logos, any shop or supermarket brand accepted.

And no extreme fussiness over shoes, just wear black.

Affordable for parents, easy to wear for kids.

My son wears those hush puppies ones as he has ASD. They are comfortable for him and he is able to put them on himself helping with his independence.

He's in a special school though and they don't do the uniform obsession nonsense.

So sorry you and your DS have had to deal with this.

It's fucking ridiculous. That's what it is.
Don't they have anything better to do than be answering emails about what shoes are suitable and then checking said shoes once the children start school and sending children to isolation or "reset" or whatever it's called because of their shoes.
It shouldn't fucking matter as long as the shoes are black, safe (ie. no open toed sandals), and not designer brands or extreme styles.

But then I've lived in another country now for 15 years where there is no school uniform and I can't see a difference in behaviour or bullying of children because kids are wearing their own clothes. In fact the behaviour here is much better than the UK. (I've taught in schools in both countries).

Sorry, OP. They all seem like good shoes to me, and I think the school is taking it too far. Wish they would put some of that uniform-policing energy into helping kids with SEN.

Both my kids go to a non-uniform school. Every year at the start of term I hear of other parents struggling with various schools overpolicing trivial uniform issues (pleated vs. nonpleated skirts, hairstyles, shoes). Even to the point of lining up for sock-checks. Feels like a waste of time and money. Meanwhile my kids get on with settling in and starting academics. And neither of them are boiling due to having to wear blazers in this heat.

My (probably unpopular) opinion is that uniform policies (which includes hairstyle rules) are inherently ableist and racist, but there's such a core of "rules iz rules!" folks out there that until the policies are robustly challenged, kids are going to continue to suffer.

edit: spelling issue

A doctor’s note? This is utter utter madness. I thought my DDs’ school had some sort of uniform obsession but this is next level!!

What an absolute waste of everyone's time and money.

There is very little difference between any of the shoes you posted.

I'd request a meeting and go in with printouts of all the shoes and waste an hour of the head's time just to make my point.

I think that the first ones look most trainer like do to the shape of the sole.

My school in the 90s was exactly the same so I don’t think it’s new.

Hair bobbles had to be navy blue, earring gold round stud only, shoes below 5cm in height (this was before flats were cool), tie down to waist band and skirts to knees

I honestly don’t have a problem with a strict uniform code, our local school you can see the bum cheeks of the girls walking to school. If they had feee reign I would dread to thing what some of the girls would go to school in 😳

This is crazy. All those shoes look perfectly smart enough for school. Its ridiculous you'd have to fork out for another pair!