Do you think schools should relax uniforms policies re hot weather

[Cozc]

Going to be 26-31c for the rest of the month. My friend’s DD’s academy has told pupils and parents that they are not allowed to remove blazers in lessons (bar PE).

This is ridiculous. Bet the female teachers are wearing light floaty dresses, skirts and short sleeve tops. Male teachers - short sleeve shirts and a lighter coloured trousers.

Why do schools expect the pupils to wear a blazer?

YANBU.

I am generally pro-uniform, but there must be reasonable adaptations in extremely hot weather. Having to wear a jumper or blazer feels too much in this heat for sure.

My DCs are 4 and 6. My DD wears her gingham cotton dresses with ankle socks, so bare legs and short sleeves. She was still very hot walking home today. My DS wears his usual polo shirt and smart school shorts. Neither have worn their sweatshirts or cardigans for days.

I have no idea why for older children there would be any issue with smart shorts/skirt and a short sleeved light cotton shirt in the usual school colours, etc.

You’ve waited until lunchtime? It’s been hot all morning - they shouldn’t have been wearing a tie or long sleeves in this weather. I thought schools were meant to have a duty of care and promote good learning opportunities?

He has to wear it for 30 seconds from car to form room so really not a big deal plus he goes in at 7:30 in the morning so it isn’t hot then anyway.

Why even take a blazer with you in this weather ?

This is just nonsense though.
My children went to a school without a uniform they both left with straight As at A level. That school still doesn't have a uniform and has much better results than other schools with a struct uniform policy. And the children who leave the school are also self confident and able to make their own decisions because they haven't been strictly regulated for their whole school life.
Many schools in Europe have no uniform are you suggesting they all perform badly?.

School isn't and should never be like the Army!
I am sure that the mental health crisis we have now is because of ultra strict schools that prioritise looks, grades and blind obedience over a child's mental health

I don't know why so many schools need impractical, expensive blazers as part of their uniform. What happened to practical polo shirt and jumper, with the jumper being removed when the pupil wanted to? I find it so outdated too. Most roles no longer require suits and even in roles where it is required, the jacket is generally for brief client facing periods of their day.

Correlation does not imply causation.

Government guidance says they should drop blazers. Our school
has

So what’s the point of him even taking it! Still sounds mad.

I am quite content to see the link here though. Having worked in a diverse array of schools.

We should convince all the DC attending these silly schools to pretend to faint with heat stroke and then hopefully they will see how ridiculous it is and change the rules. Its so dangerous I can't believe this is still a rule

Absolutely ridiculous.
What's too hot to one person isn't necessarily too hot for another. It's common knowledge that men run hotter than women.

Not to mention all those sweaty teens in blazers in classrooms. They must stink like the Charlie Brown smelly kid.

My youngest runs hot, I'm dreading him going to secondary school.

I can see me having to fight his corner that blazers in warm weather isn't good.

His school trousers that he's had the last 2 years are like brand new, luck if they've been worn for a week.
Goes to school in a stupid fleece & shorts that always makes me think the teachers must look and say "poor kid, with no proper jacket"

That rule sounds with the toilets at my school. We had a toilet block per school year and a one way system. Only allowed to use toilets between lessons, breaks. The problem was about 75% of the time, the toilets were in the opposite direction and other side.

We got told off for being late! Not our fault

Of course. Ours does. The bigger problem is many children being schooled in buildings that are no longer fit for purpose. Too cold in winter, too hot in summer and in no way eco-friendly/sustainable.

Finland and Estonia perform better in PISA and have generally universally better performing and more equal education systems than the UK, and neither have state school uniforms.

I'd also like to see evidence of the claim of a definite link between "strict" uniform policy and good results in the UK - I would be surprised to see genuine proof of even a ling term correlation, and astounded if there were anything approaching genuine proof of causation.

The only reason uniforms persist in the UK are because parents on the whole support them - generally based on assumptions which don't hold true in practice. I went through a school with a strict uniform and taught in that system my children all went through a country without uniform, and I know which nationality of teenagers spent more time thinking about clothing worn to school, and how to subvert rules and waste class time with tiny tweeks. The "Mufti day" angst that happens in the UK doesn't exist in countries where children and teenagers never wear uniform, and uniforms don't hide differences in disposable income the way parents kid themselves they do because of issues of fit, second hand, stained, outgrown items, the wrong shoes etc.

New headteachers adore uniform because it's a "low hanging fruit" - changing or cracking down on uniform is the new headteacher way to mark his or her territory...

Overall uniform issues are a distraction from teaching and learning and deep seated systemic issues easily papered over by concentrating on something easy to control, visible but superficial.

When did you last enter a workplace? I’ve been in several over the past few years as an employee and a visitor, and they all allowed smart casual wear including tailored shorts, open necked tees, sandals and sleeveless tops (not spaghetti straps).

Finally people are catching on that you don’t need a three piece suit to be professional.

I work in a school (non teaching staff) and today I witnessed a teacher stopping any boy with his shirt untucked to tell him to tuck it back in. They are also expected to still wear their ties. Most of them look a completely disheveled and sweaty mess. I'd say they'd look a damn sight smarter in weather appropriate clothing.

My DC secondary school allows PE kit on hot days

Which schools without a uniform have you worked in and how does the socio-economic background of the children compare with the schools with the strictest uniform rules? And which were state schools and which were private schools?

Virtually everyone in our large business park was in smart casual summer clothes. Lots of blokes in smart chino shorts too. No weirdos in suits or jumpers.
And we all have air con and iced water.

School leadership teams need to up their game and start treating pupils well, shorts all year round and scrap blazers. No wonder kids are fed up.

That's a strawman argument. No one is advocating for shorts and flip flops.

Your views are also outdated and not representative of most modern workplaces.

The most sensible approach would be to have a list of approved items in the uniform policy (which needn't include ties!) and then let each kid choose.
Why on earth should we wait for the head to decree if it's hot enough?
I often show up at my workplace wearing just my shirt, while colleagues near me wear layers upon layers. Why should I be forced to feel hot, or they forced to feel cold? Makes no sense.

Oh, and for anyone who says "I out up with it, so can you" : shame on you. That kind of attitude normalises everything that was wrong in the past, and forgets that "back in my days" climate change was less of a thing and temperatures were lower.

Also, it's not just about how often it's 30C outside, but how often 25C outside can mean 30C inside, thanks to poorly ventilated and insulated buildings, often with too much glass on the south-facing side (sauna effect)

Another silly strawman argument.
Phones are banned because phones have a detrimental effect on children, on their social interactions, on their learning, etc. It doesn't apply to the adults teaching in schools because adult teachers are not there to learn.

So there is an objective difference.

What would be the objective difference that justifies why teachers can wear summery dresses while students must boil in their blazers? Can you please explain?

Social order would collapse if children were allowed to take off their blazers?
And the fact that concentrating while sweating is harder is irrelevant?

No. The Sutton Trust has always been adamant that no link between uniforms and school performance can be proven
https://www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion/all-news-opinion/smaller-classes-uniforms-primary-homework-among-least-effective-ways-boosting-school-performance/

what do you think would be the rationale whereby forcing kids to sweat in their blazers during a heatwave would improve school performance?

A big part of this problem is that schools have been given too much independence. Most secondary schools are now academies, and de facto unaccountable to anyone. If you read their complaints policies, not even the secretary of education can overturn their decisions.
This means that it's easier for headteachers with an inflated sense of self to come up with silly rules, and to delude themselves that these rules will drive performance - because they are not accountable to anyone.

As long as the school remains oversubscribed and the Ofsted reports are good, no one can hold them to account on their stupid policies

"There is a reason why the vast majority of schools with the best results have strict uniforms, including blazers and ties."

Camden Girls , a non uniform state school gets brilliant results with many of their pupils going to Oxford or Cambridge.