AIBU Schools making pupils wear blazers and jumpers in this heat

[plomh]

Every time it’s hot during school time, you hear of schools still insisting that their pupils wear blazers or just their jumpers. https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/kingswood-academy-send-home-defiant-121507.amp

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19462070.wearing-school-blazers-heatwave---readers-say/

What do schools think they are going to achieve from not relaxing the rules? Nothing. More pupils becoming ill, parents keeping their DC away.

It’s barbaric behaviour. Yet I doubt that they make the teachers, non teachers staff wear blazers and wear summer clothes with short sleeves.

It’s very old fashioned. I wonder if they think it gets them prepared for work where there’s a strict uniform policy.

When I first started work, I remember it being particularly hot and the Director sent a message round to say men could loosen their ties if they liked and open their top buttons (it was many years ago!).

All the schools I worked in over 20 odd years thankfully had sensible head teachers who would tell the students to forget ties and blazers in the summer term. I was at secondary school in the 1970's and there was a summer uniform dress for the girls, revere neck shirt for the boys( and girls who wanted to wear skirt and shirt) blazer optional. Interestingly in my last school students of African origin would be the ones to turn up on a boiling hot day in blazer and jumper, refuse to remove either ( because mum said I have to wear it) and sometimes be in distress as a result.

What are doing about it? Have you met with the school to find out why? What would happen if you sent them in shorts and T-shirt?

I still remember my private school in New Zealand during a heatwave graciously letting us carry out blazers over the arm instead of making us wear them (we were not allowed to be seen with no blazers outside of school). They made a special announcement in assembly!

I hoped schools had moved on from these draconian and rigid policies.

Exactly this. We have had a recruitment freeze for the past 2 years and are making drastic cut-backs wherever we can in a last ditch attempt to avoid redundancies. As it is, it's likely we will have to lose some Admin and support staff. If the Government mandated that all schools need to install air conditioning we would be utterly fucked. It would need to be fully funded by the Government which, let's face it, isn't going to happen.

It's ridiculous but I also think it's ridiculous at any time of the year. I don't understand why kids have to wear jumpers and blazers all the time rather than being allowed to choose whether they wear them depending on how hot or cold they feel. Everyone's body feels temperatures differently. I think we've all got a couple of friends who are constantly cold or know someone who always feels warm and wanders around in t-shirts when others are wrapped up.

What exactly is the purpose of making all kids wear jumpers and blazers all the time? What is this supposed to achieve?

Don't schoolgirls wear summer dresses any more? We had lovely cotton, short-sleeved dresses at my school.

Our grammar school is quite strict about uniform but allow summer uniform when it's hot (they send an email telling kids when it's allowed) which means no blazer/tie and they can have short sleeves. No shorts allowed though. Normally they are allowed to take blazers off in class (though they have to ask permission which is a bit ridiculous)

One local school is even stricter and I remember a very hot beginning of September where it was 30 degrees but they still insisted on blazers not being taken off because it was the 'autumn term'.

i wouldn’t have send mine in a blazer today. School could phone me if they wanted but she wouldn’t have been going into school in a blazer in 30 degrees, no chance

Never seen summer dresses in secondary school only in primary.

What a shame - they are much cooler than shorts and t-shirt. We had dresses up to 16 and then up to 18 for specific events at school (otherwise we wore our own clothes).

It's awful.... A memory popped up on DD phone last week of an email I sent the head teacher about a heat wave 15 years ago and the boys being allowed to wear shorts and the girls not. The girls option was trousers or skirts and DD hated skirts!

Skirts are fine even if they’re not DDs preference.

As for blazers and jumpers won’t the children just take them off after they get to school rather than sweltering to the point of fainting in due deference to the dress code.

DD is a teenager, I cannot and would not unilaterally insist she goes to school in completely the incorrect uniform, knowing full well she’d get in a lot of trouble for ignoring the very clear uniform guidance. Nor would she countenance such a daft idea.

DS is in PE kit this week which sounds great but he only has two sets so will mean two washes it's also only 22 here today and cloudy so I'm not sure it was necessary

At my son’s school the policy is “match the head”. If the headmaster takes his tie off - everyone else can take their ties off. Jacket off - so do blazers.
The policy is ace because all the other teachers are expected to follow it too, meaning everyone is held to the same standards; teachers and pupils alike.
This morning we knew no blazers because the head emailed around to let parents know, and every male teacher I have seen this morning has been in trousers and shirts, ties for the gents. Of the few female teachers I have seen this morning most were in trousers and blouses.

Thank goodness DT’s went to a sensible non uniform school where they could decide for themselves what was appropriate and acceptable to wear. I imagine they got much more learning done in the hot weather than some of these draconian uniform enforced schools!

Couldn't your union do anything about that?

Exactly. I don't understand this either 🤷🏻‍♀️
At my dd's school it works the other way as well - they're not allowed to wear coats in the building so it freezing cold winters they are forced to take off their coats as soon as they step over the threshold and those corridors are cold and draughty 🥶
It's nuts!

Well spotted, thank you.

The first article was written in 2017 and the second, written in 2021, says it is “understood that pupils no longer have to wear blazers in classrooms of break times.”

(“of”I imagine should be ‘or’)

Also, the first academy says no students were sent home for refusing to wear their blazers: some were sent home for rude and defiant behaviour.”

I remember when I was at school we had summer uniform for girls skirt/trousers and a school blouse open neck with the school logo on the breast pocket, the boys had open neck short sleeve shirts with the same logo, they could also wear school shorts but only Y7 and 8 seemed to, the older boys didn't. That was a bog standard comp in a rough part of East London

I'd suggest getting together with other parents for a meeting with the head and governors to try to get it through to them that this is utterly ridiculous. They cannot seriously contend that it helps discipline or learning to have children sitting in assembly in this weather wearing shirts, ties, jumpers and blazers, or that they need to wear jumpers all day.

Strict new head that has banned skirts, not hottest part of the country and even ours has said PE kit till Thursday. Who are these awful people dictating jumpers and blazer still???

My high school was really strict with uniform. (We were allowed to remove our blazers but not too much for some reason)

So during one heatwave they had decided we had removed blazers too much and enforced the 'rules'.

Blazer on in corridor, to and from school, for part of the class but allowed to take off for a bit, during break where we had to be outside. and if the head master came in we had to class put them back on. (We also had to stand for him)

Meanwhile teachers were allowed no tie, short sleeve shirt, smart skirts/dresses.
Galling them explaining the rules.

I think only a tiny minority do. School budgets just don't stretch to it, and the problem is exacerbated by the fact that many schools are all plate glass so in effect the children are sitting in greenhouses.

As @MabelsBeats has pointed out, some schools won't let pupils remove blazers and jumpers.