or is the school?

[claw3]

Just had a phone call from school to say that the Head has decided to clamp down on 'incorrect' school uniform and that my ds 13 is with her in the office and they want to send him home to change his shoes.

He is wearing all black plimsoll type shoes, which up until this point have been allowed in school.

I explained that these are the only school shoes he has at the moment and that i cannot afford to buy him any different shoes until the 13th January, but would do so then.

She has told me she has been advised by the Head that he will have to stay home until the 13th.

I have told her that is ridiculous and is not acceptable to me. She is going to get back to me.

madamearcati, It is not the black that keeps the rain out. Red ones would work fine- yet I have had to send a pupil home for wearing red shoes.

Loving the clown shoes idea though

Please don't assume that all children are in charge of the clothes they wear, or have the disposable income to buy new ones- OP aside, I have had children turn up for school in clothes completely unsuitable for the weather. Their parents were unable- or sometimes unwilling- to buy them new ones. They got sent home, missing more days at school and becoming increasingly disaffected with their education.

One child would 'kick off' everyday at 12.00- we found out in the end that this was because school lunch was the only meal he ate each day, and he was starving and unable to concentrate. He made a huge effort to get to school each day- should I have sent him home for having unsuitable footwear?

Tethersend-If parents knew that the school had a strict uniform policy which would be enforced eg black leather lace-up shoes then they would not waste their money buying 'red' or canvas shoes because they know they would be unacceptable and they would have to fork out for another pair.But if a school doesn't enforce uniform then more and more kids cajole their (weak) parents by showing them Tom Dick and Harry wearing CON shoes and getting away with it and you have a vicious circle going on.

Madame, i wouldnt call myself 'weak', ill informed by the school and beautiful maybe, but not weak!

I wasn't talking about you Claw3.
YOUR school didn't make the uniform policy clear - so you couldn't have known they weren't acceptable.By Weak I meant parents who do know they are not allowed , but still by them for their DC because that's what all their mates have.

Sorry i stand corrected

"Tethersend-If parents knew that the school had a strict uniform policy which would be enforced eg black leather lace-up shoes then they would not waste their money buying 'red' or canvas shoes because they know they would be unacceptable and they would have to fork out for another pair"

Good parents would, madame. Parents that spend the family allowance on heroin tend not to give two shits about a school's uniform policy, much less have the ability to send their child to a private school which reflects their own laissez-faire parenting style. In most areas, the only way you can choose a school is to use the private system.

I'm not sure what you think would happen if every pupil arrived at school wearing red shoes? Armageddon?

What I mean is, some parents don't care, and we are effectively punishing their children for this by removing them from education.

My DD's school P's me off. My DD is very stubborn fussy with what shoes she will or won't wear, she will wear mary janes or flat boots but nothing else. She is also unable (due to her disabilities) to tie laces by herself. She's in an adult size 4 at 11yo (Y7). The school state in their uniform policy 'no boots'. So what the hell do I send her in? She hates wet feet, but can't tie laces, and all the 'proper' shoes that cover the whole foot in an adult size 4 (that aren't completely unfashionable) are lace-ups. Or boots. Now I wouldn't let her go to school in boots with a heel, but they won't even let her wear flat boots. So despite the weather (rain/snow) it's only mary janes/ballet pumps (whatever they're ruddy called). So she gets wet/cold feet. Any suggestions on that one as she needs new shoes right now (the mary janes only last her 6 weeks, I want to get her some flat boots but have a feeling the school will have a fit about it). And OP, YANBU, they had this at DD's school last term where the HoY suddenly decided the canvas plimmies were no longer acceptable.

Loudlass, the school have to make reasonable adjustments for disabilities by law, so they should let her wear boots if the fussiness and not being able to tie laces is caused by her disability.

I remember have plastic bags in side a pair of very fashionable but cheep tat boots when at school.
I wouldn't dare admit to my mum that my feet were wet, cold & covered in blisters in case she made me wear something sensible!
13 is old enough to suffer with cold feet in an attempt to be cool

& you know a pair of cool "shoes" for school is going to cost you a fortune don't you!

Tethersend - when these incorrectly clad children are excluded from school would the EWO then become involved and the parents threatened with court action ?

The disability issue would surely mean the school should make an exception for your DD? If not, how about shoes made for older people with velcro straps -- maybe too horrible though.

madame, the EWO is only informed if a child's attendance drops below a certain percentage. Court action is only threatened if all other initiatives put in place by the school and EWO have failed.

If the children in question are normally good attenders, then the EWO would not be involved. If the exclusions are regular, then the SENCO and possibly the EP become involved.

my school actually specified the styles of shoe you were allowed to wear, you had to have a black t-bar indoor shoe and a pair of black lace ups for outdoors. You were give then names of the style - they thought they provided choice as for each type of shoe there were two styles, one from clarks and one from startrite.

The lower half of the school also had a different set of styles from the older half of the school, whose styles were slightly less childish.

My sister was unfortunate enough to have big feet; such that they didn't make the specified styles in her size. So my mother had to find the nearest possible compromise - initially she would get the senior style shoes and then just had to find the best possible thing.

There was one teacher who used to pick on her whenever she saw her and pull her up for having the wrong shoes on. It wasn't enough that she was already hating the fact she had big feet and had to have something different from everybody else.

This woman always made her life a misery despite the fact that sis had had to get official exemptions and had had her shoes OK'd as the school hadn't bothered to put big enough shoes on its list. And there were other people that would try it on and try to get away with fashion shoes that definitely didn't come anywhere near complying with the regulations that she wouldn't bother with.

Amazingly mean and petty; it would be one thing to do it once before it was pointed out to you that she'd got a special dispensation, to do it every week was crazy. Especially as she always used to go on and on about going to church and how she was such a good christian

sorry, rant over, you stirred up an old raw nerve!

If they make him stay home call the paper. If you can't afford new ones till the 13th they will jsut have to wait or pay for them themselves.