Girl put in isolation for wearing Asda skirt

[ZebraDanios]

Remember the girl who got put in isolation for wearing Vivienne Westwood shoes and everyone said quite right, uniform is there to foster equality?

This girl got put in isolation for wearing a skirt from Asda rather than the (considerably more expensive) school supplier.

It looked so much like the “accepted” skirt that a teacher had to actually check the label on the skirt.

I don’t even know where to start with this.

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/real-life/tearful-schoolgirl-12-put-isolation-27758306?fbclid=IwAR1xHZEDSoziQQZgABAyXwVxnVS0_5jYmsagX4dlokdaAH5V-i-H1AaT5gs_aem_AVe2g7zlmL1QO0M8PMPIoJcSpZNkCsCbzuXbAkVrfVrr35xE59pApNSSjTcKKFnbaZA#lmvuwx3o8t1y29p0e3x

Difference is probably the length - if you buy a school uniform skirt from a named supplier, it's going to be one length (24" for the smallest size) - but if you buy a skirt with the same waist measurement but from the Asda version made for six year olds, it's going to be far, far shorter.

Especially as the one she's holding up doesn't match/looks significantly longer than the one she's pictured wearing in the article.

This is ridiculous. Enforcing a strict uniform policy will not magically make the school high performing. My DS’ top ten performing state grammar don’t have such ridiculous school uniform rules. Trousers, jumpers, shirts can be bought from anywhere as long as they are the right colour. In fact, they just relaxed it further so that a plain black tracksuit can we worn for PE rather than the branded one. Meanwhile our local failing comp (it’s been OFSTED requires improvement/inadequate for years) even has branded SHIRTS with a logo on. Hasn’t done anything performance wise!

Again, if it was “far, far shorter”, that would have been obvious without the teacher lifting her shirt up to check the label.

I’m a teacher and one of my colleagues recently got reported for safeguarding concerns for touching a child’s shoulder…but lifting up clothes and rummaging about in waistbands is fine as long as it’s in the name of uniform rectitude, right?

Recollections may vary somewhat between the person who is being accused of lifting shirts and the person who wanted to get into the paper.

@ZebraDanios

Youre a teacher and you believe everything you read?

Uniform rules in some areas are becoming beyond a joke . My son is at secondary and they give a list of acceptable uniform .They give a list of suppliers , including supermarkets.
The only thing they stipulate is that the school badge must be on blazers ( badge available from school at at £5) and ties must be worn .
School are not worried - grey trousers are grey trousers, whether they are from Asda or the official school supplier .

Maybe the grammar has more funding and the local failing comp needs to raise money?

I'm not saying that it's right.

The school haven’t denied it.

Interesting you linked to the article from "Edinburgh Live" as we have none of this approved supplier bollocks in Scotland in state schools.

The uniform list will say "black skirt", there is no approved supplier, and parents are free to get said black skirt from Prada or Asda. English school uniform rules are completely unhinged.

I can’t take in a waist band and it costs a fortune to pay for someone to do it. I know because my oldest DC is very skinny. When I paid for waist adjustment the cost was as much as the school shorts (and those shorts were from the uniform supplier to the private school he attended at the time so they weren’t cheap to start with). Thankfully the private school weren’t strict and I then started buying him M&S slim fit adjustable shorts in the same colour. He’s now at a state grammar and I buy him slim fit skinny leg M&S trousers as they are the slimmest fit I can find but they are still really bunched in at the waist. School uniform suppliers don’t cater for skinny children.

unifirm rules are ridiculous but it will be the length I suspect and that fact that the Asda one can be rolled up more and is shorter.

the problem is though that by asserting her normal size daughter is to small the whole testimony fir has to be questioned

likely the teacher was looking to see if it was rolled/zipped at the back due to length rather than the label

but uniform rules are becoming ridiculous. D D in year 10 has moaned that it has suddenly gotten stricter and teachers are suppose to look at the length and she says often her legs are looked at first. She also said the male teachers don’t because how uncomfortable must it be for them and just ignore the rules. Luckily she has good male teachers who don’t want to take advantage of that rule

It's a huge bug bear of mine.
I don't have a problem with uniform per se
I do have a problem with being compelled to buy it from a certain (usually expensive) supplier that the school gets a backhander from

My DC school has a pleated skirt that has to he bought from the school supplier, (we had a uniform "reminder" about it recently) I think it was about £24 when I last bought one a few years ago (DD is now in 6th form) Several local schools (not private) have kilt style skirts costing around £40 each that you'd never be able to get elsewhere. Boys can just wear standard school trousers from anywhere!

You are guessing and wrong. The story is easy to check. Holderness Academy requires a plain black, pleated, knee length tailored skirt with plain black tights. The Asda skirt meets the definition completely. However, the school specifies that the skirt must be purchased from their official uniform supplier.

The parents say this is about size rather than price. The smallest size available from the official supplier is 24in waist.

However, as per my previous post, the academy appears to be acting unlawfully. This skirt is clearly a generic item. Parents should therefore be free to purchase it from any retailer they want. They should not be forced to pay over the odds for a skirt from the school's official supplier.

The woman pictured appears to be the mother of another child who also had issues, not the Asda skirt girl and her mother.

But this is a mean-spirited, fat-shamey reply.

I hate it when parents humiliate their children in the media like this.
Although I do believe that some school seem to be acting like the Gestapo over uniform. A black pleated skirt is a black pleated skirt. What's the issue?

It says in the article that the girl was told to lift up her blouse, so not sure how you've come to the conclusion that the teacher lifted it and was "rummaging about" in her waistband

Maybe the staff member was checking to see if the waistband had been rolled over ( a common thing in schools)and wasn't checking labels at all.
Maybe someone got a bit lippy at being caught out...

This school is in my catchment area luckily my DC don't attend it. I've heard nothing but bad reports about this place and how it is run.

That does not sit with the school's statement. However much people may try and justify the school's actions by inventing scenarios, the reality is that this school insists that skirts are purchased from a particular supplier and is clear that it intends to enforce this policy. As per my previous posts, this policy appears to be unlawful.

The sizes available on the website range from 22" to 40" waist - the smaller being the same measurement as for 6 year olds in the Asda range.

You’re fine with a teacher telling a secondary-school child to lift up her blouse then?

Something has gone deeply, deeply wrong when schools have teachers examining school pupils’ clothes instead of focusing on teaching and supporting them with their education. It’s blind fascistic, fanatical adherence to ridiculous rules and a totally unacceptable distraction from what they should be doing.
Has it not been difficult enough for children since Covid? Honest to god, they need their heads bloody looking at.