School complaining for following uniform code

[NyanCat89]

My DD has just started her first year in school and already her teacher has been complaining about the shoes she's wearing in class and today the Headteacher told us she wants us to get new shoes by Thursday.

The system the school uses consists of outdoor shoes what they turn up in and play outside with (where anything goes) and indoor shoes that follow the uniform code.

According to the uniform code, accepted shoes consist of "Black" Plimsolls (aka sandshoes), Pumps or Court-shoes.

Personally wanting our daughter to look smart in her uniform we opted to buy some nice school shoes which I guess would come under court-shoes, anyway we got them from Sainsbury's for £12 and also have memory foam in them. I believe good supported footwear is important though it is difficult with kid's shoes, I try when I can.

Apparently every other kid in the school wears sandshoes. Probably due to everywhere selling them including the school for something like £3.

So the teacher is complaining that our daughter looks the odd one out and the headteacher agrees. If I was breaking the school uniform code then fair enough (wouldn't have let it happen in the first place), but we're not.

But plenty of other kids break the school uniform code and no one complains/cares. Kids are supposed to wear grey trousers/skirts but more then a few wear black.

[Notreallyarsed]

@Lifechallenges state primary and Council Nursery. I was especially as neither are in anything like affluent areas.

[MidniteScribbler]

I wouldn't think the shoes pictured in the first picture are suitable school shoes. There's no protection of the foot, and they don't seem very practical.

Then again, our school just lets kids wear their sneakers all the tie. No fuss, plenty of support and suitable for lots of running around outside. No changing for PE either.

[Lifechallenges]

Notreally pls tell me that's not a state school... our is any shoes, PE pumps or just wear trainers on PE day and wellies in nursery and reception. 3 max

[Notreallyarsed]

I was at what school/nursery requested the kids to have with them this year.

DS1 (School): school shoes, indoor soft shoes, wellies, indoor gym shoes (non marking sole), outdoor gym shoes (trainers).

DD and DS2 (Nursery): outdoor shoes (trainers), indoor shoes (plimsolls or slippers), wellies.

That was 11 pairs of footwear before I’d even started on uniform!

[RoganJosh]

By court shoes do they mean tennis shoes? I.e. Plimsoles again? It seems really odd for them to specify slip on 'grown up' shoes.

[Feenie]

Slippers + boys' toilets =

[AlexanderHamilton]

Thinking back, because of her wide foot & high instep back when she was in primary I was unable to find any (even Clarks were too narrow/not deep enough) plimsolls that fitted her. I resorted to jazz shoes in the end!!!

[AlexanderHamilton]

The difference in support between bare feet & unsupportive shoes is things like in slip on shoes you grip your toes in order to keep them on, especially if you have high arches & wearing shoes like plimsolls compares your feet, your arches can collapse etc. They also encourage some children to pronate

My dd is hypermobile with very high arches & a tendency to pronate. She still cannot (age 15) wear ballet flat/court shoes or anything very flat. She could not have complied. Barefoot she is fine with, it's totally different.

[Logans]

I can't help but wonder if these plimsoles are regarded as crap / bad for feel just because they are cheap and old fashioned?

[Logans]

As op said, kids are actually best in bare or socked feet indoors. Some schools have indoor pumps for all sorts of reasons or indeed just socks.

Yes. In fact, don't a great number of schools in the Far East have bare feet indoors because of cultural perception of shoes being unclean?

Certainly in Japan they change in to school slippers indoors.

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

Our primary has indoor shoes and outdoor shoes in the winter. They have a couple of trugs by the door, one for wellies and one for slippers etc. Some kids like to wear shoes indoors and boots outdoors, some kids like to wear slippers indooors and shoes outdoors. Nobody gives a shiny shit what they look like. It works well for us, it keeps the floors a little bit cleaner.

Your school clearly has the luxury of having too much time on their hands. Ask them if they've seriously got nothing better to concern themselves with.

[ArbitraryName]

We had to change our shoes to indoor gym shoes (the black elasticated abominations pictured up thread) at primary school. It was not a lovely new build even at the time. DS1 had to have gym when he started in 2005.

It was pointless and meant that the school needed huge cloakroom areas. They could probably have used the space used for racks for coats and shoes (plus the space to stand or sit and change your shoes for every child) much more effectively. The coat racks in DS2's school do not take up the space required for half a classroom.

[Lifechallenges]

Sorry previous poster said re socks / bare feet. I can't take a school seriously that makes such a fuss about a decent pair of shoes.
Our multi cultural City school has seven hundred kids in it so the idea of the HT worrying about one child's shoes is beyond me.
And yes they can't make you change

[Lifechallenges]

Plimsolls for indoor use are fine. As op said, kids are actually best in bare or socked feet indoors. Some schools have indoor pumps for all sorts of reasons or indeed just socks.
I am so thankful that our school seriously does not waste any time on what shoes DC have on. Anything goes.
I don't think clarks girls shoes with heels and bows are appropriate either for climbing and wet play myself.
Trainers are a much better idea and hence common at our school.

[TheNext]

Personally, I'd just go back to Sainsbury's and spend £3 on plimsoles. I doubt it'll make any difference to the children's growth or comfort and it just doesn't seem a battle worth picking.

[Butterymuffin]

Don't see how they can ask you to change shoes that don't break the uniform policy. Tell them that.

[Logans]

I find all this talk of lack of support a bit illogical - do PPs all make their DC wear proper shoes at home in the house because being barefoot / in socks doesn't provide enough support? I assume not but perhaps I'm wrong!

In fact, the expensive £60-£80 (so I assume desirable) brands of school shoes have very soft leather and thin flexible soles compared to a Clarks / Start Rite pair and therefore provide less support.

[EggysMom]

Never heard them called sandshoes before ... Pretty sure I wore black plimsolls all school day at primary when I was a child (70s), and my feet weren't ruined ...

[Coloursthatweremyjoy]

Tell them that they have cited court shoes and you have bought court shoes. If they wanted to be specific then they should have provided photos. As it is their policy is woolly and open to interpretation...this is your interpretation.

Personally I would tell them that synthetic fabric and unsupported shoes are very bad for children's feet and I would not be buying them. But I have happily been "that parent" for years. I find it gets stuff done.

They can't enforce it.

[ilovesushi]

Insane! They are lovely smart appropriate shoes. Plimsols can't be good for kids feet as everyday wear. They've no support and no warmth. I like the idea of indoor and outdoor shoes though! Wish my DCs' school would do that.

[HangingRock]

These are the Clarks ones. www.clarks.co.uk/Kids/Plimsolls/c/k12

[Feenie]

If by 'sandshoes,' you mean those dreadful black plimsolls with elasticated fronts they used to sell in Woolworths, then there's no WAY I would have allowed my kids to wear those all day. Synthetic material and no support? Yuk. Much more healthy to wear properly-fitted Clarks.

Clarks do sell those black fitted pumps, actually - they're called Doodles.

OP, your school shouldn't be asking you to change shoes that match their uniform policy.

[ALittleMop]

They are being preposterous
Is the point of inside shoes and outside shoes to keep carpets clean?
(what a bloody faff how about a doormat)
If so it matters not at all what they look like

I'd tell them no.
Unless your DD wants to look the same, in which case I would get her some pumps (though with a huge ? about their comfort and suitability for daylong wear) at a time convenient and affordable to me.