I'm sure this has been done before - but - school shoes!

[NigellaTheUndomesticGoddess]

Apologes - this s long and turns into a bit of a rant.

At Easter - after trawling the south of england trying to find DD a pair of school shoes that would a. fit and b. not have butterflies/fairys/sparkles on, I gave up and got her a pair of black crocs. (yes i know some of you don't like crocs)
in favour of crocs:
DD will wear them
they are comfortable
she can run around in them
they don't have sparkly bits
they are easily cleanable
they won't give her bunyons
Now DDs school have told her that she is not allowed to wear them.
I've looked at the uniform policy - it states - shoes to be preferably brown or black. that's all. I saw her teacher this morning who mentioned the shoe issue - I didn't rant just quoted the policy back to her and asked why not black crocs. She didn't know and told me to talk to the head.

So am i going to have to once again trawl the country for shoes to fit dd? she won't be wearing cheap ones from woolworths, or ones that will damage her feet or slip off as she walks (dolly shoe types). Or do i stand my ground and argue with the school (again).
We've had so many issues with dd and school this year it feels like i'm having to fight with them every week and like dd said this morning it feels like they've run out of things to tell her off about. Every time she settles down a bit and i manage to get her through the door without tears and much persuasion they pick on something and it sets her off again.
am a bit fed up with it.

nigellatheundomesticgoddess - I hear what you say. There are some school rules which contribute nothing at all to the happiness or wellbeing of the children and are downright perverse. Those rules do deserve to be challenged (although even then my view is that one should push to get the rule changed rather than leaving it on the statute book and just exempting one's own child from it). That way children can learn something important about challenging injustice.

nigellatheundomesticgoddess - I hear what you say. There are some school rules which contribute nothing at all to the happiness or wellbeing of the children and are downright perverse. Those rules do deserve to be challenged (although even then my view is that one should push to get the rule changed rather than leaving it on the statute book and just exempting one's own child from it). That way children can learn something important about challenging injustice.

Ooops.

absolutely - you have to go about it properly, through the right channels which i have done and will do.
am going to have to brace myself for shoeshopping again, i know.

Have you actually been to clarks and got her feet properly measured? they have loads of different width fittings and come in half sizes too. I can't believe thats clarks wouldn't be able to fit her

Well, with this kind of rules, I would be looking to move my child rather than worrying about shoes TBH

and if this is the list of rules, I would actually rebel about the shoes just for the principle of it as one can't do much about the other rules

School rules about uniform are brilliant, they stop children from being different and therefore they don;t stick out. They are not made for people that can afford to be different they're made for those that can't.

Posieparker - that's what I was stumbling towards saying. You've made the point very eloquently!

Have the girls with the nlue sparkly open toed sandles been told to change too? Otherwise its a bit unfair.

Without a doubt and through bitter exp, my ds will now only wear Doc Martains to school-hard wearing, uber comfy, nice a roomy, plain!

we get ours from here and here

Crocs are totally unsuitable for school and the school is right and reasonable to say so. Contrary to previous posts they can enforce this rule if they wish. Pick battles that are worth winning and don't provide your daughter with more ammunition for feeling like a victim.

I'm with Nigella, the school rules are clear, black shoes, Crocs are shoes and are black, expecting you to buy new shoes this close to the end of term is madness. I like Posie's suggestion of saying you can't afford replaements right now. Bamboostalks imo rolling over and playing dead when petty school tyrants decode to ban shoes because, lets be honest here, they are fashionable is being a victim, telling them to stuff their arbitary rule making is not. God sorry but this whole thread has just thrown me back to my school days where they randomly banned DMs (the safest bloody shoes on the planet) just because the head thought they were inelegant for girls, mind you that's the same tosser who said girls shouldn't wear trousers because it would be unhygenic!

Crocs are not SHOES.
I love crocs and so do my kids, bu tI would never send them to school in them and I would not wear mine to workm
Crocs are beach shoes, certainly not suitable for school, they would be better off in black plimsolls rather than crocs.

Oh emskaboo SNAP!! Our stooopid head of year banned DM shoes for girls for the same reason and wouldn't let us wear trousers unless it was -10 outside .

Nigella I'm so with you - I generally like DDs school but the head has similar 'aspiring grammar school' rules for shoes and uniform. Started a thread much like yours a few weeks back [grin}. And can I add a bitchy aside - DD's headteacher is a very short but glam older lady who wears ridiculous pink high heels to school and thus looks like an over made-up pig walking on its hind trotters. Ooooh feel so much better for venting...

DB; sorry but if they are not shoes what are they??? I understand you might not think they are appropriate, and that's totally your call, but the school rules don't have a caveat, just says shoes.

1shoe
Pronunciation: ˈshü\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English shoo, from Old English scōh; akin to Old High German scuoh shoe
Date: before 12th century
1 a: an outer covering for the human foot b: a metal plate or rim for the hoof of an animal
2: something resembling a shoe in function or placement

Sparkletastic, were you at school in York too?!

No emskaboo - East Sussex. Nosed at your profile and saw you are local and wondered if we had the same educational heritage. I am in the same job as you though

DDs feet are outer covered by something resembling a shoe.
no they are not ideal but as had been said

I CANNOT FIND SCHOOL SHOES TO FIT HER FEET. I HAVE TRIED EVERY SHOE SHOP IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND (well feels like anyway)

She wears shoes. they cover her feet. they are comfortable. she can run in them. she can cartwheel in them. They are not offensive, high heeled, pink, or dangerous in any way shape or form, they do not rub holes in her feet as plimsoles or woolies crap ones would, they don't

I'm with Double Bluff on this. Not everything you wear on your foot is a shoe. To me, shoe implies something fairly formal which covers the whole foot (which crocs don't). Crocs, I think, belong in the same footwear category as flip-flops and beach jellies. Absolutely fine in the right place and time but they're not shoes. IMO.

hmm they don't what?
can't remember.

but am still wondering why they are thought of as unsuitable. am i being a bit thick? please enlighten me

Memoo, I have been to several Clarkes shops, several times with my dd and they admit that their shoes do not fit my dd, and I don't yet have the problem of them having to be school shoes.
Clarkes are a lovely fit on ds but not dd.

I sympathise too with the shoe issue. DD is narrow of heel, wide at the toes & has a high arch. T bar shoes if in leather or canvas seem to be the only type that fit, so no cute mary-janes for her. Fortunately we go to a good independent children's shoe shop where the owner is a qualified podiatrist, who is endlessly patient in her pursuit of the perfect fitting shoe

However, I am with the school re no crocs. Schools usually have in place core rules and then have to introduce others in light of recent trends e.g banning mb phones because of the misuse of camera phones. I can't picture crocs being any part of school uniform.