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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

what do you think of a school that makes the children wear short trousers and during the winter

144 replies

espares · 05/10/2008 19:10

Hi
My ds has just started at a new school and has to wear short trousers and long grey socks.
Do you think its reasonable to expect the children to wear them during the winter also. we have to walk to school and I am not sure about this.

OP posts:

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Blu · 05/10/2008 19:33

It's not uncommon - do the children themselves complain? My brother fif this and seemed to think it was fine.

Personally I'm not sure why this tradition has continued, but you don't hear of children with frostbitten knees.

I regualarly used to run in winter wearing shortsand was fine.

It seems a bit mad in snow. In Canada it is illegal to send your child to school without a snowsuit in certain months.

SquiffyHock · 05/10/2008 19:33

Just for perspective, when I was at school the girls were not allowed to wear trousers or tights and we were okay. We looked around a private school that has this policy - the head's wife said when they started there they questioned the parents about and only 2 out of a large school requested that they change it.

MadBadandDangeroustoKnow · 05/10/2008 19:33

The DCSF has guidance to schools on uniform and related policies. This says (summarising loosely) that schools can set their own uniform policies but they have to be fair and reasonable. Seems to me that requiring boys to wear shorts in winter is not reasonable and you could lobby the governors on that basis. Does the PTA have a view on this? There may be strength in numbers.

Original poster

espares · 05/10/2008 19:35

It does have excellent ofsted reports coming mostly out has outstanding in every area.
Other parents although they have resrevations about the short trousers in the winter say that everything else about the school outweighs this.

OP posts:

ladyconstancekeeble · 05/10/2008 19:36

My ds prefers shorts. I get the lined ones for winter and he wears long socks but he pushes them down. Its bad if the boys are complaining about the cold or if the building is badly heated.

Marina · 05/10/2008 19:37

I asked ds, as now they are in Yr 5 they can wear long trousers all year if they want (they've always been able to wear them in winter) and he said it is always so warm in school in winter he likes to cool off at break/on the way home. I think it's unfair to enforce shorts in winter for those who feel the cold, but I also know quite a few boys who like wearing them, I don't think it's that weird. What I do think is horrible is being encased in Teflon-coated polyester from chin to ankle, yuk.
Dd is the same - knee socks in winter, it has to be really cold for her to tolerate tights.

bran · 05/10/2008 19:41

I wore skirts and knee socks for my entire schooling and survived it, skirts are even colder than shorts IMO. I would have preferred to wear trousers on horizontal rain/sleet days though.

Judy1234 · 05/10/2008 19:52

100% of the private schools do that around here and it's great. My twins have never complained about being cold. In fact this term when they turn 10 they are now in trousers and they are wanting the shorts back as it's cooler.

LazyLinePainterJane · 05/10/2008 20:02

Ds's primary does this. It is a state school, and a good one at that, grey shorts all year round for boys. It's not the children who are complaining!

Sidge · 05/10/2008 20:16

I think it's daft.

I certainly wouldn't want to wear shorts in winter, long socks or not. At least with skirts you can wear tights.

NotAnOtter · 05/10/2008 20:24

ds wears shorts all year never moans

celtiethree · 05/10/2008 20:38

I would say that it depends on where you live. If in Scotland then yes completely unreasonable. If in the South then you should be fine, my brother had to suffer this when at primary school in London, different if they were insisting on short socks!!!!!!!!!!!!

morocco · 05/10/2008 20:40

my primary school did this and apparently still does
I can't believe the parents let the school get away with it tbh. I wouldn't put up with that for a second. it's crap. ignore it and send him in in trousers. if you want a laugh, tell the school it's against your religion

MollieO · 05/10/2008 21:00

That is the uniform at my ds's school. Apparently they wear their tracksuit bottoms in the winter to play outside (not sure anyone actually walks their dc to school there!). I got the longest shorts I could and thick wool socks. No actual flesh is visible and it doesn't seem much different to me than girls wearing skirts in the winter (which was the norm when I was at my state school).

AbbeyA · 05/10/2008 21:58

They always used to do it, all boys wore shorts until they were about 13yrs. However they don't these days, it is not the norm. I don't know why the parents let them do it, they only have to band together and insist on the option to wear the same colour in long trousers.

Hulababy · 05/10/2008 21:59

Wouldn;t bother me. Boy's school here has shorts and long socks for bys till secondary age. No different to girls wearing skirts/pinafore and long socks.

Hulababy · 05/10/2008 22:00

If it is a state primary then they can't innsist if in England They can't insist on any uniform.

If it is private - then it is probably tough. You know the rules when you chose the school.

twinsetandpearls · 05/10/2008 22:01

I think dd old primary had this rule for boys in the infants.

Mutt · 05/10/2008 22:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NannyNanny · 05/10/2008 22:08

The boys I look after have to wear shorts and long socks all year round. They have to do this until age 11. We live in the north of Scotland. Chilly to say the least!

MollieO · 05/10/2008 22:12

I thought shorts were a good idea as they wouldn't need replacing as frequently as trousers (ie are more forgiving for growth spurts). The cruel inference completely passed me by and my ds doesn't seem bothered about wearing shorts with long socks during the week and trousers with short socks at the weekends. I also wouldn't consider his school to be 'tough'.

NotAnOtter · 05/10/2008 22:27

sorry to state the obvious but 5 year in boy in shorts LUSH

mine looks sooooooooooo sweet!

Woollymummy · 05/10/2008 22:35

Not exactly the answer to the question, but I used to catch a bus to work and see a young lad get on every day to go to his very expensive fee-paying school in the next town, wearing a pair of shorts, shirt and blazer. Only it wasn't a proper woollen blazer that would keep you warm on a frosty morning, it was a thin, synthetic, desperately inadequate one. i felt sorry for him, obviously his parents didn't think to buy him a normal warm coat because that might have covered up the badge displaying which jolly expensive school he was heading off to, shivering.

Blu · 06/10/2008 12:18

DS's school has no uniform - and I took special note, this chilly autumn morn, of the number of boys who were wearing shorts by choice - just below knee-length, admittedly, but their socks were also shorter than nice wool-knit knee socks, so the amount of exposed leg was about the same.

PoorOldEnid · 06/10/2008 12:20

i think little boys look lovely in shorts and long socks

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