School Uniform

[lisbey]

I've just been to a meeting at the Junior School my DS2 will attend from Sept. No surprises for me, as DS1 is already there. However, some of the Mums were outraged at the uniform policy.

The colours are the same as the infants, but the infants wear poloshirts and sweat shirts, whereas the juniors have shirt, tie, jumper.

The contentious issue was that the jumpers must be an unusual colour (the infants can choose the odd colour or grey) which can only be purchased from the school.

They are good quality, was well, need little ironing and cost £7.75 each. Ties are £1.25. To me that's an excellent idea and saves all sorts of hassle, plus means the children are smart and there's no competition over who's got what etc. The rest of the uniform is standard school colours and can be purchased anywhere.

The complaints were that the jumper's too expensive and girls won't want to wear a jumper (cardigans not available and impossible to buy in the right colour elsewhere).

IMO, it's small issue and if you're going to send your child to the school, you support the school. I really don't get the "she won't want..." Not her choice surely?

Do you think it's an unreasonable policy? We're not in an affluent area, this isn't a "good" school keeping the riffraff out with a strict uniform policy, but in the year since they introduced it (used to be same as infants) there has been a marked improvement in behaviour (of the children if not the parents

I would just like to say, that only 1 jumper would not be enough. We struggle at times with only one secondary blazer (paint still gets spillt).

I really don't get the whole "uniform causes good behaviour" argument. State schools up here don't have strict uniforms - they have "dress codes" which are agreed and can be enforced, but are not strict about details. DSs school requires them to wear a white shirt/blouse and school tie, and black trousers/skirt. Plus black jumper/cardi/sweatshirt/jacket if they want. You should see the breadth of interpretation that the DC manage to put onto that set of rules! They are anything but uniformly dressed.

And the school has excellent behaviour and excellent results.

I agree - it's rubbish about uniform-behaviour. Generally spealing, involved paretns and staff and good teaching =good behaviour. Uniform is just faffing about at the margins.

And a uniform in a colour so unusual that you can't buy a cheap sweatshirt in Asda i sounds like snobbery to me. Sorry.

Agree with seeker: that would count as a lot of money round here.

To me, a very formal/unusual school uniform (unless in an old selective school) does not spell Good Discipline: it spells School That Is Afraid Of Losing Its Grip On Discipline.

Hmmm....well, I'm of the opinion that you can tell a lot about the ethos of the school by the uniform policy, in the same way that you can by the tidiness of the school. I have also believe strongly that the school office is another accurate reflection. Our school is very good, but somewhat disorganised, and you can see it in the way the children are dressed (and by the general mess around the place, and the fact that the office regularly "forgets" to tell you important things, like after-school clubs being cancelled). But a nearby school is very hot on all these things, the kids all look immaculate, there's nothing on the floor, and they have a reputation for good discipline. The place is like an oiled machine!

So I'm not sure you can make a school "better" by enforcing a uniform policy, but it certainly is a good reflection on how the school approaches things.

You can enforce a uniform policy (if that's your bag) without enforcing a uniform policy that costs 8 quid a jumper!