School uniform nonsense...so angry!!!!

[squeezedatbothends]

This is just a rant really, but would appreciate other parent's thoughts on uniform issues. My son's school (Saddleworth) is falling down and has had funding withdrawn from the government to rebuild it so I can understand why they can't provide hooks or lockers for children's coats. This means most of the kids walk to school without coats because they don't want to have to lug them around with heavy bags/PE kits/food tech ingredients all day etc etc. Fair enough, but because the weather has been so cold, I and other parents have insisted that our kids wear a plain white t-shirt or vest under their school shirts. It was so cold yesterday, that my son wore two. His teacher spotted them, forced him to remove them and refused to give them back until Friday - he had to walk back in freezing weather in a cotton shirt and thin blazer. I'm so angry I could spit. He's just recovering from swine flu, has lost a ton of weight and is still chesty. The thing that really gets me is that the quality of teaching is poor - homework unchallenging (cut verbs out of a magazine and stick them on a page....stuff most kids can do in Year 3) and the attention seems not to be on quality of T&L but on stupid nonsensical uniform rules which don't have the interests of the child at heart. I sound like a real molly coddler I know but I'm soooooo ANGRY!!!! There....rant over.

[Decentdragon]

Glad you managed to get some common sense to prevail.

At previous senior school no lockers or pegs of any kind, as it 'provides places for pupils to congregate and bullying to take place'.

No coats to be worn indoors. So SEN son was carrying laptop bag, rucksack, coat, plus P/E kit everywhere. Because he had to print out and stick his work in books, he had to have all the previous days work as well while hunting down the day before's teachers to try to hand in classwork.

Many of the kids just refused to bring books in, and many girls carried just tiny handbags which couldn't contain books. Dilligent kids where automatic nerds for having piles of stuff and bullied for it.

After a couple of years of it his shoulders and neck are now permantly out and cracking and causing pain. Prehaps this would have happened anyway, but I suspect it's the cause.

[DirtyMartini]

:(

All the depressing stuff I read on here about schools makes me worry a lot. My kids are so little -- I dunno. It seems there is not much hope of school being a good experience for them.

I so want it to be, but even if we were rich that's not the answer -- if anything I'm more freaked out by some of the stuff I've read here about fee-paying schools.

Hey ho. I guess they will need some big rucksacks

[DirtyMartini]

Aaaargh! I have to remember not to use double dashes on MN, I keep doing strikeouts by mistake.

[haggis01]

My kids have this at their school too. New head came last year brought in shirt/tie and blazer at all times uniform (used to be a sweatshirt) and monitoring it takes so much time. My children won't wear coats either. I complained to school - who said lockers were available - you have to find the caretaker and book one for the day and then get back really quickly at the end of the day and find him to get it open ! EASY!

Another nasty aspect of it is that the teachers don't bother disciplining kids they perceive as being the worst academically or the very popular but continually pick on reasonably well behaved students who are also those most likely to be bullied by the worst non compliers on a regular basis. Apparently I can only talk about my children to the school and not comment on others!

So I really sympathise with you - it is also very difficult for us to swap school too and we were happy before the new head came. I think this idea that dressing kids in polyester from head to toe so that they look like cheap airline stewards does nothing to "raise standards". A lot of parents were in favour of the new uniform as they thought their kids would look like they went to private school! - Ha, the cheap blazers only make the school look more State comp than before.

Agree with Gingeroots many teachers do just seem to want to break spirits.

[gingeroots]

Oh I agree about the cheap airline steward look .
Do yours go for piping round the blazer as well ?
It's de rigueur round here - think it has to raise grades by at least 2 %.

[haggis01]

NO, gingeroots piping has not reached us - Yet.
I don't envy the teachers the smell though of all those damp sweating polyester clad teens on a torrentially raining day like today cooped up in a too warm classroom.
Interestingly a friend who is a pt GP told me that the number of kids from the school coming to get antifungal creams has risen alarmingly since the new uniform was introduced over cotton polos and sweatshirts.

[sandripples]

I'm glad there was an apology over this.

Our school is excellent in many respects but the students all carry all their stuff round all day and we have the same issue of students therefore not wearing coats. My DS always wears a t-shirt under his shirt.

When I think back to my school days - we all had a form room with an individual desk each to keep all our stuff. We didn't lock them or anything. (Old grammar school in the 60s/70s!)

Oh and yes we do have a new uniform with red piping. Fortunately the 6th form is different.

[Gogopops]

No lockers or coathooks at my DC's school either. On a day that my daughter had cookery (or whatever they call it now) she left the ingredients for a spag bol in the fridge in the catering room and someone stole the mince!! I was fuming.
My DS wears thermals under his school uniform and this seems acceptable to the teachers even though you can see some of it poking from underneath his polo top.
DD has a thick sweatshirt type hooded top which is part of the uniform and very warm - although I do think it looks a bit scruffy.
Glad that there was an apology offered to the OP but I think the issue is that there should be lockers available in all schools as kids find it very stressful to have to carry everything around with them all day. Mind you, still don't think they'd wear their coats though!