AIBU to be cross with school over uniform 'clamp down' and stop and search

[breathedeeply]

My 15 yr old goes to a comprehensive with a clear uniform policy that includes a blazer tie and 'house' jumper . Recently we were sent a letter advising us that students would be sent home if their unforms were not 'immaculate'. This has led to students being sent home for virtually nothing (a shirt with no top button, or 'improper' shoes). There has been a particular issue over school trouser, which must be 'tailored' and not 'skinny fit'. My DD's friend was told that her trousers were unacceptable because the teacher concerned 'could see the outline of her bottom' (..er...yuk), and she burst into tears and said she just had a big bum and therefore all her trousers were tight. Also, they've just introduced a 'stop and search' policy whereby teachers can demand that pupils empty their bags and pockets to be checked for forbidden items (smoking materials). Is this sort of thing common, and how legal is it?

Ploom, what a peculiar point of view. The idea is that rich or poor everyone wears the same. The pupils feel like they belong. Funny next you'll be saying that Barristers should address the courts in jeggin's and a crop top....

"And there is no pressure to wear a certain label or piece of clothing - they just wear what they want"

Sadly, the fact is that in a great many schools in the UK there is a huge amount of peer pressure to wear the latest fashion or designer label, especially among prepubescent teen girls. You are exceedingly lucky not to have come across it.

So in most cases it is easier and cheaper to enforce the wearing of uniform. I dread to think of the arguments I would get each morning from DD about what to wear to school because a particular Hollister hoodie is in the wash or some denim shorts aren't dry yet.

'obligatory big scarf of course'

'And there is no pressure to wear a certain label or piece of clothing'

Didn't you just contradict yourself there?

I agree with Bunbaker. I struggled to find the £200 for mandatory uniform, I dread to think how I would have found the money for Hollister and the like!

Our local secondary has no uniform, and my neighbour despairs over the strict, self-imposed uniform that the girls have that defines you as fitting in or not. It's all about the designer Hollister etc gear. The school also has behavior issues and low attainment too and I think the uniform is the outward representation of the general lax management.

My DSs' school has a pretty strict policy and is generally much better managed in all ways, my boys couldn't give a stuff about clothes which is great.

PS I went to a school in the eighties that had just brought uniform back in but did it in a rather half-hearted way, so long as you had black skirts or trousers and a burgundy jumper that was fine, we looked a right mess. It may be unrelated but the school was pretty rubbish too....

yes, common, and yes, legal

There is no pressure tho to wear a big scarf - thats the difference. Thats just what I noticed a lot of kids wearing yesterday. Dd very rarely wears one and is definitely not bullied for it. I agree tho that she's very lucky to not go to a school where there is pressure to wear designer clothes but that is perhaps since we live an hours drive away from a city where they could get designer labels. I'm not sure what its like in bigger cities.

Posie - its just my point of view - not everyone has the same view! But I never once said though that I thought adults in a professional job shouldnt wear a uniform. I worked for 15 years in a job where I wore one and was proud to wear it. But I chose that job - dc have to go to school & not all would wear a uniform if they had the choice. Is wearing a uniform the only way dc can feel they belong to the school? Dd feels very strongly that she's part of her school community and doesnt need a uniform to enhance that.

City living has nothing to do with it. We live in a village and DD goes to school in the nearest market town. Most of her schoolmates live in surrounding villages.

I meant bigger cities where we are - not in the UK. Since I live here, I can only comment & be grateful that its not a problem here.

Shoes ballet pumps, yes
Sensible low heeled black boots that keep the rain out, no!

Why, my DSIS wears black smart trousers and black boots to a formal office job every day of the winter. She drives, she doesn't wait around for buses in the rain!

School uniform doesn't stop the bullying anyway - I was bullied because I didn't have the right make of coat, and a hand me down blazer. I wouldn't have been any more bullied in my own clothes, but would have been a lot more comfortable in my own skin than in the uniform I hated.

That's my feeling too. I also think that if children always get to wear what they want it becomes much less of an issue. However like Ploom we live somewhere with very few designed type shops (and not much conspicuous wealth, although everyone goes to the local school).

I'm a teacher and I hate policing uniform. I have more important things to worry about. I do it because I think it's necessary to show a united front on everything but I have to admit to rolling my eyes whenever a new "initiative" is introduced.

At my school they even police pupils' hair and I've seen vulnerable children excluded for having what I would consider to be a very sensible, short hairstyle - but of course all the middle class boys have floppy hair and we don't want our pupils to look working class, do we? (Not to mention the fact that the black pupils are more likely to cut their hair short - I don't want to accuse people of racism but surely this is verging on it IMO).

I think uniform can be a practical thing so I'm not completely against it. What I AM against is the traditional shirt-and-tie uniform. Honestly, if you were going to spend your day painting pictures, building birdhouses with power tools, baking cakes and writing stories, would you choose to wear a shirt, tie and blazer (top button done up!) to do it? It's completely mad. I look at the DT teachers wearing suits and just think how mental the teaching profession actually is.

Does the school seriously exclude pupils with a crew cut? Or is it when they have patterns cut in, etc?

DD's school has just had a clamp down on uniform, hair and piercings. She has been told to dye her hair as she has 2 colours in it. She has had it for over a month.
I think it is bloody ridiculous. We have had issues with attendance and motivation and at the moment I just glad that she is in school. i can't see how the colour of her hair affects her education.
I really don't get conformimg just for the sake of comforming.

Just don't see the problem with it. You know what the uniform is when you accept the place. If the school polices it, has to make it easier for the entire community.

DD: Pleated skirt, printed blouse, trimmed blazer, sweater. Printed summer dress if wanted. Black tights and black shoes (no ballet pumps) - lots of them are wearing the lace up things that are so popular. Formal suit in 6th form. Might get away with a discreet blonde highlight - certainly no colours and no piercings except on earing in each ear - small studs only.

DS: Black navy trousers, Dark navy blazer (no, that doesn't work but never mind), white shirt, tie, jersey (logoed), black shoes. Formal suit in 6th form. No dye, no wacky hairstyles, no piercings.

Never a problem at either school - the parents support the rules.

Very very different to the two years dd did at a state comp in London - v sought after with queues round the block at admissions.

DS2 is in Yr10 and goes to a school where they do have a strict uniform policy. Both he, and DS1 before him, have adhered to it since they went there. He does his top button up, shirt tucked in, tie done properly, he wears brogues not trainers; you get the picture.

They have decided to change the blazer, as well as the style of skirt, blouse and trousers for the girls, but as our DC are going into Yr11 it doesn't apply to us.

Thursday night was Parents' Evening and the HT was giving out lists of uniform. We had been given the list in the Newsletter before Easter and it said we could order it online, but for some reason I couldn't do it. I mentioned this to her, as DS2 is desperate for a new blazer because he has grown so much. She said I could order it now and pick it up after the 20th August! Apparently they won't be ready until then. I made the fatal mistake of saying that I would do as I had always done, previously, and order it from John Lewis and restitch his badge on (that was policy before). She got all upppity and said I couldn't! How on earth she thinks she is going to stop me is another thing. DS2's blazer won't last until July!

Sometimes it strikes me that if they put as much time and energy into the important things as they do the niff naff and trivia the school would be a better place!

"sometimes it strikes me that if they put as much time and energy into the important things as they do the niff naff and trivia the school would be a better place"!

ABSOLUTELY - couldn't agree more.

I agree with you there freerangeeggs. Dd regularly comes home with "stuff" on her blazer. She does dt and art sat in a blazer and the children are not allowed to take it off. Apparently the paint etc comes off. It doesn't always. I try to sponge it off and it always looks bad after. Blazer gets washed every week but still there are sometimes little spots of paint. Bet the school wouldn't pay for a new one would they? Almost £50. Probably not. And yes dd has an approved school apron but it is sleeveless and is quite thick and bulky so no-one wears them anyway. Science is another one - dd came home last week with all fibreglass bits in her jumper. Right mess it was. Good job she has 3 jumpers.