Today my DD has to go to school for 30 minutes in her uniform ...

[sandyballs]

...... With me to meet her learning coach who doesn't actually teach her. Then we will come home for the day, I don't see the point of this. School does it every year for all the years.

we have to do that too... dd got detention for turning up in her tennis kit one parents evening - she had been to her tennis coaching and we picked her up directly from there to go to parent's evening.....

her tutor got a bit of an earful after that.... rules for the sake of them with no lee-way for actual real life stuff are just daft....

at this - neither of the DDs' schools mandate uniform at parents' evening. If they did, I would go by myself and leave my children at home. Utterly stupid rule.

Are you objecting to the uniform requirement (which is fine IMO) or the day off for the sake of a few mins of pointless chat with a teacher?

Shadow, that story makes me feel very cross on your dd's behalf! What earthly difference could it make to anything what a child wears for a parents' evening? And if something doesn't make a difference, what's the point in having a rule about it?

Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Amber there seem to be quite a lot of schools who have a 'Rules for the sake of having rules' attitude. Because it 'prepares children for the world of work', don't you know .

Only of course it doesn't, because in most workplaces the rules have a basis in common sense.

I'm just glad the schools my DDs go to have a common sense approach to school uniform and other things - such as allowing children to take off their blazers without having to ask when it is boiling hot in the ancient ill-ventilated flat-roofed classrooms they are taught in.

My DCs school does this. It is a highly successful, massively over subscribed school and has the attitude that "rules are rules" and if you don't like them then you can go somewhere else. It is sympathetic if there are reasons that some pupils may have difficulties.

However 30 minutes of having to wear school Uniform is no different to having to dress smart for a short job interview. The learning Mentor is supposed to gather information on their mentees performance and pass it on. Its a way of a large school ensuring every pupil's learning is overseen. You would probably be surprised how many pupils parents have little or no involvement/interest in their progress.

Parental involvement though helps massively.

pointy.. I agree...

it just totally flummoxes me how school is expected to be the only thing in their lives...

"such and such will happen on Fri at 5 , be there in uniform" - ermm nope...

"you will wear a black coat with no markings" - on a dark unpavemented road for your trip home.... ermmmm nope.....

This has taught my daughter that her safety doesn't matter to the school leadership, and that she needs to wear what she is told, not what is appropriate for the situation (and is expected to change clothes on a whim)

But she's a good girl and goes along with it...

(and whinges like mad when nothing is done about the classroom disruption or the hard core "no-we-didn't-do-our-homework" brigade..)

'cos obviously, clothes are what matters most...

mummytime - if the school give you no choice of time that you have to turn up and you are coming straight from an extra curricular event I think it is a bit bloomin' precious of them to expect you to change into uniform on the bus...

mummytime I have no problem with having a child in uniform during school hours (though I would be annoyed at having to take time out from work to come in for half an hour). It's having to turn up in uniform at parents' evening that is pointless. There's no good reason for it at all - as long as the child (and the parent) are appropriately dressed and behave well, it does not matter what they are wearing. That sort of rule smacks of the school prioritising style over substance to me.

Shadow that's appalling about the coat. And schools need to recognise that children actually do have a life outside of school.

DCs school doesn't have parents evenings - just day time "progress monitoring days" - the early (before work) and late (after work, and even lunch time slots go quickly.

Admittedly they are usually the only school not in school uniform at the county D of E awards ceremony.

BTW their school does a lot about any classroom disruption, and detentions for no homework are common.

No uniform for parents evenings, only formal public concerts and prize giving.

No uniform for GCSE recitals or casual music department this is what we do, evenings.

We only did mentoring days once, utter waste of teaching time, school gave it up.

My dds' school have just introduced this for their completely pointless review days. Really ridiculous, as the pupils are excited to be able to go off into town together and really don't need to be wearing their uniforms.
Last time, I ended up having to wash 2 uniforms for a 10min appt., as it was a rainy day and they got mud splashed. Grrr.

Our school doesn't require but "expects" a uniform on parents evenings.

So they really couldn't quibble about ds in his full Scout uniform. Because thats where he was prior to the meeting.

Frankly he looked a lot smarter than most of the sloppily school uniformed pupils!

OP - what is your complaint? It is a school day and your DD is attending an appointment at school. Presumably half an hour discussing your DD only. If she wants to get changed after that appointment - she has the choice to do so. And she gets some time off to do some homework during school time and to meet up with friends later. Is that unreasonable of the school?

We did that yesterday: didn't really bother me. I found the mentoring session helpful and ds wasn't really fussed about having to put his uniform on.