Sent a note with daughter and coat still got confiscated

[Lionness2020]

My daughter started in Year 7 BullersWood on Wed 6th Sept.
She came home after her first day excited to show me her new books and weekly planner. We sat down together to read through it, I had to sign parent/teacher contract and then we went on to read the school policies and rules.
Whilst reading I came to realize that now I need to buy my daughter a black coat! This isn't an issue....I will buy a black coat ( I just need some time to do this).
She left for school on Thursday with her current coat (purple I might add, I know its bright, but it was that or pink!) and I sent a note with her explaining the situation to giver to her teacher, my daughter got to the school gates and took her coat off and put it in her bag and never gave the note in I found out later that evening....my assumption here is that she was scared she may get disciplined or that it was a hot day and she didn't need a coat.
Come Friday morning, its raining and daughter decides she's going to wear the purple coat as it's waterproof (it was raining most of the day on Fri, I think i saw the sun come out around 3oClock), so again I wrote a note for her to hand to the teacher.
Now this is info I have managed to gather from my DD.......She was going into morning registration, as they were filing into class, the headteacher of Yr7 has stopped her about her coat (according to my daughter her office is opposite her form room). So, daughter says she has a note, hands it over, head of year reads it and say "how sweet, I will have to confiscate your coat and you can have it back at the end of the day, as it's breaking school rules".
I was absolutely astounded by this, I can't believe my daughter had no coat to wear during break/lunch on a cold/rainy day!
Where was the health, safety and well-being of my child?
Not a happy mum!
I will be making an appointment to see the headteacher.

Genuinely amazed at all these senior school students who wear coats - are you all in the Frozen North? Even when it snows no teens wear a coat where we are (naice area in South East)

To make control freaks feel they are actually achieving something, hiding God forbid they should focus on the pupils' education and wellbeing

Did it state black coat on the uniform list ?

www.bwsgirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SCHOOL-UNIFORM-1.pdf

Uniform list states black coat.

It drives me mad that schools insist of what colour coat the pupils need to wear, and to stipulate that they need to be black or other dark colour. They should be as bright as possible, especially for those walking and cycling to and from school. More so, now its getting darker earlier.

It infuriates me because they want children to look like tiny office workers! Bloody making drones out of them.

I see nothing wrong with having some guidelines in place...such as "Clothing must be clean and tidy and should not have any visible logos or large images or writing on them. Clothing should be navy, black or red with white or blue t shirt or polo"

What would be so bad about that?

Why can't the kids wear ordinary clothes? Stupid shirts and ties...nylon shitty skirts...no need.

It's what many secondary schools are like. They won't budge an inch. I think it's to do with being very clear with boundary pushing teens who will try and argue about anything.

OP where would you draw the line in terms of parents being able to excuse their children from the rules?

If course they can't have a pupil in a coloured coat wandering round during the day

Why not? What disaster befalls the world when coloured coats are let out in the open ?

It's nuts OP - my DS works in a secondary school and with the note this would not have happened. In fact they have had children turn up with some piece of incorrect uniform (usually shoes or coats) and they phone the parents, explain the requirement and they are given a time period in which to get the right item (usually a couple of weeks) - meanwhile the child can wear the incorrect item - you can't have kids going about with no shoes and no coats, that's stupid.
Alternatively if they are so precious the school could keep a few spares in lost property and lend a coat until end of day.

I think requiring a particular colour coat is over the top and I wouldn't be happy with it. However, you would have had time to sort out her uniform before the start of term and check what was required, and the rules are up to the school to decide.

If this sort of thing happens again, maybe an email or phone call to the school might be better rather than relying on a note.

My child's primary have just academised. They all have to wear identical black coats from reception up (unsure about nursery). It seems the stupidest choice of colour. Loads of kids go to grandad's / aunties/ childminders straight from school then walk home. It will be dark on the way back from any enrichment activities soon. Not to mention 45 reception children with the same coat which is reversible so hard to label - seems daft.
I'm backing the school up in front of the kids, but have lost a bit of faith in the management of the school.

Why on earth should schools dictate the colour of coat their pupils wear? And as a pp said, of all the colours to insist on, black is the least sensible choice for safety reasons.
Honestly, it's silliness like this on the part of schools that adds to respect for them diminishing. Which is sad, as the vast majority of teachers work bloody hard to give the children an excellent education, and their efforts get overshadowed by pathetic rules like this one.

I think saying the colour of the coat is bloody silly. I also think that sending your child out without a coat on in the rain is also daft.

However it is your responsibility to read the uniform policy and adhere to it. You've had all summer to do that. As she was starting a new school you must have read it to know what to get for the rest of it.

Punished for a purple coat yet kids get away with bullying and all sorts...

Ffs. What bloody difference does it make to their education what colour it is? This is purely about the image the school wants to project to the general public. It's bloody ridiculous that this situation is becoming more widespread.
Shouldn't they be concentrating their efforts on something more important....like teaching kids maths and English etc?

this is a hard lesson - seconadry is not primary. They legally can and do enforce absurd uniform rules and your only option is comply, allow your child to be punished, or find another school.

Suck it up because until the law changes, it is what it is. Look aorund the charity shops for a suitable coat

And stamping out bullying.

Did she melt in the rain then?

So now schools are dictating what kind of COAT kids wear?! Madness. I'm all for wearing correct uniform. But coats take the biscuit.

I don't know why having a stupid uniform rule means the school can't address bullying or teach English/maths? Whatever the uniform or dress code is, the school will spend some time enforcing it, that's inevitable.

But schools have a duty of care too don't they? They used to anyway.

Why didn't you buy one as soon as you realised?

our school had the black coat requirement - bloomin stupid colour for a coat on a dark night,

so we ( there were about 8 or 9 of us) got the patches from the school "stay safe" scheme - ones that glow when they get any sort of light on them, and liberally applied them to the coats . They could not complain about the patches as they were supplied by the people the council employed to pass on info about road safety in schools etc.

They then took away the requirement for black coats the year after...

I assume the school is an academy.

I have been complaining about academies and the privatisation of education for years and no one seems to care.

OP - did you mean to name the school and out yourself in your first post?

Coats shouldn't even be part of the uniform. Black coats are a road safety issue. The whole thing is ridiculous!