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.

fanny
We do because it is sensible and we don't want school uniform being a fashion statement.
We state students should wear practical outdoor coats.

We explicitly state that hoodies, denim jackets, leather jackets, sports jackets etc are not sensible outdoor coats. If a student comes wearing them, they aren't in the uniform and we confiscate it.
With repeat hoody wearers I've confiscated a week's worth and arranged a meeting with hom to return them all. Home weren't impressed with the STUDENT for chosing to ignore the rules.

The uniform list was sent out with all the prospective parents stuff in advance of term beginning. Bullers wood is hot on uniform and they do hand out detentions for wrong coats. So actually your daughter was reasonably lucky not to get a detention. Dd says that they have wet lunch rooms - so your dd wouldn't have to go outside. She can go to the shelter, the dining hall or the dalo (whatever that is) apparently, as well as the "wet room". I agree with previous posters about the logic of black coats in winter. Dd had in year 7 a sort of reflective bit on her coat and I suggested a effective sash (I think she ridiculed me). She's now generally too cool for a coat and just takes an umbrella.

Did she melt?
My guess is no.

Rules are rules. You are teaching your daughter that rules at school are not to be followed.

We all had a list before school started. Get her a black coat.

If money is tight I really wouldn't bother getting her a black coat OP. By the end of next week she will be too cool for coats and won't wear one again until she is 17/18.

I really would advocate letting this go, getting a black coat over the weekend and chalking it up to experience. What would you be hoping to achieve by speaking to the head? After all, the head of year has quite moderately dealt with the issue and had followed the school policy on uniform to the letter.

Firstly we are in late summer Britain - not Siberia. A wee bit of rain won't harm anyone and your DD certainly won't dissolve in the aforementioned rain.

You admit you didn't read the uniform policy properly and failed to buy a black coat.

A note is not worth the paper it's written on. School rules are there for a reason - you can't have hundreds of teenagers in one place without rules or mayhem would ensue.

It's not up to you whether you agree with the rules or not. If you disagree, don't bitch or fire yourself up to school. You'll be come a laughing stock, the subject of staffroom chat and be "that parent".

And, as a teacher, my workload isn't as it is due to enforcing "silly" rules. That's a topic for another thread tho 😉

In short, suck it up or find another school where purple coats are allowed. The current school won't give a shiny shite about your note or if you agree with their rules.

Entitled parent. And in my school no bugger under the age of 25 ever wears a coat. YABU.

About 2 years ago, we brought all the uniform for my sisters new school and it stated 'dark coloured coat'. She's always had a black coat for school, so she got a black winter coat and a thin black raincoat (for when it's a bit warmer).

Anyway, she was at a club after school until 6 (bus stop across road) and she got home at 7. She called me at 6 to say her coat was gone. It wasn't in the changing rooms and her and a teacher had searched everywhere. The other girls had got changed before her as she was asked to help the teacher pack up. It had her name in it and she'd folded it and popped it in her PE bag before club. Her bag had been opened and someone had taken her coat. She had to come home (middle of winter, snowing etc) with no coat and it was too late to buy a new one.

We sent her in the next day in on of my navy blue ones (dark colour) and she got it taken off her as it wasn't black. The teacher that took it off her then told her he'd found a black coat in the bin - it was hers. Covered in pasta, lunch, chewing gum and parts of it had been cut/ripped - He told her that if she was cold, she could take the dirty coat from the bin, rinse it in the sink and it would be fine to wear.

We got an apology, my navy blue coat back and moved schools (after we moved house)

The uniform now states 'black coat'

toast that's horrendous 😮

Do you have the internet at home?
-Check school website for uniform requirements.
-Email school to say you understand coat it wrong and you will buy one when you can afford it.

I'm am so not looking forward to this bullshit in three years time. What's the betting most of these uniform rules would fail a risk assessment?

And for the record I would think I was being helpful whether they asked for it or not.

1. you should have checked the uniform list before she started
2. you don't even need a coat in London yet

Please don't complain, the school have just followed their published policy.

Those saying 'you picked a school with a uniform' show me all the uk schools in the ops catchment or even private schools that don't have uniform.

Contrubution from teachers like MSLehrerin just reinforces my view that we have a real crisis in teacher recruitment and the calibre really is scraping the barrell in the types who goes into teaching now.

MSLeherin
No mayhem wouldn't ensue. Many other countries don't have uniforms at all for any age children. It's not MAYHEM due to this. Calm downZ

Instead of having schools with no rules, could we perhaps, as a compromise, have schools with sensible rules?

No hitting or spitting, for example, is a sensible rule.
Demanding a certain colour coat is a nonsense rule. The colour of someone's coat has no bearing on their behaviour or academic achievements.

The whole uniform thing is a tradition. There is no correlation with success - look at Finland. The main reason is that it is visible and I fear often a handy excuse to play with the leaves when the roots are sick.
There are fewer teachers actually dictating policy these days and more people who think they know best when they haven't a clue. Uniform fetish as well as poor teacher retention is a symptom of the same disease.

My main worry is about how many parents are apparently comfortable with such bizarre and illogical practices which serve neither child or teacher.

@itsbetterthanabox I'm talking about rules being necessary to ensure mayhem doesn't ensue. Not uniform. Do read the post again carefully.

@Caprianna thank you for your feedback. We've just been inspected and I came out very well (well was actually excellent but don't like blowing my own trumpet) but thank you for your feedback anyway 🙄

Caprianna, please tell me you're just being goady with all the SPAG errors in your post ............

@viques was laughing too much at @Caprianna's verdict on my professional prowess to notice the SPAG fuckups. Have reread and concur! As I do with her being a GF. Made me laugh tho!

I am usually pro uniform and supportive but it's a coat! Not school uniform but an item the wear to and from school.

It always astounds me school insist on black and navy coats for secondary pupils who are walking usually a few miles a day in the dark for most of the time they actually wear the coat throughout the year.

we have a real crisis in teacher recruitment and the calibre really is scraping the barrell in the types who goes into teaching now.
Or maybe existing teachers are getting fed up with hearing the same old nonsense every year from a small group of people who think the rules don't apply to them.

The OP in this thread has been pretty reasonable. Other replies have been more concerned with having the same old uniform whinge that happens every year.

I have taught in schools with and without uniform. I'm not fussed either way.
In the school without uniform, students followed a dress code.
In a school with uniform I've had parents argue the shit with me because I've said leggings are not school trousers.

Personally, I don't like prescriptive uniform. I like simple uniforms that are affordable.

I would be up for having no uniform if I thought that parents would follow it. Sadly, i can see the same people who argue the toss with uniform would take the piss witj a dress code.

MSLehrinen I am commenting on teachers in general. Your post about entitled parents being discussed in the staff room is exactly what I am talking about. Its very difficult to be supportive of teachers/school who behave like that. I could also quote numerous storied like Toast and no I am not That Parent as I know reasoning with the school is pointless. I think teachers obsess and punish children for the wrong colour coat etc just make them lose respect amongst parents as well as pupils.

@Caprianna it happens tho. In every single school. Doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to how teachers teach in their classrooms.

I've been teaching for 25 years, get excellent exam results, have risen to the giddy heights of Faculty Head in one of the largest schools in the country and have been commended by OFSTED who have taken some of my policies, systems and procedures to pass on to schools who are failing. Not exactly scraping the barrel now, is it?

Ridiculous rules now. I don't remember having to have a certain colour coat at school?? (10 ish years ago that is)