What is the issue with the coats?

[Leffeandolives]

I have heard to be prepared for my DC not to wear her coat from next year that she will go to a secondary school. At the moment she does, so I don't understand what would change next year!

Is it true? Do secondary schools advise kids not to wear coats in winter?

If there are no lockers are there no pegs too?

Could they not place them at the back of their chairs as we do at work?

Apologies but I am not originally from the UK, have not attended a British school and I don't know how it works.

When I went at school, we had pegs in each classroom or put them at the back of our chairs (most of the times). And we always wore them during the breaks that we had to be outside at the playground. Actually we could wear them whenever we wanted to wear them!

Help please!

This is exactly what happens at my school too.

I have to pick dd up from secondary and every day I watch a few hundred teens pour out into the cold with no coats. Many are in short sleeves and/or have bare legs. They only seem to care on the days when there is a bitter wind.

before secondary there are rules requiring students have coats and even hats and gloves if you live somewhere cold enough. Our school issued a handy chart. Once you hit secondary, if they freeze, it’s their own fault.

Most of the kids in my school are wearing a coat at the moment. They just put them on the backs of their chairs during lessons.

Because some schools have absolutely stupid rules.
We have no coats on school grounds, no hoodies and no visible branding on anything worn with uniform (so coats that might be considered cool enough are not allowed).
Blazers aren't waterproof, we live in a country where it rains a lot. Then they complain about the parking as so many people try to keep their children dry by dropping them as close to the door as possible.
Then they aren't allowed to take the blazers off in the summer.

Basically coats aren't banned, usually, except in some control freak schools where it's an official school coat or nothing. And they have to carry them around all day.

But be prepared for your teen to go through a phase of refusing to wear one. You pick your battles.

Mine both went through this, both suddenly got to a point where they grew up noticed they were freezing and asked for a proper warm coat again.

Coats are for oldies.

My boy won't even walk home from school in uniform now, takes football kit to change into to walk home, and the obligatory hoodie of course.

Yup - same here. Cool coats are fine (North Face mainly) and/or a hoodie (which as @noblegiraffe says isn't really allowed), possibly worn under your blazer, or instead of blazer until they reach school then blazer goes on.

Mine only started wearing coats once they hit the sixth form 😂

Hoodies under blazers-not allowed inside but cool.
Canada goose type coats inside all weathers, cool but not allowed inside.
Suggest hanging coats on backs of chairs-horrified looks.
One of my more thankless jobs in school is managing lost property. The amount of brand new jackets in there was horrifying. One actually had a name in (shock) tracked the kid down when it was so cold before Christmas and she refused to take it because it was “rank”. Called her poor mum and she collected it. Still not wearing a coat. Teenagers are not like normal people.

I am not saying this is the only reason theft happens in secondary schools, but some children in nearly every state secondary school will be living in extreme poverty and may not have a winter coat. The temptation of an expensive winter coat unattended on a peg would be hard to resist for lots of reasons.

The trendy thing for mine was to have a blazer with no buttons.

Every time my mum came over at half term (yes, I only washed the blazers at half term) she would lovingly sew the buttons back on 😂

The kids all wear coats at the school my kids go to.

But there's no point getting riled about it, if you try and force them and they don't want to then it'll get 'lost' which I promise will annoy you more.

Back when I was in school the fashion was short skirts and high heels with no tights. We lived.

Mine have refused to wear their coats since starting secondary. They say it's a hassle, they are not allowed to carry their coats around with them they have to put them in their lockers, and then go and get them again each break and lunch and after school.

A lot of schools have rules to make coat wearing difficult-
no accessible locker to keep it in
no cloakrooms
not allowed on back of seat
not allowed to wear them inside the school so they have to take it off outside and try and get it in their bag
have to wear it over a blazer so very uncomfortable

Round here, it seems that a lot of schools say that children can't wear their coats inside (they must, however, wear their blazers no matter how hot it is). They have nowhere to leave them, either. If I had to cart around a coat all day as well as all my books, water bottle and PE stuff, I'd leave it at home too. Uniform is utterly ridiculous.

13yr old DS also won’t wear the coat I dragged him to Bluewater and made him choose himself under protest, as I knew I’d get it wrong.

He also refuses to wear long sleeved shirts or his school uniform jumper. His sports hoodie (which is only permitted for sport), is OK however. I presume it gets taken off as he walks in. Year 6 DD wears long sleeved shirts, her jumper, blazer, coat, hat, gloves & ear muffs to school. I fully expect this will change in September when she moves to Yr 7.

My three are 11-15 and all 3 wear coats as do all the dc I see walking home from secondary round here.

In my son's secondary school there's no lockers. Costs aren't allowed to be worn inside school at any time. My son got a detention today as he forgot and was caught wearing his coat inside.

Carting your coat around secondary school, when you've got lots of other stuff to carry (pe kit, cookery stuff, etc) isn't practical at all.

Sorry for typos

*coats
*carrying

With teenagers there are a lot of things you want them to do that they don’t want to do and there simply isn’t enough time or mental energy to fight about all of them so you pick your battles. What exactly are the “health and safety implications” you are worried about with teenagers not wearing coats? I live in a colder climate than anywhere in the UK and none of the teens here wear coats either.

We have two schools by us that don't allow coats the blazer is "sufficient" apparently (one school refuses to allow children inside at break times and lunch also) the one my son attends they are allowed coats too and from and during breaks the rest of the time they must fit in their bag quite a few wear them my son doesn't as he travels on a warm bus and CBA with schlepping it around the school

I’d rather wrestle an alligator whilst high on acid than attempt to wrestle either of my teens into coats. They will, however, steal my hoodies to wear underneath (despite having plenty of their own). Nor will they wear hats, scarves, snoods or gloves.

All of that at the two secondary schools my DDs go to. Both catch buses to school too which means a lot of standing around in the cold.

Not long ago you couldn't get teens to take off their coat ... man's not hot.

My kids don't like to take their coat to school because they're not allowed to wear it at school, so they have to carry it all day. They don't have lockers.

This has to do with their health & safety though, their teachers should make them wear coats!

No. Their teachers should teach them the curriculum. Their parents should parent them. If you feel strongly about coats, you need to get your kid to wear one.

FWIW, my DS does wear a coat to secondary. So do most of his peers. But it’s definitely not his teachers’ job to check 🙄