Secondary school - summer uniform?

[OneSugar1]

does your school have one and if so what’s it like?

our school doesn’t and I feel so sorry for the kids in this weather. Girls in thick kilt like skirts, boys in trousers, everyone in ties. They have to ask to take their blazers off and I don’t think permission is unreasonably withheld but not sure why permission is needed🤷‍♀️

They have a hot weather protocol of no blazers or ties, and I think maybe wearing PE kit instead.
Girls can wear socks normally anyway.

My daughter has no option for summer uniform at her school besides an open neck blouse.

So she’s had to wear her wool blazer (always on between classes and when in public as in on way to / from school), pinafore tunic, tights and jumper. She’s went in summer blouse recently which allows her no tie.

She said assemblies have been the worst bit recently when everyone is together and the heat builds up more.

I’m cabin crew myself and used to wearing full uniform in warm temperatures but I understand she is struggling at present!

No secondary has summer uniform. They leave their jumper off, and in extreme weather are permitted to remove their blazers...

The secondaries around us have been in PE kit this week and we're more when it was hot last term too

My dd secondary allow pe kit when it's warm. They don't have blazers at any time

Ours sent an email in May/June stating no need for blazers or ties that term unless another email was sent.

However most pupils went back to blazers and ties out of choice anyway once the weather cooled down slightly, and most of the girls were still wearing black opaque tights even when it was 30 degrees.

According to my DC, the blazer pockets are so useful, they’d rather just keep them on.

No email this term, so everyone is in full uniform, but it’s due to be cooler next week anyway.

Perhaps with hotter weather becoming more normal, more schools will introduce hot-weather modifications to the uniform.

My child’s does and so does at least one other school in the area. Polo shirt rather than shirt and tie, can wear shorts (not skimpy) if it’s really hot. The school also never had a blazer

I’m probably going to be slated for this but I’m not a fan of wearing PE kit when not actually doing PE!

I think it looks unprofessional, sloppy and behaviour is known to be more disruptive when not in uniform.

I also don’t think concessions like this helps children in the future - I mean I can’t just decide I don’t want to wear something of my uniform just because it’s warm - that’s not how it works in the real adult world!

So you have to wear a blazer and then ask permission to take it off at work? I don't know any workplaces that require a shirt, tie, blazer and that you have to ask permission to take the blazer off from your boss.

At my daughters school they can wear pe kit every day if they want to, not just on pe days and since this was introduced attendance is up and behaviour is the same as before. If you need a uniform to change behaviour I think a school needs to look at what they are doing wrong.

So it seems most secondary schools don’t have a summer uniform. What’s the rationale behind that? Surely kids concentration is better if they’re cooler and more comfortable in hot weather?

No summer uniform and my son who has just started year 7 has to keep his blazer on so day regardless of the weather

That's not what I have got out of this threads. It seems most schools have some level of adjustments.
I have checked DD's old school, they now have shorts as part of the standard uniform too.

We have a summer uniform. Short sleeves allowed, no tights for girls, shorts for boys and no need for blazer or jumper. If really hot like this week, no ties either.

Ok so when I travel somewhere like the Maldives, or Japan etc I should ask my boss if it’s ok I don’t want to wear my uniform blazer today or maybe no scarf or tights? Haha doesn’t work like that.

We are allowed to carry our blazers & coats - thats about it - that’s the real world though!

I am assuming you are flight crew then? If I have assumed correctly you are on a plane that is temperature controlled, most (not all) airports have air conditioning and you are not stuck in a classroom with windows with limited openings and the sun beating in the normally massive windows.

What you go through is a big difference to a student at school in the UK. Also you have a choice if you don't like it, do a different job, students at secondary don't normally have much choice as limited schools in the area they live in and it seems they are all in on making students suffer in the heat.

Our state school secondary has a summer dress option for girls and shorts/polo for boys .

Ours switches to PE kit in summer - black skorts/shorts or joggers and polo in school colours.

They started back in normal uniform but are allowed to just wear shirt and tie and leave off jumpers and blazers.

School send lots of emails asking for stricter adherence to uniform code but are relatively pragmatic in practice. DD fuming over bike shorts prohibition, but having been there last term one day at end of day, it was borderline indecent so I kind of get the instance on skorts or non-bike-shorts-shorts!

There's a secondary school in South London that I saw some of the girls wearing a summer dress last term. I thought they looked lovely. But I didn't see any of the boys wearing uniform style shorts - but lots of PE kits.
If we are going to keep having these heatwaves then there really should be hot weather variations for uniform.

One reason is cost - having extra uniform items costs parents more. You can make the summer uniform optional, but then that creates disadvantage for students whose families can't afford it, and means your students aren't uniformly dressed (which is the point of having a uniform in the first place).

I'm a school governor. Our school makes blazers optional in hot weather. They have done PE kit sometimes, but they prefer not to (some discussion about safeguarding, especially re the length of some of the girls' skorts).

A handful of parents lobbied for a tailored shorts option, and some governors (including me) were sympathetic to that, but consensus was to say no. Reasons discussed were:

1. They are not professional dress (obviously that's debatable).
2. It is an extra cost for families.
3. It is an extra uniform item for staff to have to police in terms of colour, length, style, so will add to their workload.
4. Other local schools have introduced them but hardly any students wear them - anecdotally because they are associated with primary school uniform.

@alwaysontap

Do you at least allow short sleeved shirts or polos? Or is yours one of those schools forcing long-sleeved shirts even in a heatwave?

If you're a governor, surely you know the Sutton Trust is adamant that there is NO LINK between uniforms and behaviour / performance? Do you have any EVIDENCE to the contrary or is your uniform policy dictated by BLIND IDEOLOGY rather than evidence?

There are good reasons to have a reasonable dress code, appropriate for the weather conditions, which doesn't require buying items from one supplier only.

There are no good reasons to force a uniform code which is too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter. There was a school which confiscated a heavier winter coat - worn after the kid had got sick and the GP advised he needed a heavier coat https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/jesmond-park-academys-uniform-policy-26016890
How would you like a job in which you can only wear short sleeves when the Supreme Boss so decrees?

You can buy a set of 5 white short-sleeved school shirts from Sainsbury for £8, and 2 school shorts for £10. Even in a cost of living crisis, it sees fairly reasonable.

Unless your school is one of those that force families to buy from one specific supplier only, and which applies harsh punishments if a pupil wears Sainsbury grey instead of your-supplier-specific-shade-of-grey???

@Sammy2k "I think it looks unprofessional, sloppy and behaviour is known to be more disruptive when not in uniform."

WRONG. The Sutton trust is adamant that there is no clear link between uniforms and behaviour / performance.

It is really sad that schools, which should supposedly help pupils develop their critical reasoning skills, apply outdated policies so acritically and with utter contempt for real evidence.

https://www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion/all-news-opinion/smaller-classes-uniforms-primary-homework-among-least-effective-ways-boosting-school-performance/

On school uniforms – “No robust evidence that introducing a school uniform will improve academic performance.”

https://parentingscience.com/school-uniforms-what-does-research-tell-us/
"There is little evidence that school uniforms remedy behavior problems or boost academic performance."

At ours you can wear short sleeve shirts (I think at any time of year). Socks with skirts is fine.

In the second half of the summer term they switch to "summer uniform rules" which is blazers become optional, and boys can wear shorts. They emailed last week and said although we're not in that term now, blazers can be removed in lessons due to the heat.

Teacher and parent here.

Schools, like all buildings in the UK, need aircon. Summers won't be getting cooler.

Hoping at some point in the near future that education will be deemed worthy of investment by a government.

@Hibernatalie I agree on aircon, but good luck with that. A combination of no money and green ecotalibans convinced that no one should ever have aircon means it will never happen. It is illegal to transport live cattle at more than 30C but it is legal to keep humans, including little ones, at higher temperatures.

Oh, and for those who say that 30C temperatures are rare, there are cases where it's 25C outside but 30C inside.

Schools should be built bearing in mind that we are not in the '70s anymore and the UK is a hotter country. South-facing glass facades, little to no cross ventilation etc should all be avoided.

@ParentOfOne "green ecotalibans"

What an offensive thing to say. On about 5 different levels.