Coats on at school

[Flyhigher]

Teachers seem to be excessively cracking down on anyone wearing coats in school.
Can anyone explain why? The problem is the school is cold and admittedly they do wear short skirts. But staff aren't cracking down on the short skirts.

Coats need to be in cloakrooms at DDs school. Simple reason is they get in the way in classrooms.

Because they don't need puffy jackets or hoodies on in the corridor, even if they " are just about to go outside". The smart uniform falls apart in the summer and winter.

I don't know any children that wear coats at secondary school!!!

probably because the corridors are very overcrowded and people wearing coats just makes it a whole lot worse, plus time wasted sorting out their clothing in the corridor, or the classroom when they arrive at a lesson. In most schools I have worked in, coats need to be off before you enter the building

I agree with you it’s insane that it’s a must to take off coats. DD school has some really cold classrooms and made worse by teachers insisting on having windows open. We are all different and not everyone likes a room at 18C. They can’t wear more jumpers either unlike at home.

It has to be -6 to get my ds to even take his coat with him.

Who are these dcs wearing their coats willingly? How have their parents persuaded them?🙂

How do you know they aren't cracking down on skirts? I tell my classes about their skirts all the time. They roll them down and then straight back up again as soon as they leave my room.

I let them keep their coats on sometimes. Depends on the room. Most rooms have heating though.

Everybody wears coats at our secondary. I've never encountered this coat refusal people describe.

What’s a cloakroom?

Schools are obsessed with what pupils wear. Coats is just one aspect of this. It's difficult to take their demands seriously though when most secondary schools don't have locker/cloakroom space to put coats in. Or boots for that matter.

We had this daft rule that you had to carry coats in a bag. Good luck with the multiple textbooks you had to bring in just in case.

Yy. And branded pe kit and trainers, football boots etc.

DDs school they can take/wear their coats in school. The only coats they are allowed though is the school one but as they also have a mandatory wool blazer a lot of the kids don't have a coat.

They don't have cloakrooms! Very large overcrowded school.

That was my reaction when DD told me they had them! They have hooks for coats and lockers for them all. One per year group!

Once they hit year 11. They suddenly want coats! Before that. No way!

Ah yes wool. That famously waterproof and easy to clean fabric. A savvy choice by a school in a country where it's winter for six months of the bloody year. Makes you wonder why we don't all walk around in wool blazers.

Obviously not a city state school if they have cloakrooms! So regret sending her to this school. Need to have a school with cloakrooms!

@Coldia yes and famously cheap to buy too! Seriously yes it is high maintenence but it toasty warm and helps with the lack of heating in some classrooms.

We had a winter and summer uniform.
Girls didn't need to wear blazers in the summer at all. Boys had to wear them to school. But could leave them in the cloakroom in the day.

Why don't they crack down on the skirts instead?

We don't have school uniform but we do make the kids take their coats off, would feel weird teaching a room full of people with outdoor coats on!

Really straightforward really:

1)they are fashion items mostly. We have a group of lads who all have huge Canada Goode puffer jackets. They roam around in them all day without blazers in underneath and use them as sleeping bags in lessons. It it a pain

2)Students use them as a way round uniform rules. Hoodies and coats instead of their blazers and jumpers. I find it very strange that a kid can have a hugely expensive designer hoodie but no school jumper.

3. They get everywhere and never on the back of their chairs. I have lost count of the number of time I have tripped over coats that have been dumped on the floor by a kid while I am trying to move around the classroom. Most classrooms are short of space.

Our students are allowed wear them on the bus and in the playground. They have to take them off once they are in the building and in the classroom, which I think is fair.

In my school the students were allowed to wear their coats during covid because the windows had to be open.

Their behaviour got considerably worse.

They we’re also cold when they got outside because they had no other layers to put on.

I assume it’s to do with behaviour.

But I think under layers work better than a coat indoors anyway.
Wearing a cost whilst trying to write isn’t very comfortable.

They should be tackling the skirt situation, most schools are quite hot on it.
Why do you think they’re not?

It's just so cold in the lunch cafe. And in some classrooms. Also walking about the school it's cold. There are no cloakrooms. So it means carrying around a heavy extra bag all day. Or get wet the whole way in and sit in wet clothes for half the day.

If you don't have cloakrooms. You should let them wear coats. They have to carry it in a bag anyway. Coats off in class maybe. But corridors and lunch allow coats.

Or close all the doors and heat the school properly. We have gone back to Dickensian times. When Cameron talked about austerity he meant if.