What to wear for secondary school placement in July?

[suwoo]

Ive got myself a week (or longer) placement in a challenged high school in July. I normally wear vest tops and chinos/wide legged pants/ skinny jeans and jersey maxi dresses with gladiators- that kind of thing. The maxi's may be suitable but are a bit tight. A teacher aquaintance who works in a school with a similar demographic has warned me off the vest tops because the boys will look at my tits .

What the hell does one wear in the heat. I don't posess blouses and won't do knee length skirts as have very white footballers legs.

What then?

What is your personal style? Maybe you need to show it through accessories rather than through tops and trousers.

I'm not that stylish pointy, just a boringly sheeplike Topshop and Primarni wearer. Yes, higher necked vest tops with cardi's is a good idea- with linen pants and pumps/glads.

I have big boobs and wear good bra's that give me a nice shape, so need to stick with black tops to disguise that a bit.

you have a lot to learn if you think teenage boys won't stare at your tits- how old are you by the way? teenage boys will look at any tits on anyone under 60 so if you are 20s you are fair game.

Did you never see boys at school drop pencils on the floor so they could look up the teacher's skirt when she walked past???!!!

I taught in sec schools for years and lewd comments/thoughts about female teachers from male students go with the territory.

I don't think you are getting a lot of conflcting advice- only 1 person has said yes to leggings or chinos.

basically think how you would expect a bank manager, solicitor, or office manager to dress for work.

As someone else has said you need to think of having 2 wardrobes-work wear and casual wear.

For your week in school you should be wearing smart work trousers, or a smart knee length skirt .

my 22 yr old daughter is fashionable but has a pair of black trousers from Next for interviews and a black knee length pencil skirt, which she wears with a nice white shirt.

You are only there for a week, so quite honestly one pair of trousers, a skirt or dress and a few smart tops should see you through the week.

I have to disagree with you a bit cabbageroses - I don't think personal style should be sacrificed. Yes, you need to appear to be professional and with teaching, you have to be appropriate, but so much of teaching is about personality and for some people, personality is very much reflected by the clothes that they choose to wear. Workwear as formal as you suggest seems a bit stuffy to me. There has to be a middle ground.

Again, maybe I'm being very naive, but as a young teacher in an inner-London (not that I feel that's relevant, teenage boys are teenage boys wherever) Secondary, I never got any of the bend over for the pencil business. Maybe they were thinking it, but there were clear boundaries in the classroom about what was and wasn't appropriate when dealing with a member of staff.

red - did you teach angels then?
I don't see how one can legislate against a stare. and the pencil thing- again, how can it be proven that it was a trick ?

I utterly agree that clothes express personality BUT the OP is going there for a week only- it's not about her expressing her personality it's about looking smart, and presumably to see if she liks the idea of teaching?

The whole point is not to offend or make other teachers' roles harder.

I am not sure what she is doing there but she can't be teaching??/ Observing???

So it's imortant that she blends in.

Once you are in a school then you can adapt the dress code and add accessories etc to show who you are.

In one school I used to work in during the 1980s, the women teachers were not allowed to wear trousers!

Absolutely no to leggings. Linen trousers will look crap after half an hour.

We have a very strict dress code at our school. Recently I've been wearing -

silk dresses with a light blazer over;
wide legged trousers with a three quarter sleeved t-shirt or blouse and a waistcoat;
pencil skirt and three quarter sleeved top with cropped jacket or waistcoat -
other combinations of that ilk.

I always wear hold up stockings when wearing a dress or a skirt - cooler than tights and I wouldn't want bare legs unless wearing a longer length skirt.

I wouldn't wear a maxi but that is because we have to wear a jacket and a maxi would look silly with a jacket (or on me anyway!). But I don't think a maxi would necessarily be frowned upon, as some of the Muslim staff wear long skirts/dresses.

Oh no, most certainly not , it just never came up (no pun intended).

Do take your point about placement/PGCE though. When I was training it was black trousers, v-necked t-shirts and jumpers with sensible courts all the way. 3/4 length black trousers were my concession to summer.

In fact, at my first school, I remember some of my more unpleasant, nest of vipers type colleagues giving me terrible glares when I began to dress a little more like me nearing the end of my NQT year. But that's another story altogether.

There isn't a 'very strict dress code' in any of the (London, state secondary) schools I have taught in. As long as you don't wear jeans, trainers or look like you are going t'pub for a bevvy rather than to work for the day, you're fine. Chinos would be perfectly acceptable.

Nobody at my school wears suits or very smart attire other than senior management.

p.s Linen trousers are for grannies!

Something like this would work. Or this with a tan belt and blazer. And they're topshop

DO NOT wear linen trousers.

Gah my pst just disappeared. I said yes to tethersends suggestions but I have a lower leg issue. I like colonels suggestions. I will wear my floral wide legs and avoid the linen pants as I would in my 'real life'.

It is observation to accrue hours to apply for GTP (if it still exists in 2 years)

I agree the best advice is to go and look on your first day. I work in a private school and we have a dress code but whilst we start in September in suits for all, by the time hot weather comes (like the last few weeks) you will see cotton dresses WITH LEGGINGS (!) or bare legs, cropped trousers in all materials, sleeveless dresses, high heels, flat sandals etc. etc. and very good we look too!

School is in Salford.