It could be that schools are giving parents what they want. Parents now feel that choosing a school is as much an aspirational life-style decision as where they holiday, or what car they drive. If you aspire to private education but can't afford it you may choose an academy or specialist school that mimics the uniform-wearing, strict discipline ethos of the private sector.

If that's the case then you've got no right to go sad facing to the papers if its your kid breaking the rules and making the place look untidy.

Some of the governors at my husbands school wanted to start making a fuss over shaved heads and dyed hair but he managed to talk them out of it, he's not the good taste police.

Depressingly familiar.

'Dressing for Excellence'. Fuck me, get a grip...

(He says as he's probably the only person here to have taught a 15-year old boy who was wearing a dress. Well, a frock really, summer print, bias cut, looked lovely. And used to get comments for not wearing a tie himself.)

Whilst I think there is an element of schools trying to out do each other by enforcing strict uniform codes I also think that a lot of schools try and make an issue of uniform because they know they are on pretty safe ground, if the rules are in black and white and a pupil breaches the rules then it is clearly the pupil or parent who is to blame. If pupils are misbehaving in class because either the work is too easy or too hard or because they are not getting proper support when the school takes any action many parents will often question the punishment and demand to know why the school isn't doing more to cater for their child's educational needs.

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www.newshuddlines.blogspot.com

I'm with Squeaker and Bones on this as well, there's a link between uniform and the perceived public image of the school (real) and a link with behaviour and motivation (spurious). There may be a link between the perceived public image and behaviour and motivation, however.

But no matter how stupid or frivolous, rules is rules.

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Changin' avatars like there's no tomorrow

Thanks for that. I'd never noticed.

Eggs is eggs too.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

You're welcome. See? You don't know everything.

But I should explain a bit more. I don't think uniform rules make much sense, they remove a lot of potential for expression and individuality. Sure, people still manage to be individuals with uniform, but it's not quite the same - in a way, they make expression stand out more. I sometimes get a bus that coincides with the school run for a local grammar, and there's one girl in particular who is very expressive in that she barely wears anything that looks like uniform (although it clearly is an imitation). She stands out because of it, regardless of how... uh... much her uniform is 'inappropriate' or looks like something from Vague or Cosmos or whatever.

That said, they're rules that apply to everyone "fairly" (they don't, but they should).

Sixth form didn't make sense in terms of uniform, either. I remember there was the eternal discussion about shorts for boys - girls can turn up in short shorts, skirts, etc. and be within uniform, but boys can't wear shorts or those Bermuda thingies that stop half-way down the shins - and it was always said that they're too casual and don't let you get in the learning mindset. This is what the boys normally wore - jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, tracksuits, trainers and so forth. How shorts are somehow 'more casual' than that I have no idea whatsoever.

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Changin' avatars like there's no tomorrow

I've no doubt that the usual vocal minority of parents will have nagged the Principal about this.
It disappoints me that a set of highly rated comprehensives (as they are in the area) can be so easily driven to compete over a no-mark vanity project like this.

Blazer of not, my kids are liable to offend certain parents standards of racial purity - thankfully we have laws about that kind of thing.
It helps that they appear to be smarter and more athletically gifted than some of the "purebloods".

Anyway, I'm wandering somewhet off topic, and sounding dangerously like some kind of psycho, so I'll await the next sadface (Hope It's John Terry).

Except the highway code..
With all that PC nonsense about not ramming cyclists and prams.

I was going to butt out, but wish to clarify...

The school already has a perfectly good uniform comprising:
Grey trousers (Available from Asda - £2.00 or more)
Black shoes.
White shirt
Tie
Dark Grey V-neck pullover.
Dark coloured rain jacket.

At present "Prefects" and 6th years get to wear a blazer as an option.
School colours (for all kinds of excellence) permit a different range of ties to be worn.

The Dressing for excellence initiative makes the Blazer mandatory.
Incurring extra expense and the "2 tier" business of the expensive tailored woolen one, or a nylon one.

Having worn a blazer at my school, I know it's frequently a redundant layer of clothing, tends to become stinky (esp for adolescent boys) and didn't stop me from committing a range of infractions during my school career.
I rather liked the old uniform which was generally egalitarian, and could be worn at non-school events where a degree of formality was appropriate.

With you 100%.

Back in the sixties, when Mods wore blazers, we bought smart ones and held our school badges on the breast pockets with paperclips. That way we could just whip the badges off and go home in civvies. Annoyed the head no end, but wasn't against the rules. So he banned metal buttons...

I've still got the badge.

We used to have rules about uniform and clothing in general that I was supposed to enforce. There was always tension between the kids, the staff who agreed with them, parents, the authority and the head. In amongst all of that no-one was learning anything other than to find ibcreasingly sophisticated ways of breaking the rules.

How does wearing the wrong colour trainers affect your ability to comprehend the Congress of Vienna?

Not accompanied with Doc Martens and black biker jacket, was it? Been known to venture out myself in such attire.

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Si vas a plagiar noticias, no uses un sitio de noticias falsas como fuente.


Last edited by Carlos The Badger on Thu Feb 31, 2021 18:60 am, edited 666 times in total.

I went to a Technical School during the '60s. This was one up on the secondary school and one down from the grammar school, Championship rather than Premiership but better than playing for Accrington Stanley if you follow my analogy.

The headmaster was a little man who struck me as being incredibly old but there was good discipline in the school and that included very strict uniform regulations. Not only did you have to wear a particular style of blazer but it could be bought from just one shop. I dread to think how much it cost my parents to kit me out because we had little money. The head retired in '65 and the new man swept in... and when I say swept it was because of him adopting a proper headmaster's gown and by 'eck he was dramatic as he swept up and down the corridors barking at boys who were running. In his mind the school was not a county town's Technical School but a top flight public school in the shires and he got up everyone's nose including the teachers. Length of hair was his particular bete noir and woe betide any boy who had hair that touched the back of his collar. The time and energy he spent on trying to enforce the unenforceable was astonishing. Funny thing though, I have a 1970 school photo using one of them panning cameras and everyone by then had long hair including the teachers - some of who had Jason King type 'taches and sideburns. The Head sits in the middle still clinging to his illusions and sporting a short back and sides.