100 Pupils Sent Home For Wearing Incorrect Shoes.

[anotheoldgit]

Is it any wonder some of our children are not used to discipline with parents such as this?

Regardless of the excuses of only being told by text the day before term started, these parents were actually informed of the 'uniform' policy by letter twice last term, as well as informing the pupils during assembly.

However I thought the caption under this picture rather amusing.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/09/03/1409752719688_wps_14_PIC_BY_SOFIA_BOUZIDI_CATE.jpg

*** Absolute cobblers: Angry mother Michelle Clark with son Ellian showing the text from the school ***

[jno]

I had no problems with uniform either, as student or parent. Cheap and simple. There's also the esprit de corps factor (I can understand a home-schoolee mightn't get the point of this)

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

Yes and look what kicks off when some try to enforce it.

[kvalidir]

I'm not sure forcing people to wear naff clothing is necessarily encouraging good self discipline AOG, it's just teaching people to blindly do as they are told and that's not always a good thing I don't think. I appreciate that I am very much on the outside looking in on this, but I have always found it an utterly bizarre concept and it was one of the very many reasons I'm glad I never had school inflicted upon me because I think I would have been made to feel dismayed and furious by it, and possibly lead me to try to get expelled. That may indeed make me undisciplined, I really don't know, but I don't strike myself that way in general life, if something needs doing I just crack on with it however unpleasant but when something is purely pointless then I tend to have zero tolerance of it, and stuff like 'your shoes aren't right' seems to encourage pettiness, a lack of respect for the pettiness and a deficit of focus on what's really important.

[anotheoldgit]

grasscarp

I do believe they had to wait on school premises until their parents picked them up.

[bednobs]

in the story the woman was uopset that the pupils were wondering about unsupervised. Is she seriously saying that a 14 year old is never out on their own?

[anotheoldgit]

kvalidir

Then lets just hope that when you enter the real world, you will not have to meet certain dress codes or uniform requirements in the employment you choose to take up.

[jim360]

I do agree that discipline for its own sake is dangerous and unhelpful, and by about the time that the school had reached the twentieth pupil or so being disciplined for the same offence it should have been clear that a rethink was in order.

[Mamyalynne]

Now this has brought back memories of the annual nightmare that is School Uniform - shoes in particular were a real issue for my daughters.

The school in their wisdom allowed boys to wear black or brown smart shoes, but girls had to wear brown. At the time they were like hen's teeth to find - the school's inflexibility on this topic drove me mad.

Someone above mentioned 'cheap and simple' - theirs was horrendously expensive and available from only 2 retailers.

I have had mine sent home for - wrong hair colour, inappropriate hairstyle (they thought she had had a perm, when it was natural curls) and wrong shade of blue PE shirt.


That said, I do think uniform unifies but surely to goodness be sensible about it.

[kvalidir]

AOG I entered the real world when I was 12 and started my first business ( as part of my business studies) and I deal regularly with all sorts of officialdom and am likely to do so throughout my life ( first choice profession is acting, second choice a Barrister) . I still don't see how wearing a school uniform would help anyone to do that, or how I having not worn one am at any sort of a disadvantage.

[bednobs]

so when you become a barrister are you going to say "i'm not going to do blindly as i'm told, and wear naff clothing in court" or are you going to conform to the dress code?

[B00]

To be fair to the school, those examples of 'shoes' pictured aren't even shoes, they're trainers and an incredibly naff pair of plimsolls in one of the girls pictures.

[kvalidir]

I personally see the point in having a degree of formality in court Bednobs so clearly I wouldn't have chosen it as a possible profession were I not prepared to execute the job properly and dress accordingly, so no I seriously doubt you'd hear those words from me under those circumstances, however school uniform is an entirely different matter ( and I'm hoping to NOT become a Barrister- it's a very definite plan B).

[Svejk]

'dems me best trainers, yer honour, innit'. ;)

[gness]

I worked in a school in a deprived area.....but we had between fifteen and twenty pupils taxied in each year.
Some of these children were from very wealthy families....not having a uniform could have made the differences between the children awkward at best....I know it shouldn't...but it happens.

Shoes we played by ear or perhaps turned a blind eye is better.....we knew which child was in hand me downs... which family couldn't afford good leather shoes.

During a Year6 lesson we discussed uniform and I recall being told that if they had to wear a uniform to school we should too.....
In a way we did....the clothes we wore to work were certainly not the clothes we wore in our leisure time.

We didn't blindly do as we were told.....and we didn't expect the children to....we discussed the pros and cons of a school uniform.....and why having rules and obeying them isn't always a bad thing.

[B00]

If they'd perhaps gone in wearing normal looking non leather shoes, and not clearly trainers they might, just might, have got away with it. It does appear they're trying to get round the no trainers rule (which most schools have) by trying to be clever about it.

Of course, that could just be me being cynical ;-)

[kvalidir]

There are wilder, looser cannons than I apparently when it comes to court attire Bednobs...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2740327/Lawyer-dubbed-Harry-Potter-judge-wearing-medals-stitched-robe-investigated-claims-fake.html

[carrust]

If you didn't wear the proper uniform at my old school you got 2 strokes of the cane....the good old days, eh?

[ludwig]

I've never understood the whingeing about school uniforms. It's like objecting to having to drive on a certain side of the road. Either shut up and do it, or don't drive.

[ladybirder]

Parents agree to abide by the school uniform rule when their child is accepted into that school so they should carry out their side of the deal.
I loved my school uniform and felt a sense of belonging for the first time in my life.
And when I got my children onto a school where wearing school uniform was a requirement then I made sure they did and it wasn't always easy money-wise. Never had a problem with it at all.