Appropriate Action ? Or Not

[Bazile]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2871332/School-used-minibus-dozens-pupils-shoe-shop-wearing-wrong-footwear-sent-parents-bill.html

I suppose if there is a dress code then that should be adhered to .

I noticed the school has/had a problem with bad behaviour from pupils - so in respose to the ofsted report , the dress code is an appropraite place to start from in rectifying things

What do you think ?

[sherrardk]

When a school has behavioural problems (that have been highlighted by Ofsted) one of the first things they do is tighten up on the uniform or change it all together (in my opinion the rot has already set in by this point). Uniform is a nightmare to police but if you can get the kids to stick to it then it's a start (a big problem is that all of the staff have to enforce it, not just one or two). If my son didn't have the right shoes I would expect to be informed and given a certain person to rectify it in, I would not be happy (understatement) if the school took him out of lessons to get some appropriate shoes and then sent me the bill.

(jourdain, that's £200 for five kids so it's expensive but not too bad per child)

[jourdain2]

Still a lot of money sherrardk and I really do understand, but I'm trying to look at the big picture and point out some of the difficulties non-compliance brings :0)

[jourdain2]

P.S. To I've forgotten the name.... a minibus is essential for ferrying school teams to matches and moving pupils to educational resources such as art galleries or special lectures which may be available within the area, so please don't focus on that.

[sherrardk]

Jourdain, I was a senior teacher in a large upper school so I know the problems of non-compliance. However, I think schools/teachers need to see the bigger picture (on a number of issues). Two or three years after I left my last school it went into special measures and one of the first things they did was change the uniform - if the schools didn't choose such expensive uniform (my eldest son has polo shirts that are £12 each, not to mention 3 different logo'd PE shirts, shorts, sweatshirt, etc) then it would be easier to comply with it.

[tonyav]

A lot of schools don't like trainers.
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/09/03/100-pupils-sent-home-for-having-wrong-shoes/

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-news/2014/09/16/35-pupils-sent-home-from-black-country-school-over-trainers/

[jourdain2]

That's a lot of money sherrardk. I would agree with you that uniform is in many cases far too expensive - I would be quite happy with bog-standard supermarket kit and a sew-on badge for a couple of items. That casts another light on some schools' uniform policies. I had assumed that schools, especially in difficult areas, would automatically adopt easily available, cheap, uniform standards - that's what we did, after all.

We got a new Head who demanded we all bought books of raffle tickets to buy new curtains for the hall! 4 years later the school went into special measures (I had left by then T.G.).

tony av - it really is very , very bad for growing feet to be in trainers all the time (or so I have been assured by experts).

[tonyav]

Yes I should imagine that it is, jourdain.

[Bazile]

//.....This summer it cost me £200 just for shoes and thing 2 has already kicked the front out of his (he's new to playing football on a hard surface, he'll get better) ..///

sherrardk - lol , that brings back memories - that is , playing football and severely scraping off the outer layer at the front of my shoes .
I used to apply black shoe polish over the said area in attempt to hide it from my parents .

As for trainers - my 'trainers' were black pumps ( do they still sell pumps ?)
Oh , i used to envy the lad , who was always in an expensive pair of trainers - i think his family had a bit of dosh behind them - they were in the fish 'n' chip business .
His trainers cost several times the cost of the shoes i used to wear