Why Are Schools Doing This?

[renegadefm]

Just had my partners daughter ring her in tears because her daughter, partners granddaughter was susspended from wearing the wrong type of trousers. This I should add is secondary school. 

This is just messing with the child's mental health. Besides the trousers she had on we're trousers of the right colour, and not leggings as the school was suggesting they are. 

 

This isn't the first time I have heard of issues like this at secondary schools around here. One particular indecent was where the child was given detention for wearing the wrong brand of trainers, apparently it should have been shoes. 

 

It beggers believe why are schools doing this to our children. No wonder they are growing up bitter and twisted or are suffering mental health issues. 

 

Surely they are there to learn and get an education, it shouldn't matter what they wear. 

 

 

[renegadefm]

But what about Hymie's explaination, that schools are profiteering from the specific school clothes shops that they stipulate the children must wear?

Doesn't that make the schools corrupt for forcing parents into purchasing the clothes from there. 

Its a bit like feathering your own nest. 

To me that puts a whole different spin on this to me. 

I didn't even realise schools get a cut from those specialised shops. 

 

Surely something needs to be done about that. 

[Neveracrossword]

Hymie's assertion may be true, and may be true for only a very small number of schools. And does that issue affect you/your family directly?If your partner's granddaughter was a pupil at a school where the uniform could be bought only from one supplier, stockist, the school would normally have given that information well in advance. 

[chelle7272]

How does that help get the child back in school?

[Barmaid]

Whether it is true or not, any commercial arrangements the schools may have are a matter for them.  It is not corruption and nothing needs doing about it.

What does need doing is parents need to support schools when they have a uniform policy and expect it to be followed instead of allowing their offspring to flout the rules and then cry "mental health" when the schools impose the sanction that is undoubtedly set out in the policy.

[pastafreak]

Whatever "profiteering" there might be, hopefully it is being put to use purchasing books or equipment for the school. Surely that's beneficial? I read a year or 2 ago that resources often have to be provided by teachers due to funding cuts. If your correct uniform purchase helps, then stop complaining. 

[DTCwordfan]

more like their parents are screwed  up having taken their beloveds off to Disneyland or the Med in term time and then being fined.....

[Hymie]

Barmaid posted //Whether it is true or not, any commercial arrangements the schools may have are a matter for them.  It is not corruption and nothing needs doing about it.//

 

As I’ve said, if I arranged such an agreement whereby there was no personal gain to me, but the company received a kickback – I would immediately be dismissed for gross misconduct.

 

The FTSE100 company I work for has an ethics code, which would deem the practice a gross breach of the code.

 

Quite why others are permitted to act with a complete lack of ethics is beyond me - this suggests many would not see outright bribery as an issue.

[renegadefm]

pastafreak, 

But hold on, we don't know for sure where these profits go. 

We pay enough taxes as it is. I have worked full time for 38 years, and I dread to think how much tax I have paid. 

I just think it highlights why the schools are so strict on uniform code if they are making money from it. 

I suppose it wouldn't seem so bad if the schools themselves sold the clothes. At least the middle man would be cut out, and it would bring down the cost of the clothing. 

Can I just say that as a parent myself I know how difficult is it to live up to school demands, and if you got several children, paying the over blown prices for the uniform they insist we have, its down right tough. And we are better off than some parents we know. 

If you got the chance to pay £6 instead of £25 for a pair of black trousers, which one would you choose?

I can understand jumpers need to have the school logo on the front or name, but black trousers all look the same. 

[Rosetta]

I would ask Hymie for proof that schools get a kick back from uniform outfitters and how widespread it is otherwise it is just another unproven conspiracy theory 

[Barmaid]

When I went to school, every item of clothing worn to school save for shoes, hosiery, underwear and coats had to be bought from the school shop or local registered suppliers. We had a winter uniform and a summer uniform (both with hats) plus a prescribed PE kit including knickers (blue for hockey and cross country, white for netball and tennis), plus art smock and chemistry overall. Hair styles, shoes and earrings were strictly policed. It cost my parents a small fortune for my sister and I, but they managed it. During my time, rules were relaxed a little, but there was no way our mother would have allowed us to breach those rules.

[renegadefm]

Barmaid, 

I don't think any parents want to purpously breach rules. 

Its the way everything costs these days, its frightening. 

I don't think we are living in an age where schools can be picky where a pair of trousers are bought from. 

Remember it is only trousers we are talking about, I'm not on about jumpers or tops. 

In my day at secondary school 1980 to 1985 I used to know kids would turn up with the wrong color shirts, but nothing was done about it.

Then changing the topic slightly, a boy in our class would regularly be absent from school, for weeks at a time, come back for a week or two, go absent again, this carried on through his whole school life, and there was no mention of fines or anything. 

He went onto being a car mechanic and ran his own business, not sure if he still is as we've lost touch.

 

The cane was still active right up until I left in 85. Different world back then. 

[Barmaid]

What tosh. Yes we are living in an age where schools can determine their policy on uniform (you call it picky, I call it policy). 

It is actually not difficult for a child to be dressed appropriately for his or her school in accordance with that policy. If there was a difficulty, the parents should have taken it up with the school before just sending the child to school inappropriately dressed and then having Grandad criticise the school.

[naomi24]

Actually renegadefm, I do think some parents purposely want to breach school rules - and, with your support, this mother is one of them.   This is ridiculous.

[Hymie]

Besides being dismissed for gross misconduct for arranging some kickback arrangement; if I was to insist that a client of my employer was mandated to make purchases from a particular supplier, whilst I might not be dismissed – questions would be asked as to why had had set up arrangements that were anti-competitive (resulting in clients paying over the odds for goods or services (thinking about it, I probably would be dismissed).

 

But if I was the head of some school, it would be OK.

[maggiebee]

I attended an Academy for 12 years.  They had a strict uniform policy and when I first started there was only one shop in our town which sold the blazer.  It was a high class shop but somehow all parents managed to buy one for their child.  There was also a blazer exchange where you could buy an outgrown one at a fraction of the cost. A lifesaver for some including my parents.

[DDIL]

I think the OP likes wacky conspiracy theory!

[barry1010]

When my own children were at school you couldn't buy uniforms in supermarkets.  The blazers, trousers, skirts and jumpers were very expensive as well as the obligatory gaberdine mac.  Even the PE kit was expensive.

Today's uniforms are much more affordable in comparison,  three for £6 at Sainsbury's.  

[barry1010]

*three shirts for £6 at Sainsbury's, other supermarkets have similar prices*

[naomi24]

Barry, the whole point of this discussion is that, like a lot of schools the one attended by the child in question requires uniform to be, well - uniform.  It has the be the regulation stuff bought from a specific source.

[barry1010]

I understood the girl had been in trouble because she was wearing leggings, not trousers.  I'm sure the shirts can be bought from anywhere.