When I went to school it was jeans, t shirt or stay press trousers and a button down collar shirt.
Sitting in the reception of a school in Tower hamlet waiting to fix there network, I can’t believe how strict they are. There is a dragon on the door screaming “no out door coats” “top button done up NOW” and not letting them in until they have a tie on which are having to pay for. Are all schools like this ?
I left school late 80’s and it was in East Lothian.

Are all schools like this

No, but increasingly more are.

There’s some interesting psychology behind it (see the ‘suits’ thread from yesterday) in terms of ‘looking the part makes you feel it’ and it’s a way of having a relatively small matter in which the children accept discipline that is then supposed to translate into them accepting it in larger matters.

A lot of academies seem to be moving from polo shirt and sweat shirt uniform to a shirt, tie and blazer one – again as they tend to be in areas with ‘troublesome’ pupils and see it as a way fo injecting some esprit de corps )sp?) into a school relatively cheaply.

Not at the primary school two of mine go to but they are reasonably strict and I think it’s a good thing.

school sweatshirt and proper coloured shirt or polo shirt* for my two. plus black or grey trousers / shorts / skirt as appropriate and black shoes.

* this has just been relaxed, previously the school insisted on a school polo shirt with an embroidered badge, available from the school office and 4x the price of an equivalent quality plain one from M&S / JS / Tesco. Scam alert….

The local senior school insists on blazer and tie but as you’d expect the older kids have been very creative in the way they wear them as we all did when we were at school. Knee length skirts rolled over at the waistband once out of the school gates to creat micro minis, ties with knots the size of belgium or smaller than a thumbnail depending if you’re a wannabee footballer or indie popster….

ties with knots the size of belgium

Those were the days… next time I’m heading into the office I may have to relive them!

ties with knots the size of belgium or smaller than a thumbnail depending if you’re a wannabee footballer or indie popster….

nothing changes 😀

One boy has just been shouted at to get his tie on
“where’s your tie”
“I forgot it”
“do you have money to buy one”
“no”
“well go home”
My son is not at school for a few years so things may change back to how it was in the old days 🙂

The primary school my son is at has what it seems some would describe as a strict uniform – white shirts, grey trousers, ties, grey socks, dark shoes, green jumper (not sweatshirt). Everybody seems to wear the official embroidered jumper, but it’s not compulsory – the rules specifically mention that plain stuff from chain stores is OK, leaving only the tie as something specific to buy (and they’re hardly extortionate).

I’m fairly sure there has been research showing that various measures of school performance are improved through having a strict uniform like this – it’s probably not directly connected that our school gets an excellent Ofsted rating, but probably not totally unrelated either. Certainly I’ve heard comments from people totally unconnected with the school, who just drive past on their way to work, impressed with how smart and ready for school the kids look.

What exactly is the objection to getting kids to dress up smartly for school?

Also to stop the inevitable “oneupmanship” regarding designer clothes and badges which puts pressure on other kids to conform/compete and puts huge pressure on parents.
Dress you kids in jeans and I gurantee you will be spending over £100 on designer jeans within a month!
Uniforms are a good thing IMO

i imagine in tower hamlets a lot of the strictness on that point is to reinforce authority and tight discipline across the board, so the pupils have it reinforced and toe the line in other areas as well.

In my primary school it was a free-for-all but we had school jumpers which were nice and parents liked their kids having.

In my secondary school, a state school near Wigan, it was pretty much the same as the OP, as were all of the others in the area, some more strict. OK, top buttons were allowed open but only on hot days and if the teacher didn’t take particular annoyance at the student. I saw no problem with it – no uniform days really caused a few issues as kids being little swines would rip “those without” apart and bully “those with” – it was only cool to have just the right level of clothing.

One of ours insists on dark coloured outdoor coats, not so good for my daughter who bikes in.

When we forgot our ties at school, the office made you wear one from an awful collection that they had.
I never forgot my tie more than the once, so it worked well!

Get her a reflective tabard to put over the top, mlc.

My secondary school didn’t have a uniform, you could wear what you liked as long as it wasn’t a football top or offensive to anyone* and I can’t say I ever noticed kids getting bullied for not wearing ‘cool’ clothes.

*Although this didn’t stop having to sit behind a guy in an exam once who a massive middle finger on the back of his tshirt with a slogan emblazened above it telling me where to get to in massive letters.

Edit: Actually yeah there was a couple of kids got bullied for not having ‘cool’ clothes but I don’t think it was ever solely about the clothes they were wearing, more likely the bullies just seen them as easy targets.

Get her a reflective tabard to put over the top, mlc.

Done, plus tape on bike.

Private and state school here, the private had a limited dress code – basically no printed tees while the state school had a strictly enforced black trousers/skirts, white shirt, school tie and blazer.

One of ours insists on dark coloured outdoor coats, not so good for my daughter who bikes in.

Or any that walk in either really, slightly odd request but ours was the same back in the early 90s.

Blimey..!

I’m clearly out of touch. I assumed all schools had a uniform – I had no idea there were so many where that isn’t the norm.

FWIW I think a uniform is a good thing for a host of reasons, most of which are largely outlined above.

The latest bright idea of my boys secondary school was to make them buy a clip on tie in his second year, so we’d bought one tie and then they decided to change to clip on ones with a slightly different colour scheme for each school house, after my lad broke 2 and lost 2 in the first half term of last year I sent him back with his old tie on, telling him to ring me if they had any problems! So far they haven’t rung…

Oooh get you!!

Seems to be increasingly common, as lots have said above. A good thing, IMO.

Though our village primary school massively overcharge for their logo’d tops, so we just buy cheap Asda uniforms and get the logo added to one or two tops at a local embroidery/outfitters, so the kids have one “smart” uniform when required for certain occassions.

Mrs MCTD mentioned the other day that a primary school apparently cannot actually enforce a uniform policy, only secondary schools or their equivalents. She works in child protection, and deals with a lot of kids who don’t have a school uniform for a variety of reasons. so I’m assuming she knows what she is talking about. Makes me chuckle when I hear the head mistress getting on her high horse about it.

I always wore a full uniform (inc. Blazer) at school, and now so does my son. The local schools also wear uniforms, but its a polo shirt/sweatshirt policy.

Uniforms are good, no real upmanship – although my youngest has the ability to loo scruffy in anything…

As a secondary school teacher I believe that uniform is A Good Thing for the reasons that other above have noted.

@PePPeR regarding clip-on ties; I think they’re practical – and, most of all, it means that the shirt must be buttoned up; gets rid of the tie being worn halfway down the chest. Safer, too, speaking as a Craft & Design teacher…

Sitting in the reception of a school in Tower hamlet waiting to fix there network, I can’t believe how strict they are

We have standards here, you know…. 8)

Which school?

i imagine in tower hamlets a lot of the strictness on that point is to reinforce authority and tight discipline across the board, so the pupils have it reinforced and toe the line in other areas as well.

😆

The little bastards round here are a law unto themselves. Proper terrors.

Alocal school seems to have only two sizes of blazer, large and extra large, and all the smaller kids have the extra large size.

Along with red ribbon stiched round the outside, they look like theyre from Glee.

School uniform? excuse to see how much you could get away with. I wore skirts so short i really had to be careful sitting down to cross my legs
LOL

If you don’t enforce the uniform, you won’t be able to enforce the behaviour…. stricter the uniform the better. If it slides so does behaviour.

@ househusband, I understand the reasoning behind the clip on ties, safer, ( have had 1 daughter have her hand shaved off in a rotary sander at same school,) and the fact that the ties look standard no huge or tiny knots and if course the button has to be done up to wear them. But when the ties are costing us £9 a time and have broken after a week of wearing, and then my boy taking them off on the bus home rather than just loosening it like he used to and then losing 2 ties it is starting to get pretty expensive! To replace the next tie means I’ll have spent £54 in 2 terms, extrapolate that out for the next 4 years and it gets pretty expensive!

i imagine in tower hamlets a lot of the strictness on that point is to reinforce authority and tight discipline across the board, so the pupils have it reinforced and toe the line in other areas as well.

Having taught in some ‘challenging’ school environments in Sheffield and Rotherham, this is it. Being fussy over minor things (like uniform, being polite, ready to learn in lessons etc) means that there are usually fewer issues of bullying, fights etc. Kids get the undertone that 1. These things matter. 2. We expect good things of you. 3. The staff are in charge.

+1 for what Matt said. Fully agree in my experience.

It was Swanlea School on Brady road .

Many moons ago now, I was a pupil here… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2036958/Shelley-College-removes-mirrors-girls-toilets-stop-pupils-putting-make-up.html

The ‘dress code’ was a uniform in all but name…

Must be different up here. We cannot legally force pupils to wear uniform,as a few of the more entitled pupils have got their parents to inform us. On the bright side, most don’t know this and the Jannies bring me the more stained ties they find which I make anybody who turns up in my room without one wear.Another advantage is that if a pupil in uniform is in an accident outside of school they have a quick way of finding out who they are. Reinforces discipline as well,as said.

As a primary school supply teacher I go into dozens of schools in a year. I don’t know a single one that deosn’t have a strict uniform policy. I only know of 3 three that have ties as part of it though. Almost all won’t accept trainers although some compromise on black “leather” ones. The half dozen secondary schools I go past all have the same idea. Its strange how the most successful ones have the best dressed kids. The one academy I pass has some nasty blazers with the badge embroidered on. It looks awful. But the kids were always a mess before this was introduced ( dark blazers etc) The local grammar school kids are always much better turned out. I am not surprised that these schools have a much better success rate in other things including the non academic aspects like sport. The kids have a sense of self respect. At secondary level, since my days( I left after A levels 30 years ago,) I have not seen a single school that doesn’t have uniform.

School uniform? excuse to see how much you could get away with. I wore skirts so short i really had to be careful sitting down to cross my legs
LOL

This post is no good without pict…

😛

thankfully for me, there are none. (loads of Sharon Tavitt Though, she had massive boobs and was always getting them out, she’s all over FB, LOL )

*Ponders Googling “Sharon Tavitt images”* 8)

*Remembers I’m using wife’s laptop”* 😳

When I went to school it was jeans, t shirt or stay press trousers and a button down collar shirt.
…
I left school late 80’s and it was in East Lothian.

I expect more from Loretto to be honest.

The Compass School was the “posh” one in my hometown 🙂