School to become an academy - unfair uniform pricing

embob74

shellsuit wrote: »

Uniforms are more beneficial for parents, as they are cheaper than supplying a years worth of 'normal' clothes for a child/teen/young adult.
Wearing a uniform also shows which school/6th form they belong to.

I still have to buy 'normal' clothes for my kids and would appreciate them getting use of them before they have grown out of them rather than being ripped off by greedy school uniform suppliers. My kids love to shop at Primark which would work out a lot cheaper than the £100+ spend on a new uniform used for 39 weeks.
Personally I would prefer a more lax attitude towards uniform. Just having a shirt and jumper with logo on would be cheaper and still shows what school they are at.
I just don't see the problem in kids having a different hairstyle - how does that equate to being badly behaved? At high school a girl was sent home for having red streaks in her hair. One of the teachers regularly had red or blue streaks in her hair - surely that shows you can have a responsible job and still show individuality?
I also wish the schools would spend a as much time and effort on educating children as they do on policing school uniform policies - but that's just my experience of the high school.

shortstop

When I was left school (about 10years ago) we had to have a blue jumper with the school name and a tie, all other items could be bought elsewhere.
They changed the colour of the tie each year so that the newcomers to the school could be identified so in effect each year group in the school had a different colour tie, ours was blue and white, year below had red and blue etc. So we only ever had to replace a jumper when outgrown from the school shop. As each different year group were allowed to do different things like once you reached yr 10 you could go off school grounds at lunch (to the local chippy etc) the teachers could easily identify a younger year who was trying to sneek out, if they caught you without your tie outside school they brought you back, as long as you had it on you it was ok.
The other silly thing was they had a policy on shoes, boys had to wear black smart shoes/boots, while girls had to wear the ballet pump type shoes, no boots. Have you ever tried wandering round in snow and ice in ballet pumps! I was a bit of a rebel and wore Dr Martens the entire time, got sent home a couple of times because of them but my mum just sent me back in. To be fair in winter they were needed (outside break times etc in snow brr) and in summer I used to get a lift to school from my BIL on the back of his bike and no way would he let me on without a pair of boots.

embob74

shortstop wrote: »

When I was left school (about 10years ago) we had to have a blue jumper with the school name and a tie, all other items could be bought elsewhere.
As each different year group were allowed to do different things like once you reached yr 10 you could go off school grounds at lunch (to the local chippy etc) the teachers could easily identify a younger year who was trying to sneek out, if they caught you without your tie outside school they brought you back.
The other silly thing was a policy on shoes, boys had to wear black smart shoes/boots, while girls had to wear the ballet pump type shoes, no boots. Have you ever tried wandering round in snow and ice in ballet pumps!

The high school had a policy of no wellies. However they had problems with their drains blocking so as soon as it rained the grounds flooded. Apparently it was preferable to have kids walking around with soaking footwear rather than wellies on :eek:

GobbledyGook

embob74 wrote: »

At high school a girl was sent home for having red streaks in her hair. One of the teachers regularly had red or blue streaks in her hair - surely that shows you can have a responsible job and still show individuality?

That kind of hypocrisy in the school rules would absolutely infuriate me. There is nothing worse for breeding resentment towards staff and rules than having a heavy handed approach to children's uniforms and appearance and staff being able to wear what they like without any regard for similar rules.

dizziblonde

My old school had uniforms for 6th form... the "perk" was that instead of the very strict white shirt, tie, school jumper (that had a load of coloured lines going around the V neck of it so you couldn't use a cheap one) combo - they relaxed it a bit to any pale blue or white blouse and a blue skirt. From what I gather (I'd got the hell out and gone to the 6th form college for A Levels) the first day of term they got the lecture about punishments, detentions and eternal hellfire and damnation for breaking the skirt length rules (can anyone tell what religious denomination this school was lol) - an inch below the knee (yeah right) to an inch above the ankle (the school fashion fads at the time were Ratners gold ghastly jewellry, bad perms - curse you people uploading school pics to facebook, and the longest skirt you could find).

Think my brother (who went to the all-boys partner school) got the perk of a different tie in the 6th form there - but they had a uniform as well.

looby75

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

:eek: Sixth form does not usually have uniform any-more as pupils can be from a variety of other schools. DD has been put with those from a small local private church school. There are 6 schools in the sixth form catchment areas who can choose from two sixth forms or non A level college, whatever suits.

My daughters sixth form has uniform, most of the school sixth forms round here have uniforms. If they come from another school then they have to buy the uniform.

It's not quite as strict as the main school uniform, back skirt or trousers, white blouse/shirt and back jumper/cardigan school tie for the lads. Then from year 13 they have the option to buy and wear a leavers hoodie for £20.

partialycloudy

My old uniform was Brown and Yellow! We were only allowed to wear brown or beige coats - not black- and no logos. Girls had to wear socks or tights, socks had to be showing. And hair bands had to be brown or beige also.....boys could not have skin heads or long hair.

Mrs_Arcanum

looby75 wrote: »

My daughters sixth form has uniform, most of the school sixth forms round here have uniforms. If they come from another school then they have to buy the uniform.

It's not quite as strict as the main school uniform, back skirt or trousers, white blouse/shirt and back jumper/cardigan school tie for the lads. Then from year 13 they have the option to buy and wear a leavers hoodie for £20.

As I said before it wouldn't be practical to force a uniform on ours locally as you can attend both sixth forms to allow for timetable clashes and are offered a wider subject range/speciality. Even when the nearest school was the only sixth form option they have never had a uniform.

shellsuit

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Locally they are allowed to go to BOTH sixth forms so a uniform would be crazy anyway. However, I do think there should come a time when young adults are allowed to stop wearing uniform and sixth form is an ideal time. (Can you have a word with my husband's employers then as he has to wear a uniform)

After all they could legally be married and have children themselves before leaving school. Singling some 16+ year old's out by keeping them in uniform when their friends can wear what they like just seems very old fashioned to me. It's not old fashioned. It's what is called a rule. Like plenty of schools, 6th forms and employers all over the world.

Uniforms do not always equal a brilliant education, nor does an affordable uniform mean a poor education. Yet there seems to be a draconian return to expensive, OTT and unnecessary uniform restrictions. A balance between affording the uniform and having some non uniform clothes is essential. Yet with the high cost of some this will not be a choice at all. Let alone paying for the quantity required all at once particularly when changes are made relatively quickly.

I would rather see the money spent on better school facilities than posher uniforms.

You're doing it again.

You don't know the first thing about the 6th form I'm talking about, so how do you know the facilities aren't already out of this world?

Or is that not possible for a 6th form who has their students wear a uniform?

And the 6th form my son will be going to doesn't even have a posh uniform, which is what I very first stated about it, by saying I'm glad because I can get it at a supermarket!

Black pants, black jumper/tank top/cardy, white shirt and a tie. The tie is the only item which I can only get from one shop.

looby75

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

As I said before it wouldn't be practical to force a uniform on ours locally as you can attend both sixth forms to allow for timetable clashes and are offered a wider subject range/speciality. Even when the nearest school was the only sixth form option they have never had a uniform.

if the uniform was something pretty plain, such as the uniform my daughter had to wear it could work for both schools (the 6th form uniform is different from the main school uniform so a new one would have to be bought for 6th form here regardless)

We have a sixth form college and a local college that both do A-levels that don't have a uniform but they don't get as good results as the school sixth forms. Now I'm not saying that the uniform is the reason the schools get good results (my daughters sixth form is in the top 10 of schools in the country for exam results) but I do think it helps. Its much more formal than the sixth form college and local collage and I think the uniform plays a part in that formality so the students learn better, are in the right frame of mind so to speak.