Primary school uniform

meritaten

I was going to say to ask if you could 'borrow' from lost property until his jumper arrives.
school policies can change at the drop of a hat I have found. and some teachers 'enforce' them more than others.
it seems that school 'policies' have more power than actual laws. uniform is NOT compulsory for primary school children. but, from experience it isn't worth pointing that out to teachers or heads. schools are like the Vatican - they make their own laws.

DevilsAdvocate1

Spendless wrote: »

Query it in writing, either in child's school planner if they have one or an email. Keep your opinions and emotions out of the letter and stick to the facts. Explain the situation, that you do not currently have the money to buy something to tide him over in addition to buying a school jumper which is not stocked. Mention that you previously sent your older child/ren into the school with the same jumper you have sent youngest and had no objections raised. Ask if the school uniform policy has changed as you have not received any notification of it doing so.

The school may come up with a solution for you eg they may have some unclaimed lost property that he could use.

I think I'm just going to have an informal chat with the head teacher tomorrow. I know her quite well as I've had children in this school for 13 years now and I've done a lot of unpaid work for the school. She's very good at thinking out of the box and coming up with solutions, so I think I'll just ask her what can be done and get her to come up an idea. I'll order 2 new jumpers on Friday when we get paid.

I don't think there's anything left in the lost property box - it was all sold off at the end of last term to raise money for the school (parents were given the opportunity to reclaim stuff first).

Thanks everyone for your replies. I think what had upset me the most was the hoodie being confiscated. He's only 9, its not like he's in secondary school! Its been freezing up here today and my son looked really cold on the walk home from school.

FBaby

The jumper is going to have to be ordered through the school as the local uniform shop only carries the smaller sizes and does not have my son's size (I have already checked this).

Does this mean you havent' ordered it yet? I think they are being petty for having a go at your son and preventing him to keep warm, it is not nice to feel cold and certainly won't help his concentration, however, if you still haven't ordered the jumper, why not? It's been three weeks they have been back at school and you have realised that he didn't have one. Maybe that's where the teacher's frustration comes from, that she thinks unless she takes that strong stance, you don't intend on ever ordering it?

SingleSue

fannyadams wrote: »

I have the opposite 'issue'.
Mine has the option of taking/wearing a coat and often doesn't because he doesn't feel the cold.
I have argued til I am blue in the face that he doesn't need a coat and at age 10 he is of his own mind enough to KNOW when he needs/wants to wear a coat.
But the school INSIST he has a coat and he HAS to wear it when they play outside, the after school club also reinforce this and I get a letter/email home to tell me that he hasn't got a coat (again) and can I please ensure he has one.
Contrast with my secondary school aged son who doesn't take/wear a coat even though he has to wait in the cold/rain/weather for over half an hour after changing busses on his way home.

I too had that issue with my middle son, the amount of times I would explain about his internal heating system and that by forcing him to wear a coat or jumper would lead to him overheating was unreal (the overheating was very real and very dangerous to others, he is aspergic and would go into aspergic rages if he got even a tiny bit overwarm).

It made it great fun at home, eldest is the polar opposite and feels the cold far too easily, it would usually end up with middle son sitting in just his underwear and eldest son sitting fully dressed and with a jacket (or two) on....and both still not happy or comfortable.

Re uniform, at high school, middle son had an exemption from wearing the school blazer due to the overheating problem.

burnsguitarman

Has your son got something with long sleeves, that is the same colour as his polo shirt that can be worn underneath?
It wouldn't stand out quite as much, and it would be quite awkward for the teacher to have him remove it.
Other than that can you borrow one?

missbiggles1

Mojisola wrote: »

Being cold can indirectly contribute to catching a cold -
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Health_Letter/2010/January/out-in-the-cold
"Cold weather and respiratory disease, including flu, also go hand in hand. Research has shown that cold spells are reliably followed by upticks in the number of deaths from respiratory disease. Some of this may have to do with a few infectious organisms, like flu viruses, thriving in colder temperatures, but there's also evidence that exposure to cold temperatures suppresses the immune system, so the opportunities for infection increase. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in the late 1970s famously debunked the belief that the common cold is linked to cold exposure, but British cold researchers have maintained that there is a cold–to–common cold connection. Their hypothesis: cold air rushing into the nasal passages makes infections more probable by diminishing the local immune response there."

It's only September, we haven't had the sort of "cold temperatures" that article is talking about.

tea_lover

Why would you wait until the term had started to check that your child had the right clothes?

Mojisola

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Nobody gets a cold from being cold.

missbiggles1 wrote: »

It's only September, we haven't had the sort of "cold temperatures" that article is talking about.

Your first post didn't say "Nobody gets a cold from being cold at this time of year" - it was a general statement and I was just pointing out that some researchers think differently.

Mojisola

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

At school I had a chat with his teacher and explained that I wanted him to keep warm and that I will be buying some school jumpers. They usually take a week or two from ordering to arrive. In the meantime I hoped it would be okay for him to wear something else.

Anyway, to my face she was find about this.

But, she told my son that she did not want to see him with it on anymore as it is not a school jumper and she took it away.

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

I think I'm just going to have an informal chat with the head teacher tomorrow.

I would raise this with the Head. It's not professional to talk something through with a parent, agree on a solution and then treat the child differently.

On the other hand, it is the parents' responsibility to make sure that school uniforms are sorted out ahead of the school year so you'll have to accept that the problem is of your own making.

Papers like the Mail run stories at this time of year with photos of sad-looking children being sent home from school because their parents haven't complied with the school uniform rules but the school's policies are always very clear and there's usually help available if finances are very tight.

System

OP organization and preparation is the key.;) Just see if you can borrow one out of lost property until his new one arrives.