Our kids headteacher just sent out an email saying that they’re changing the school uniform policy. The head seem to have a boner for this as she’s been talking about it in emails for about a year, she actually sent out a potential new uniform about six months ago and it got absolutely panned. She’s finally just sent out a new policy saying that all the polo shorts will be changing from white to blue, they’ve got to have a uniform for when the kids go out to do messy play rather than letting them just wear old clothes, loads of little rules like how leggings aren’t allowed under skirts but tights are, and every kid now basically needs to have a ponytail and they’re only allowed blue hair bobbles to hold it in place.
So basically now all the parents have to go buy new clothes, including for messy play when they get their clothes trashed, and apparently this is supposed to help the kids somehow. There’s already a uniform but the head’s decided it’s not strict enough, during a cost of living crisis. I have no problem affording the new clothes but I know a lot of parents are struggling and the school has bigger problems, not to mention my kid likes picking out different colours of head bobbles, wearing leggings under skirts, etc.
I’m going to complain, anyone got any suggestions?
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I’d ask what specific, measurable benefits this policy provides to the pupils and staff.
My kid went to a school with no uniform, just rules about dressing appropriately. Never once did I see any reason why a uniform would be needed.
There is at least one good reason - it takes the pressure off of parents and kids to buy the most expensive or fashionable clothes, at least in school. It also means you don’t have to think about what outfit to wear each day and how you’ll be perceived by your classmates.
I didn’t think much of it since I went exclusively to schools where uniforms were required, and I thought it was dumb. Then I met people who grew up in lower income households who said they wished they had uniforms growing up. They stood out like a sore thumb at school among kids who had more financial means, and we all know what assholes middle schoolers can be, so they did not have a great time.
It can make it much more difficult for drug-dealers, or other creeps, to be on the schoolgrounds: they’re too obvious, with the uniform-requirement.
The only reason I know about that, was a principal identified it, some years ago.
I’d never have thought of it…
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I get teh idea behind uniforms but it really should be part of tuition or come with public education. Honestly I never understood students buying their own books at these levels either. They should get one daily uniform and one gym uniform each from the sounds of this. Barring that tho the new uniform should not be an instant replacement like that. I went to a catholic school that went from golden shirts for boys to blue shirts. They did changes like this before and the way it worked was the old uniform could be used but not bought. Over time the old went out as kids graduated. That is how it should be done.
The motivation of the head of that school … looks fundamentally-wrong.
However, there actually-is a valid reason for school-uniforms:
a principal of a school who’d had problems keeping drug-dealers off the playground, told the world that with school-uniforms, it is easy to see who shouldn’t be on the grounds.
Otherwise, you can’t.
the whole business of proving-insitutional-importance through abusing all who are subject-to-the-institution, though, that’s just middle-class/upper-middle-class bullying.
Avoid capital-cities if that bugs you: they’re made of it.
Do ranked-lists of the problems facing the school, get input from other parents, & do it for each dimension that’s pertinent.
Make it obvious that this institutional-ego forcing-others’-expendatures bullying isn’t what ought be the school’s priority.
The problem is that it’s sociopolitical: it’s the schoolboard who’s got leverage, and … they’re almost-certainly of the same ilk.
Which means that you’d really need to get them replaced, in order to get this school-head replaced…
Whatever, don’t give-up, push even if the results seem insignificant ( the habit-of-pushing is itself worth something meaningful ), & I hope you get progress.
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You-sure-like-hyphens.-😆
Translating from thoughtshapes to nested-groups-of-words is hard-enough with them…
I wish I had multiple-levels of them…
It’s like trying to translate chemistry to atoms, without being allowed to depict molecules: bullshit inaccuracy.
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