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Girl in Union Jack dress sent home on diversity day

(281 Posts)
Primrose53 Tue 15-Jul-25 17:05:47

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyvj289y788o

Poor kid. I heard this on breakfast news and could not believe it. She is apparently a grade A student in her first year at High School and this will surely stay with her right through her school career now.

The school have apologised but what on earth were they thinking of in the first place?

I guess the buck stops with the Head Teacher and she should definitely be forced to take some training on being proud to be British.

Allira Wed 16-Jul-25 16:17:34

Maremia

Do any of you know what the 'remit', i.e. the instructions,said, that the chuldren took home, about the dress up day?

Yes, but it was difficult to download and paste it in for some reason.

Try again.

Nope.

Allira Wed 16-Jul-25 16:21:44

Try again.

It must have a block on it. Strange.

Allira Wed 16-Jul-25 16:23:25

Maremia

Just if you have the time. Thanks in advance.

If you look at reports in the press, it shows the notice.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyvj289y788o

Maremia Wed 16-Jul-25 16:23:42

Thanks for trying. It's just to give me an idea of what was actually said, and then I will be able to have an opinion on what has happened to the girl.

Maremia Wed 16-Jul-25 16:26:06

OOOOft! Wrong of the school, but also wrong of her Dad for amplifying it.
Thanks Allira

AuntieE Wed 16-Jul-25 16:26:23

Presumably her teachers felt it was deeply inappropriate to wear a garment sewn out of, or to look like a national flag.

It would certainly cause a scandal in Denmark if anyone did go around dressed in our flag and I remember in the 1970s when it was briefly fashionable for very daring girls to wear shorts sewn of the Union Jack hearing of a German teenager seeing this and exclaiming in horror, "But you cannot sit down on your flag!"

eazybee Wed 16-Jul-25 16:28:29

I looked on the school website yesterday and there was no mention of the event at all, not even in calendars covering the whole of July. Someone had removed all mention very quickly.
If the father is a known supporter of tommy Robinson, then the school was extremely foolish in excluding her. Not every one dresses appropriately on these occasions , neither is it compulsory, so if the dress was intended to provoke they should simply have smiled and ignored it. Personally I think the dress was perfectly acceptable and appropriate, just not what they had in mind.
What did they have in mind for English children?

Smileless2012 Wed 16-Jul-25 16:28:45

Regardless of whether her father has ties to Tommy Robinson, the school's behaviour is unacceptable. Do the other children's parents have ties to TR? Is that why two carrying flags weren't allowed to do so, and the boy dressed up as a farmer was disallowed too?

Silvergirl Wed 16-Jul-25 16:47:45

School has over reacted I think. They’ve played into Dad’s hands. Shame on dad for using his daughter like this. Hope she can cope with the publicity.
I wonder if the school would have sent home a 3 rd generation British girl of Asian ethnicity dressed in a Union Jack. She would have every right to wear it.

JdotJ Wed 16-Jul-25 17:10:40

I'm sure I read/heard that a child was sent home as they were dressed as a farmer

Did I imagine that ?

NotSpaghetti Wed 16-Jul-25 17:14:22

I suppose ^ a small tartan scarf^ is not a flag TerriBull

TerriBull Wed 16-Jul-25 17:18:27

No! It's not and anyway Rupert Bear wore one so that makes it fairly inclusive in an inter species sort of way. Maybe that's why the school let it pass.

Boz Wed 16-Jul-25 17:21:47

So it seems the school really wanted an 'Other Cultures' day in which Britain wasn't included. In the current climate, a very bad move which was bound to annoy people and will put schools off such days in future.My advice would be to celebrate Books and have a Character Day instead.

TerriBull Wed 16-Jul-25 17:23:14

Maybe if the "farmer" child had been more creative and thought outside the box, less Jeremy Cotswold Clarkson, maybe more the Opium growing farmer, Afghanistan style he might have cracked it, pardon the pun!

Smileless2012 Wed 16-Jul-25 17:24:14

I read that too JdotJ.

eazybee Wed 16-Jul-25 17:25:50

Yes, Book Days, then you get people turning up as rock stars, because he's in my Rock Star Annual.

PoliticsNerd Wed 16-Jul-25 17:29:44

Oreo

It doesn’t matter what anyone on this forum says about Reform, if schools and other institutions carry on in this way by trying to exclude or expunge anything to do with British culture, including flag banning, then people will vote Reform .
Most of us are sick of it.People come here to experience our way of life and there is no need to constantly apologise for anything done in the past and def we should promote our, and Western values and our own particularly rich culture.

Recent research tells us that there are things that turn large numbers away from Reform Oreo, just as happened in Canada. There are also large numbers who would never vote for Farage - they want to keep the NHS.

Nigel Farage says he's on the people's side - but when you take a closer look it's pretty clear who he's really fighting for isn't it? It's the rich, the powerful and his mates in big business.

You read that Reform has taken £2 million from fossil fuel lobbyists - polluters and climate fuel deniers. Over 90% comes from there apparently. £2 million quid! That's not standing up for the people, it's selling out to the highest bidder.

That is why he wants to cut public services, cut workers rights, cut taxes for the richest - handing even more power to the elites he pretends to oppose. Just like his mate Donald Trump is doing.

He is not smashing the system. He and his rich friends basically are the system.

This was one piece used in recent research used by Persuasion UK (they look into what does the persuading). They were looking into what information Reform were vulnerable to. They did work on Labour earlier in the year.

The quoted piece was the most damaging. It may take time to get people to understand the truth - some never do until something actually happens to them. We have seen in this in America where Trump's promises of "Jam today" turned to ashes in the mouths of MAGA members who now will not even get "Jam tomorrow"

persuasionuk.org/research/reform-message-testing-rct

PoliticsNerd Wed 16-Jul-25 17:43:01

AuntieE

Presumably her teachers felt it was deeply inappropriate to wear a garment sewn out of, or to look like a national flag.

It would certainly cause a scandal in Denmark if anyone did go around dressed in our flag and I remember in the 1970s when it was briefly fashionable for very daring girls to wear shorts sewn of the Union Jack hearing of a German teenager seeing this and exclaiming in horror, "But you cannot sit down on your flag!"

You have a good point AuntieE. Anyone, in the Scouts or Guides, who handled the flag for ceremonial reasons, was taught how to treat it. So are those in our armed forces. My parents generation would certainly seen "wearing" the Union flag as an insult to the country.

What, exactly, was this father trying to teach his child?

NotSpaghetti Wed 16-Jul-25 17:43:41

Maremia

Do any of you know what the 'remit', i.e. the instructions,said, that the chuldren took home, about the dress up day?

I certainly don't and have spent some time looking for them.

Smileless2012 Wed 16-Jul-25 17:45:53

What about the children carrying flags and the boy dressed as a farmer? What exactly is this school trying to teach its students?

hollysteers Wed 16-Jul-25 17:46:03

JdotJ

I'm sure I read/heard that a child was sent home as they were dressed as a farmer

Did I imagine that ?

That’s hilarious 😂
As is Terribulls.

NotSpaghetti Wed 16-Jul-25 17:50:44

TerriBull

No! It's not and anyway Rupert Bear wore one so that makes it fairly inclusive in an inter species sort of way. Maybe that's why the school let it pass.

You could be right grin but anyway we only have the "notice" not the "information" that almost certainly went home about the day.

I do wish we had the whole story - but of course the school isn't really able to tell us what actually happened - and the father can say what he likes.

I wonder if there is a mum involved somewhere and what she thinks - i saw that the father doesn't have the daughter's last name.
(I'm not drawing anything from that - just wondered about the mum).

REKA Wed 16-Jul-25 17:53:22

Here you go

Lollipop1 Wed 16-Jul-25 18:08:33

What's that sentence, "we encourage children to wear attire that reflects their nationality or family heritage "
Enough said. What is our national costume? She looked great and got it spot on!

JaneJudge Wed 16-Jul-25 18:10:57

yes they've fallen into the rabbit hole of not being inclusive whilst trying so hard to be
it happens in loads of situations - like special schools v mainstream. Special schools can be so more inclusive
It is all based on people's prejudices -mainly negative ones