Will Replacing School Uniforms With Tracksuits......

I’m one of those people who have let themselves go and rarely dress up to go out unless it’s a wedding or the like. If others want to dress smartly to go for a meal or theatre visit that’s fine by me but please don’t look down on those who don’t.
Times have changed as people have said - smart casual now seems to be the normal dress code in a lot of workplaces.
The obsession that some schools have about the finer points of school uniform is ridiculous as far as I’m concerned.

Totally agree it’s a ridiculous idea

Cagsy

I worked for a while supporting young people at a secondary school in quite a deprived area, uniform was a very thorny issue. I could work with a poor attender (with very difficult home life) for weeks to get them back into school only to be met by a member of staff barking ‘where is your tie?’ threatening to send them straight back home again! I used my own money to buy 1/2 dozen ties and would stand outside the building trying to ensure no one got sent home for this infringement.
I can understand that some like to dress up for events, I know it’s massively important for most young people, but it’s not for everyone and I think it’s a mistake to judge people for this.

That about sums up the nonsense that is school uniform.

When my Dc were at primary school, it did not have a uniform, just a list of 'not acceptables'. In the 1970s these were: jeans trainers and T shirts with slogans or loud images.

later uniform was introduced. The people behind it were not the school but parents, who thought it made the school look better if all the children were in uniforms.

I did as asked, but told the Head master that I thought the old way was better because as children get older they need to understand that there are dress codes and dressing appropriately for a job or profession, or occasion was important and best learned at school. he said that was what he thought, but parents judged the school by its uniform.

I think a proper school uniform instils pride in a school and prepares pupils for jobs where they have to look smart like certain public facing roles and the armed forces. Tracksuits look awful and belong on a sports ground.

Cumbrianmale56

I think a proper school uniform instils pride in a school and prepares pupils for jobs where they have to look smart like certain public facing roles and the armed forces. Tracksuits look awful and belong on a sports ground.

Sorry, it doesn't. It generally instils nothing at all in the pupils and a determination to customise their uniform as far as possible, whether loosely knotted ties, skirts turned over at the top to make them shorter or the many changes that the ingenuity of pupls can devise.

The comments you make are what adults, head teachers and the like, think what a uniform ought to do, but it doesn't.

Actually, if you simply asked children that they should come to school looking clean, well groomed or tidy, some would go out of their way to, customise as M0nica puts it

the clean and well groomed or tidy into anything but, undoubtedly with the support of their parents.

Cumbrianmale56

I think a proper school uniform instils pride in a school and prepares pupils for jobs where they have to look smart like certain public facing roles and the armed forces. Tracksuits look awful and belong on a sports ground.

If the children need school uniform to have pride in their school does this mean the teachers and ancillary staff do not take pride in being a part of the school as they don't wear any type of uniform?
School uniform doesn't have to be as rigid as many schools make it. A generic 'buy from any supermarket' type uniform with a sewn on school badge should surely suffice?

‘Proper’ school uniform really doesn’t instil pride into the poor kids suffering from wearing it.

Cumbrianmale56

I think a proper school uniform instils pride in a school and prepares pupils for jobs where they have to look smart like certain public facing roles and the armed forces. Tracksuits look awful and belong on a sports ground.

What sort of work place are we preparing them for? I cant remember the last time I saw anyone at work sporting a shirt with tie and blazer. Very few office workers wear a suit these days and the armed forces are a law unto themselves, no one can be prepared for service life by wearing a school uniform.

Uniforms are a strange thing.
If you cancel them, the children will simply invent their own. Being part of a group will entail wearing what the group demands.
You can see that at the weekend. The essential low gusset trousers, now so last year.
The hoodie-essential wear even on a hot day.
Visible underwear straps - for girls.

I do think this hasn’t been thought through though. Track suits in summer?
After just a few warm days, the uniform seems to be T-shirts with a jumper tied round the waist.
So will we have
Obligatory shorts for girls rather than obligatory skirts for boys.

nanna8

Revolting idea. Imagine a world full of youths in trackie daks. Why don’t they issue balaclavas as well ?

Our delightful 5 year old grandson is very comfortable in sports kit twice each week. Shorts, tie and blazer isn’t practical at his age (frequent skinned knees).