Is he being too strict?

DGS's school (not a British state school, I should add) insists on the polo shirts with the school logo on, which cost about £25 each.
A similar polo shirt without logo in Target is about £5.

I do think school uniform is a good idea as long as it is not too stringent and it does not have to be from specialist shops. After all, buying uniform from a supermarket is cheaper than giving in to demands for the latest fashions in clothes and shoes and all trying to outdo each other in the classroom.

Can't the girls wear skirts?

A local secondary head abolished uniform - she said the staff wasted too much time on it. The world did not come to halt - the education went along fine - the children and the parents were happy.

Then, when she left, the new head instituted a uniform policy and chaos reigned - no-one liked it, pupils went on strike and demonstrated in the town centre, and education was disrupted in the long term with teachers having to police it all. And everything had been perfectly fine. School uniform is nonsense.

I have been sent a pic of my DGD in her new secondary school uniform - she looks a complete fright - she is very skinny and the uniform hangs off her - her skinny legs end in feet wearing huge size 5 school shoes. She is usually very beautiful, but feels a total wreck in this stuff.

There is something seriously weird about little girls (and particularly bigger ones!) being forced to dress like little men - it's a bi kinky if you ask me.

daphnedill, do all schools in your area insist that their pupils have the uniform supplied by specialist shops or the school itself?

£20 for a two-pack of blouses/shirts is a ridiculous price - only £5 from Asda!

I think it is ridiculous - I think school uniform is ridiculous. The time wasted policing uniform infringements could be spent teaching. How can the pupils learn to respect the adults around them when they see them engaged in such pettiness?

I think this head was very clear. The parents were told in July of the new uniform policy. All the items could be bought in supermarkets. The blazer badge was iron on. The school had a bad reputation and he is trying to raise standards, starting with the small things. The complaining parents should go elsewhere instead of sending their little darlings in frilly socks and shoes with gold buckles. Sound reasonable to me. I was a teacher in quite a posh school, but, one parent told me, " the year 11 girls looked like hookers going clubbing".

It's a postcode lottery, but normal in this area. I've just looked up the current prices. Blazers cost from £32.95; kilts from £35; twin pack shirts/blouses from £19.95; jumper from £16.95; tie £6.95. They have to have different PE kit for indoor and outdoor PE, football and rugby boots, in addition to trainers, gum shields and shin pads. Obviously they have to have shoes (black leather or synthetic) and something to hold all their PE kit.

My grand kids go to a high school with sole suppliers but the blouses, shirts, and trousers don't have logos on so at least that helps they don t wear jumpers as they have to have blazers on all the time and they do have to have special school socks and ties my daughter always passes their outgrown stuff to others and they sell the lost and found or outgrown off cheap each year ...... But we re lucky my daughter who lives over the sea in Ireland has to buy all the text books for her three children and as the curriculum keeps changing so far she's had to buy them all new every year and can't pass them on to anyone she said she spends about €300 on text books and they have sole supplier uniform to boot

Yes, they did and still do. It's not at all unusual for the schools in this area, where they seem to compete on smartness of school uniforms. The kilts don't have a logo, but I think the tartan is unique.

At the school my children attended, the girls have a choice of trousers or kilts. The vast majority of girls wear kilts rather than trousers and I understand why. The girls' trousers are a horrible cut made with strange material and have a small embroidered school logo.

When my daughter started the school, she wanted to wear trousers, but when she tried them on, they really didn't fit properly. Therefore, we trailed the shops to find a pair of well-fitting black trousers and I bought some from M&S. She was told not to wear them again after a couple of days. It was easy to identify them as non-school uniform, because they had no logo. She spent her remaining years at the school wearing a kilt, like most of the other girls.

What even the blouses trousers and skirts had a logo on them Daphne that very unusual ?

I posed that exact question cazzajen GD's school has air con apparently so I'm assuming if its a modern building it would likewise have air con.

PS. As a book bag was included, I guess this was a primary school. I should have written all the secondary schools use a sole supplier. A complete uniform costs at least £200, depending on the size of the child and how many shirts, etc. can be afforded.

At my grandkids school sweatshirt as to be bought at school and they are about three times dearer than supermarket because of badge I think it's a bit much especially when you have a couple of kids needing at least two school should sell badge !!

No, they're not, Grannyaanarchist. All the schools in this area use sole suppliers. You couldn't even buy one of the school kilts for £30!

I think all children should adhere to the school uniform, what I object strongly to it kids being forced to keep their blazers and ties on in the searing heat we've had recently while the teachers are comfortable in their short shirt sleeves and thin cotton dresses! It makes my blood boil when some teachers have no common sense!

Gillybobs - did uniform shopping for DGD last week - Asda - amazing - did the whole lot, shirts, socks, book bag, skirt, cardigan, gym kit(shorts and T-shirts), plimsolls, water bottle, hairbands, under £30 the lot. The days of sole suppliers charging a fortune are long gone. Badges can be bought from the school and sewn on at home.

Oh dear! I hope the new head at GS6's school doesn't measure the leg width of his Next school trousers. I took them in for him!

I may be wrong but didn't we have all this at another school last year and everyone was in line within a week? A Head has to maintain discipline , especially if he/ she has been appointed specifically to raise standards.
( My French nieces have just moved to UK and are thrilled to have uniforms as it is such a novelty.)

Mr LD used to teach secondary and says kids of that age will stretch any rule so they need to be tight. I think at his school the game was coats in the classrooms, ties tied too high and shirts hanging out.

Nothing changes except parent's attitudes to teachers. If I got told off my Mum always said I must have deserved it, rather than marching to school.aggressively to defend me.

They will all.conform within reason and hopefully the Head will succeed and get the rebels.inside.

The cost of school uniform depends on the school. The uniform my children attended (a comprehensive) could only be bought from one supplier, because everything had the school logo. Nothing could be bought from high street shops or supermarkets, apart from shoes and trainers for PE.

Jalima I hadn't cottoned on until Jane10's post!

Jane10 and Minimouse
I was going to say something similar but you beat me to it!

Exactly Tanith it's more than just uniform and yesterday, the second day children were sent home, it was 20 out of over eight hundred pupils. What a farce though making the national news.

At the end of the day it isn't really about the uniform is it? Its about learning respect for authority and rules, pride in their school and that everyone regardless of social,ethnic or religious group are dressed the same, head dresses excepted.

There will always be those who don't want to be told what to do and that includes the parents as well as the children thank goodness they are in the minority.

I have just had a look at the uniform specifications for the single-sex school my GS has just started in Y7. Blazers can be bought from any retailer and badges bought from the school. Ties need to be bought from the school as they vary from one house to another. The PE kit, both indoor and outdoor has to have the school logo. It all sounds quite sensible to me. It says 'black school shoes - no trainers'. Nothing about suede, though I'd never put an 11-year-old boy in suede shoes. Uniform for Y7 can be bought at the annual school welcome evening.