School uniforms are a class idea… they symbolise everything a school is trying to achieve
Failing to enforce a school uniform policy is sending a message that all the school rules - not just the dress code - are optional
WHENEVER the school year begins afresh, some poor headteacher gets into trouble after sending kids home for not wearing the proper uniform.
The children burst into tears, their parents fly into a rage and the over-zealous head usually ends up being compared to a Nazi.
This year it’s the turn of Matthew Tate, the new head of Hartsdown Academy in Margate.
On the first day of term this week he sent home 60 pupils for being improperly dressed.
The resulting melee outside the school gates had to be broken up by two passing police officers.
“The issue isn’t the uniform,” said Sharon King, whose 14-year-old daughter Ellie was turned away for wearing trainers. “The problem is that he handled it like the Gestapo.”
Parents and pupils rarely complain about the uniform. Oh no.
It’s always the insistence that they should actually wear it that causes friction.
But what’s the point of having a uniform policy if you don’t bother to enforce it?
That is sending a message that all the school rules, not just the dress code, are essentially optional.
The reason uniforms are important is because they’re a symbol of everything else a school is trying to achieve.
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A sloppy attitude to appearance inevitably leads to sloppy behaviour.
In the case of Hartsdown, the new head is trying to change the image of the school.
Until now it’s been known as a “scruffy” place, where children regularly flout the rules.
That lackadaisical attitude is reflected in the pupils’ GCSE results, with just 36 per cent getting five A* to C grades, including English and maths, in 2015.
That’s far below the Kent average of 57.4 per cent. If Mr Tate is going to turn things around and instil a sense of pride, it has to start with the kids’ appearance.
Another story to hit the headlines this week concerned 15-year-old Faye Carney, who was internally excluded from St Mary’s Catholic College in Merseyside for having blonde highlights in her hair. She’d had them done three weeks ago for a family wedding.
Faye’s mum Kelly complained: “Faye’s highlights are so natural they are almost invisible — her hair looks just the same as before.”
But the school’s uniform policy clearly states that extreme hair colours are prohibited.
If St Mary’s made an exception for Faye on the grounds that her dye job was “subtle”, rather than “extreme”, it would soon find itself with dozens of girls trying to exploit this loophole.
The teachers would be placed in the impossible position of having to pass judgment on their pupils’ hairstyles and the morning assembly would quickly descend into an episode of the Jeremy Kyle show.
As every teacher knows, it is no good having a “flexible” attitude to the enforcement of the school’s uniform and appearance policy, whereby you make an exception for those children who have a good excuse.
Before you know it, every child in the school will turn up with a note from their parents explaining why an exception should be made for them.
Another common complaint from parents, particularly when schools introduce a new, smarter uniform, is that complying with the policy is too expensive.
That’s a poor excuse when supermarket chains such as Aldi and Tesco are selling entire school uniforms for less than the price of a new pair of trainers.
Instead of bellyaching, parents should be grateful when schools insist their children wear the correct uniform.
The cost is always going to be lower than sending them to school in the latest designer top, which they’d insist on wearing because — don’t you know it — all their friends have one.
Kids need boundaries if they are going to do well
I speak from experience here. Not only do I have four kids, but I helped set up a secondary school in Hammersmith, West London, in 2011 that has a strict uniform enforcement code.
We had a test case early on when we sent home an African-Caribbean boy for having a shaved head.
Clause 7.1.3 of our uniform and appearance policy states the minimum hair length is a No2 cut.
His mother hit back in the local press, complaining that a hairstyle deemed good enough for the leader of the free world — not to mention yours truly — wasn’t considered smart enough for her darling boy.
But we stuck to our guns, the boy returned to school a few days later and he quickly settled in.
I’m pleased to say that he was one of the 76 per cent this year who got five A* to C grades in his GCSEs, including English and maths.
Kids need boundaries if they are going to do well, whether at school or in the home.
Headteachers who don’t bother to enforce their school’s uniform policies aren’t being reasonable or pragmatic — they’re opting for a quiet life rather than doing the right thing by their pupils.
Matthew Tate must have known he’d face a tsunami of criticism when he sent home those 60 kids. But he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do.
As far as I’m concerned, he’s the headmaster of the year and should proudly take his place alongside all those other heroes who’ve been vilified for making sure their pupils stick to the rules.