BS: Girls' school trousers uk

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Jeanie
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 09:28 AM

Backwoodsman and PA - I agree with you totally. There has been a big fuss in our local press this term over a newly introduced "smart business-wear" dress code for the Sixth Form of one of the schools, with the students bombarding the paper with letters of complaint about this "totalitarian regime" !

Alongside the dress code, the new Head of Sixth Form has caused further uproar by introducing a compulsory enrichment hour, during which the students go out into the community and help in old people's homes and so on. Apart from that, they are forbidden to leave the school premises, even at lunchtimes - which had previously been permitted.

I think all of this is a very good move. It is a great pity that in the past 20-30 years schools have ever lowered their expectations for their Sixth Formers. One of the worst changes during that time was the introduction of common rooms for the 6th Form to loll about in during their many free periods. At least some schools now are (re)introducing some compulsory silent supervised study hours which the pupils have to sign into.

I have a bee in my bonnet about all of this.....as you can tell ! Smart clothing for students and staff, neat, clean textbooks and stationery, tidy classrooms - all of these contribute to clear, uncluttered thinking, working and learning.

I'd better not get started on late 20th/early 21st century classroom furniture and layouts and how they contribute to poor behaviour and lack of concentration...

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: GUEST,sparticus
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 10:26 AM

Jeans are forbidden - mother sends child to school in jeans.

Everyone else wears what is acceptable, so they are available - mother calls them rubbish.

Mother refuses to compromise.

I'm on the side of the school here and hope you see sense before you make a bigger fool of yourself and your daughter.

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: The PA
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 10:28 AM

Jeanie, yes I agree with you 'tidy mind' and all that. However the big change in our neck of the woods is that most of the local schools are being rebuilt from scratch.

Our sons high school was finished in time for the new term and is owned by a private company and leased to the education authority for the next 20 years. The buidling as a whole is fantastic. However the 6th form area (previously common room) is a sight to behold. Soft furnishings, plasma screen tv, dedicated quite areas, their own catering and, wait for it, a roof garden with furniture!

Yep, I know what some are thinking, what a waste of money - how long will it last - well that remains to be seen but at the moment they are so proud of their new surroundings they take care of anyone messing it up or abusing the facilities. Lets hope it continues. Our son and his friends say its a really good environment to study and the teachers agree that this showing up in the students work.

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Schantieman
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 12:20 PM

Jeanie - YES :-D

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Rowan
Date: 16 Oct 07 - 06:58 PM

"Jeans are forbidden - mother sends child to school in jeans.
Everyone else wears what is acceptable, so they are available - mother calls them rubbish."

The crux in this argument is what is meant by "acceptable". One school I taught at had no uniform, although orange and blue gel hair spikes an many of the adolescents seemed to be acceptable to most of the adolescents; I preferred "not terribly expensive casual", which would have passed for ordinary work attire anywhere if ties weren't required.

In a town where schools require uniforms I'm quite happy for my kids to wear them but I expect the items of clothing to be inexpensive and the standard of workmanship to enable the items to last a couple of active and growing billy lids before showing deterioration. On top of that, with rare exceptions, I have an abiding antagonism to clothing made entirely, or even mostly, of artificial fibres. So my criteria for clothing to be "acceptable" may well be different from my neighbour's.

The schools I have been involved with, as an adult, sort out the variabilities of "acceptability" largely via consultation with the parents and students using the School Council. Because everybody has some ownership in the result compliance is much less of an issue than it was when I was a student who had no say in the ridiculous caps, vaguely useful blazers and deadening colour schemes that were highly favoured in the vast sea of conformity.

At the end of my elder daughter's first year in high school there was a plebiscite to decide between various options for several items of uniform; the results are reasonably fashionable and the only disadvantage was that the plain dark green skirt she'd worn was replaced by an attractive plaid one and couldn't be handed on to my younger daughter. That seems acceptable. I asked them yesterday whether black jeans were "acceptable" (trousers for both boys and girls are required to be black) and they told me that they are except for formal occasions (excursions etc) but aren't acceptable in terms 1 & 4, our summer terms. They prefer wearing skirts.

School Council consultation with the client community would appear to be the go.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 12:14 AM

Golly - life gets complicated, don't it!

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: MBSLynne
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 04:18 AM

Haven't had a reply to the letter we sent to the school yet.

Rowan, it's such a relief to find that someone else has the same intense dislike of 100% synthetic fabrics! It makes me feel that if I ask around among the other parents I'd probably find others who feel the same. I'm really beginning to think that there's a market out there for reasonably priced, reasonable quality girls' school trousers.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 04:42 AM

MBSLynne - could this be your new job??!

Sparticus obviously likes having Betty Swollocks.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 06:28 AM

Good Grief! Threads on Girls' school trouser/Incontinence pants- who's going to start a thread on vending machines for Japanese girls' knickers?

RtS
(running for cover in Chinos)

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: MBSLynne
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 07:24 AM

Well Liz, the thought had flitted through my mind.......

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 07:33 AM

I find it easier to concentrate when I'm comfortable and I'm most comfortable when I'm wearing something that is mainly cotton and is not too tight.

Being comfortable surely must help to improve learning.

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Rowan
Date: 17 Oct 07 - 06:56 PM

eanjay,
Other posts of yours that I've seen make you sound like a person who has considerable common sense; surely you must know that education systems aren't there to improve people's learning!

Sorry! I realise I'm just an anachronistic throwback. But I did have some success (with assistance) getting activ and representative School Councils, 'evidence-based assessment' and one or two other improvements to learning accepted by the Victorian system before I left it. Uniforms weren't high on our list of priorities at the time, although we were keen to channel most of the energy that could have been spent on fashion into 'higher' things.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Oct 07 - 07:21 PM

I want tight fit grey school trousers does anybody knowwhere i can buy them cheap nd for teeneagers

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 20 Oct 07 - 05:19 AM

I know where you can get spelling and punctuation lessons.

Subject: RE: BS: Girls' school trousers uk
From: MuddleC
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 09:16 AM

you imagine going to school with a tutu..and it wasn't ballet school....

suggest some ex-vietcong black pajama bottoms, probably made from rice or old truck tyres