"it is easy to see the school's decision as justified"

C'mon Royston. It's not easy at all. It sounds to me like a decision made by silly little people who've been to school, followed by teachers' training college, followed by going back to school as a teacher, whose world view consists of politically correct government directives (I know, I work in a school) and misguided columnists on certain newspapers. It's ignorance, stupidity, fear and lack of backbone and, above all, a lack of common sense and cultural understanding.

As many of those who've posted above (Richard Bridge, Kev The Clogs, Dead Horse, Neovo et al) have stated, or at least implied, the whole thing is so ridiculous that it's not even worthy of intelligent debate.

Let's not even try to intellectualise it (or go down the path of talking about using blue or sky blue pink or whatever other colours people have in mind). Just write to the head, as some of you have already done, and let the school know that a real world exists outside those school gates!