My 14 year old son, Tom*, hates having to wear a shirt and tie to school.
He has autism, which affects his sensory processing so he finds school uniform restrictive and uncomfortable.
He seemed to cope with the polo shirt and sweatshirt combination of primary school because it was more comfortable. But when it came to starting high school, he simply detested how restrictive his new clothes were.
Three years on, he still looks for any opportunity to ditch the tie and untuck the shirt whenever the teachers aren’t looking. He’s mastered the art of bending the rules and getting away with it.
But this is just one of my children. All three of my kids – Tom* (14) Oliver* (14) and Lola* (21) – have been to different schools with very different attitudes to uniforms, it’s hard to keep up.
This is part of the reason why I believe that we need to overhaul the disparate uniform policies of different schools. Or just ditch school uniforms altogether.
School uniform policy is for the governing boards of schools to decide, which means some schools can be stricter, or have more expensive uniforms than others.
The conversation around scrapping school uniforms is crucial at this time of the year because – when the start of term in September rolls around – we’re inundated with stories of children who have fallen foul of uniform rules.
Maybe they wore trousers that were the wrong cut, had their hair too short, or chose shoes the school deemed ‘unsuitable’. Then their parents got embroiled in an argument with the school.
Schools say that parents know the rules and should make sure that their children abide by them. While parents argue the rules are unfair.
Meanwhile, the children sit in isolation. Or worse, at home learning nothing.
Every year, I read the stories and dread finding out I’ve inadvertently broken a school rule when buying uniforms. Thankfully, so far we seem to have stayed on the right side of the line – just.
I don’t blame parents for feeling frustrated with uniform policies, especially because buying the clothes in the first place can be so extortionate.
According to data by The Children’s Society, primary school uniforms cost an average of £287 per child, while it’s even steeper at £422 per child in secondary school. I have twins – where one goes to grammar school and the other a public school – but if the former hadn’t been fortunate enough to get a scholarship to cover his uniform, it would be a real struggle for me each year.
Given that roughly nine children in an average classroom of 30 are living in poverty right now, it’s becoming unaffordable for many parents to meet schools’ expectations, especially when it comes to branded items of uniform such as blazers and PE kits.
My eldest Lola, even had to have a branded apron embroidered with her name on it for food tech!
Why do we even need branded items of clothing? To make the school look good certainly, but I can’t see how this benefits the child. In fact, I don’t believe children need to wear shirts and ties and blazers at all.
I just don’t see the need to dress them up as miniature office workers. Some will argue that teaching children to dress smartly prepares them for the world of work, but nowadays less than one in 10 people wear business attire to work.
The way we work is changing, and schools need to reflect that.
This means that children should wear clothes they can be themselves in, that they can wear while riding a bike to school, or playing tag on the school playground, or climbing trees on the way home.
They need clothes they can get filthy with ingredients in food tech, or paint in art, that they can move in during drama and that are cool and breathable in a hot science lab.
School is for learning, for doing, for growing. Not for looking good.
By dressing children in practical – rather than expensive – clothes, we teach them that it’s the content of their character and the quality of their work that matters, not how they look.
If we’re going to have school uniforms, it should be the same for every child with no differing options. Then if boys and girls all wear trousers, we don’t need arguments about skirt lengths or about which uniform non-binary or transgender children should wear.
I was mortified to hear a friend tell me recently that her daughter chooses to wear a skirt to school – not because she wants to, but – because the children at school say that ‘only lesbians wear trousers’.
I couldn’t believe how this could still be a playground insult in 2024. Making uniform policies more standard would help cut out this sexist and homophobic bullying.
In fact, removing all choices would remove the peer pressure to make the ‘cool’ choice, like the age-old argument of skirt length. My own mother tells me she used to roll up her school skirt back in the 1950s.
At the end of the day, uniforms serve as an equaliser.
It shouldn’t matter if your parents are rich or poor because you all wear the same thing. It shouldn’t matter if you’re nerdy, or cool, black or white, straight, gay, male, female or non-binary.
If everyone wears the same thing, nobody gets bullied or stands out for wearing the wrong choice, and nobody faces peer pressure to wear something they aren’t comfortable in.
Perhaps we let children attend school in a simple, basic tracksuit. Nobody will look ‘cool’ and everybody will be able to afford it.
Then we can focus on what’s really important. Educating the next generation.
Of course, some will tell me that this leaves no space for children to express their individuality, that making them all look the same quashes their uniqueness. That’s the point.
If we want children to be able to express their individuality, to experiment with different looks and find their own unique style, then we don’t want school uniforms at all. Uniform exists to create uniformity, to remove choice and personal expression.
If we don’t want to do that to our children, let’s get rid of school uniforms altogether. And that starts by getting rid of the half-measures we have now.
*Names changed
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