uniforms

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Sarah Dodds: Academy Uniform Change – A breach of trust…?

My daughter's school is undergoing academy conversion and going through a change of uniform. For us this is especially frustrating as she is in year 8 now, and has still got very good quality old style uniform left which is now totally useless. I find the waste appalling - not just in financial terms but in environmental and moral ones ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Sarah Dodds: "In fairness to the school Janet, the consultation was in some places very good. They originally wanted a black blazer with red trim, but this was rejected on the back of parental complaints about extra cost. However, they did change ......"

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Joanne Tisdall: We need some guidance in a dispute between the leadership team and governors and a large group of parents at Kevicc in Totnes

I would be really grateful for any shared experience or advice that others have of a breakdown in trust between parents and a school. Kevicc is a large community school (1800 children) in Totnes, Devon. Among other things it has the dubious distinction of being the school Toby Young went to in the 80s that he often refers to as the ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Andy: "Leonard, I compared the 2010 and 2011 data available in the public domain: see the embedded links. Unless stated the figures are year by year comparisons of the schools performance. Official estimated targets for pupils will be based ......"

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Janet Downs: DfE can produce no academic evidence to support theory that school uniforms improve behaviour

The Dfe response to Freedom of Information Request revealed no empirical evidence of the link between school uniforms and behaviour. The response gave two examples: 1 Two academies who believed that the “wearing of neat clean uniform is an integral part of the schools' behaviour and discipline policies” 2 The previous government’s response to Sir Alan Steer's report ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "I think the Opposition know very well that Mr Gove uses discounted data from the OECD PISA 2000 UK survey. However, it is reluctant to challenge Mr Gove's use of distorted statistics because this might invite questions about why ......"

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Fiona Millar: School uniforms deny choice and are not proven to improve discipline.

In response to Janet on uniforms here is an article I prepared earlier (in 2006 to be precise). I thought I would re-post it since it answers her question and, although I would defend an individual schools rights to choose whether to have a uniform or not, I haven't really changed my view "It is almost thirty five years since my ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "BP - you're correct. Uniform is a "branding exercise". Many high-performing school systems (eg Finland) don't have uniform. Many of the countries that the Government admires and sets up as examples don't have uniform (eg Sweden, USA). ......"

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