There are so many reasons why schools behave as they do about uniform and presentation. For starters, it's about control. Put kids in a uniform, create hard and fast rules around the wearing of that uniform and the school is half way to taking control of the child in terms of their behaviour.
The other reason is fear; schools are in a competitive situation. They become obsessed with the reputation their school has and know that a part of that is determined with how smart the child looks out of school.
None of this, of course, has anything whatsoever to do with how well the child is educated. But there's a wealth of evidence that suggests a good education for children is really the last thing on most schools' minds.
To return to uniform and hairstyle the head teachers in schools need to realise that hairstyle has nothing to do with how a child learns. A child likes a particular hairstyle, often because their pals have it, often because someone on the TV has it. And there's nothing wrong with that. After all, most headteachers don't buy clothes because they
like them: they buy clothes to wear in school because of the effect they will have on the staff and pupils. So why a child shouldn't be able to do the same is an interesting question.
I don't believe school uniform has a single positive advantage for a child; there might be some marginal effect in terms of the school, but none for the child. Same goes for hairstyles. School heads need to ask themselves what would be the effect if children were allowed to wear what they wanted? Or to have their hair in any way they wanted? Where is the evidence that it would harm learning? They'll have a job finding any - because it doesn't exist.
Of course children should arrive at school clean. That's a matter of good health and socialisation. A child that's dirty or smells will have a very bad time at school because kids tend to round on the child who's 'different'. But uniform really has no place in school. And the school has no right to dictate what hairstyles are acceptable. Of course, popular schools do, because they know how desperate parents are to get their kids in. But the whole British attitude towards schooling is worrying.
This case, however, involved Ysgol Friars, and
that school and its head teacher Neil Foden - have something of a chequered history. In 2018 the school had paid a biology teacher £8000 compensation for being "handed a “patently unjustified” and “outrageous” suspension by his headmaster. "The Daily post said
"Ysgol Friars head Neil Foden and his senior colleagues were provoked by the “antagonistic approach” of the teacher Simon Wilson but they responded in a “petty and vindictive” manner, an employment tribunal heard.
The judgement comes days after another tribunal, taken by teacher Elandre Snyman, described the Ysgol Friars boss as “autocratic” after he wrote a reference for Elandre Snyman and included that he’d been investigated for malpractice - but didn’t add that he’d been cleared."
The independent tribunal who reviewed the case ruled “
We expected schoolteachers to lead by example. We doubted whether any of the central characters would endure such petulant behaviour from pupils so we were truly astonished, and concerned, that things got so far out of control. We expected far better behaviour from teachers."Sadly, many school senior management staff see themselves as god-like creatures and can become very petty in their dealings with staff. It's a major issue with the way many teachers go straight from school into University and then into teaching, without ever having worked in a non-educational environment.