Uniform

Today was a non-uniform day at my second placement, the school where I am training to be a secondary science teacher. It is the second non-uniform day I have been to as a trainee teacher and both times I nearly skipped with joy as I went my way about the school. I can't help but feel elated by seeing children looking the way they are supposed to, the way they choose to. I love seeing them in all their finery. They are not wearing 'gang colours' or picking on each other for not being able to afford the latest fashions. The statements you will find on the websites of 99% of the schools in this country peddle some awful drivel about 'community cohesion', 'sense of belonging' and 'equality' none of which interest kids of that age half as much as exploring their individuality and expressing their own forms of identity through dress. There are a thousand subtle messages written into the self-selected dress codes of 14 year olds which the governors of the schools they are forced to attend will never even recognise let alone allow to thrive and survive.
Anyway, this is the first in a series of posts which will attempt to build up a picture of the school I would start right now if I could. The first rule, chronologically speaking not hierarchically, is no uniform.