Uniform

Introduction

The School Policy is that all children should wear school uniform.

The school uniform policy links with behaviour, discipline and positive attitudes towards school and learning.

Principles

It is our policy that all children should wear clothing that is in keeping with a purposeful learning ethos. We also believe it is important that certain activities are facilitated by specialised and appropriate clothing when attending school, or when participating in a school-organised event outside normal school hours. We provide a complete list of the items needed for children's school uniform in this policy and in our parent handbook.

Aims

Our policy for children’s school uniform is based on the belief that a school uniform promotes a sense of pride in the school engenders a feeling of community and belonging is practical and smart identifies the children with the school is not distracting in class (as fashion clothes might be) makes children feel equal to their peers in terms of appearance is regarded as suitable, and good value for money, by most parents has been designed with health and safety in mind.

The uniform consists of:

• Sweatshirt/cardigan with school badge (available from school) or sweatshirt/cardigan/jumper in plain dark green.
• Plain white polo shirt, shirt or blouse.
• Trousers/tailored shorts/skirts in black (no logos or stripes).
• Summer dresses may be worn - either green/white striped or green/white checked.
• Green book bag and PE bag with logo (available from school) or other suitable book bag or PE bag.
• PE kit consists of T-shirt – white - Navy or black shorts– not beach – plain Plimsolls or trainers. Navy or black tracksuit bottoms and a warm plain top may also be worn during winter months. School PE is available to buy.
• Swimming trunks for boys (shorts not acceptable at pool for health and safety reasons), one piece swimming costume for girls.
• No jewellery except one pair of stud earrings may be worn in school, which must be removed by children for all physical activities. Children are advised to refrain from having ear pierced during school terms, due to the inconvenience caused by not be able to remove them.
• Nail varnish, make-up, hair gel, hair colours or braids, should not be worn in school.
• In the Summer Term, children may wear a sun hat to protect them from the sun. These can be purchased from the school.

Footwear

As well as the above items, children are expected to wear sensible footwear – black school shoes (or plain black trainers). Shoes must not have heels in excess of 5cm. If it is a wet or cold day and your child need to wear wellies or warm boots to travel to school, please make sure they have normal school shoes to change into.

All items of clothing must be clearly marked with the owner’s name.

Hair

We recommend that hair should be neat and tidy and worn with no extremes of style or colour. Any style or colour deemed inappropriate by the school will first result in a discussion with HT who will attempt to find reconciliation, but whose word is final subject to appeal processes.

Long hair should be tied back during Physical Education lessons and swimming for safety.

The wearing of school uniform is not an option but an obligation. It is expected that parents and children will honour this agreement and make every effort to uphold the desired standard of dress.

Role of the Head teacher and Governing Body

• The Head teacher to ensure that pupils comply with the uniform policy agreed by the governing body.
• The Head Teacher has a duty to enforce the school uniform throughout the school community, as part of the duty within maintenance of day to day discipline in the school. The Head teacher or another member of staff with delegated authority, may speak to parents regarding inappropriate clothing and ask that this is rectified as soon as possible. For ‘persistent and defiant’ breaches of the schools’ policy, it may be requested that child go home to remedy this. In these cases the parent / carers will be notified.
• The Governing body should be receptive to any reasonable complaint from parents or carers, concerning uniform handling it respectfully, considering fully the issues they raise. Governors should aim to work with parents to arrive at a mutually acceptable outcome.
• The school will follow the DfES guidelines and not consider exclusion from the school where a pupil fails to comply with the school’s rules on uniform.

Role of the Parents/Guardians

• To ensure that their child / children adhere to the school’s uniform policy.
• Ensure that they come to school in uniform everyday unless there are special circumstances such as Christmas parties or charity fundraising.
• Parents and carers should raise any complaints about the school uniform by following the schools complaints procedure.

 Any parent experiencing problems in purchasing articles of uniform should initially contact the Office or arrange to meet with the Head teacher.

 The intentions of adopting a school uniform are:

1.  to give all children a sense of corporate identity - of ‘belonging’ to Eyres Monsell Primary School ;
2. to standardise items of clothing worn for school;
3. to maintain a neat and clean appearance that will hopefully be transferred to other aspects of children’s education;
4. to ease confrontation between parent and pupil about what should be worn to school;

These intentions will be communicated to parents and children on appropriate occasions or when the need arises.

We hope that all those involved in the school community, staff, parents, children will share these intentions and enforce the decision for children to wear school uniform.

 Racial Equality & Equal Opportunities

All children have equal access to wearing school uniform regardless of their culture, race, religion, gender, disability or ability. We ensure that the set uniform respects other policies such as Race relations, sex discrimination and allows for individual sets of circumstances of all groups and individuals. Eyres Monsell Primary School is committed to creating a positive climate that will enable everyone to work free from racial intimidation and harassment and to achieve their full potential.

Lost property

Loss of clothing is not only difficult for parents, who may have to replace items, but also causes difficulties for staff within the school, particularly if many items are un-named and the amount builds up over time.

Lost property which is named is returned to its owner. Unnamed items are put into lost property for 2 weeks, after which they will either be recycled in the 'use me again' box or donated to charity.

We welcome donations of uniform no longer required which are in good condition and which we can sell on to other parents at a cost of £1 per item. This ensures all pupils can have access to quality uniform and that we are able to reuse and recycle existing uniform.