He adds: “It is much less oppressive and more natural to question personal clothing in an environment where children are learning what is appropriate to wear. As long as the conversation is framed around responsibilities and sensitivities to others, the children are more likely to choose wisely when out of school. Checking ties are tightly tied is a waste of time if the same loosely tied students know very well how to dress up with a tie for a wedding.” He believes that children need, and welcome, the opportunity to express themselves and what they wear is a key way to do that.
Keith Budge, headmaster at famously non uniform-wearing Bedales, agrees and says that even in a uniform-wearing school; students will forge ways – usually rebellious ways – to do this be it via wrong-length skirts, tattoos or piercings. His opinion has precedent: Bedales was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley, who believed in educating through “head, hand and heart”, and the school the first fully co-educational one in the UK in 1898 - and didn't ask pupils to wear a uniform back then either.
The Good Schools Guide says that the vast majority of parents prefer a uniform, “so long as it’s not overly fussy or expensive”. What do the children think? Mr Lashbrook says that even the lower sixth at Oakham who – unusually – still wear uniform, “wear it with pride” and Sevenoaks says its pupils like wearing a uniform “because they don’t have to decide what to wear in the morning, and there is no possibility of a fashion show scenario with pupils judging each other by what they wear.”
Maya Wanelik, a GCSE student at Oxford’s non-uniform wearing Cherwell, lobbied her headmaster and local MP for the introduction of a school jumper. She felt it would promote an identity and help improve behaviour as the children would be associated with their school. But she also felt that “some children get bullied because they wear designer clothes and other children are jealous, but children who don’t have designer clothes can get bullied too”.
While London-based educational psychologist Annie Mitchell agrees with Maya that a uniform is important because it prompts a sense of belonging at school, Mr Budge argues that “the strength of the close-knit community at Bedales is proof that uniform is not required to promote a sense of belonging” and he elaborates, “there are other less superficial and more meaningful ways to create a sense of community and identity, and Bedales does this through the unique relationship between students and staff that is based on mutual respect and long-held school traditions that strengthen bonds, such as the handshaking ceremony at the end of assembly when the teaching staff line up to shake the hand of every student and wish them goodnight.”
As a parent it is the brand snobbery that Maya refers to that concerns me most; if your child feels compelled to wear designer labels at school, the cost of a formal uniform begins to look attractive.
Mr Budge disagrees: “Staff, students and visitors often comment on how refreshing it is that the students have their own identity when it comes to clothing rather than promote labels. Some of our students make and wear clothes that they have produced in our textiles design department and others seek to create their own look by customising clothes bought at charity shops. Our students are refreshingly non-judgmental when it comes to fashion and are very accepting and even embrace people’s differences in taste. I would even go as far as saying that it would be considered 'un-cool’ here to judge someone because of their attire.”
Eanna O’Boyle remains unconvinced by the argument that wearing a uniform avoids fashion competition and that those who are unfashionable are bullied. “I think it’s of great importance that children actively learn to celebrate the balance between having some freedom of clothes, finances, sensitivity to what is good taste, and exploring who they are.”
Pitched together, students who represent both uniform-wearing and non-uniform-wearing schools present interesting arguments.
Karla, who wears a uniform, says her school represents a broad cross-section of society, one which might not gel without a uniform and, she observes, given the chaos of some of the students’ lives, a uniform provides welcome order.
Marcus, who doesn’t wear a uniform, says that being granted the responsibility to wear what he likes extends to developing responsibility in other areas.
That the jury still seems to be out on uniforms is evident: one psychologist I spoke to said it was not as easy as assuming that just because a child wore a uniform, he or she learned more effectively. There were “many contextual factors” at play.
My youngest daughter has attended both uniform-wearing and non-uniform-wearing schools. Her prep school did not wear a uniform; her secondary school does; as far as I can tell she appeared to learn as well in each environment. In prep, that she did not have the faintest idea what Hollister was did not matter, at secondary school it does. But she is glad to wear uniform now because “we don’t have much space for home clothes at school, if we didn’t have a uniform I would have to have a lot of clothes which would mean two things: less space and everybody would know I don’t own any designer brands”.
So she is happy to wear a uniform. But she is even happier it does not dictate the colour of her under garments.
This article was originally published in the Telegraph, Weekly World Edition
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