SMART thinking

SCHOOLS EXPLAIN WHY STRICT UNIFORM RULES ARE NECESSARY

- By EMMA GILL

WHEN a Salford high school insisted that girls wear tights with their skirts instead of socks, it went down like a lead balloon.

It's become a familiar tale across Greater Manchester, with parents and pupils complaining whenever uniform changes are introduced.

And the gripes don't stop there. Post-Covid, complaints to Ofsted are up by a third, even more for secondary schools. Yet only a small proportion of those are deemed to be 'qualifying complaints' - raising wider concerns about the school - and the majority are rejected.

Alongside that is a rise in suspensions. In the first term of the 2016/17 academic year, Greater Manchester's suspension rate was 3.5%. By autumn 2023/24 it had almost trebled to 9.9%, with the three worst areas being Tameside (17.2%), Bolton (14.1%) and Rochdale (12.7%).

With some families accusing schools of becoming too regimented - stopping students going to the toilets in lessons and making it feel 'like an Army camp' - the figures paint a bleak picture of a school versus parents battleground. But it's one headteachers and school leaders would like to see the back of and hope that by explaining why such strict rules are necessary, it might bring some families back on board.

The backlash to girls wearing tights came at Buile Hill Academy last year. Northern Education Trust (NET) had been brought in to help turn around the fortunes of the school after it failed to change its 'requires improvement' Ofsted rating.

Bosses at the trust, which runs 17 secondary schools, including Kearsley Academy and ESSA Academy Bolton, and recently took over Denton Community College in Tameside, say having a smart uniform not only instils a sense of pride and belonging, but is the foundation on which good behaviour is built.