Seaford's habitual quiet has been disturbed by the great Seaford Head school uniform controversy. See here for the proposals (pdf)
Since everyone else is saying their piece, I shall say mine too: interest declared, I have two children at the school, and I responded to the consultation, arguing that uniform should be abolished.
For me, the issue is not the poor design and shoddy quality of the proposed new uniforms, nor the silence from the governors who nodded the proposals through, but will not make public the results of the consultation with parents, nor the cost of the uniforms, nor the monopolistic position allowed to one supplier. No, the thing that worries me the most are the spurious arguments advanced for uniform-wearing. Searches of British Education Index and ERIC found no studies that demonstrated the slightest correlation between the imposition of uniform and the quality of education. The head-teacher and governors have tried to convince parents with a swathe of management buzzwords. They have tried to link the uniform to the recent award of specialist status in sports and science, (in itself an alarming development for anyone who values the arts and humanities in schools). There is simply no evidence to support their position.
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