School uniform is always an interesting topic of conversation amongst adults with school age children. Some don’t see the need for it or view it as an added and unnecessary expense. Some see it as important for identifying which school a child attends and that this should instil a sense of pride in the child. Some want a very formal uniform, others a very relaxed one. Many like it because it is a leveller socially and does not highlight socio-economic differences amongst children. The shape, colour, style, fabric and so on, are all causes of multiple perspectives, opinions and ideas.

Ask most teachers and they sigh, roll their eyes and tell you it is one of their least favourite things to enforce at school. This leads often to an inconsistent enforcement which then causes relational issues amongst staff. A common criticism of schools is their lack of proper enforcement of uniform and a comparison with other schools where students always wear the uniform correctly. Independent schools usually have a much higher expectation on them that they will enforce uniform with parents expecting that standards in such schools will be higher than the public system. This is often unfair on the public schools who face the same challenges we do.

GPCC faces all these issues and we have a minority of students who regularly fail to wear their uniform correctly. We run campaigns from time to time to correct the problem but it never quite goes away. There are no easy answers whatever we do but this is another example of where we can work together.

At the bottom of any uniform issue is the fundamental human problem of rebellion against authority. We have all done this especially as two-year-olds and teenagers! While the occasional shirt out or tie undone may simply be caused by distraction, most poor uniform wearing is a choice students make.  Boys deliberately leave their shirts untucked, girls deliberately roll their skirts up, both often choose to wear a non-regulation jumper etc. These things do not happen by chance.

So, the answer really is to help a young person to think about why they are choosing not to follow the regulations adopted by the school and agreed to by their parents on enrolment. Our task is to help them deal with their rebellious spirit and to help them see that compliance is not always a bad thing but a good thing. Committing to established community standards makes for a better and happier community for all.

But we as teachers and you as parents need to work together and agree to uphold the standard ourselves by enforcing the regulations. In this we do not want to be legalistic but help our children to learn to pick their fights. Is uniform something really worth fighting over? Is it that damaging to our self-image to conform to the community standard? When everyone else is doing the right thing, why shouldn’t we? This is a good thing to work together on so that we grow a generation of young adults who know the value of cooperation and community spirit and are happy to find means of expressing themselves individually in a better way.

Phillip Nash

Principal