Read on Twitter
1. I see the annual twitter debate about uniform is raging. Sometimes it isn’t straightforward. Back in July as soon as my daughter’s place was confirmed I ordered from the agreed supplier (online only due to covid” a package (blazer, shirts, trousers, tie and sports kit)
I waited. 2 weeks later they arrived. Despite measuring carefully the trousers were so tight she couldn’t get them on. I couldn’t return immediately (due to covid quarantine rules) but returned them as soon as I could in exchange for the next size up.
A refund was not an option as they were part of a package. Anyway, 8 days later new trousers arrived. Allegedly one size larger, the wrong colour (despite ordering the school specific trousers) and big enough for my 6 foot 2 husband who weighs about 4 stone more than my daughter
She looked like a clown in them. So we wait for the prescribed quarantine period and return the trousers, but now we don’t know what to do, because one size is too tiny and the other is huge. We decide to try the smaller size again. Meanwhile 6 weeks have passed and were getting
Dangerously close to the start of school. So we go to M and S and buy extra trousers. Because we can. Because were not on the breadline. But many aren’t so lucky. Conversation on Friday with head of year “how did you get on with uniform? Have you managed to get it?” We laugh and
Tell our story. “You’re not the first to have trouble with sizing” he says. I get the impression that if I’d written an email explaining the situation, there would have been understanding. After all, we’re living through a global pandemic.
The point is, it’s very easy to stand on the sidelines and say what people “should” do. But not everyone has access to the funds or the means to get the things they need. We should live in a society where everyone can afford the bus fare to go into town to buy the right kit.
We should live in a world where the size on the tape measure matches the size on the trousers. We should live in a world where people have access to affordable and reliable suppliers. But we don’t. Sometimes the world isn’t perfect.
So I’m not going to get involved in the debate other than to say, we should really consider what families have been living through, and whether responses to infringements of uniform policy are proportionate in the circumstances.
