The case for school uniforms is compelling
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Christmas is, or at least can be, a time for reminding us of what we genuinely value. And one of those things, it turns out, is school uniform. This is a popular time for non-uniform or Christmas jumper days — well-meaning events that can lead to drops in attendance because children whose families cannot afford such a festive jumper or particularly expensive clothing instead stay at home.
One value of school uniform is that, if it is implemented sensibly, it can have a useful equalising effect in the classroom. It can be a way to ensure that, however briefly, no child is easily marked out from another due to their inability to afford the latest fashions or a popular item of clothing.
The benefits of school uniform don’t only go to the worst off, either. Reasons I have heard from adults for disliking not having a school uniform when they were growing up range from their parents’ unfamiliarity with the styles of their adopted country, their parents’ religiosity or simply not knowing how to dress to fit in. All of these disadvantages can be mitigated simply by having a uniform.
And almost everyone is either cash- or time-poor, particularly parents. At this time of year, I frequently hear from parents who, in addition to juggling their own responsibilities to ageing relatives, work and their children, are desperately having to clean a favourite item of clothing or a Christmas jumper in addition to the usual school uniform.
Teachers, too, often regard the advent of a non-uniform day with horror. One teacher recently told me that a pupil came in for Christmas jumper day wearing a garment emblazoned with a slogan from the movie Die Hard. In addition to opening up the thorny and tedious dispute about whether or not the 1988 blockbuster can reasonably be described as a “Christmas movie”, the jumper in question contained an expletive.
Asking the student to take it off meant them potentially having to go out in the playground without a jumper, and finding an alternative for them to wear during the school day took up time and energy that could have been better spent on other things. One reason teachers frequently give me for preferring to work at schools where uniforms are compulsory is that it means that they never have to adjudicate on whether or not a T-shirt is appropriate.
The good news in England is that most state schools have a form of school uniform. The bad news is that not all schools have uniform policies that mean they gain the full benefits from doing so.
Eighteen per cent of children whose parents or carers report struggling with the cost of uniform had been sent home from school due to failures to wear stipulated items, according to research commissioned by the previous government. Given that one major plus of having school uniform is to make it easier and cheaper for families, the fact that around 35 per cent of schools do not facilitate the sale of hand-me downs, while under a quarter of families report that they can buy a school uniform from any shop, is suboptimal.
That said, this is an area where relatively light-touch government intervention seems to have had a big and beneficial effect. On more or less every metric of affordability, schools improved between 2015 and 2023, when the previous government commissioned its first and last studies. Even without anything in the way of carrots or sticks, the mere act of measuring the problem seems to have had a significant effect in encouraging schools to get better at making uniforms available at a lower price and to have uniform codes that make it easier for parents and carers to buy from a wider range of outlets.
There are still useful bits of best practice to be drawn here. Part of the judgment for school leaders is working out when and where to be prescriptive. The length and size of hairstyles, for instance, which in 2020 led to one London school falling foul of the equalities watchdog, doesn’t need to be in a uniform code. But mandating the use of plimsolls rather than trainers in PE kits is a simple, quick win that can shift preferences away from one of the priciest bits of sportswear to one of the cheapest.
The most useful thing for everyone to remember, whether they are planning a non-uniform day or writing a uniform code, is that at its best, school uniform is not a punishment or a way to impose something on children. It is a liberating way of letting them feel as if they are part of a group and, if not eradicate, then at least blur some of the differences between them.
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