General Chat

In today's paper doesn't see the problem with sending her five year son to school with blue hair. The school contacted her and asked her to collect him adding that he could return when his hair was back to his natural colour. The mother took umbrage to this. I don't know about anyone else but at school we would never have been allowed into school with our hair in bright or unusual colours and I left school in 2000.

We would have been severely punished at the school I went too. We had a very strict uniform code which you would disobey at your peril :-0

They *might* get away with it Post 16 (Sixth Form) as long as they didn't have to wear a uniform, but a 5 year old? What was the mother thinking? :-S

Even out upper sixth had to keep to it. The only thing six form and upwards were allowed to do was to wear panty hose instead of socks

unbelievable :-S :-S :-S :-S

Schools are there for education and the job of the teachers is to teach. Quite what this has to do with the color of the student's hair or the clothes they wear has always escaped me. So long as the student is clean and reasonably neat how the student presents themselves is no business of the teacher.

Nevertheless some wars are not worth fighting and the school system's obsession with uniforms, hair and such has mostly to be tolerated in the UK. Other countries seem to manage without. The reason behind it is that what passes for education in the UK is mainly there to inculcate an attitude or what the Victorians called "know your place". That is still largely true today and obviously so with the Rt.Hon Jeremy Hunt for instance or Theresa May's desire to install the Great Wall of Brexit..

The manageress of my local BP/M&S filling station has purple hair. Nobody seems to find it a problem.

"When I think back
On all the crap I learned in high school
It's a wonder
I can think at all
And though my lack of education
Hasn't hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall"

Paul Simon

Silly woman
Didn't she even think this could encourage her child to be bullied
If she wanted his hair Blue

She could of done this during the six weeks holidays


I myself this she is very wrong to do this :-( :-(

In secondary school we were allowed to dye our hair but only what would be seen as natural colours and not all colours of the rainbow. The hair dying incident was football related and depending on where you live in Scotland that isn't always the smartest reason to do it for either. :-(

I went to a Grammar School. Rules there were stringently enforced.

Part of our uniform was a beret, which had to be worn when wearing school uniform to and from school. Socks had to be kept up (which was very difficult for me as I am very tall with long legs) :-D

No make up of any kind. If you went in with nail varnish, you would be sent to the Chem Lab to get it taken off.
Hair, if longer than shoulder length, had to be tied back.

The idea behind this was to instill a sense of pride in yourself and the school, and also a sense of self-discipline for our future working lives.


If you were exemplary in your appearance and had good deportment, you would be awarded a red sash to wear.
I never managed this! My fine blonde hair always escaped from any attempts to restrain it!


One day, a friend and I had stopped off in town after school. We were late to catch our train home, and so we were running like loonies. My petite friend, even though she was running, still managed to look ok. She was way ahead of me, when out of a nearby office came our headmistress, just in time for me to come face to face with her! She glared at me and I ran for it!

The next morning in assembly she told the whole school about it! Fortunately, she didn't know my name then! :-D :-D :-D :-D

I fully agree with the school.
The article quotes the mother .The 5yr old's new hairdo is quite clearly football related.

This mother will have known very well that football colours are banned in school, yet she's outraged because she wasn't allowed to flout the rules in this manner?

I went to a grammar school that rigorously enforced their rules and I can't believe how much valuable time was spent in finding ways to break them.

La Gooner, did the panty hose rule apply to the boys as well?

No doubt the colouring will eventually 'wash out' easily enough.

But I'm assuming that youngsters do have the occasional contact with soap & water although those who crowd on to our local bus service every day would indicate otherwise. Why do you think the driver carries a clothes-peg?

Not sure what the school would do if the precious pupil turned up with a tatty tattoo.

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D Bob. If that's what floated their boat ;-)

rules are rules........she MUST have known them when "selecting" the preferred school...


similarly these women that are boycotting these sats tests........don't they want to know where their child is performing best? or needs help???

I agree that the Sats can be a useful tool as my daughter would not have had her dyslexia noticed if not for them.

That's really sad that it took Sats tests for the school to notice that she needed help.

Bob,
The 5yr old in the article attended his local Primary School.
We don't really have the option to select "preferred" schools in Scotland

Scottish school admissions is a bit different to the system in England.
A child is always entitled to a place at the school within his/her catchment area.
The Local Authority has to accept the child into their catchment area school irrespective of numbers.

Relatively few parents request to send their children outwith their catchment school. It's called a Placing Request and will only be granted if the request school has space... after all of the catchment area children have been included

We don't have SATS in Scotland either
Again, it's a different system. It's called National Testing

ha.... when the "blue hair boy" becomes an adult........

turning up for work with multi-coloured hair......

yeah, right.

I didn't watch it but I think there was a woman from gloucester on this morning that sends her one twin boy to school in a dress as he likes to dress as a girl. think he was 5. If the school is allowing it now then they will have to carry on allowing this child to wear a dress for as long as he wants, they cant really back down when he gets older and they say it isnt right.