Bobby and Fullchat, I usually agree and respect your views and by and large I suppose I do on uniform, but I have to put the other angle to you.
I went to a grammar school that had a quite distinctive uniform and it was always said to be a great leveller, and it prevented bullying and ridicule.
No, it didn't.
My uniform, (bought with a grant) when it was new, was enormous...too wide, too long and not a chance of finding my hands up the sleeves of my blazer.
There was a few months when it actually fitted and I looked like most of the others but it then became too short, tight and very threadbare.
I remember envying those who turned up with yet another new set and the remarks made to me and one or two others about ours.
These remarks were made by the same ones who didn't have to queue at the front of the class on a Monday morning to sign in for free school dinners.
I hated my time at grammar school and wished so much that I hadn't passed my 11plus, and had been allowed to go to the local secondary school where uniform wasn't an option.
I fully accept that now days it is more of a leveller, as designer wear has become the price tag to wear if you want to be popular, but I was shocked to read the same old platitudes trotted out in that report, as were told to us all those years ago.
It did teach me one thing though...to hold my head high!
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