Students who don’t wear ‘correct’ uniform risk detention or being banned from lessons

As students return to school on Wednesday, school staff will be keeping an eye on students' dress and appearance, from the colour of their shirts to the extremity of their hair styles.

But as uniform requirements become more specific, are schools cracking down harder on noncompliance?

In a "back to school" post on Facebook, Dereham Neatherd High School said pupils would need to attend in "full, correct winter uniform" - and would not be allowed into normal lessons if they weren't.

The school said parents would be called and asked to bring the correct uniform into school and that any parents who would struggle to do this, for example those still waiting for items to be delivered, would need to contact the school in advance.

Dereham Neatherd High School. Photo: Matthew Usher (Image: Matthew Usher)

But some were not fans of the disciplinary approach, with one commenter saying: "What's uniform got to do with our learning?"

At Downham Market Academy, the uniform policy states that parents and carers must provide explanatory notes if their children couldn't come to school in correct uniform and that students would have to borrow items from the school in the meantime.

If a student has no parental note or "genuine reason" for not wearing the correct uniform, the academy said they would be given a one-hour detention at the end of the day, while "refusal" to wear the correct uniform - including items lent by the school - "will be treated as defiance and this may result in a fixed-term exclusion (suspension)".

- Are schools enforcing uniform policies more strictly? What do you think of the policies at your child or grandchild's school? Let us know in the comments below or email bethany.whymark@archant.co.uk.

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