Department for Education denies introducing new rules as hundreds of pupils are turned away across UK
There haven't been any updates from government since 2013
SCHOOLS have been sending pupils home in their droves this week for breaching uniform policies - despite the government releasing no guidance on school dress codes for THREE YEARS.
The most recent advice on school uniforms was issued in 2013, the Department for Education (DfE) says, although it is reissued as a reminder to all headteachers, school leaders and local councils each year.
Despite the lack of fresh guidance on how to tackle the issue, schools up and down the country have already faced tough battles with parents in the first few days of term alone this week after tightening up their own rules on clothing.
The most notable of which has been Hartsdown Academy in Margate, Kent, where new headteacher Matthew Tate is understood to have sent home close to 100 students this week for breaching his new uniform policy.
Today four teachers locked the gates and individually inspected pupils as they arrived, letting them in one by one.
Dad Dave Hopper, 38, has blasted new headteacher Matthew Tate for his strict enforcement of the school's uniform policy by turning students away at the school gates.
His daughter Kim, 13, was refused entry to school on Tuesday because she didn't have her blazer - which she had left in the school over summer.
When she returned on Wednesday, the school decided her shoes were a problem too.
Today Dave has decided not to take Kim to school, fearing she would be turned away again.
At Barr Beacon School in the Black Country 200 pupils were banished into isolation for wearing the wrong uniform.
Stern executive headteacher Dame Maureen Brennan sent pupils home at the start of the summer holidays with a warning letter about expensive designers trying to pass off black trainers as school shoes.
Meanwhile dozens of youngsters were kept in isolation or told to leave for a range of infringements at Magnus Church of England Academy in Newark-on-Trent, Notts.
Some pupils were told their trousers were too tight while other girls were told their skirts were too short.
Teachers also ruled that haircuts were too short and told children off for having the wrong shoes or for wearing earrings.
One angry mum even revealed her autistic son was left in floods of tears - because he was booted out of classes as his trousers were too LONG.
The school claimed around 20 pupils were kept in isolation all day but parents said the overall number kept on their own or sent home was closer to 50.
Mum-of-two Gemma Gosling, 36, whose 12-year-old son, Aaron, has autism, said the Year 8 pupil was left in tears after being told his £8 Asda trousers were too long.
She added: "I am annoyed because Aaron is already quite anxious.
"He wasn't put in isolation or sent him but it was the manner they spoke to him.
"A teacher just walked up to him and said his trousers are too long and if he came to school in them the next day he would be sent home.”
The school's new principal, Anna Martin, defended the crackdown and said the uniform inspection was part of continuing efforts to raise school standards.
Denbigh High School in North Wales also excluded pupils in breach of the uniform from classes on the first day back after writing to parents detailing new rules before the summer break.
When pupils arrived for the new term yesterday, the clampdown saw 70 children taken out of lessons because of what they were wearing.
According to parents, reasons ranged from the wrong style of trousers or skirt.
Most appeared to have put been isolation because their trousers were too tight.
Kelly Carney alleges 15-year-old daughter Faye Carney was banned from lessons at St Mary’s Catholic College in Wallasey, Merseyside, and put in internal exclusion on Tuesday for having highlights that were barely visible - because it was dubbed an "extreme hairstyle".
The stay-at-home mum alleges Faye was told if it was not dyed back she would be permanently excluded or taken to the school’s sixth form salon to have her locks altered there.
In Bristol Mum-of-two Nicola Ingerfield is mad her son Alfie, who she describes as a “model pupil”, was told by teachers he has just a week to buy new shoes - because the £48 black Clarks school shoes she bought him are "too much like trainers".
While schools are free to set their own rules on dress code, the DfE does offer advice on "best practice".
It says: "It is for the governing body of a school to decide whether there should be a school uniform policy and if so what that should be.
"This flows from the duties placed upon all governing bodies by statute to ensure that school policies promote good behaviour and discipline amongst the pupil body. It is also for the governing body to decide how the uniform should be sourced."
And when it comes to clashes between teachers and parents over what is acceptable it says schools should "consider carefully reasonable requests to vary the policy, in particular to meet the needs of any individual pupil to accommodate their religion or belief, ethnicity, disability or other special considerations".
A spokesman for the DfE told The Sun: "We see this sort of thing at the start of every school year. Last year at one school children were threatening to go on strike. It's something that seems to happen every year, particularly when many schools are setting new uniform policies."
The number of schools battling it out with parents over uniform breaches however comes in stark contrast to news earlier this year that 80 state schools in England were relaxing rules and introducing "gender neutral" policies as part of a government-funded drive to support LGBT children in schools and be more open to kids questioning their gender or sexual identity.
The move, announced back in June, includes girls being able to wear trousers and boys being able to wear skirts.
It's possible the tough stance taken by some educational establishments this week is connected to the growth of academies - known for taking a tougher line on school dress.
Evidence on whether schools having uniforms - and furthermore, strict uniform rules - produces better results is inconclusive.
A paper written by Rachel Hesketh, research assistant at the Policy Institute, last year determined that there is no clear relationship between wearing a uniform and doing better at school.
Writing for Kings College London (KCL) she said: "It has been suggested that uniforms foster feelings of collective spirit and pride in their school among pupils, improving behaviour.
"They are also claimed to contribute to a positive learning atmosphere where students are not distracted by appearance or victimised based on how they dress.
"But it also seems plausible that, by restricting freedom of expression, uniforms create an authoritarian environment that some students may resent and that time spent disciplining students for minor uniform infractions could detract from teaching and learning."
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