are there any high schools in England that don’t wear a uniform?

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Illustrious-Yellow49@reddit

High Storrs (secondary) in Sheffield has no uniform, just a dress code. It works really well - kids can express themselves and I don't think there is a pressure to wear the 'cool' stuff.

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Nutty-Frangipane@reddit

Curios as to why you call it a high school?

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ReallyIntriguing@reddit

There's loads of high schools, I'm in SE London

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Nutty-Frangipane@reddit

Fair enough, I’ve genuinely never seen one named as such over here so that’s quite interesting

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OT_Jo@reddit

They're called high schools where I went to school as there was a middle school system. You have First school, middle school and high school

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TessaKatharine@reddit

That's dying out though, sadly. Far better system in my utterly non-expert view, wish it had become as universal as in the US!

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My high school was called a high school, it was High School. To this day 30 plus years after I left I still call secondary school high school. My daughter is about to start at big school and I describe it as High School.

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hoverside@reddit

There are a few secondary schools around called "(place name) High School". My city had one, I don't think it differed from any other comprehensive apart from the name.

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Fine-Huckleberry4165@reddit

In Northern Ireland there are even some grammar schools called "** High School".

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LilacRose32@reddit

Lots of Secondary schools are called X High School

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Fudge_is_1337@reddit

There's a surprisingly large number out there when you look. Some areas still operate a middle school system and secondary doesn't make sense as a term after that

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ActionBirbie@reddit

Cue the perennial brigade of brummies "There's as many as two schools....."

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NortonBurns@reddit

There's an advantage to school uniform - it makes everyone look uniform.

There's no taking the piss out of people who were dressed by their grandma, or who can't afford the cool stuff. You've got enough to worry about at that age without adding to it unnecessarily.

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RevolutionaryFan1403@reddit

Then why not mandate identical bags, shoes, coats, even haircuts etc.? They can also demonstrate wealth or lack thereof. The kids in poverty, or who have negligent parents, will still have to come into school with battered uniforms several sizes too small because parents can't afford or can't be bothered to replace it.

Plenty of other countries do not have a school uniform culture, but they do not have higher rates of bullying than us.

I can go to many of my local charity shops and buy designer gear for significantly cheaper than the average school uniform.

If we still insist on keeping school uniform, we should do away with unnecessary and costly addons like ties and blazers which contribute nothing and just add unnecessary financial strain on struggling families.

Furthermore the EEF, a charity that teachers use to evaluate the effectiveness of various teaching policies, has consistently found no evidence whatsoever that school uniform has a positive impact on learning.

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TessaKatharine@reddit

Identical (and near-inevitably school branded) bags, I don't know. Bags can be teased, I got it at first for the wrong kind of bag. Identical shoes, no! Coats, perhaps. My school had identical duffle coats. Yes it'll probably never be perfect, at least uniforms always make poorer and wealthier pupils look somewhat the same.

School uniform is such a tradition here, not having it in some form would be unimaginable/very sad. Bullying requires a complex approach with other strategies, not just uniform. Yes, the cost of school uniform is often scandalous. Arguably near-cartel supplier deals should be illegal, branded items heavily restricted in number, etc. Strict regulation needed!

I hate ties, see my other comment. But ties are so small, why the fuck should they be pricey? Blazers are very nice, traditional, smart. Make them as cheap (but durable) as possible, sure. But struggling families should just have to put up with the cost of blazers, preferably nothing much else. It's only one item, FFS. People often have to put up with lots of things they can't afford, that's life.

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RevolutionaryFan1403@reddit

I think you misunderstood my comment. I am arguing that school uniform is a pokntless waste of money that does not have the positive effects people claim.

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Deep_Pepper_5405@reddit

I feel like schools do dictate those things. So many rules about shoes, hair ties, socks, nails, hair colour etc.

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TessaKatharine@reddit

Yeah, it's too often just preposterous now, so dictatorial, see my other comment in this thread.

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RevolutionaryFan1403@reddit

I think school uniform should be treated similarly - a basic dress code rather than being told exactly what to wear.

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Just mandating a white shirt and navy trousers/ skirt would do everything uniform advocates ask for, except for forcing business onto the overpriced merchants the schools have deals with.

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RevolutionaryFan1403@reddit

Exactly. And the taxpayer money that goes towards subsidising things like blazers could instead go towards expanding free school meals programmes.

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Fit-Mistake-4390@reddit

I don’t agree with this argument and never have. I was bullied in school for having hand-me-down jumpers and shirts. It didn’t fit right at all. But we couldn’t afford the new uniform every year.

Kids are relentless pricks and will find anything to pick on others for

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Except the uniformity isn't just on colour, it's in terms of overpricedness from specified shops who obviously aren't on the take from tne schools in question.

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octobod@reddit

There is a second hand market in school uniforms. Sometimes run by the school itself

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Wouldn't surprise at all...

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Spiritual_Tie3348@reddit

So they make unaffordable uniforms instead.

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Odd-Paramedic-3826@reddit

Idk about secondary schools but in my primary school i had to wear a generic uniform because the one with the school emblem on it was too expensive. i used to have the piss taken out of me for that even though we were all 7 years old

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Spiritual_Tie3348@reddit

Yeah they'll always find a reason unfortunately. My lad always wanted the non emblem stuff at primary because he said he hated school and didn't want their badge on him😂

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paparoach__@reddit (OP)

Yea like 75 quid a blazer and 45 quid on the pe kit

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Deep_Pepper_5405@reddit

I'm with you. I've yet to hear a compelling argument for school uniform and other appearance related rules.

There are non-uniform schools but over 80% of schools have uniforms so the odds of one being a high school and close to you are quite slim.

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TomatoMiserable3043@reddit

Makes it easier to recognise and assimilate intruders into the collective.

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TessaKatharine@reddit

Quite the opposite, surely? One argument is that uniforms help security by keeping dangerous intruders such as any local paedophiles, out. I can never get my head around the idea of security lanyards for children, AFAIK totally unknown in my day (1990s). Seems weird to me.

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OldEcho@reddit

It's good as a humiliation ritual to force you to obey and conform which I assume is what it's there for.

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Deep_Pepper_5405@reddit

Yep, but people seem to love them. I think it is some type of Stockholm syndrome. Even that comment got downoted.

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OldEcho@reddit

People don't want to admit they were pointlessly abused and have and are perpetuating abuse.

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evenifihateit@reddit

I don't mind the idea of a uniform for schools but it should be a lot more practical and comfortable than the ones we usually have, and the pettiness over things like shoe styles and timing of blazer removal should just end.

I left school 30 years ago; we wore uniform but the idea of being told off for taking off a jacket when hot... How are you supposed to respect adults who think that's reasonable?

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TessaKatharine@reddit

Yes, ALL modern petty rules/restrictions like that, should just be 100% illegal, whether any schools like it or not! Both girls and boys should be allowed trousers or skirts! Measuring girls' skirt length, for example, apparently happened in the distant past, too, but it's incredibly humiliating. Uniforms are good, but really should always be relaxed/a lot more of a suggestion overall, not prescriptive. Like it apparently is where school uniforms exist in the US. Still having prefects (children of course, prefects are not necessarily bad per se) enforcing uniform standards, is ridiculous/inappropriate. Only adults should do that.

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Expensive-Article328@reddit

Camden School for girls and it's two neighbouring schools Parliament Hill (girls) and Acland Burghley don't have a uniform but even in trendy leftie N London they are the only ones of which I am aware.

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TessaKatharine@reddit

It's rare but there are probably a few more non uniform ones, than you might think, here and there. St Pauls Girls in London (partly for pupil safety reasons due to the local area, apparently), Frensham Heights in Surrey. Possibly Bedales in Hampshire/some international schools. Can't think of any others offhand.

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ThrowRAkitty13@reddit

The uniform can't be that bad, unless it's purple or something.

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paparoach__@reddit (OP)

it’s a dirty blue/teal/blue green disgusting colour

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Complex-Honeydew-111@reddit

At least it's not brown and yellow

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TessaKatharine@reddit

I like brown, yellow a lot less so in general. Especially not bright yellow clothes, ever, ewwwww. Brown and yellow brings to mind old-fashioned brownie uniforms, don't know what they're like now. Brown gymslips (AFAIK, today only ever used at primaries in the UK) were, I believe, once commonplace.

The fictional Chalet School has brown with orange ties (nice), at least until it adopts an IMO nasty radically different blue in Switzerland. What I really loathe is different colours for boys and girls! WTF are schools thinking, in this day and age? I once read that a school had orange ties for girls, red for boys, or something. Dreadful.

Though I hate ties anyway (I like blazers and jumpers or cardigans, my school didn't really have blazers). Schools should either have them for girls AND boys, or (preferably), not at all. Full stop! And polo shirts are always vile, IMO. What's wrong with nice T Shirts, like at my 1980s primary school?

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Please tell me that's hypothetical. Please.

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Complex-Honeydew-111@reddit

Nope that's a real uniform combo near where I live

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

My profound sympathies to the victims...

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paparoach__@reddit (OP)

the tie is yellow 😖

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TessaKatharine@reddit

A quite famous girls' private school round here is purple. As was the defunct Central High School in Newcastle (also all-girls and run by the same organisation, I think), for example.

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OrbitingPlanetArse@reddit

Our primary school had purple .... apparently the decision of the headmistress who had changed it from bright red when she got sworn in.

I am rather surprised her Triumph Acclaim wasn't purple. Perhaps the Japs thought the British car industry had suffered enough .......

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Spotted another CRGS alumnus!

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ActionBirbie@reddit

Tired of this uniform.

You are too young to be posting here.

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TessaKatharine@reddit

Why can't people that young post here? I've been a mod on a traditional forum owned by a big company for about a decade, it used to have children but had to go 18+ some years ago, because reasons. It's sad, made the forum quite a lot more staid/less interesting...

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paparoach__@reddit (OP)

You don’t know how old I am though

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Clear_Mode_4199@reddit

Would be weird for an adult to be complaining about having to wear school uniform

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cardiffman100@reddit

Hey now, don't kink shame

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sheepandlambs@reddit

Young enough to moan about the school uniform you wear.

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DandyLionsInSiberia@reddit

Waldorf or Rudolf Steiner inspired environments typically do not enforce strict uniform policies. Instead, they encourage a general dress code aligned with the school’s ethos, simple, comfortable, and appropriate, while still allowing room for a degree of individual self expression.

Beyond the aforementioned - most mainstream schools implement formal uniform policies.

These were largely introduced to reduce visible socioeconomic differences among students, aiming to ease pressure on those from less affluent backgrounds. Standardized clothing, often without visible logos or brands except for items like shoes, helps create a more level social environment.

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TheLoneEcho@reddit

Shut up and wear it, kid. It won't be your last.

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Spottyjamie@reddit

My school in 1994 wasnt much of a uniform as it was mainly farmers

White shirt or polo shirt, black pants or joggers, black shoes or plain black trainers, tie optional, jumper optional (jumper was any blue jumper with the school badge as a sew on or iron on)

Was nice having teachers focus on lessons not dress

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Specialist_Emu7274@reddit

Theres a couple of private schools and SEN schools that have no uniform but it’s not particularly common

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BeaksFalcone@reddit

Technically yes,the schools for kids with special needs and the schools for those that are too disruptive for mainstream schools,the disabled because they have reasons for wearing certain fabrics/items of clothing etc, and the 'naughty kids' only attend for a few hours a week,it's where turning up is seen as an achievement in itself

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Neither_Process_7847@reddit

Without more info on where you are, we wouldn't know. Yes, uniform rules tend to the absurd but if it's any comfort it is better now than it used to be. One boys only private school near us insisted on pink blazers and caps...we pitied them from our exclusive local-shop-only purple logoed blazers.

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AdLive9773@reddit

There are sixthforms and colleges that don't require uniforms to be worn.

Every Secondary School (which is what I assume you mean by High school) which I'm aware of requires some sort of a uniform.

It'd be quite weird if they didn't.

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