DAO-Children disciplined and expelled during GCSE

[Banany]

My daughter came home today from her GCSE exams to say:
Three children in her year had been seen by the headmistress between exams for having coloured their hair. One child has been forced to go to another school to sit the rest of her GCSEs, one has been made to wear a hat and one has been given an ultimatum to re-dye her hair.
First of all, colour of hair is not on the uniform list, secondly, one of the girls has had hair like this since easter holidays and nothing was said before. Am I being completely unreasonable to think that this is an unnecessary and harsh step to take during stressful exams? I'm really not impressed with this. These students are sitting exams. Am I wrong to think that things like this should be tackled after exams have finished?

[ToadMum]

My daughter came home today from her GCSE exams to say:
Three children in her year had been seen by the headmistress between exams for having coloured their hair. One child has been forced to go to another school to sit the rest of her GCSEs, one has been made to wear a hat and one has been given an ultimatum to re-dye her hair.
First of all, colour of hair is not on the uniform list, secondly, one of the girls has had hair like this since easter holidays and nothing was said before. Am I being completely unreasonable to think that this is an unnecessary and harsh step to take during stressful exams? I'm really not impressed with this. These students are sitting exams. Am I wrong to think that things like this should be tackled after exams have finished?

If this is the whole story (not at all disbelieving your DD, but there may be something else behind the 'hair' bit), then it is completely OTT in the case of the girl made to sit her exams elsewhere and not much less so re the other two. Also, why should the other school take on all the hassle of accommodating her? Have the exam board and JCQ sanctioned the transfer of her exam papers from one centre to another? (Is DAO some kind of local She who must be obeyed?).

(Interesting if the school doesn't have a hair colour policy, though - they all do round here, afaik, even the kind of schools who mainly find themselves full of the low prior attainment kind of students that DAO seems to manage not to admit - and tbh, it mainly seems to be pretty well enforced / observed).

[kenyancowgirl]

Enforcing a uniform policy for exams is standard - it comes from being able to identify your candidates and also the ethos look smart/think smart. I'm surprised your school doesn't have a hair policy - ours certainly does and it is rigourously enforced - DS2 had to have his hair cut shorter, havong dyed it in the summer one year, dyed it back and then, a few weeks later, the second dye starting to come out at the tips! Assumably "after" Easter the students were on exam leave so technically not in school - however when they come back in for exams most schools expect them to be in full school uniform (including hair as normally expected for school).

The fact that there are 3 different sanctions is the bit that sounds unfair - and like TM - I don't think you have the full story at all. To ove one to another centre sounds like something else has kicked off - it would be very difficult to transfer someone fully at this point and another centre may not agree to take them at such short notice - unless they have a reciprocal swap agreement for "poorly behaved" students - but sounds unlikely - could be a saving face thing (I'm going elsewhere, but actually isn't...) Perhaps she swore or hit the HM as well which would be instant grounds to remove someone from the school, exams or not, for example.

The other two is where it all falls apart - why not make them both wear a hat? Why not tell them both that they need to re-dye their hair?

At the worst it is terribly inconsistent of the school (and reflects very badly on them for the inconsistency) but to me, doesn't reflect badly that they are being disciplined about expecting girls to turn up ready for exams. Whatever, you do not have the full story, I am sure, and will not get it from the students themselves - only a version they care to share that paints them in a good light and the school in a bad light!

As an aside (and not related to this!) - working in a school as I do - I think every single prosepctive leader of a political party - and every parent that ever complains to, or about, a school ought to be made to come in and observe a proper large comprehensive school at work for a fortnight - I think it would vastly open their eyes and take off the rose coloured glasses - the things teachers/senior leaders are dealing with on a day to day basis would make your hair curl and would start to put things into prospective about how some ideas and concepts might seem great on paper but are completely bonkers in kids lives! Rant over!

[loobylou]

I'll ask dd later about her version of this story - she hadn't mentioned it at all.
We did have an email this week reminding us that full school uniform is required during the exams.
And DAO does have a hair colour policy - any dyed hair should be a "natural" hair colour is black, brown, blonde or auburn.

[Banany]

I've just downloaded the uniform rules and regulations, and it mentions earrings, nail varnish, hoodies and head coverings indoors. Nowhere does it mention hair colour. Nor is there a uniform policy which mentions it, so I don't know where you got that rule about natural hair colour from.

Now, what makes me concerned about this incident is that, there are uniform violations left, right and centre in Owens. There are kids wearing black trainers, and folding their skirt up, and kids with long nails and jewellery. However, the three children targeted were admitted on catchment and are not predicted to get good grades.

I spoke to one of the parents whose child was brought into the headmistress's office and she said that the options were initially:
Re-dye hair before your next exam (ie, go home and dye it)
Go to Mount Grace to finish GCSEs

The parent and child pointed out that the uniform policy does not mention anything about hair colour, and they were told it is policy, but could not produce a written document that states that clearly.
The deputy head argued with the headmistress to negotiate the wearing of a hat during exams (incidentally; head coverings are clearly stated as against the uniform regulations), which was accepted as an alternative.

One child was so upset that she just agreed to go to Mount Grace.

Bearing in mind that this was done suddenly out of the blue between two GCSE exams, so one child was extremely distressed. My DD was comforting her in the corridor just before her exam, so It's probably affected her results. To be honest, I just think that's very OTT.

uniform policy:

Boys
Shirt Plain white
Tie Official school
Trousers Dark grey polyester / viscose
Socks Dark Grey / Black
Jumper Grey and V neck (not a cardigan or round neck)
Shoes Plain black leather/leather effect. Low heel only.
Trainers and canvas shoes of any kind are NOT acceptable
School Blazer Black
Badge School badge sewn on blazer pocket
Under shirt White base layer may be worn in winter
Girls
Blouse White with collar, long or short sleeved (open neck). Underwear should not be a
colour that shows through the shirt
Kilt in black pinstripe The school kilt which MUST be bought from the uniform suppliers
are already manufactured in the correct style. They should NOT, therefore, be
altered
Jumper Red V-necked- NOT a cardigan
Trousers black pinstripe The school trousers which MUST be bought from the uniform
suppliers are already manufactured in the correct style. They should NOT,
therefore, be altered
Shoes Plain black leather/leather effect closed– low heel only. Trainers and canvas shoes
of any kind are NOT acceptable
Socks Ankle, black or white
Tights natural colour or plain black. Leggings are not allowed
Under shirt White base layer may be worn in winter
School blazer Black - not essential for girls
Jewellery A small - will be allowed, one in each ear. No other decorative jewellery will be
allowed.
Nail varnish None / or no coloured nail varnish. NO FALSE NAILS OF ANY SORT

[Banany]

It appeared that the headmistress had already made arrangements for the children to go to Mount Grace......

[loobylou]

I've definitely seen it before. I'll have a look later at the printed details we have previously from when dd started. Though dd also said that that's what she understood the uniform code to be too (but maybe we had a conversation about it once - not that I remember it).
I spoke to dd and she said she hadn't heard anything about anyone being excluded and had no idea about it (despite being in for both exams yesterday) so that's not very helpful although she normally does seem to be aware of most of the gossip.
If your dd is correct and one of them is sitting at Mt Grace (which seems unlikely as how could the SLT at DAO insist that Mt Grace take her, unless they have a mutual agreement which I have heard of at other schools so I guess it could be the case) then the results will still be part of DAO results so I don't see how that makes any difference to the school.
If they were asked to dye their hair to a natural colour over the weekend that seems reasonable?

[loobylou]

It appeared that the headmistress had already made arrangements for the children to go to Mount Grace......

Maybe they have a mutual agreement.
Dh's school has this with another local school. Anyone who has been excluded in the last few weeks of term or has other sanctions has to sit the exams at the other school and vice versa.

[Banany]

And kenyan cowgirl, I'm a former teacher. I still think the way that this has been handled is appalling. Definitely not the way Dr Davison would have handled it.

[Banany]

No, they were asked in a break between exams to go home and dye their hair.