Uniform is not a panacea for problems

In 1965 three teenagers from Des Moines, Iowa, were suspended for breaking school uniform code by going to school sporting black arm bands to protest against the Vietnam War. Less politically, in the 1980s, Adrian Mole won the heart of Pandora Braithwaite by organising a red sock wearing protest against the fossilized fashion of school wear at their West Midlands comprehensive school.

In Italy school uniforms are uncommon because they are associated with the fascist youth movements of the Mussolini era.

The phenomenon of grown adults paying to wear uniforms and dance to the songs of their youth as part of the school disco clubbing phenomenon demonstrates the nostalgia we often feel for our old school ties.

Petty uniform codes

At Rochester Independent College students are free to wear whatever they like to school as long as it does not present a health and safety hazard or is offensive. Our teachers don't have to waste valuable time enforcing petty uniform codes and telling resentful students to tuck their shirts in. There's nothing to rebel against, confrontation is avoided and teachers enjoy positive and mutually respectful relationships with students as a result.

Our students have no problem reconciling their individual development as expressed by their daily chosen outfits and a group identity as students of the college. The freedom to choose has not resulted in dull homogeny but a healthy sense of individuality that coexists with pride in themselves and pride in the college. Should they not wish to spend their mornings agonising over what not to wear we do offer T-shirts, designed by the Head of Art, to make a sartorial splash.

Some British schools have a curious fixation with uniform as a panacea for a range of educational problems. The idea that endemic discipline and academic attainment issues can be resolved by resurrecting the blazer or tightening up on skirt length is surely bogus. Students are motivated to excel and behave respectfully when they are well taught.

Pupils are individuals, not units

They flourish in environments where they are treated as individuals rather than as units that must conform. As examples from around the world show us high standards of discipline, community and academic attainment are not dependent on school uniform.

Importantly the fact that there is no school uniform is widely debated among our students in lessons and while they enjoy wearing their own clothes there is equally an awareness of the danger of defining individuality in terms of appearance or clothing. In fact, most of our students very quickly get over the novelty of not wearing a uniform and spend their time focusing on their studies, interests and enthusiasms.

Our attitude to uniform then is that it's best kept to the one day a year where students do wear their old ones as a charity event in aid of the Woodland Trust. Reversing the tradition of non uniform or mufti day there is always a colourful range of old ties, customised straw boaters, accessorised prefect badges and desecrated blazers on display. A bit like a club night at school disco in fact...

Read why Dr Helen Wright - head of St Mary's, Calne - believes that school uniform is liberating for her girls

Rochester Independent College is a Tom-Brown.com featured school