Falmouth School are introducing a new uniform policy which forces parents to buy branded clothing at an inflated price or have their child put in detention.
Parents are holding a meeting with mayor Grenville Chappel and town councillors on Friday at Boslowick Barbers at 7pm to discuss the issue.
Sheila Moxley, whose two sons go to Falmouth School, said: "The main change involves parents being forced to buy expensive logo-bearing trousers which are retailing at £16.00 - well above the average cost of a pair of school trousers.
"Whilst I fully support the School wanting the students to look smart, this appears to be a step too far, and is danger of becoming exploitative. The trousers can only be purchased from the school shop(s). Despite the logo being positioned in a place where it is likely to be covered by the blazer - so barely visible anyway - the school are intent on forcing through the measure, despite opposition from parents.
"I believe that the school have tried to justify it by saying that parents are confused about what trousers to buy, and that standard trousers were not promoting equality. I would be very happy to direct anyone who is confused to the local supermarket where school trousers are readily available for around £4."
Head of Falmouth School, Alex George, said: "All parents were given a year’s notice of the latest updates to allow them time to prepare and until recently we had not received any questions regarding this update. Falmouth School welcomes feedback on all of its work and is happy to receive feedback that it will pass on to its uniform suppliers.
"We are happy to respond to enquiries and in addition the chair of governors and headteacher continue to offer for anyone to meet and discuss any school issue at the beginning of each month without an appointment. Please see the school website for details."
The school’s crack down on students’ behaviour in the last few weeks has been met with dismay by some of the pupils.
The school has introduced a ‘no last chance’ policy which sees children being given a same-day after school detention if they misbehave three times in one week.
One student contacted the Packet to speak about his experience with the new rules.
The twelve year old student said: “The main problem is the general lack of respect teachers have towards students. You’ve got a spectrum of behaviour; you’ve got the really bad people who those punishments were designed for, but then they’re enforced on all of us.
“Going into school you just instantly feel like if you do anything wrong you’re going to get detention straight away.”
Infractions can be as small as leaving a shirt un-tucked or wearing the wrong socks and if the student does not attend the one hour after school detention, they are placed in internal exclusion.
This means that they are not allowed to talk to other students for the whole of the following day as well as having to attend the after school detention which they missed.
On the head teacher’s blog on the school website it says that the system was brought in to recognise “good behaviour and conduct around the school site.”
If the students do not break any rules in a week, they are entered into a weekly prize draw at assembly.
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