Jottings
News from the UK and around the World
. . . the wild, the wacky, the wonderful, the weird and the downright infuriating
Back to School
September was Back to School for many,
prompting plenty of tales to start the
new term. Uniforms and gender
neutrality made the headlines on several
mornings for one reason or another.
Parents of children at National Academy
in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, claimed
they were being forced to buy bespoke
trousers at £16 a pair, instead of similar
garments from Asda and Tesco which
cost only £6. The only difference is that
the approved pants have the school logo
printed on them and the others do not.
Parents have even been told they can’t
buy the cheaper pair and sew on the
logo themselves. A memo from the
school sent out to parents said that any
“non-regulation trousers, even if they
have the embroidered academy logo,
will not be accepted.”
At least girls at Hucknall’s National
Academy get the chance to wear a
“branded” black skirt. However, over at
Priory School in Lewes, East Sussex, a
gender neutral uniform has been
introduced because the school did not
want transgender pupils worrying about
whether to dress as a boy or a girl. All
girls must now wear trousers, although it
is unclear whether this also applies to
the staff.
Meanwhile, the headmistress of one of
the country’s most prestigious girls’
schools says she has stopped calling her
24
pupils “girls” in a bid not to alienate
transgender pupils. Sally-Anne Huang,
head teacher at James Allen’s Girls’
School, says she now refers only to
“pupils” and replaces the pronoun “she”
with “they.” Students at the single-sex
school are allowed to wear trousers, cut
their hair short and be called boys
names if they wish.
When Jackson Riley told his teacher he
couldn’t take off his backpack because
there was a bomb inside, he was
suspended from lessons at Great Valley
Academy in Modesto, California. School
officials sent his parents a letter saying
Jackson violated a school code when he,
“intentionally engaged in harassment,
threats, or intimidation.”