New Uniform for Beacon

What do you think of the new uniform for Beacon Community College?  September of  2010 will see the start of the phasing in of the new school wear  - black blazer with college badge on the breast pocket, white shirt, House tie and either black trousers for boys or black trousers/black skirt for girls. Grey V necks can also be worn and year 11 will be allowed to wear black V necks as a sign of seniority.

Having been a student at Beacon in the '90's, I am all for it.  The guidelines then for uniform where for polo shirts in house colours and jumpers and skirts in navy blue, trousers in black, no trainers, no make-up. Clearly we abused and stretched the rules as far as possible.  The trainer was emerging as THE footwear,  (I blame MC Hammer) they were everywhere - mostly due to some trumped up ankle injury meaning we couldn't wear our sensible Clarks. And we had a note from our Mum to prove it.  We wore more make-up than Marylin Manson and had bigger make-up bags than pencil cases.  We spent our break AND lunchtime crowding around the loo mirrors, re-applying thick, acne-inducing orange foundation and rings of eyeliner.  Hairdo of choice was a 'pineapple' - currently known as the 'Croydon Facelift', and a grown-out perm.  Some students even got up at 5 in the morning, taking 3 hours every day to get their hair and make-up right for school. 

Teenagers worry about the way they look, it's just what they do.  A more formal dress code will take away some of the pressure and time spent on their appearance when they should be focused on other things.  And hopefully they will also be saved from looking back at their school fashion faux-pas in twenty years' time with the cringeful embarrassment of my generation!