A UNIFORM policy has sparked fury amongst parents of a secondary school as dozens of students were not allowed to attend class despite hot temperatures.
More than half the pupils were reportedly missing from Bristol Free School in Southmead during the 30 degrees Celsius heat last Thursday because they were wearing PE kit.
The Bristol Free School PE Kit is allowed to be worn on decision of the headteacher
Those wearing the school’s sport polo shirts and shorts were turned away by leaders at the gates as they arrived in the morning.
An email sent from the school to parents the following day clarified students were only allowed to remove the regulation school tie from their uniform for the hot weather.
It continued: “There are no current plans to adjust uniform in light of the current summer weather,” the email said.
The UK Health Security Agency had issued an amber alert regarding extreme heat across the UK to likely be around until Monday.
Temperatures in Bristol reached 30 degrees Celsius on both Thursday and Friday last week.
One bemused parent said: “You’d think an amber alert from the UK health agency would be the sort of thing that would make the headteacher think about how hot the pupils would be.”
Another parent, whose son was sent home on the Thursday morning, labelled the school’s inflexibility as “ridiculous”.
Her comments came with several complaints made over the past months, and even years, by parents of the school as well as petitions set up by students to change the policies.
She said: “It’s inherently sexist too, because girls can wear skirts or trousers and boys have to wear trousers, they are not allowed to wear shorts.
“So when we get extremely hot weather like yesterday (Thursday) was, then boys in particular get very hot.”
A review of the Bristol school’s uniform policy was conducted last year, after many parents requested changes to the school leadership and governors. but no amendments were made.
The parent added: “There’s a huge amount of frustration. There’s a feeling that the school doesn’t have the wellbeing of the students as a priority, that they are more concerned with the image of the school, and this is a genuine concern because of the heat.”
Regular uniform for Bristol Free School includes a badged blazer, plain pale blue shirt, tie and charcoal trousers or skirt.
Wearing a blazer is not compulsory for the summers.
The school’s website states on it’s uniform policy that: “The school may relax uniform requirements from time-to-time, for example in particularly hot weather.”
Following a meeting by governors to discuss parents’ lobbying of school uniform rules last July, the chair of governors Anne-Marie Boyle told parents: “The decision to adjust to wearing PE kit is made by the headteacher and does not involve any additional expense for parents and carers.”
The email sent by the school on Friday then wrote: “We are monitoring the weather regularly and will inform you of any reasonable adjustments to uniform if required.”
It added to parents: “Please ensure your child attends school in the correct uniform as the school reserves the right to request them to correct this before entering the school site.”
As ties were said to be optional, the shirts and trousers uniform policy continued.
The school also encouraged students to consider bringing a refillable water bottle, applying sunscreen, wearing a wide-brimmed hat at lunch time, and not wearing a jumper or coat which students were said to still be doing.
One parent told BristolLive children were wearing jumpers in the heat to cover up sweat patches that can be seen with the pale blue shirts.
She said: “My daughter came home on Thursday and she was so upset, she was a mess.
“These are teenagers, they get sweaty and they also get embarrassed.”
This parent saw then let her daughter go to school in PE kit for the amber heat warning on the Friday, but she was told to go back home.
“Then I got a message from the school saying they were marking it as an unauthorised absence because I hadn’t contacted them to say why she was off.
“It’s so frustrating. It’s an excellent school and my children love learning there, but this is awful, it’s really bad,” she added.
The Sun have approached Bristol Free School for comment.
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