Largs Academy dress code

Published 26 Feb 2011 09:30 13 Comments

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Whilst proving to be an extremely popular feature, an unintended consequence of the 'Those Were The Days' article is that it illustrates perfectly just how far the standards of Largs Academy's dress code have fallen in such a short period of time.

How refreshing it is to see a group of pupils dressed smartly for a school photograph and how depressing to learn that it was taken two decades ago.

So, Mr Jones, your homework for next week - explain using your own words why the casual, tie slung round neck, shirt tail hanging out, skirt as short as possible approach is preferred. That it is consistent with every other secondary school will not be accepted.

Name and email address supplied

This article appeared in Largs & Millport Weekly News 25 Feb 11

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S McGhee
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Feb 28, 11:23
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Does it really matter? Top School in Ayrshire by a country mile and very mannerly and well behaved pupils - that's what counts. When this isn't the case, then let's address it. In the meantime, leave them be.

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ernest 3
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Feb 28, 21:11
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Fully agree with the dress code for schools. One should be proud of the school you attend and identify yoursrelf with it, irrespective of academic achievements. There are too many children running around like scruff and the great unwashed. And there are too

many adults who wish to lower standards in everyday life to the lowest common denominator.

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brendan
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Mar 1, 23:31
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"Dress Code" - shurely you mean uniform . This idea of dress code came in with the socialist republic of Strathclyde where the same levelling down policies were applied to all schools - in spite of giving needy kids a clothing allowance we can't allow schools to have a uniform policy

True Largs Academy is the best secondary school in North Ayrshire ( not that this means much when you look at the rest) ) and in the best 20 or so state comprehensives in Scotland BUT as ernest 3 says there are higher standards to achieve . Largs Academy should be on a par with the private sector schools given its cachment area

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largsacademyalumni
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Mar 2, 01:48
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Best secondary school in North Ayrshire - does'nt really say much about the rest eh. Largs Academy WAS a great school when its catchment area was LARGS but that changed a long time ago. Yes Jonesy should be leading from the top as far as the standards of dress and behaviour in both pupils and teachers is concerned - don't see that happening!!

Oh and looking at the photo I see that as usual no money is being spend on improving the look of the building which is, like many of those in it, stuck in a timewarp.

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moodyjim
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Mar 2, 03:53
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question - why is Largs Academy in top so and so

answer - so many of the pupils go to private tutors

simple

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charlie mac
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Mar 2, 06:24
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It is easy to be the best in a pool of mediocrity.......teachers are scruffy and are therefore not in able to be respected by the pupils, who like to be "smart" but not dressed smartly if you understand what I mean. The "smart Alecs" or Joneses in society dllude themselves, but are aped by the imprssionable youth....L A sits on its laurels but could do a lot better with its talent, if they were really stretched......

When I see them in the morning off the train, I despair...

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jakeyrollin
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Mar 2, 20:02
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As parents of new interns we get the dress code explained and the standards they expect at the induction evening...it just doesn't materialise in reality.

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largsboy
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Mar 8, 14:18
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As a former pupil under the Arthur Jones regime, I have first hand experience of the situation with 'dress code' at the Academy.

Arthur Jones has spent an awful lot of effort on improving the 'strictness' of the dress code of the school.

Indeed, at my time there, he spent hundreds and hundreds of pound reinforcing the dress code principle, purchasing ridiculous Nazi-like banners for the corridors and such like: how effective they are is another matter...

Often, If a pupil is caught not adhering to his strict dress code - they are sent home. It appears to me that 'image' of 'his school' often overrides the principle of education itself.

Whilst some degree of uniform is extremely important, I, and many others recently associated with the school, feel that TOO MUCH emphasis is place on enforcing this - far too many resources are wasted on attempting to form this vision of his - money that could be spent on classroom resources, which in some cases are drastically required.

Yes, dress code is important to a certain degree, but it is merely a governmental guideline, and under the comprehensive education system, aesthetic image SHOULD NOT be the main focus when so many subject departments are running drastically dry of resources.

(Don't start me on manipulation of league tables - this man knows every trick of the trade)

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Ourclass
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Mar 10, 17:09
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Hey all,

My name is Olaf, I am 7 years old and I want to say the following:

on Ourclass (Ourclass is born in Largs) you don't need a dresscode ;)

I would like to invite all my friends, children, students, teachers and parents to Ourclass.

Simply everbody who likes it.

Here http://www.ourclass.co.uk/school/st-mary-s-primary-school/ you see already where I go to school in Largs and I really like it there, dresscode or not.

On ourclass you can do a lot of things and I hope that other children from all the schools in Largs see my comment and that we all get friends and meet on Ourclass.

Bye bye,

Olaf

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LJMackay
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Mar 14, 13:25
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I have read all of these comments and have to say i am very disappointed in most people’s opinions of the school, its pupils and its staff. Many comments made are very shallow minded and very disrespectful.

I left Largs academy to go and study a masters course at Glasgow in civil engineering, i got into the course with the help of the teachers at the school, not from countless personal tutors (was very maddened by your comment moodyjim). I would also like to point out that i have met several private school students since moving to Glasgow and do you know something? More of them have had private tutors throughout all of their high school years than any of the people I know from Largs academy. So your comment is ridicules.

Another comment that I was rather offended by is one made by largsacademyalumi. Just so you know out of all of the pupils from Largs Academy it is actually the ones from Largs itself that are the worst dressed and worst behaved. In the years I know about (these being my year, the year above, year below, my little sisters year and also the year I was a buddy for) for first through to third year the worst dressed and behaved lived right in largs, allot of these people all tended to drop out of school by 4th year which left a more or less even mix of people from Skelmorlie, West Kilbride and Largs, even still it was the largs ones who I remember in sixth year that were still the ones who cared less about their studies and the way they looked. So you shouldn’t make comments which you have no evidence for and know, clearly, very little about.

As far as comments with regards to the building go, yes it is pretty dated and dilapidated but it’s not down to any fault of the school, it’s the council who say how the money will be divided up and what schools get extensions, paint jobs or torn down and replaced. The trend there seems to be that if the grades are bad then you tear down the school and give them a brand new one. Seams the only way for Largs to get a new school would be to have less people passing Highers and advanced Highers, somehow i don’t think that that is the right way to go about it.

As far as the dress code goes it isn’t necessarily the schools fault but more the parents fault. I know of several pupils whose parents would come into the school to argue their cases for wearing ridiculous inappropriate outfits. Mr Jones has tried his best to come up with a uniform that suits both the parents, children and community. It’s practical, isn’t too expensive and looks smart when worn properly. You cannot judge the entire school based on the carless attitudes of a select few parents and their off-spring. Uniform should be something that at the same time as representing the school also allows for a bit of individuality - no one wants a whole group of kids who don’t know how to express themselves and just trudge about mirror images of each other like ants.

I am not saying that there don’t need to be some changes made to the uniform because it is clear that they do, but these changes need to be addressed at home too! It’s not down to one man to ensure that all of the 1000+ pupils at the school dress adequately. There is no use in the staff at Largs giving the kids in trouble and making them button up their shirts and fix their skirts if the parents are taking their children clothes shopping for school and allowing them to buy clothes that to be honest are about 5 sizes too small. You can’t pull down skirts and shirts to cover your waist band and any dignity if they weren’t bought to fit that way.

Yes the school does need to try and tighten up on uniform but it’s the parents that are the real issue. Until they start taking an interest in their children’s appearance, which i STRONGLY recommended as some of them look like the undead or like they are heading to a brothel, it’s appalling, but until they start thinking about how their child looks the school won’t be able to do much about it. So parents, stop buying ridiculous uniforms and pay attention to your kids lives!

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Oct 9, 07:44
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miumiu
1 post
Oct 27, 07:29
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GemmaMKay
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May 22, 17:43
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So we have heard what parents, teachers and former students have had to say about the school uniform, but what about the ones who count for something, the pupils themselves do we not get the opportunity to say what we think. I personally think we should, I am a S3 pupil at Largs Academy and I am saying “it’s not on!” I feel that the school need to rethink what they disapprove of.

As I walk through the hall I know what I would change if I was in charge. Skirts would have to be knee length, no option! Ties would have to be worn. Shirts would have to be white. So, so far I agree with the written rules and the dress code itself. What I totally don’t agree with is how the rules are put into order. I walk around the school and it’s appalling what pupils are trying to pass off as appropriate uniform, wait I will rephrase that, it’s appalling what pupils are trying to pass off as clothing! Skirts that don’t even pass as belts or shirts that button so low they are beyond excusable. The annoying thing is that nothing is said or done to change this. The people dressed like this are left to their own devices getting away with it, getting away with disobeying the rules.

Now if nothing is said to these people of course they won’t change, they’re not just going to wake up and think “oh I feel that my uniform isn’t expectable I must buy a new descent one at once!” sadly the world doesn’t work like that. These people must be Made change, Made to realise that they our sending out the wrong message not only about themselves or even about our school, this is bigger, it’s the wrong message about our community. So why is nothing done?

I have been asking myself this for a while now, I have been trying to see from both sides of the spectrum but nothing has come to me. I know it is a hard and tedious job to tell people to go home and change if their uniform isn’t right and I know it will take a long time to change the current pupils view on our uniform, but if the teachers try they will get somewhere.

I also know that in some cases it’s the parents fault for letting the children out the house like that, but the people that are judging all family’s like that are wrong. Think about it more than that, once your kid leaves that fount or car door, you have no idea what they will look like in 5 minutes time. I know this as I witness some girls pulling there skirts up so they are shorter, shovelling on makeup and changing their whole personality in just the short journey from home to school each morning. So if you think that your child isn’t one of the pupils that let themselves down with the wrong self-image, think again.

I feel that a uniform check needs to be put into place throughout the school if you are not wearing what is deemed appropriate by your current period teacher, or even the teachers in the hall, you are sent home without so much as a question. Your parents would be told to come and collect you and you wouldn’t be allowed back in to the building until your uniform is appropriate. I can tell you that this would solve the problem in a matter of weeks. Working parents would have to leave work just to pick up their immature child that thought they looked “cute or fit” in their skimpy belt like skirt this disruption would soon end the uniform quarrel in most households.

The school is just too relaxed when it comes to putting the rules into practice.

So dear Mr Jones if you wrote it, stick by it!!

So the school just hasn’t got a grip on what is affecting the school’s appearance at all. The above is what is wrong, too short of skirt and too low a blouse, these items of clothing are what need to be pulled up and punished if worn. Not Hoddies!

We live in Scotland, cold, dark, dreich Scotland and hoddies are a necessity, but Mr Jones can’t see this. May a time my friends have gone to walk into the school but have been stopped by the head teacher and informed that their hoddies are deemed inappropriate. Wait what? So I can’t wear a warm hoddie because it has pictures of dice on it and cat ears on the hood, but I can walk around with the gusset of my tights noticeable. How does that make sense?

Yes the hoddie isn’t for in the school building but we are wearing them outside, were we need them and we take them off when we enter the building.

To me this is illogical, I can guarantee if you asked people on the side of the street “which out of these is the lease appropriate for school?” and then showed them pupils, one which has on a really short tight skirt and one with a colourful hoodie, that the results would come in with a land side for the tight short too reviling skirt.

So why does Mr Jones only stop the trouser wearing hooded pupil instead of the pupil in almost invisible clothing? I don’t know that answer to that. All I know is he needs to rethink his clothing policies and reinforce them. He has a lot more support than he thinks with the pupils throughout the school. More than half the school disapprove with the apparel of the immature underdressed pupils and would like to see things change. I speak for lots of us when I say “I am tired of having to turn my heads not knowing where to look when I walk up the stairs behind someone with basically no skirt on!” so trust me Mr Jones, and the Largs community, Most people at Largs academy have your back and want Change! So if you just try your best to enforce the policies I am pretty sure that having a short unsuitable skirt will go out of fashion therefore will not be worn.

It’s time for a Change!

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