A school is under fire for banning girls’ frilly SOCKS – because they are a ‘trip hazard’.
A playground craze has seen pupils wearing increasingly elaborate ‘princess’ socks decorated with frills, bows and ribbons.
But when a pupil fell over Headmistress Jan Buckland wrote to parents banning frills larger than 3cm.
Mum Tracy Rudge, who makes the socks by hand, has accused Kingsholm Primary School in Gloucester of being “health and safety mad”.
She said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. Health and safety gone mad, that’s what it is.
“My daughter could fall and break her arm doing PE, but she’s not allowed to wear frilly socks?
“It’s a joke – shoelaces are a million times more dangerous than the socks.
“Now my daughter is terrified of getting in trouble for wearing the wrong socks.
“Schools are there to educate, and as long as children are in a clean and pressed uniform, they should not be telling children what they can and cannot wear.”
Cleaner Tracy, of Gloucester, started making the socks for her six-year-old daughter Lily-Jo when she was at pre-school by stitching frills onto standard socks.
But they proved so popular she has since made hundreds of pairs for her classmates, which she creates for a reasonable #2.50-a-pair in about 20 minutes.
“My daughter and her friends love wearing them – they feel like proper Disney princesses.
“I can’t see what the harm is really, it’s just a fun way. Lily-Jo has been wearing them for years and absolutely loves her special socks.”
But following a recent playground incident the headteacher wrote to the parents of all 433 pupils informing them of the ban.
However, mother-of-three Tracy says the fall was not caused by the socks – and many parents are defying the ban.
“One girl tripped over last week and the head teacher has now banned them – but it was nothing to do with the socks,” she said.
“All of the parents whose children have them have defied this silly ban and sent their kids into school wearing them.
“But the headmistress ordered them all to take off their socks and she made them wear plain socks that she had bought from Primark.”
Any child found to be in breach of the ban will be forced to change into a plain pair, and parents will be given a ‘reminder’ letter.
Head Mrs Buckland said: “I have enforced a ban because there was an incident where one of the children, who was wearing a long, lacy frill, fell.
“We had to fill in a health and safety risk assessment.
“The governing body and I decided that a ban was appropriate because the frill had been trailing on the floor.
“The parents made a point of allowing their children to come in wearing them again.
“I asked the children to remove them and we provided them fresh, new pairs of socks.
“If parents are defiant, the kids will have to change out of them if they arrive in the building wearing them.”
If the parents don’t like the uniform policy, they could always move schools. I wonder how many parents have been to the newspapers to celebrate and congratulate the school and staff on a successful OFSTED? It’s due to parents trying to sue the schools at every opportunity, that has encouraged the ‘health and safety gone mad’ mentality.