Dress Code Consultation

Monday 20th March 2023

Over the course of this week and until the end of April we aim to consult on and agree our school dress code arrangements for session 23/24.  This will be timelined as follows

• w/b 20/03/23 consultation with Student Voice Year Groups
• Thursday 23rd March, consultation with Parent Council
• w/b 27/03/23,  adapted proposals to all students, families and staff with opportunity to feedback through a Google Form,  this opportunity will close on Monday 24th April
• Friday 28th April, confirmed 23/24 dress code arrangements shared with all students, parents/carers and staff

At our Parent Council Meeting on Thursday 23rd March, beginning at 7.00pm, we’ll discuss the same draft guidance that we are with our Student Voice Groups this week.  We’ll highlight the rationale for the recommendations we are making and gather feedback.  The feedback gathered will inform what we consult on between next week and Monday 24th April.

The rationale we are adopting is that a school dress code is important for a range of reasons.  You’ll see this on our draft leaflet.  We also recognise that school uniform can be expensive for families and therefore are seeking to widen the options available, particularly when there are significant financial pressures on many households.  At the same time we are seeking to balance what is a range of opinion on school uniform/dress codes and our guidance includes more and less ‘traditional’ options.  It also recognises what, to a fair degree, is happening in practice.

Our updated guidance in relation to PE recognises the challenge we are currently facing with a popular and successful part of the school attracting lots of students and challenges we have around too few changing rooms.  There is no immediate prospect of additional changing rooms and we are proposing reverting to our Covid-19 approach of allowing students to come dressed for PE on the days they have PE while retaining the option for those who want to change.  You’ll see this means black/white clothing themes for PE or young people using the changing rooms.

In, summary our aim is to encourage students to dress in a combination of black/white with ideally at least one item with the LHS logo/badge as part of their clothing.  This could be a blazer, tie, hoody, t-shirt etc.  No changes will come into effect until August 2023.

If, as a parent/carer,  you are keen to participate in phase 1 of our discussion please attend our Parent Council on Thursday.

To view the draft guidance click here.  The main revision is the middle section of page 2 under ‘Dressing for Excellence CHECKLIST’ The remainder of the guidance has minor alterations when compared to our current advice on the website in the About Us section.

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