Causation means that a change in one variable causes a change in another variable.
Correlation means there is a statistical association between variables.1
In Britain school uniform is a quasi-religion. Not wearing it can be punished by exclusion from school. Why? What’s the connexion between clothing and education? Schools deny places to children whose parents refuse to buy school uniform. Conformity is placed above access to the legal right to education.
School uniforms aren’t cheap workwear.2 School is compulsory and uniforms have become a tax on learning. The educational case for school uniforms must be either causal or correlational to justify compulsory costs and the loss of personal freedoms.
Rishi Sunak was tieless when visiting Bolsover School, Derbyshire.3 He probably mortified the head teacher, “Students not wearing the correct school uniform will be asked to loan the item from the school store; failure to do so will result in a period of isolation”.4 Sunak’s unexpected subliminal message is, ‘Ties are pointless control freakery.’
School ties are a trivial starting point. It’s difficult believing in a causal or correlational link between ties and educational achievement. “Ties will be available for students to purchase on their first day for £8.00.”5 (my emphasis) Tupton Hall School, Chesterfield, insists students wear ties, as does all the dozens of schools I’ve researched. Tupton Hall is rated ‘Well Below Average’5 by the government with 31% achieving grade 5 English and Maths – well below Derbyshire’s 41%.6
Brookfield Community School is also in Chesterfield. It is ferocious about non-conformity,
“Exemplary standards of appearance and dress supports Brookfield Community School’s commitment to excellence ethos. All students are expected to adhere to the uniform policy at all times….STUDENTS WHO ARE NOT DRESSED ACCORDING TO THE CODE ARE LIKELY TO BE SENT HOME TO CHANGE BEFORE BEING ALLOWED IN LESSONS. WHERE THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE, THE STUDENT WILL BE ISOLATED UNTIL UNIFORM IS RECTIFIED.8 (their emphasis)
Brookfield is ‘Well Above Average’ despite 44% of their students not achieving grade 5 in English and Maths.9 This includes 69% of disadvantaged students not reaching this benchmark.10 (Grade 5 English and Maths is critical to accessing gateway opportunities post-16.)
Discussion
Brookfield isn’t *better* than Tupton Hall because of school uniform. Their uniforms are similar and both rigorously enforce it.
Tupton Hall has 27% (427 students) eligible for the government’s Pupil Premium. Their Pupil Premium payment is £477.7K, which is spent on strategies intended to close the attainment gap.11. Have they considered the possibility the school ethos itself is negative, creating barriers for disadvantaged students? This is an urgent point and puts the enforcement of uniform into perspective. 89% of Tupton Hall’s disadvantaged students don’t achieve grade 5 English and Maths. Worse: 74% don’t achieve the entry level of grade 4 English and Maths.
Brookfield has 12.3% (220 students) eligible for the government’s Pupil Premium. Their Pupil Premium is £304.77K some of which is diverted to non-disadvantaged students, “These interventions may involve both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students.”12 The chasm between successes at Grade 4 English and Maths (69%) and Grade 5 (31%) indicates failure by the school in not narrowing this critical gap.
The pervasive failure of British schools to meet the educational needs of the disadvantaged has become a pseudo-correlation. Schools don’t critique failure. Large numbers of Britain’s children are punished because they’re *improperly* dressed. This can’t be right in the face of catastrophic failure rates at GCSE. They aren’t failing because they aren’t wearing uniform. There’s no causal or correlational link between uniform and achievement. Brookfield has high failure rates in a crucial metric and is rated ‘Well Above Average’. Failure is institutionally accepted.
Addendum: School ties – a tax on learning
Bolsover School 855 students x £6 for tie = £5,130
Brookfield School 1107 students x £6 for tie = £6,642
Tupton Hall School 1556 students x £8 for tie = £12,448
These figures are a minimum. It’s unlikely that students would only have a tie for their entire five years in school.
Notes
1 Correlation vs. Causation | Difference, Designs & Examples (scribbr.com)
2 Average cost of school uniform 2023 – Schoolwear Association The London Borough of Havering has 18 academy secondary schools and they all demand school uniform as a condition of entry
3 Migrants: Sunak vows to ‘take on’ anyone ‘standing in the way’ of Rwanda plan | News UK Video News | Sky News British MPs no longer need to wear ties in parliament John Bercow: MPs don’t need to wear ties – BBC News
4 The Bolsover School – School Uniform
5 Uniform – Tupton Hall School See plate 8 for a very detailed series of instructions on what wearing a school uniform means. MPs in parliament no longer need to wear ties John Bercow: MPs don’t need to wear ties – BBC News
7 Secondary – Tupton Hall School – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK (compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk) It is 31% below national averages. The presentation of GCSE results is opaque Exam Results – Tupton Hall School
8 Brookfield Community School – Student Uniform (brookfieldcs.org.uk)
10 Results by pupil characteristics – Brookfield Community School – Compare school and college performance data in England – GOV.UK (compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk) Current 2023 GCSE results aren’t available at the time of writing 19th December 2023 Brookfield Community School – Exam Results (brookfieldcs.org.uk)
11 Pupil premium strategy statement (tuptonhall.org.uk)
12 Pupil premium example statement (secondary) (brooksidecomm.s3.amazonaws.com)
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