Cut it out!
Head orders pupils to lose trendy ‘Meet me at McDonald’s’ hairstyle
ONE of Britain’s strictest headmasters is now targeting fashionable haircuts – including a style called ‘Meet me at McDonald’s’.
Barry Smith had already upset some parents after taking over a failing school last year by forcing pupils to walk in single file between classrooms, confiscating their phones for weeks and insisting youngsters be in bed by 9.30pm.
Now haircuts such as fringes, mop tops, very short styles and Mohicans are facing the chop at Charter Academy in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
The ‘Meet me at McDonald’s’ look features a very short back and sides with a tousled or curled mop and fringe on the top. The origin of its name is unclear.
Mr Smith is also unhappy about ‘extreme’ haircuts resembling those favoured by some footballers and actors, such as ‘ high tops’ where the hair is teased up to an excessive height, and styles with shaved partings.
Haircuts similar to those worn in the BBC 1920s gangster drama Peaky Blinders are also out.
Mr Smith said that girls’ styles at the school were generally acceptable, but boys’ hair ‘in a very small number of cases, is a problem’.
A letter listing six banned haircuts has been circulated to parents, in which Mr Smith warned: ‘Any child whose hair has not been restyled appropriately ... will either be sent home to have their hair restyled or placed in isolation until their hair is restyled.’
Pictures of the ‘ unacceptable’ hairdos were placed on display boards around the school. Mr Smith even offered to provide families with a Power Point presentation of styles to avoid.
Karen Leeder, who has a son at the school, posted a picture of Mr Smith’s letter on a Facebook group, calling it ‘absolutely ridiculous’. She said: ‘A haircut doesn’t affect a child’s education but if they’re at home they can’t learn. I just don’t think it’s right.’
Also on social media, Rachael Havens said: ‘How bloody ridiculous, you can’t take time off sick as it affects your education but they will happily send you home because they don’t like your hairstyle.’
Last year Charter Academy – then called Great Yarmouth High School – made the headlines after only 30 per cent of pupils passed their English and maths GCSEs, putting it among the worst performing schools in the country.
Mr Smith was parachuted in to turn the school around having cofounded the super-strict Michaela Community School in Wembley Park, North-West London. Charter Academy is now run by charity the Inspiration Trust.
In another letter to parents last September, Mr Smith wrote: ‘As the Headmaster.... I cannot, I will not, allow the indiscipline, the disrespect, the failure, the bullying, the truancy and the lack of parental support, that were all a part of daily life at the former High School to continue.’ But some parents said they were ‘appalled’ by his new ‘Army-like’ discipline and held a meeting to protest.
Mr Smith has given boys until this coming Monday to visit a barber if their style falls foul of his demands. He was unavailable for comment last night.