450 pupils get detention in one day over uniform

A THIRD of pupils at a Welsh secondary school were punished with a mass detention for flouting strict new uniform rules.

Parents have called the requirements – which demand polished black shoes, bespoke jumpers and tailored trousers – “a joke”.

The changes at 1,280-pupil Penglais School, a state comprehensive, coincide with the arrival of Mair Hughes, its new head teacher.

About 450 schoolchildren are said to have been sent to detention yesterday on the first day of term, with many parents saying their children’s footwear was apparently to blame.

One mother at the school in Aberystwyth, west Wales, said her daughter was punished for not wearing leather shoes, despite explaining to teachers her objection as she was “a vegetarian”. Another said she had spent £50 on her son’s black leather shoes only for him to be punished because they were the wrong shape.

A spokesman for Ceredigion Council said the school would be writing to parents to “clarify expectations”.