To insist pupils strictly follow uniform rules?

sometimes have to do things you would rather not. Those allowed to get away with breaking minor rules might well turn into adults who believe rules do not apply to them. That is not a lesson we should be teaching our children.

ALAN SHARP, Melton Mowbray, Leics. FROM 1962 to 1967, I attended a highly regimented girls’ boarding school where the uniform regulations were strict beyond belief. Our headmistress and many other staff members had come of age in the Edwardian era. Unlike other schools, however, we weren’t required to kneel to have the distance between our skirt hems and the floor measured. The headmistress used to boast that, due to the excellent food cook provided, we had grown so much that our skirts were too short for us. JULIA PICKLES, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwks. IT’S right that school children should be obliged to wear uniform so that those who come from less well-off backgrounds won’t feel stigmatised. But those who need to be assisted with the cost of acquiring the regulation dress should be given state help.

BRIAN McAVOY, Thornton-Cleverleys, Lancs. MATTHEW TATE (Mail) would do well to take a leaf out of Eton Head Tony Little’s book. Mr Little wears the full Eton rig of black tail-coat, stiff collar and white tie ‘out of respect for the boys’ who are obliged to do so. How about less ‘do as I say’ and more ‘do as I do’, Mr Tate?

RICHARD TAGART, Haywards Heath, Sussex. I WONDER what those rebel parents who won’t comply with the headmaster’s uniform rules think what it might be like if they boarded an aircraft and found the crew dressed any old how. Would they still have faith in the flight deck crew, or would they head for the exit?

TED SHEPHERD, Windsor, Berks. IF PARENTS suffer a heavy fine for taking children out of school for family holidays during term-time, shouldn’t a bombastic head teacher be treated the same for interrupting education because of his personal views on dress code?

BRYAN HYLAND, Haverhill, Suffolk.