Head bars pupils over uniforms

Eleven pupils were kept out of classes at Swadelands School in Lenham on Monday and some are still not in school at all, following a crackdown on inappropriate uniform.

And 40 pupils were taken out of lessons at the secondary school which is attended by hundreds of pupils from the Ashford area after their uniform was deemed too tight or “not suitable for the world of work”.

Head teacher Richard Baddeley confirmed that 22 pupils had been taken out of school by their parents after being asked to go home.

He said 11 students were present on Monday but not in lessons and an ‘unspecified’ number had still not returned at all.

Those at home due to uniform breaches will have their case treated as unauthorised absences, but fines will not be imposed unless they are out of school for a long period.

Mr Baddeley said no one had been turned away, but that all parents of pupils who broke the uniform code had been contacted and asked to pick up their children.

He also added the uniform policy had been implemented with the support of parents four years ago and recently there had been a decline in standards.

“Nobody was sent home,” he said. “The parents were phoned and asked to pick up their children.”

He added those who couldn’t be collected were separated from other pupils but still remained at the school.

“The vast majority of students complied as soon as they were told to, and were able to buy cheap clothing that was more appropriate for the working world,” he added.

Parents were given eight weeks to comply with the uniform code.

However, one of the affected parents said that finding clothes that fitted the school’s specifications for his 13-year-old daughter had been difficult and that children with the wrong clothes had been “singled out” by teachers.

“The clothes they offered to us just didn’t fit my daughter. They gave us this ultimatum and told us to either take our children home or leave them in exclusion,” he said. “A lot of parents were angry.”

Swadelands is the second school attended by Ashford children to be involved in a uniform row. The North School in Ashford came under fire from parents in 2013 when the then head Lesley Ellis cracked down on pupils not observing the school’s new uniform policy.