After spending a lot of time this past year looking at school systems in other countries, the UK's obsession with school uniforms seems bizarre to me now. So much time/energy wasted on arbitrary infringements which would be far better served on other things. The idea that anarchy will reign without school uniforms seems to be an article of faith with many UK school leaders but I'm not sure what the evidence is for that. Many countries have no uniform requirements for example United States, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland. And there is no real evidence that it leads to better academic outcomes either - the top performing country on PISA for example is Estonia which generally does not require school uniforms. There is also a cost-benefit imbalance where the level of resentment that strict policies instil in some kids seems to far outweigh any benefits. A lot of kids are completely turned off school for having a long fringe or hair shaved too short. That's ridiculous. I'm aware of the purported benefits of uniform and there are many strong arguments in favour of them but the opportunity cost just doesn't make sense to me. 🤷‍♂️