Your London schoolwear supplier may not stock nose studs – but this can be part of your uniform if you are a student at New Plymouth high school

Looking for a London schoolwear supplier can be a difficult chore, but imagine if you had to incorporate a search for the right nose ring for your son into looking for the standard blouses and P.E kit.  This may be the reality for parents at a large New Plymouth high school, where facial piercings have just been accepted as part of the school uniforms.  The school clothes policy has changed from one allowing students one stud earring in each ear, the rule used by most schools in the area and in England. School board chairman Darren Muggeridge said students would now be allowed one lip and one nose piercing.

He described the new rule as a compromise in a tricky area.  For the school governors, it is a way of meeting the students half way.  They feel that ensuring that there are rules around what is worn and where they are worn will keep a sense of order without depriving the pupils of their rights to self-expression.  The school had tried to be extremely strict around school uniforms, but it had taken more time and effort than expected to manage piercings. The principal of the country’s biggest school, Rangitoto College, said he was seeing demand for a more conservative dress code.  He feels a lot of pressure coming from that direction, as part of the pressure on teenagers to succeed academically.

The atmosphere in New Plymouth is perhaps rather more liberal than in Auckland, but still, the introduction of the new policy followed a long running debate.  Teachers and governors are aware that it may not satisfy all parents, but they feel that policing facial piercings is no longer worth the time and effort that the school has been forced to invest in it.  In the end it was a case of deciding that there were more important things for the school to be thinking about.  Although facial piercings are often associated with teenage rebellion and the punk look, it is worth remembering that some studs can be the size of a small pin, and the level of invisibility is such that they can hardly be seen as intrusive.

It is probably safe to assume that your London schoolwear supplier will not be able to provide you with nose studs, however unobtrusive they might be.  This case does raise important issues where school clothes are concerned.  Whilst many experts agree on the benefits of school uniforms which make children look smarter and help even out differences between them, it is also worth asking how much effort schools should be forced to go to in order to control the appearance of their students.

Please visit http://www.uniform4kids.com/ for further information about this topic.

http://www.uniform4kids.com/

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