Parents slam Harborough village school after change in uniform

Furious parents have slammed a Harborough village school for changing their uniform for pupils.

They are accusing Bringhurst Primary School in Bringhurst, near Great Easton, of riding roughshod over them.

But the school, which has about 160 children aged from 4-11, is insisting that it has carried out an “extensive consultation” on the controversial issue with parents.

One mum told the Harborough Mail: “I’m very angry with the way that the school has gone about this.

“And I know for a fact that a lot of parents totally agree with me.

“We’ve tried to make our voices heard but we’ve been ignored – and that’s just not good enough.”

The mother-of-two said the school on Great Easton Road, Bringhurst, is introducing new shirts, ties and blazers.

“It’s going to be a completely new uniform.

“It will be very formal and I’m sure youngsters won’t be happy or comfortable wearing it,” said the mum, who asked not to be named.

“The pupils wear blue polo tops and jumpers or sweatshirts at the moment and they’re fine.

“This whole thing blew up in March.

“We had one line telling us all about it in the school newsletter.

“The school said they were going to change up the uniform at the start of the new academic year in September.

“We made it clear straight away that we wanted to be involved and fully engaged in this process and to have our say.

“They are our children after all who’ll have to wear these new clothes.

“But we’ve got nowhere,” insisted the mum.

“We have carried out our own survey to gauge opinion among parents.

“Almost 90 families responded and about 83 per cent of people said they are opposed to the new uniform.

“Another big factor here is cost.

“Buying new shirts, ties and jackets will be very expensive.

“The new blazer along will cost us over £30.

“We are still coming through what’s been a very difficult coronavirus pandemic for all of us.

“A lot of families locally have been badly hit.

“The last thing we want to do is to be forced to fork out for expensive new clothes for our children at very short notice.”

Another mum told the Mail: “I’ve always liked this school.

“But they seem to have got this entire uniform issue wrong from the start.

“It’s very upsetting that the school’s just refusing to listen to what we parents have to say.

“Some mums and dads are even trying to move their children to other schools because they are so incensed – and I don’t blame them.”

But Bringhurst Primary School insists that they have conducted a fully democratic exercise into changing their uniform – and that most parents are supporting the move.

“Changes to a school uniform will always attract a range of views which is why we carried out an extensive consultation with parents.

“We listened to what parents had to say and made a number of changes as a result, including making the blazers for older children optional and offering a buy-back and recycling scheme for existing uniform,” a school spokeswoman told the Mail.

“Overall, a significant majority of parents either fully support the introduction of the new uniform or don’t have a strong view either way and are happy for us as a school to make the decision.”