Uniforms - Do they help prepare pupils?

Uniforms - an on-going discussion piece

I really don't know the answer to the question of whether we should impose uniforms in schools. This is a starting point for my thoughts on the subject.


In recent weeks I've seen a number of keynote addresses and been in a range of business meetings in a variety of large and small business environments. Last week I watched the major Windows 10 keynote where Microsoft showed some of the new features in Windows 10, arguably one of their most important presentations in years.

One common feature across all these keynotes and meetings was the total lack of shirts, ties, jackets and any form of 'corporate uniforms.


Some of the most powerful people in business, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and many more have eschewed the corporate uniform and thrown their ties in the bin.

Now these large and small businesses don't make these changes lightly. If dumping the old ways of corporate uniforms did not lead to better business results then it would not be sustained. Forget that many of these companies are technology companies. The majority of their employees are not coders or 'techies', they are accountants, sales people, admin officers, designers, customer support professionals, lawyers, middle managers, project managers, etc. In fact all the roles that we should be preparing our students for in the future.

It turns out that companies have found out that it's the culture that they create within their organisations that makes the difference between success and failure, not the definition of 'professional' through the clothes that people wear. Defining that culture and helping individuals take on-board the culture that leaders want to encourage is key to helping creativity, collaboration and the delivery of important outcomes is the way to ensure that organisations succeed.

So the question is - do we do our pupils an injustice by creating school cultures that rely on old-style corporate uniformity? OK, it may be easier for the organisation in the short term BUT does it make sense for the pupils and, almost as important, to the organisation in the long run.

More thoughts to come .....