Roadside Mum #4 Let me tell you in excessive detail
- Start date
-
- Tags
- Roadside Mum Threads Wiki
- Status
New to Tattle Life? Click "Order Thread by Most Liked Posts" button below to get an idea of what the site is about:
Just reading a thread she’s involved in about choosing a primary school. It does seem a bit of a carry on in some areas. Here you just go to the local primary school and then on to the catchment high school. Uniforms aren’t a huge deal either. Black trousers or skirt, white blouse, tie and black jumper. Any style any make.
Her comments on schools again make me think she lives in quite an affluent area.
Uniform is a constant issue in some schools (mostly academies and secondary level) regardless of where they are in England though. A couple of the secondary academies here have cohorts with 50%+ qualifying for school meals yet still have very specific, strict uniform requirements. Interestingly and something I wonder if RSM will pick up on if she puts the eldest back into school, in a LOT of schools there's real discrepancy for girls who want to wear skirts vs boys/girls who want to wear trousers - skirts are red or checked or purple or must have school logo/crest while the trousers tend to be just "plain black and/or grey".
This is quite typical of what they wear here in most of the local schools. Interestingly it hasn’t changed at all since my daughter left almost 10 years ago
primary schools usually have a branded polo shirt and sweatshirt. But they are also happy if kids wear non branded in the school colours
Primary schools tend to be a bit more relaxed in terms of uniform here, they do generally say it should be eg green jumper with school logo but there's unlikely to be many consequences from the school side for not having that unless it's actually bright pink or something daft.
There are some uniforms like the pictured for secondary too, though brighter colours seem to be becoming the norm since the big academy push when loads changed their names and also their entire uniform.
Generally even for something as seemingly basic as pictured they'd specify school-branded blazer at minimum, then the jumper the some of the kids have would likely also be branded, the ties often change based on school year (instead of one tie doing the whole 11-16/18 slog) and PE kits at a lot of schools are again all specified as branded - eg just black joggers won't do, it must be the specific black joggers with the school logo - and the kids do get repeatedly sanctioned if they don't have the right stuff with detentions, isolation etc.
Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong but I will never understand why uniform is such a big issue for the majority (not including genuinely very poor people - not RSM) when second hand uniform is always on sale through the schools or charity shops and there are plenty of schemes through councils etc to buy? I understand shoes/trainers/bags can be pricey when kids start to care what they're wearing but primary? I forked out a small bloody fortune for my kids uniform but I could have done it for much cheaper if needed at the time.
My comment is only relevant to "my personal experience" but my meanie parents bought my high school uniform (blazer, beret, summer/winter, PE etc) TOO BIG so it would last four years of what we in Aus call Years 7-10 high school! Man, the summer tunics were like tissue paper by the time I moved to Years 11-12 senior uniform!!
There's a few bits to this really. Primary you can generally do it cheaper and I don't think the schools are allowed to really punish the children if it's "wrong" so it's much easier.
The academy thing and schools changing uniform when they converted and then potentially again when/if they're taken over by a different trust has reduced the second hand market especially for secondary. The current trend for different items for different years and/or houses has also made it tricker than it was in the past - to use my school as an example, when I went there there was one uniform for years 7-11, the only change was the school leaders (prefects) in year 11 got a different colour tie (which they ceremonially awarded you actually haha). Now, they have a uniform for years 7-9 with colour banding on the blazer and tie to indicate what house, and then a slightly different variation for year 10-11 again with coloured banding to indicate the house. So even buying big, you'll get max 3 years out of the blazer, ties and jumpers then 2 out of the second set and again the second hand market is diluted by it because it's not just getting a X School blazer in the right size, it's getting it in the right size, variation and house.
It's also a huge myth that all councils in England have grants and schemes to help. In the past perhaps they did, but not now? The help from schools often isn't enough for the full uniform and local charities in areas where deprivation is rife are overrun with requests so the criteria often are really stringent and people miss out.
On the council thing, this is from my local councils website and the bolding is theirs so shows how common the assumption must be.
Ah I see 
this year I've had more uniform to buy than previous years due a change in schools - we have houses too - but as I'm still dealing with primary there are the uniform sales etc to help out if people need. I've been very fortunate this year I've split the bill with my ex, so I haven't checked my local council. I'm not from here but my old area still had uniform schemes.
Something else people need that's been scrapped, so sad.
I know high school uniform prices are a joke. The blazer for my old high school is about £45 now. When I went it was a £10 jumper if branded and it wasn't necessary.
this year I've had more uniform to buy than previous years due a change in schools - we have houses too - but as I'm still dealing with primary there are the uniform sales etc to help out if people need. I've been very fortunate this year I've split the bill with my ex, so I haven't checked my local council. I'm not from here but my old area still had uniform schemes.Something else people need that's been scrapped, so sad.
I know high school uniform prices are a joke. The blazer for my old high school is about £45 now. When I went it was a £10 jumper if branded and it wasn't necessary.
Yeah, it's one of the many victims of cuts. They really try here with the second hand uniform sales and now most of the academy upheaval is settling the market is getting back to "normal" but there were years where the uniform had changed and there simply wasn't any second hand uniform and obviously the first couple of years has much less for those schools compared to one where the uniform hasn't changed in a decade.Ah I see
Something else people need that's been scrapped, so sad.
I know high school uniform prices are a joke. The blazer for my old high school is about £45 now. When I went it was a £10 jumper if branded and it wasn't necessary.
The county council here will help in exceptional circumstances (SEN and medical needs, if you've had a fire or if there is severe family dislocation which generally is the term they use for when one parent was abusive and the other is escaping, not just a normal parental split) but they basically give you enough for one blazer... A lot of the charities end up with similar contribution levels to try to help as many people as they can, obviously it's appreciated but it makes things still a struggle for parents.
Removed the uniform chat I can see you've all said it better than me
RSM is a selfish mum - look how that thread is entirely "me me me" no thought of RNs future
RSM is a selfish mum - look how that thread is entirely "me me me" no thought of RNs future
Last edited:
I have some limited sympathy in regards to the over the top rules of some schools (without seeing the specific info for the one she means it’s impossible to tell whether RNs allocated school was one of those or not). The best example is probably the frequent home you go articles in local newspapers, 95% of them you roll your eyes at the parents but the other 5% you can see the parents point.
I’m not sure the answer to that is homeschool though, especially not at secondary level and especially especially not given the other issues that are outwith RSMs control but still very present in her daily life.
The same with uniform, I have sympathy for her in terms of the cost, but the answer is not “I’m going to pull my child out of school”. It’s tit for a lot of people and it shouldn’t be, I agree on that, but everyone else manages somehow - and realistically for her, she could have just rattled the tip jar and I’m sure had the uniform all or at least mostly paid for which is a privilege not many parents in her position have.
I’m not sure the answer to that is homeschool though, especially not at secondary level and especially especially not given the other issues that are outwith RSMs control but still very present in her daily life.
The same with uniform, I have sympathy for her in terms of the cost, but the answer is not “I’m going to pull my child out of school”. It’s tit for a lot of people and it shouldn’t be, I agree on that, but everyone else manages somehow - and realistically for her, she could have just rattled the tip jar and I’m sure had the uniform all or at least mostly paid for which is a privilege not many parents in her position have.
I really get the impression Louisa is a very lazy article. The bother of getting up and getting her children ready for school is the driving force. Plus she is deluded into thinking 'street smarts' equals a rounded education.
I bet she thinks watching television all day and asking the children the occasional question about it is educational.
I bet she thinks watching television all day and asking the children the occasional question about it is educational.
She may not have a paid job at the moment. But I’m sure home Ed would count as work to be done at 11.30am
The woman has a job: writing, I mean editing, a zine.
RM set it up so she could work around her illness. That was her career plan.
Not many of us receive our money before the week's skills and labour [how many £ @FlashBoof?]
WRITE THE ZINE YOU BULLSHITTER!
13 October 2022
January 2022
RM set it up so she could work around her illness. That was her career plan.
Not many of us receive our money before the week's skills and labour [how many £ @FlashBoof?]
WRITE THE ZINE YOU BULLSHITTER!
13 October 2022
January 2022
Just like the minor grifter/Bex Bites/wolfnsunflowers/Marmite Mama who is friends with RSM.
Made it one day of the school run before getting her friend to take her kid to school because she wanted a lie in. She previously homeschooled him and counted Xbox as home education
If it’s all true, I think she’s struggling a lot and she’s trying to stop RN telling the truth about that - school being the most likely place they would. She’s said thing that allude to RN’s frustration with the situation too. I don’t think the struggling is her fault, but it seems fairly clear it’s happening from what she chooses to share and it does seem like there’s a lot of young carer pressure on the children.
She knows she’s not capable of homeschool, she’s said as much and she doesn’t actually seem to enjoy it. The horrible irony being this is far more likely to attract negative attention and scrutiny.
Bollocks. Bet they wrote something like 'There are 175 days of the year for holidays and appointments' or 'Whilst your children are at home for 175 days, we are responsible for their welfare and learning for 190, a responsibility we at [particular trust] are committed to at every step'.
When the kids live in a knackered shithole (according to their mother), their mother is either yelling and accusing them of ruining things or taking to bed whilst rambling incoherently (according to their mother), their father turns up from his caravan on the driveway with bin food (according to their mother) and they're faced with anti traveller prejudice and ableism at every turn (according to their mother), what they need is somewhere with heating, lighting, company, activities that don't involve doing the housework and support in having to live in such challenging circumstances - not have their hippy dippy ex Trustafarian mother take away their chances of escape from the same neverending grind she goes on about. Go to school, learn, get qualifications, go to university and GET AWAY from the crap of living somewhere like the less exciting parts of Lincolnshire, where you will see absolute poverty and ridiculous wealth between the farms, the agricultural workers, everybody else and the twats at the Cleethorpes and Grimsby Sailing Club.
Quite. In an unrelated musing, it's one thing to be a parent/aunt/person who believes in a holistic approach to learning; quite another to say "I can home educate".
Also, the zine. Ou et le zine? Apologies to French speakers, my mother was writing a twitter thread during those lessons
Also, the zine. Ou et le zine? Apologies to French speakers, my mother was writing a twitter thread during those lessons
- Status