Our kids have been banned from wearing coats at school even though it’s freezing – we’re fuming
A PARENT has expressed fury at her daughter’s school for banning coats inside classrooms.
Bolton St Catherine’s Academy had previously permitted pupils to wear coats in December – due to a combination of wintry conditions and a boiler fault.
The boiler has since been fixed.
Wintry conditions continue to affect the North of England.
A yellow weather warning and sub-zero temperatures have hit Bolton and Bury over the last week.
But the Greater Manchester school has since changed the rule, asking parents to follow the updated rule in a circulated message.
It reads: “Please remind your child that coats must not be worn in the school building. Coats worn inside will be confiscated until the end of the day. Thank you.”
Rachael Lucas, headteacher at Bolton St Catherine’s, doubled down: “Just as many schools in Bolton do, we have never permitted students to wear coats in the building – students are always asked to remove them.
“We want our students to be seen in their uniform, identifiable and with their year group tie clearly on show.
“However, with the previous very cold weather before Christmas and also with part of the school boiler not working effectively, we allowed the students to wear them if they were cold. This was a short-term measure.”
“Students who are wearing their coats inside are clearly choosing to defy the school rule that is long established and generally really well adhered to.
“This information has been shared with parents in last term and we had no comments from parents at all. It is part of our Red Lines document shared multiple times with parents so they should have been well aware.”
Karla Hornby, aged 37, from Breightmet, was alarmed by the message, especially for the sake of her daughter Charlie, a year 11 student at the school.
Charlie has alleged that it was extremely cold inside the school.
Karla said: “Regarding this morning, with how cold it has been, there have been temperatures of -4°C, my daughter has come home and said how freezing it is in the school.
“Now they’ve said that the coats have to be taken off.
“I am sure if I sent my younger child to school without a coat they would have rung social services to say why hasn’t he got a coat on.”