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School uniform is known to be quite picky on its guidelines, but is turning your nose up at a fabulous pair of shoes the right decision?
As the summer holidays have finally wrapped up, troves of back-to-school pictures have been uploaded on to social media by proud parents looking to show off their kids going into a new school year.
But when Melissa Pope shared her daughter’s first day of secondary school this week, it wasn’t for a great reason.
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In fact, it was because the day went so badly.
After her 11-year-old was sent home from Grace College in Gateshead due to wearing Vivienne Westwood shoes, it’s now been claimed that the way in which the school handled the incident was fairly shocking.
37-year-old Melissa spoke to ChronicleLive about how the school sent her daughter Layla to isolation during her first day of high school, with her claiming Layla was ‘treated like a dog’.
The mum, who works as a phlebotomist, was left furious by the school but has gone on to disclose that they made Layla sit on the hard floor for four hours during the disagreement about her slip-ons.
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Melissa fumed: "She was very upset yesterday. It was a horrible experience for her, it was just awful. They made her sit on a hard wooden floor for hours.
"She wasn't allowed to go to the toilet and she wasn't allowed a drink. There were 41 other people and basically she wasn't allowed to leave.
"They made her write down rules saying why it was her fault she was in isolation - because she hadn't followed the rules.”
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But that wasn’t the end of it.
They apparently also had her watch other pupils eat lunch whilst she wasn’t offered any refreshments.
The mum said: “She was only allowed a pudding or a drink, she couldn't have both - even though I gave her the money for her school lunch. She got her lunch and pudding and realised she wasn't allowed to have a drink.
"She was treated like a dog and that's not acceptable."
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A spokesperson from the College previously said about the incident that the college is ‘proud of its uniform for the professional image it portrays’ and that their policy is designed ‘to be fair, equal and affordable to all students’, which the Vivienne Westwood pumps weren’t viewed to be in line with.
Due to the way in which her daughter was treated, Melissa has decided not to take her back and will be looking for an alternative school to enrol Layla into.
ChronicleLive reported that a spokesperson for the college has reiterated their feelings about the uniform policy.
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They said: "When students need to put a uniform issue right, they are given an opportunity to do so. We have a supply of high-quality new and nearly new uniform in college that we can share with students to support them to put this right.
"When it is not possible to put things right, we always contact parents to seek their support in doing so.
"The college does not comment on individual cases publicly. We deal with these in line with our complaints policy where issues can be dealt with fairly and with appropriate privacy."
Grace College also asks pupils to wear school shoes which are plain black and devoid of fashion logos to ensure consistency across the college, safety and protect students from pressure to follow trends.
LADbible has contacted Grace College for further comment.
Britt Jones