THE new school term started last week for thousands of local schoolchildren and, predictably, what also started was the annual row over uniforms.

To précis this, schools insist on certain items, parents interpret these differently. The result: children sent home and parents up in arms. One of the first, high-profile flashpoints was Hartsdown Academy, in Margate, where headteacher Matthew Tate introduced a new uniform code and sent scores of children home.

He refused to back down in the wake of a parents’ revolt, explaining that the main problem was “very tight trousers and short skirts” or inappropriate footwear.

While it’s easy to sympathise with parents who can’t afford expensive items of pre-selected school uniform, I really don’t think that most of this problem is about cost.

For most parents, it’s still about what they think their children should be wearing as opposed to what the school states categorically they must.

Too tight trousers and too short skirts have always been a contentious issue in secondary schools. Emerging young adults try to push boundaries – it’s almost what we expect, but it’s not necessarily what a school will accept.This row is really all about the pre-set ethos of a particular school and whether a parent is prepared to buy into it wholeheartedly. I am totally in favour of school uniforms because it helps both overall discipline and equality among pupils.

Without them, youngsters whose parents couldn’t afford the latest trendy gear would be open to ridicule and bullying. And no-one does that better than a schoolyard full of children.

That level playing field allows all children to learn and develop properly without having to worry about how poor or otherwise their clothes are. And a uniform also clarifies the hierarchy in school. Staff and pupils have natural demarcation lines emphasised by this clothing divide, and at the top of this autocracy is the head-teacher.

Children need rules especially at school where all types are thrown together with the common aim of learning. It’s healthy for them to learn early on that they have to conform to a code sometimes, and look for ways to express themselves elsewhere. Sadly, it’s a practical lesson that some parents never learn.