Secondhand uniforms can still create equality in french schools

AS THE DEBATE AROUND SCHOOL UNIFORMS CONTINUES, WE HEAR HOW A BRITISH THRIFT SHOP IDEA COULD BE TRANSFERRED TO FRANCE WITH NO STIGMA ATTACHED FOR STUDENTS In the February issue of _The

Connexion_, Nabila Ramdani’s opinion piece stated: “A uniform does not erase superficial differences – children can appear just as poor in a makeshift one as they can in any other clothes.”

READ MORE: ‘NON, MADAME MACRON, SCHOOL UNIFORMS DO NOT MEAN SOCIAL EQUALITY’ Back in the 1970s in the UK, my two daughters went to a convent-run secondary school, with compulsory uniform.

Each summer, the school held a fête, and one of the stalls sold school uniforms. Parents ‘donated’ uniforms that their children had been grown out of, and received 50% of the price for which

it sold. The price was normally about 50% of the cost of a new one. I went the year before my eldest daughter started school, and bought a very nice uniform for her. I did the same for my

younger daughter. It wasn’t as though I could not afford to buy a new uniform (blazer, skirt and coat), but it seemed silly to spend all that money for something that they would grow out of

in a couple of years. There was no stigma attached to such purchases, and it helped those who were not as well-off as I was. That, to my mind, was equality. Not who is wearing the latest

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