School uniform is a peculiarly British preoccupation, which becomes clear when you consider it from afar. I once worked in a French lycée where, at that point in the grungy mid-1990s, the nearest thing to a de facto uniform was baggy woolly jumpers, faded jeans and keffiyehs dangling around necks. To try to explain the concept of British school uniform to teenagers in France was to meet the same bemusement and scorn usually reserved for the UK’s cuisine and its love of royal pomp and ceremony.

Yet, the reaction to a tweet about school uniform last week showed that attitudes may actually differ quite substantially between Scotland and England. It all started when a prominent educator in England posted two pictures that had been used on the BBC website, of a group of secondary students walking through a school corridor. He questioned whether it was a real school as the uniform the students wore looked “really bad”.

It turned out the pictures were from a real school, in Scotland. Comments poured in from people wanting to have their say, and it turned out to be a fascinating demonstration of differing approaches and philosophies in Scotland and England.

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Draconian rules on school uniform, it seemed, were less likely to be found in Scotland, where the approach of the school in the photos used by the BBC is fairly typical. The school’s website states that, while it “strongly encourages the wearing of a uniform”, this is “recommended” rather than mandatory.

And the definition of uniform is fairly broad and open to interpretation: black trainers are allowed, for example, and there is no stipulation about skirt length. Football colours, advertising and anything that would undermine health and safety are on the fairly short list of clothing deemed “not appropriate”.
 
As a number of teachers pointed out, approaches to school uniform in Scotland are increasingly shaped by notions of equity. If you see, for example, a baggy hoodie worn in a school, don’t assume it’s because the uniform policy is lax - it may be instead that the school quite deliberately allows a wide interpretation. An intransigent uniform policy, they say, may punish pupils who live in poverty or who have additional needs, if it is difficult for them to comply.

School uniform: a sense of perspective

It’s a matter of priorities and pragmatism. Scottish schools do tend to buy into school uniform as a means of instilling pride and a sense of collective endeavour, but there is also a sense of perspective: they generally accept that there are far more important matters to deal with.

That chimes with the Education Endowment Foundation - a body that analyses research evidence for and against a host of school policies and practices - which states: “Wearing a uniform is not, on its own, likely to improve learning, but can be successfully incorporated into a broader school improvement process which includes the development of a school ethos and the improvement of behaviour and discipline.”
 
In interviewing countless educators in Scotland over recent years, a theme has emerged: for all its undoubted problems, many believe the best thing about Scottish education is - as the former head of the University of Edinburgh’s school of education, Professor Rowena Arshad, put it - a “passion for social justice and fairness and human rights and humanity”.
 
When it comes to school uniform, then, the focus in Scotland is increasingly on keeping costs down more than enforcing adherence to strict rules. One person, in response to the tweets about the BBC photos, suggested the most important issue was that the pictured students “look happy, friendly and comfortable”.
 
Like it or not, school uniform is a fact of life in the vast majority of UK schools, and that will not change anytime soon. The more important question is this: does your uniform policy enhance your school - or is it a distraction from more pressing matters?
 
Henry Hepburn is Scotland editor for Tes