A rule for one, school rules for the others.

Parents slam Solihull school after pupils are sent home in uniform crackdown

Claire Thomason, of Chelmsley Wood, claimed the crackdown was harming the education of her 13-year-old son Matthew Lee.

Depends on your point of view I suppose. It could be argued that by sending your kid to school in the wrong uniform, it's you who is harming his education.

She claimed parents had no warning of the detailed uniform inspection, carried out on the first morning after the half-term break.

All the best inspections come without a warning.

Matthew was excluded from class for wearing black sports shoes, complete with a green crocodile designer motif.
The school’s uniform guidelines state pupils must wear plain black shoes.
But part-time receptionist Ms Thomason, aged 32, said Matthew had worn the same style of shoes since September without incident.

I love that excuse. I have met and continue to meet that and similar excuses often in various situations. It's usually accompanied by an indignant face; the face of a person who has been caught doing something they know to be wrong and is desperately trying to worm out of it.

"You've never complained before?"
"I've never had to do that before?"
"But there's NO SIGNS!!"

“There have been no complaints before so I was surprised by the school’s change in attitude.
“If the shoes were OK before, why have they suddenly become unacceptable?”

The shoes were not ok before. The school uniform states, and has always stated, plain black shoes, not trainers.

But this is the best one:

“The shoes cost more than £70 and I cannot afford to buy a new pair until I get paid next month.
She said she was disgusted by the reaction of school staff when she informed them of her financial difficulties.
“A teacher told me to go to Asda and buy a pair for a tenner and claimed I should be able to afford that. I was horrified,” she said.

Horrified! I can afford a seventy quid pair of designer trainers to send my child to school in, but I can't afford a pair of standard school shoes from George. Oh the humanity! Won't somebody think of the trainers! Blub, wail!

It's not just the refusal to adhere to uniform code either, it seems he is a bit of an unruly brat as well. Of course to his mother he is an angel who can do no wrong.

Ms Thomason said Matthew was hard-working but a “bit of a joker.”
She claimed he was victimised by school staff and regularly excluded from class.

Your kid is regularly in trouble at school but you are happy to believe it is all his teachers fault, even to the point of letting him think his behaviour is acceptable and he is being victimised?

Who is harming this kids education again?

(When I worked in the pubs I once got bollocked off an area manager for turning up to a business meeting in black trainers. I started to explain that I had ripped the sole of one of my shoes the previous day but he cut me off and said I could have easily picked up a pair on the way to the meeting. Lame excuses do not wash in real life, as this kid will one day find out, probably the hard way)