Since the new design was made public, on July 31, there has been a petition called “Stop the new Uniform” with almost 1000 signatures, angry letters to the school board and a string of email and social media complaints. The new uniform includes a blazer and tie, white shirts and a woollen jumper. Concerns raised include increased costs, practicality, the environmental sustainability of the complete change (landfilling old uniforms) and the formality of adding a blazer and tie.
Principal Steve McCracken says the new uniform is both more formal and tidier – by comparison he describes the current look as “scruffy”. Sandals and hoodies are gone. McCracken says the main purpose of the refresh was to bring the school together – eliminating separate junior and senior uniforms.
“It was also to improve the pride that the community and learners have, and raise expectations,” he says. “If you look good, you feel good, you act good.” Before the uniform design was unveiled, there was a survey of the school community, consultation with staff, and focus groups with students which, McCracken says, overall indicated the desire for a more formal dress code.
He says the design was finalised after the feedback was in, not before. “We genuinely had no preconceived notions about the look, just the need to have one uniform, school-wide,” McCracken says. “The increase in formality was as a result of feedback.
” He says staff have been very positive about the refreshed uniform, as it aligns with the school’s desire to raise expectations and standards. And while the criticism of the uniform has been vocal, McCracken says there has been a lot of support too from students, staff and parents keen to see a tidy up. The school board supports the changes.
The school has tried to roll the changes out in a way that will cause parents the least cost, he says. As a result of complaints about the need for a tie and $180 blazer, the school last week adjusted the rollout, with the blazer now optional in 2025 but compulsory in 2026. The parent behind the 997-signature Stop the Uniform petition, Gemma Bergin, has two children at the school and one starting next year.
One of her chief concerns is sustainability – she does not want to send the old uniforms to landfill and says her children will continue to wear them until they wear out. She says the changes could more than double what she currently pays for uniforms, especially since she currently buys secondhand. “I’m not throwing down almost $2000 on [two] uniforms when that could be food on the table,” Bergin says.
“It will be a while before anything is available secondhand, and what about growth spurts?” “I understand the desire to ‘lift the tone’ of the school, but there are bigger issues. What’s been done here is to load parents up with more cost, and a look that doesn’t suit the laid-back coastal vibe. You could change things up without completely ditching the old uniform – I am wild about that from an environmental and cost point of view.
” “I also can’t believe parents, and students especially, wanted more formality – we would like to see the survey results to prove that’s the case, but the school won’t release them.” She would like the blazer and tie to be optional, the white shirts changed to something easier to clean and an alternative offered to wool. A number of parents wrote to the board to express their objections and, as of last week, had not had a response.
Ōrewa College principal Wiri Warriner, who was previously deputy principal at Whangaparāoa College, says he fully understands the uniform’s role in “uplifting the mana” of the students and school in the community. He says Ōrewa students wear the optional blazer from choice, especially on sports days and at events. There are blazers available to borrow if you don’t have your own, and also a secondhand market.
Warriner says when he was working at Massey High School, in 2016, that school went through a similar change to a more formal uniform. He says the main impact for parents was cost. “We had that same feedback – we’re not a private school, why look like one? But our view was that we wanted the kids to look good.
” Among other local colleges, only Wentworth has a compulsory blazer and tie. Ōrewa College’s blazer and tie are not compulsory, but worn for formal occasions. Kingsway College has a blazer and tie (Years 11-13) which are not compulsory.
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