LOVE them or loathe them, school uniforms are a fact of life for most youngsters. But what would happen if teachers too had to stick to a strict dress code?

A SPOOF piece in a national paper on April 1 saying the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), had given its inspectors new powers to report on standards of teachers, dress got us thinking.

With that in mind we dropped in to find out what youngsters at Haxby Road primary in York thought about their uniform and what their teachers wear.

On the whole, the six youngsters said their teachers dressed very smartly - aside from the "slipper style" shoes favoured by some of the women teachers.

All the same Sam Morris, nine, said the teachers should be forced to wear the same school uniform as their charges.

He said: "The uniform is all right, but some days I don't want to wear it and I'd prefer to just wear normal clothes and if we have to wear it why shouldn't the teachers? They should be dressed like us."

Sam was the most severe critic of what the staff wear, giving their clothing a seven out of ten mark.

Molli Duffin, 11, said one of the teachers wore the kids' uniform sweater by choice and more of the staff should follow her example.

She said: "One of the teachers wears the top and I think it's all right because it makes you feel more connected with the teachers and they can be like the kids and wear their uniform.

"I like our uniform though, because if we wore our own clothes people who can't afford the designer labels would get picked on."

Gabriel Argerter, 11, said: "Whenever I get home I get moaned at because I don't want to take it off."

In September last year, the school overhauled its uniform, changing the standard sweater from an unpopular dark blue to bright red, and pupils voted on a school logo.

The winning design, a gold bird, is now emblazoned on the top left-hand side of the smart new sweaters.

Emily Raffray, nine, and ten-year-olds Richard Lewis and Connor Pears said they all preferred the school's new uniform, but thought it was important that their teachers dressed smartly.

As a result of the changes, head teacher Nick Long - dressed in his customary suit and tie - said there had been a huge increase in the up-take of the uniform which costs £6.95 for the sweater or £8.95 for a cardigan.

Mr Long said there was a group of staff at the school currently looking at what both the pupils and teachers wear.

He said: "We expect the children to dress smartly and wear a uniform and staff should dress smartly too.

"Most of the staff here dress for comfort and they need to be comfortable in what they wear.

"There are a lot of stairs in this big building and teachers have to do a lot of running around in the course of their work."

Mr Long said that he thought there could be guidelines on teachers' dress rather than a strict code. At the moment they are expected to use their professional judgement.

He said that as head teacher he could not force youngsters to wear uniforms either but the school hoped parents saw it as a practical option.

Updated: 11:41 Wednesday, April 06, 2005