Letter to Mrs Elley

Hornby High School

180 Waterloo Road

Hornby

Christchurch 8042

15th June 2017

Dear Mrs Elley

We, Pearl and Jordan, have come across some issues while walking around the school during interval and lunch. These issues are occurring because of the fact that we must walk around the school in standard black leather shoes. We would like to attempt to persuade you into making a change at Hornby High.

One of the issues we have come across is mud. Due to rebuild and construction there's no much space left for students to run around so kids are often running around and playing on the grass. As so we are also in winter which mean rain and cold, so students will be running around trying to warm up. Getting muddy is a common result of having fun on the grass. When kids are running around on the grass playing sports, their school shoes end up with tons of mud on the bottom of their shoes. The mud ends up stuck in the grooves of the outsole on our shoes. In homeroom we are not allowed to bring our school shoes inside but for connect classes we have to keep our shoes on. That means that whenever we have been playing on the muddy grass we will be bringing mud into the different rooms. If we wear sneakers on the grass we will be able to change into our school shoes during learning time while being able to have fun comfortably on the grass without our heavy leather shoes slowing us down.

School shoes also cost a lot more to replace. Many school shoes have broken this year, keeping in mind that it is still only term two. We often getting annoyed by our shoes and leave them in random places causing them some damage. But as kids that is to be expected. Unfortunately not everyone has the money to go and replace their child's school shoes. Sneakers have more durability and they are a lot cheaper to replace which is quite a relief to some parents. School shoes cost a lot more to replace compared to sneakers.So it's a fair trade as if sneakers are cheaper it leaves families with more money which is a good advantage for when there are events at school that cost money.

When children are active around the school there are times when injuries will occur. It is important to wear the correct shoes while being active because some injuries can be career-destroying. It also costs quite a bit to go to the doctors or to a physio. On top of that there could be that odd chance that you will have to buy . Plus with the black compulsary shoes the laces easily come loose and undone which causes students to trip over and get their uniform and knees, arms, etc muddy - which can also leave stinging grazes!

If the school is worried for untidiness of uniform then make sneakers colour coded. Let students buy sneakers but just make sure that we wear black shoes so then it looks compulsory and better representation. The reason why we have uniform passes most of the tme is due to shoes. Students come to school and sneakers because their school ones are either damaged, lost, broken, dirty, too much money to replace,  and many more reasons. So if students prefer sneakers then wouldn't it be so much easier because students wouldnt need to go to the office (interrupting class time) for uniform passes

I believe that we should be able to use sports shoes during school as if we wear our leather school shoes and get them damaged or dirty they don’t quite leave a good representation for Hornby High.

Yours Sincerely,

Pearl & Jordan