One of the few things you can guarantee in life is that at the start of September there will always be stories about school uniform clampdowns.
Usually they are confined to local newspapers complete with pictures of parents all adopting the furious folded arms pose.
But, when a new head teacher is being compared to the ‘Gestapo’, after reportedly turning away 50 children on the first day of term for wearing the wrong uniform, the media attention quickly escalates.
And so Matthew Tate, of the Hartsdown Academy in Kent, not only found himself in the national newspapers, but also the subject of radio and television interviews.
One of those interviews saw him appear on Radio 4’s The Today Programme, which can be a daunting experience for the most experienced of spokespeople, even if they have recently had media training.
So how did he cope with this unexpected media attention?
Well, actually really rather well.
From the start of his Radio 4 interview, he sounded calm, composed and completely unfazed by the sudden media focus on his school.
He quickly set-about dispelling some of the rumours and inaccuracies that had been reported, for example making it clear that police had not been called to deal with the situation, they had simply been ‘passing’ and offered assistance.
He outlined what some of the children who had been turned away were wearing (including a tracksuit) and quickly got to a human example to illustrate why he felt the uniform policy needed to be closely adhered to.
Mr Tate said: “Two of our Year 11s talked to me yesterday about when they were in Year 7 and they came to school in perfect uniform they got bullied by other children because of the fact they were doing the right thing. We need to send that very clear message that I am standing by the majority of our children and the majority of our parents who understand this matters.”
What was clear throughout the interview was that he had a clear message and he used it repeatedly – the majority of parents and children support this policy.
He said: “We had a tiny minority of annoyed parents. The vast majority of our parents, the vast majority of our children, did the right thing and their children came to school in the right uniform and had a great day at school.”
Later he added: “We need to set a line that says this is the standard we expect at this school, we want this school to be a fantastic school and the majority of our parents and children are very happy with that and have been supportive.”
What was also impressive was the way he avoided falling into the trap of repeating the negative language used by the presenter while at the same time putting the ‘Gestapo’ comment into context.
He said: “I think it is very offensive to those who suffered in the war and it is frankly a ridiculous.”
He adopted a similar approach during his television interviews, avoiding phrases like ‘showdown’, ‘hostility’ and ‘confrontational’ and used the same example of the year 11 pupils.
Whatever your views on Mr Tate’s uniform policy his media performance was impressive and a great example of why it is so important to engage with the media when you are in the spotlight.
And we were not the only ones to be left impressed. Here are a few social media reactions to his Today Programme interview:
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