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A head teacher who refused 50 pupils entry into school has defended a controversial uniform policy that allegedly left a girl with bleeding feet.

Hartsdown Academy head teacher Matthew Tate said he warned parents well before the start of the new term and that he had the backing of most parents.

The head teacher said: "We wrote to parents to say we would be ensuring our uniform policy is adhered to and that if children were not in perfect uniform today they would be sent home.

"The majority of our parents are pleased with that.

"They feel the school needs to be better for their children and I've had several parents tell me how pleased they are that they can see that actually we want to be different."

(Image: Hartsdown.co.uk)

"We want to be a school that they can be proud of sending their children to," he continued.

"There is a minority of parents who are not happy with that and I understand it has inconvenienced some. A few have lost their temper.

"The parents who have been here protesting for two hours when they could have popped home and got things sorted."

(Image: Google)

Mr Tate was speaking as the mother of an 11-year-old girl claimed her daughter was left with bleeding feet after being told to remove her white socks.

The girl is alleged to have been one of around 50 children stopped from entering the school in Margate, Kent, on the first day of school as a new uniform policy was strictly enforced by the head teacher.

(Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting) (Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting)

Police were brought in to diffuse tensions after angry parents protested outside school gates.

Lucy Wood, 11, was allegedly told by Mr Tate to remove her socks because they were not black.

Her mum, Samantha, 42, claims her daughter then removed her socks and put her feet back into her shoes with none on at all.

Samantha said: "Lucy was made to take off her white socks - I didn't even know they weren't allowed to wear them."

(Image: Sian Williams) (Image: Sian Williams)

"When she put her shoes back on, they tore the back of her feet up and she had to go in on tip-toes with her feet bleeding, before getting plasters put on them," Samantha continued.

"It wasn't needed, it was all silliness. I've never seen such outrage, I couldn't believe what staff were saying to people - it was disgusting.

"If that's the headteacher's first day, what's it gonna be like from now on?

"I've got three children and I've never seen anything like it.

"Her first day is meant to be a happy day and now she'll just remember crying."

Despite the row, the head teacher has the "full support" of Coastal Academies Trust - the body which runs the school.

(Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting)

Paul Luxmore, executive head teacher, told Mirror Online: "This is the sort of thing that happens all over the country.

"Matt wants the school to smarten up. It has a reputation in the community for being scruffy.

"He quite rightly is insisting all students comply with the dress code. Its very easily accessible and is not expensive.

"He has our complete support on this. Matt is doing exactly the right thing for the school."

One mum, Louisa Abram, 36, told how she dropped her daughter Alaesha - who was allowed in - off at the school gates and was stunned by what she saw.

She told the Sun: "Kids who were wearing black school shoes were being turned away because they were canvas or had buckles on them.

“In the letter we received about uniform it just says they should wear ‘black shoes’ – nothing about what style, or what’s on them.

“Some of these kids were wearing the same shoes last year and never had a problem – if the policy hasn’t changed, how were they to know?”

(Image: SWNS)

Another furious mum, Latasha Whiting, told Mirror Online that kids were 'in the road', with cars 'beeping and swerving', as the 'ridiculous' rule was enforced.

She added that her own daughter was sent home by staff for having a 'short' skirt - while a young girl knocked on her husband's window to ask for a ride home.

She said: "It was ridiculous. There were kids in the road, cars beeping and swerving. They [staff] didn't let them into the school to make calls.

"A 12-year-old girl knocked on my husband's window and asked him to take her home because she couldn't get in touch with her parents.

"She didn't even know him. He told her to go and ask a teacher but she said she had and she'd been dismissed."

(Image: Facebook/Latasha Whiting)

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Latasha said her 15-year-old daughter, who is 5ft 10ins and has ADHD, was turned away from the school gates for having a 'short' skirt.

She said: "She's 5ft 10ins with very long legs. To find a skirt that's not short on her is almost impossible. I got hers from the adult range at New Look."

The angry mum travelled to Hartsdown Academy herself after hearing from her husband how the teenager had been sent home.

She said that, when she arrived, she asked headteacher Matthew Tate to give her the details of the exact skirt she should purchase for her child.

This afternoon, some social media users defended the uniform policy.

Paul Imms wrote on Facebook: "Good on the head. People moaning because they don't want to follow rules."

Meanwhile, Stephen Groom said: "Good!!! Proper uniform should be enforced!!!!"

A third user added: "Other schools need to take note of Hartdowns new head teacher, someone who's willing to enforce rules properly."

(Image: Google)

However, mum Sharon King lashed out at the policy after her young son, William, was turned away because of his shoes.

William, 11, was involved in a car accident last year, and had to have a hip replacement, which causes him pain and leaves him needed physiotherapy.

Sharon sent her son to school in all-black Nike Air Max trainers, on the advice of his doctor, but claims the new head teacher told her the shoes were unacceptable.

Sharon said: "It was Year Seven's first day and loads of them were in floods of tears, sobbing outside the gates.

"He should have been lenient for their first day and just sent them home with a letter of what was wrong for tomorrow.

"Driving back through the town centre two hours later I saw at least a few hundred Hartsdown students walking around - not from any other schools."