Skeme Park Academy primary school headteacher Kate Chisholm wrote to the Darlington school’s parents requesting that they refrain from bringing kids to school while dressed in their pyjamas. Little did she know that the school newsletter would make the international press.

The appeal was made after she noticed a sharp increase in the number of parents wearing nightwear to the school gates. Some parents even showed up with pyjamas under their coats at the school assembly. On the odd occasion she noticed a slipper or two.

“Could I please ask that when you are escorting your children, you take the time to dress appropriately in daywear that is suitable for the weather conditions,” she requested in an effort to make parents set a good example for their children. Rather than outrage, the parents not only complied but gave her a positive response.

The move spearheaded similar requests by headteachers around the country. In Somerset, a headteacher wrote a letter to parents complaining of the “dirty and unkempt” state of kids coming to school. Parents would sent them with Pyjamas under their uniforms or they would just put them to bed with the uniforms so that in the morning they would be creased and “in a pretty schocking state.”

In the letter, she wrote that this was a “pretty poor indictment of the parenting skills of some of our families.” Furthermore, she noticed that many children were getting themselves to school to let their parents sleep in.