A CONTROVERSIAL letter from a Darlington headteacher has sparked a national debate on school-run etiquette.

Kate Chisholm, head of Skerne Park Academy, faced the nation’s media after her letter asking parents to stop wearing pyjamas and slippers on school grounds went viral.

One parent took to social media to publish her request that referred to a “small minority group” of around 50 parents who had worn sleepwear to school-runs, parents’ evenings and Christmas plays.

And Miss Chisholm has said she has no regrets in sending the letter that was discussed on ITV’s This Morning programme, using the hashtag “slummy mummies”.

Miss Chisholm said: “I would send the same letter again.

“We’ve had a growing trend of parents wearing pyjamas coming into school so it started off with them dropping them off in pyjamas and then they would pick them up with pyjamas on.

The Northern Echo:
Emma Wilson arrives at the school gates in her pyjamas. Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT

“And then when it came to parents’ evenings and Christmas performances, they came in wearing pyjamas and I decided I had to say something.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a bad example, all I would say is that we’re all about raising aspirations for children and actually making better outcomes for them.”

The Northern Echo:
A media scrum awaited parents dropping their children at Skerne Park Academy on Wednesday morning

The letter has attracted criticism from busy parents who argue their top priority is to get their children to school on time.

Darlington mother-of-five, Emma Wilson, 32, said: “I wear my pyjamas to drop the kids off every day.

“We can’t be accused of being scruffy or out of work – I’m a working mother so I’m very busy on a morning.”