'Meet me at McDonald's' haircut banned in Norfolk school

Pupils sporting the trendy hairstyle will be sent home

A secondary school in Norfolk has banned pupils from donning a popular haircut known as the “Meet me at McDonald’s”.

The trendy, 80s-inspired hairstyle typically features short sides with a floppy, tousled mop of hair on top; the origins of its quippy name remain unknown.

Great Yarmouth Charter Academy issued a letter to parents before half term threatening to send their children home if they turned up sporting the “high-top hairstyle”.

The fashionable haircut features a longer mane on top in comparison to shorter sides

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In the letter, headmaster Barry Smith described the offending style as one of seven haircuts he deemed “unacceptable” for boys.

“Girls’ hair is generally not a problem at Charter,” Smith clarified.

However, the extensive list of haircuts he has imposed a ban on for boys is as follows:

• "Noticeably longer tops that are not layered in and combined with sharply contrasting sides and back.
• Variations on the style often known as ‘Meet me at McDonald's’
• Overgrown, heavy fringes brushed forward onto the face
• High top styles of excessive height
• Shaven parting lines
• Hair that is teased to give excessive height
• Any variation on a Mohican style".

Parents took to social media to express their outrage 

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“Any child whose hair has not been restyled appropriately by Monday 26th February will either be sent home to have their hair restyled or placed in isolation until their hair is restyled,” the letter reads.

The school has also offered to provide families with a PowerPoint of unacceptable hairstyles to avoid.

Parents have been quick to criticise the ruling, posting images of the letter on social media.

Concerned mothers Sophia Soares and Karen Leeder described the ruling as unfair discrimination, labelling it as “silly”.

Barry Smith quickly gained a reputation for his strict rulings when he joined the school last year 

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It’s not the first time the Great Yarmouth school has been struck with controversy.

In September, Smith outraged parents by telling them their children should be in bed by 9pm and awake by 6.30am every day.

The notoriously-strict headmaster was brought in to boost exam results after the school was ranked the worst secondary school in Norfolk.

Unsurprisingly, his rulings have not been well-received by parents and have even prompted them to set up a Facebook group called Yarmouth High Worried Parents, which has acquired more than 1,000 members.

“This is for parents of children at GYHS or GYCA *CONCERNED* by the new Head teacher Mr Barry Smith's personal policies & the Inspiration Trusts,” the group’s description reads.

“There was not a problem with the school policies as listed when we signed up for our children to attend the school, but just his intense didactic like schooling and borderline bullying we have WITNESSED.”

The school declined to comment further on the ruling.