Rules are rules if you cant keep them then find another school and stop crying.

Cut it off!!!!

Mr Wallwork needs to get a grip and understand that rules are there to instill a degree discipline in a school. Get used to it Connor, life isn't about doing what you want, or sporting the ridiculous hair style you've had since you were a toddler. I'd like to dye my hair luminous pink with green streaks, but guess what? My employer would suspend me!! What's more important, your sons education or allowing him to do just as he pleases? I note you stated in the Bolton News removing his "ponytail" (hardly a ponytail now, is it? A ridiculous sprout of hair growing out of his neck!!!) would be like "cutting someones finger off". Really? Try telling that to someone who's lost a digit. Grow up, do as the school ask, and when he's left school he can walk round looking stupid if he wants.

It wouldn't take a moment to cut it off and argue whether he could regrow it again, as it is his son is missing education which he will never get back again. Hopefully Wallworrk will have his thinking change by a large fine and possibly a prison sentence. There are somethings worth fighting over, a young lads right to a pony tail is not one of them!

Its been a while since we have had a school rules victim. I have missed them. But where's the goofy photo of the feckless kid and his gormless dad, its not quite the same. Couldn't the MEN use one of the previous ones, nobody would know the difference. However its good to know that kids' ponytails/colour rinses/earings/trainers/makeup/skirt lengths are still more important than their education. Anyway its like an old friend who you haven't seen for a while. welcome back.

What a muppet......to ruin his child's prospects at school over a puerile argument borne of the UK's stupid interpretations of Human Rights legislation is nothing short of brainless. Social Services need to look at people like him.

Echoing some of the other comments here... if you send your child to a school, then you accept the rules that the school puts in place. Mr Wallwork - wake up and smell the coffee. Your son has to get used to rules and codes, and dressing in a certain way. If he doesn't learn this now, he'll get a shock when it comes to employment later on.

This should go to the highest court of human rights....!

When did cloning become part of the education system?

Basically this boy will be maimed in order to comply with a set of rules that have nothing to do with his education. Remove his ponytail and you should remove all other cranial adornments including religious garb.

Get a life....yoooman rites my...... Asylum seekers, minority groups, immigrants-legal or not, when will it all stop. What about us, the silent majority.? Workers, tax payers, genuine families who encourage our children to respect others and work hard.
Come the revolution...!!!

"Staff at the school and the Wallwork family are now planning to meet to try to resolve the problem. "

With a pair of scissors one would hope.

Human rights should be about protecting the individual against the state and its agents which threatens life and liberty, human rights are not about pony tails

Why do the teachers have to waste time sitting with this boys parents. Two choices cut it or move to a school that does not have the same policies. Why is the UK in such a mess. No rules No regulations and parents that abuse the rules. If the boy wants an aducation cut his hair. Well done to the school.

This highlights the problem of having the state controlling the provision of education. With most services, providers compete to attract customers, but with schools, the dynamic is reversed, with parents competing for school places. That's what provides the opportunity for jobsworths to dictate petty rules.

Hopefully the new Free Schools will be a success and will be expanded to allow profit making school operators (as happens in Sweden), so that schools have to compete for pupils and power will get put in the hands of the service user, as should be the case.

"If he doesn't learn this now, he'll get a shock when it comes to employment later on."

Employment? It'll be against his human rights to have to work!

The parents should be locked up for depriving their child of an education. Can they not see the damage they are doing? He is being brought up believing that rules don't apply to him.

That's weird, I've read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and they don't mention pony-tails. Maybe he has a more up-to-date version than me.

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Pathetic, act like a responsible parent and teach your kid that there are rules in life, how will he develop respect for his school when his dad can't!

whats the betting that the father had problems when he was at school or not and now sees the school as the enemy and not the education provider, that he clearly is not.

Well looking at his father with his receding hair line the lad should be worrying about the front of his head not the back.What a plank he has made him and his family look!

Looking at his fathers receding hair line the lad should be more worried about the front of his head and not so much about the back.Why oh why do they feel they need to be ridiculed on such a grand scale,think about your family you plank!

Bring back caning

Why doesn't he just claim it to be a Muslim tradition & they'll say no more about it,

Still, it's good to know that failed traffic wardens can get jobs in the teaching profession.

Stop wasting your time on petty rules & concentrate on teaching children how to read & write.

I had a similar occurence with my son. My son had very short hair in primary school, as that was the way he preferred it. He then went on to Grammar School which had a dress/hair code of sorts. He had it cut to the minimum length allowed by the school, however due to the colour of his hair it appeared very short and contrary to the school dress code.
I got a letter stating that his hair should be allowed to grow to bring it in line with the dress code.
This was a red rag to a bull. I spoke to the head of year, asking her to explain the apparent problem. I was basically told that the haircut did not give the "right" impression.
I pressed her to exactly what she meant by this and eventually she stated that it was because he looked like a "skinhead".
I pointed out that i had seen boys leaving the school with hair half way down their backs. No rules about long hair, just short hair. I stated that in my opinion these boys due to their hairstyle must be "hippies", and due to this fact they must be smoking cannabis, and asked her what she was going to do about them.
I also pointed out that his hair was in line with school policy.
Needless to say that was the end of the matter.
This occurred when i was a Police officer, when my son was being brought up to be respectful. The school was being prejudiced against people with very short hair.

In relation to this young lad, the hairstyle looks ridiculous.
BUT
What is the hairstlye code ? This article does not say.

The only way it can work is if it is a collar length haircut for all. I cant see that being the case, and i would tend to suggest that there are all lengths of boys hair.

Basically i believe that the reality of this is that the school believes that he looks ridiculous, and they do not want him associated with their school with that haircut.

Should get his haircut like a lad.

Either that or let the lad wear a skirt.

Fast forward six years into the future. In walks a lad for a job interveiw. " Sit down son, now tell me what are your qualifications?" "kwalificashuns?? dunno sir, but I do have a crackin' pony tail, it's down to me aris now."