You have to wonder when schools decided to give up on common sense.

We now live in an age where they are so paranoid that some stop parents taking photos at school events, while others ban snowball fights when we get deluges of snow, as we have had over recent days.

And many parents were less than pleased when dozens of schools closed on Tuesday, despite worse weather on other days this week.

Then we have the row at King Alfred’s in Wantage, where five pupils turn up to school on what was a bitterly cold day wearing coats that are not official school uniform.

We don’t argue against the school’s decision to have one approved coat. That’s its policy.

However, you have to question who thought it was acceptable to keep those coats when the children were going home and temperatures were hovering between freezing and 1C, with ice remaining on the ground.

This will divide opinion. Some will say the school was right to enforce its policy, while many parents will question whether teachers and school staff should do so to a point where they are deliberately exposing children to the elements.

Whatever previous incidents there may have been, did it not occur to King Alfred’s that at a time when the country is enduring some of the worst weather of the past 20 years, a far more sensible attitude would have been to tell the pupils off and hand back the offending items — with a sternly-worded letter tucked snugly into the pocket?

Parents send their children to school with the expectation their safety and comfort is paramount to those in whose custody and trust they have been placed.

Using the weather as a blunt instrument in a tussle over school uniform policy does not meet those expectations.