[user104658]

Originally Posted by Ammi

allow some reasonable leeway on footwear while he reviews the policy and clarifies... and allow all of the shoes to be worn for this term..(so long as they're appropriate in terms of safety etc, which they seem to be..).

As always Ammi is most wise: this is the reasonable and obvious middle ground. Point out that some of the footwear is not what the school would ideally like, and make the uniform policy more specific and more widely publicised for next term / next year... then leave it at that.

Specifically, if the uniform policy states "black leather shoes" then none of the shoes actually violate that. Maybe the headteacher, like LT, is confused and believes that suede isn't leather but as the rest of us right-thinking people know... suede is of course leather, as is patent leather (obviously). They need to rewrite the uniform policy to state black PLAIN leather, if that's what they want people to wear.