Thorndon mufti day indistinguishable from a normal Friday, office can't tell who paid

A Thorndon primary school collected a gold coin from most of its roll on Friday. Staff then spent the morning unable to tell which children were in mufti and which had just turned up.

The uniform is grey. The children of Thorndon, raised by public servants, own grey. Several arrived in a Kathmandu fleece over a merino. The office administrator called this "the uniform, but more so." Four wore lanyards. One had a KeepCup. Nobody took it off him.

Parent Imogen Strachan, 41, said she hadn't seen the problem until the gate. "I sent her in her weekend clothes. Her weekend clothes are her school clothes without the crest. Get to the gate and it's a line of grey. Which, fine, that's the suburb. But I put two dollars in the bag. I don't actually know if the two dollars did anything."

By mid-morning a Year 4 student named Beatrix had asked her teacher whether mufti meant "the real you". Told yes, she asked what the real her was if it looked the same as the other one. The teacher moved on to maths. Felix Oram, collecting from the same class, said his son had asked what Dad wore when he wasn't at work. "I said this. He looked at me for a while. Then the southerly took his cap off towards Lambton Quay. Sort of ended it."

The principal said the day "went ahead as scheduled" and students had been "encouraged to express themselves". He added that "a number of them chose to do that in grey". Collection was on trust. The office administrator, asked how that went, said: "I've got the bag. There's money in the bag. Whose, don't ask me. Someone's put a Tiaki Wai bill in. I think as a joke. I hope as a joke."

Next term's mufti day has a theme, "a colour". The parent survey has returned 61 responses. Fifty-eight ask which one. Beatrix's question has not been answered.