School uniform advice - please?

Spendless

A tip I read on mse which I did this year was to stick to pinafores rather than skirts. My daughter has white polo shirts and light coloured sweat shirts and both get filthy with food/paint etc. Grey pinafores instead seem to have solved that problem.

Tights I found a must in winter unless trousers were worn.

I've yet to find trousers ds doesn't go thru and the last lot from Asda were so horrible to wash and iron, I can't wait to throw them in recycling next week.

Am not buying any more embroidered polo shirts. I paid £8 for one, ds put it on and the scratchy embroidery made a scab on his nipple. (he hasn't worn vests since he was a toddler) and he's refused to wear it since.

welshnoonoo

Millie's_Mum wrote: »

The Asda close to me says that they have uniform in all year round but in reality its just the leftovers that they didn't sell in the summer, they have only had uniform in size 12/13 and 14/15 and only in one colour since about christmas

I couldn't agree more - I have always found this to be the case in most of the supermarkets - nightmare.

Also the point someone made about the polo shirts shrinking - that's really annoying too - I may give the Next ones a try though on saying that DS has moved up to the Juniors this year and now has to have white ones so I can see me having to replace them more frequently! Great!

Scarlett.1974

With too many years experience of buying school uniforms, myh experiences:

Next - boys trousers are great, they wash well and stay looking smart. Boys jumpers and girls trousers - awful the jumpers faded and looked really battered within a couple of months and the trousers went 'bobbly' and faded very quickly too. Not cheap either.

Debenhams - jumpers (boys & girls) - great. Wash well and stay looking smart for ages. Older girls very expensive though - I was looking for daughter (12) last week...... blouses were £12 each and trousers were £13..... neither looked the best of quality either All on 3 for 2 at the moment though, so I did buy son's shirts last week (packs of 2 for £6, bought 3 packs for £12)

M&S - top quality all around. Couldn't fault any of it. Good value when on 3 for 2...... you really do get what you pay for.

Asda - not impressed really. Jumpers went bobbly, the polo shirts shrunk and the trousers were a horrible material.

Personally I've always bought 5 t-shirts/shirts/blouses because I really can't be bothered with mid-week ironing! They've always had 3 jumpers and 3 pairs of trousers/skirts but these are non-ironed in my house

Lady_S

We are considering getting the uniform for the kids this year, so this thread is really useful. Thanks for all the replies ( I say thinking as the kids don't live with us).

We had already decided to get the shoes. When would be the best time to visit Clarks, beginning of August?

If we get uniform would this be enough

6 polo shirts each
2 jumpers
2 bottoms (skirt or trousers)

I priced it up on M and S today and it was 85 for both kiddly peeps. Think this is because of the offer though.

We can't decided if it will be well received or not, but we have had reports that the kids go to school scruffy and just think it is better for us to do it than leave them like that.

Spendless

Personally I'd rather have 5 tops, 1 for each day of week and catch up on washing at w/end, and at least 1 extra bottom/jumper for the same reason. But it's up to you and what suits your lifestyle.

poe.tuesday

our daughter has 2 dressess for the summer and 3 pairs of trousers for the winter along with 3 tops and two jumpers

our son has 5 trousers, 5 tops and 5 tops, he gets filthy so he has clean clothes each day and we do just one school clothing wash at the end of the week

we get the girls trousers from M&S, they are the stretchy boot cut ones

polo shirts are from tescos

boys trousers from adam, the only reason I get them from adams is because they do flat fronted trousers, my son is so slim that the pleated fronts look like he is wearing a nappy ;-), they also come in longer lenghts and adjustable waists, they also have a 3 for 2 offer online at the mo

adams cardis are rubbish, I tend to get fleece tops for my son and zip up cardis for my daughter

one thing I do do it get 2 extra packs of polo shirts for later on in the year as I just can't get my son's tops clean after a while and I found I couldn't find his size later on in the year

as for sports stuff, tescos do cheap t-shirts and I got some great girls shorts from Gap, I grabbed a load of them in various ages for my daughter, she now wears trainers so I get those from places like brantanimo and my son wears plimsoles which I get from tescos

Lady_S

Spendless wrote: »

Personally I'd rather have 5 tops, 1 for each day of week and catch up on washing at w/end, and at least 1 extra bottom/jumper for the same reason. But it's up to you and what suits your lifestyle.

Problem is it isn't our lifestyle, it is their mum's. I don't want to buy too much, but also don't want to buy too little. Think too much would go down as badly as not buying enough, if that makes sense.

Also think she will have stuff from last year that they would have worn this year anyway.

Savvy_Sue

Can I just start by rejoicing that this is the first year for a very long time I haven't got to buy any? I think that's a better spirit than being depressed about how old my babies are and therefore how old that must make me ...

suzukibabe wrote: »

I've started picking up new uniforms when out shopping and have put them to the back of the wardrobe.

I did that with trousers when they were younger, and once found some trousers I'd forgotten about until they were too small for anyone! :mad:

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

Doh. I'm about 4 hours too late reading this post. :rolleyes: He's been wearing them round the house so no chance of returning them. But they did say they do PE outside sometimes so hopefully they'll be useful. They're only £4 in M&S though so a bargain!

I thought you could take shoes back if they've only been worn around the house? As long as they haven't dropped any food onto them, of course. Although if he might need them anyway it's probably not worth it.

moneypanicker wrote: »

Re plimsols my daughter has really narrow feet all the ones i've looked at would swim on her anyone know of anywhere where you can can get narrow ones?

No, but I know I have seen some which have a velcro tab rather than the elastic bit in the middle, so look out for them.

Scarlett1

DD is 7 and she has 1 pinfore dress, 1 pair trousers, 1 skirt, 1 blouse for best, and 4 or 5 polo shirts, 1 jumper and 1 cardigan.

M & S still have their 3 for 2 on at the moment and yesterday I bought a blouse, skirt and got a pinifore for free (good quality and only £5 otherwise), they have an ordering service aswell so was able to order the next size up blouse

Does anyone know where I can buy knee high grey socks ?

madison's_mum

My DD is starting school and at the parents evening we were told that they had to wear uniform of school embroidered t-shirt (£6.50 each) and sweatshirt (£9 each) eek! My plan was to just put her in pinafore dresses with plain polo shirts. Does anyone know if i could do this or would she get into trouble? Also if the uniform is sweatshirts could she have plain cardigans?