School Uniforms - Good or Bad??

JayS_3

Lillibet wrote:

Uniform for me, afraid I would prefer the polo shirts & sweatshirts over ties & blazers for every age though, simply as they are more robust for frequent washing & don't need ironng! I would flatly refuse to buy new embroidered badge items each year though & let the school take me on over it! Buy them once then cut out the logos & velcro/wonder-web them onto the next size up from Tesco!

Following on from Spendless' comments; you also would not want your child to 'stand out' from the crowd and get 'picked on'/bullied over this. When spud arrives, and in years to come goes to school, you will probably want him/her to 'blend' in with a nice group of friends (which is what we probably all want for our kids).

PS Good luck with Spud when the time comes, and the sleepless nights arrive...and go on and on....

Lillibet_2

I still have that wonderful rose-tinted view that Spud will be independent-minded from an ealry age & will understand economics enough to rise above teasing & will appreciate practicality over following the crowd!!!
Whilst I have no doubt that you are right, at present I am not used to & just cannot imagine, giving in to a puffed up headmaster. I expect it will last until about 1 week into the washable-nappy programme before I become worn down & follow the herd, let alone having enough fight in me in 5 years time to take on a board of governers!

Forgot to say, did anyone else have to have those excrucitatingley uncomfortable gym knickers which made sports a feat of human endurance in the pinched-skin olympics?

Mumstheword

Yes, we had gym knickers. Silly idea, should have just let us wear tracky bottoms instead of gym kilts.

Re uniform- great idea. It's reasonably cheap, robust, smart en masse, but most importantly, the kids from poorer families aren't immediately obvious by their lack of trendy clothes. My boys' school still have shirts and ties. The other schools in the area have polo shirts/t shirts which must be easier in the laundry, but our school doesn't half look smart, especially on school trips out.

We have a good as new uniform sale at school. The jumpers (about £9 to order the one with the logo on that 99% of the kids wear) are sold on for £1.50. I haven't yet ordered one at full price. I object to the school jumper eating monster, which steals my sons jumpers and shreds all evidence that they ever existed by the next day, having £9 off me. At £1.50, well, it's not as bad!!

jellyhead

ugh! i don't know what my gym knickers were made from, it felt like fibre glass lol!

we have polo shirts at our primary school, much easier for the 4 year olds to deal with when changing after PE. logos are printed onto the polos and sweatshirts so they wash really badly and look scruffy quickly, can't really be used as hand me downs unless you're desperate because the logos look such a mess after being washed so many times. around a quarter of kids wear logo clothes, the others wear standard white polos and grey jumpers or sweatshirts. they don't look as nice but they can go in the tumble drier lol! most kids look smart enough. a few wear trainers though, their parents say they can't afford school shoes and trainers look absolutely awful with school uniform. those kids usually have holes in their clothes too, well in the sleeves of jumpers anyway.

i prefer uniform, definitely. if the only item left ambiguous at the school spendless has mentioned causes bullying about brand names then imagine how bad it would be if a child's entire wardrobe and image was up for discussion. a pair of rockport shoes is easier to buy for the parent worried about their child being bullied than an entire wardrobe of the latest clothes. i wouldn't like my son to be asking for official football shirts all the time, or adidas trousers etc.

Queenie

jellyhead wrote:

ugh! i don't know what my gym knickers were made from, it felt like fibre glass lol!

There was a *very* good reason for that .....

... it was so you would actually appreciate that crinkly skid pan loo paper! Half hour in those knickers and a cushion of stinging nettles would have felt like soft down!

Jay-Jay_4

We didn't have to wear uniform at primary school and I always felt conscious that my clothes weren't as 'fashionable' as everyone elses.... fortunately it didn't worry me too much and I was never bullied for it. When we had to wear uniform (concerts etc) I felt really smart.

My daughter wears a polo shirt/blouse and cardi with embroidered logo but she recently asked for a tie so I bought her one. She wears with a buttoned up blouse and looks really smart. There are only about 5 (only 2 of which are girls) children in the entire school of 300 who wear ties so she obviously doesn't give a fig about fitting in

Uniform is relatively inexpensive compared to 'normal' clothes and is easy to wash, wear, looks smart and removes social problems such as parents not being able to afford expensive clothing. I'm not too concerned when paint gets spilled on it when I'm only paying £5 for three polo shirts.

jellyhead

i think i'd have a moan if school insisted on clothes with the logo though, i wouldn't want to pay £7.50 for each shirt and £9.50 for a jumper when they can be bought for peanuts elsewhere, usually better quality than the school gets too. school polo shirts have nasty tiny little buttons, very difficult to do up and easily broken. even in sweatshirts and polo shirts i think children look smart. if our school had insisted on shirts etc. i'd have had to change my sons school because he can't do buttons even now at 8 (dyspraxia) but will be taught gradually as his fine motor skills develop in time for high school shirts.

i was grateful for the uniform when i was at school - charity shop school uniform is not really as noticable as other charity shop clothes - no worn off logos etc. to make the clothes look old and worn. on school days we didn't look quite as poor as we looked at weekends lol!

Savvy_Sue

JayS wrote:

My sons' school has just changed their policy. When my eldest started school, we could buy a school badge which we moved from blazer to blazer. Now my youngest has just started (and I had kept the blazers to hand-me-down), the school blazer has to have a machine embroidered badge.

Guess what, the new blazer can only be bought in the school supplier's shop, is more expensive, and I can't use the hand-me-downs!!!!! :mad:

Every time I buy I new blazer, I will have to pay more and it will niggle me as it will remind me each time. :mad: I hate spending more than I want to.

I would raise it with the PTA and the Governors. At my sons' school they don't advertise the fact that you can buy the badge separately: on the official list is the official blazer to be ordered through the school for £25+, but when I queried this I was told you could get the badge for £1.50, which of course I have.

Well it may have been £1.50 when I first bought it but it's £5 now! (blazer badge, that is). Blow me down: add that to what I'm paying for new blazers which fit and it's not such a bargain!

Also check if there is a second hand uniform shop and if not why not!

I'm all for uniform: because of uniform my eldest has learned to cope with buttons. I think he'd have a button fetish otherwise: he never wore anything other than jog bottoms and round neck t-shirts until he went to school, would not wear polo shirts even. Never made a murmur about it but even now, given the choice, only wears t-shirts, sweat-shirts and jog bottoms ...

Now we've just had a consultation about uniform: at their school boys wear blazers and ties, and girls wear blouses and sweatshirts. I think this is blatant discrimination - the boys are forever being told to tuck their shirts in, but the girls' blouses can't be seen, for starters! - and they should all wear the same. But the kids don't: my boys prefer their blazers, because of the pockets, and the girls apparently want to keep the sweatshirts. From the laundry point of view, I'd prefer sweatshirts: a teenage boy's blazer is rather ripe by the end of a hot summer week ...

Oh, and I was scarred by THREE different hats: panama in summer, velour in winter (made of felt, panama shaped), and a 'chapel cap'. This was a skull cap, to all intents and purposes, which had to be worn whenever we went into the chapel, apart from on Sundays when we had the aforementioned panamas and velours. We also had blue pinafores for meals and cleaning duties, so when we cleaned the chapel it was pinnies and caps. In the equivalent of year 11, we were expected to become responsible and be awarded a 'black apron' instead of a blue pinafore, but we had to make one ourselves: we were just given the bits, no instructions, and had to work it out from first principles! Sometime in the 6th form if we were good we got green aprons. Oh, and if you put your hands in your pockets you were made to sew them up!

Gym knickers, yes, we called them 'blues', and remember track suits hadn't been invented then! Short gym slip, 'blues', aertex t-shirt, thin jumper for hockey - with ANKLE SOCKS! Brrrr. Sunday uniform: blue shapeless smock things with CHERRY RED collarless blazers in summer, and tartan blouses in winter. Ghastly.

Oh, and socks for gym and ties were in house colours: mine was PINK but fortunately I've got over that.

But the very worst thing was the socks: knee length greenish woolly things in winter for the first year, followed by beige ribbed stockings! Suspender belts!! And beige ankle socks in summer! Brown lace up shoes in winter, of course, and terribly sensible brown t-bar sandals in summer.

And yes it was a boarding school, but a charitable foundation so you couldn't go there if your parents earned over a certain amount before you think I'm as posh as the other lot! See, we didn't have cloaks: what we'd have given for cloaks!

rushnowt

Spendless wrote:

I prefer school uniform, it has to be worn from school nursery onwards. Not thinking about what to put on etc.

My one bugbear is that the sweatshirt can only be bought from the school. It has the schools name printed on it. It cost £6.50 and i think i do well. A friends school charges £13 for a sweatshirt and £9.50 for the polo shirt with the school name on.

My friends with kids at secondary school say the prices are steeper there.Also at the local secondary school, shoes which aren't part of a strict uniform code, the children are requesting Rockports from their parents!!! (at a £100 a time!!)

Spendless,

The Rockport saga was an absolute nightmare for me, my eldest (thankfully left school now) made my life a living hell over these damn things, the tears and the tantrums because i wouldnt buy them but "everyone else" had them, I compromised and purchased i similar item for £50 but they were never godd enough for her.

All my kids have had school uniforms from nursery to secondary, and i agree it has made life easier in the mornings with 5 kids and all of them in school at the same time, theres no way i could have coped with the arguments about what to wear that day.

My daughter at secondary school is the most expensive to buy for as they do have a strict dress code there, but at least once its purchased it will last for the whole year, thankfully she has no interest in Rockports and is easy to cater for.

The younger ones at primary and nursery are not to bad they are able to wear any grey or black trousers and yellow or white polo shirts, they do have sweatshirts and jackets tho that have to be purchased with the school logo on, which cost £8.50 and £14 a time the jackets are my real problem as they tend to lose them in school and are never found again, my son as required 2 jackets already this year and now the second one has gone missing :mad:

jockettuk

my daughters primary school have a few printed items for uniforms, sweatshirts approx £7 pe shirts approx £5 and a fleece £10 you dont have to have these items but i bought the fleece a size to big and she has worn that the last 3 yrs she doent grow much lol... i had bought her sweatshirts but when the fleeces came out she prefered them so i gave the sweatshirts to a friend whos lad started,.. we also have twice a yr a sale were all the lost property is washed and then sold off cheaply got another fleece for £3. our school doesnt inforce uniform but likes you to be in school colours , navy or grey so the choice is up to the parents and can get cheaper items elsewere..