School Uniforms?

They logo the uniform to stop so many parents taking the piss.

Bracing myself for all the news reports, my little angel bought designer shoes and isn’t allowed to wear them, including sad faced photo. My little darling has to be able to wear trousers that show a camel toe, it’s her right!

The sad fact is that a minority of parents at schools ruin it for everyone else, hence the school shop and logo design for their uniforms.

As for someone blaming smart uniform and shoes for fat kids 🤣🤣🤣🤣 where were all the fat kids in the 1980’s when we all wore stiff shirts, skirts and smart shoes. The fat kids come from lack of movement full stop, not what uniform they wear.

Uniforms are outdated and teach children to conform mindlessly. They are also stupidly expensive. They are badly made and look cheap for the price.

Children need to learn how to wear and choose clothing that is appropriate for whatever situation they're dressing for. Picking out my schools every evening bed has created a lifelong habit. I still put my clothes out every night before bed.

I also know and have known how to dress and be presentable from a young age.

Choosing and wearing tour own clothes also let's children express themselves and begin to develop a sense of style.

And the whole argument of being bullied for not having designer gear...having been through a non uniform system, I can say I have never witnessed or have had anything said to me about what I was wearing or what others were wearing. We had already accepted from kindergarten, that everyone was different. If anything, it was the kids in the super flashy designer clothing that were looked at funny because it wasn't appropriate to wear clothes like that to school.

I know kids here who have been bullied and ridiculed because their parents buy part of their uniform from the grocery store rather than the uniform shop.

I also think it's strange seeing a child mid week in the afternoon sweaty and rumpled wearing a blazer and tie. It's just bizarre why anyone would want their kids looking that.

As for hair cuts. I let mine do their own thing. Dc1 does have a "radical" hair style. We've not had anything said to us, and if it was, I would just pay lip service and ignore. No one should have that kind of control over another to dictate their hairstyle.

Then again, I'm probably still a bit salty over having just been rinsed by the uniform shop.

It's got so bad that the government has even had to bring in laws to try and reduce the number of logo items schools have. Yet we are still seeing many high schools not following the news laws. I haven't hurd of any legal cases being taken against schools yet either.

Amazing. Perfect, in fact.

For a Year 1 child in the school closest to me the uniform is:

kilt (£40) or pinafore (£50),
branded jumper (£23),
branded shirt (£14)

For PE days you need
Branded Polo (£10.50)
Branded shorts (£9.50)
Branded sweatshirt (£13)

Once they're 7 they are considered too old for a pinafore and must wear their house tie (£10).

Absolute madness. We drive a longer way away literally because of the daft uniform requirements.

Yanbu. I don't buy the fitting in arguement either. I remember the days of a "new" school jumper that was a completely different washed out colour to everyone elses in September.

Cheaper to buy as needed through vinted. Loads of decent secondhand and branded stuff there amd more chance of hand me downs from friends that aren't school logo.

Schools won't don't as the branding is a revenue stream for them.

It is a big outlay of money.
But/ there are plenty of second hand options- there are in my city anyway.
And- do people really buy a whole new set of uniform every summer? I just replaced items as and when needed.

I suppose that makes sense.

Are there really schools that have a no bag policy? What about laptops/tablets?

Not trying to minimise your worries for your grandson, but I don't see how the presence or absence of a logo makes any difference here? How difficult would it be to Google "school in town x with blue jumper and grey trousers" or whatever.

Blazers are a great way to carry all the squillion things you need to carry round school. (Especially if you go to a school with a no-bag policy).

Most students opted to wear them on sports day, for this reason, even though they didn't actually have to.

Sorry. I was trying to say my grandson school has uniform that has a logo but it is optional. My grandson can't have the logo. As if dd ex was to see them in public he would find out what school my grandson gos to and that would put grandson at risk.

optional logo and grandson I think

But I don't think that any school should insist on blazers.

I went to an all girls secondary school in the 1980s and there was a blazer, but no-one was forced to wear it and hardly anyone did.

Blazers are impractical.

Well it happens right across the country right now doesn’t it? I mean I know the uniforms of about a dozen local schools and if I get on a bus or walk down the street at 8:30 I can tell which kids are going to which school. I can’t see where the big safeguarding risk is.

I agree with this but only to an extent. My son's new secondary are strict about blazers and polishable or patent shoes. Find this over the top and it doesn't exactly encourage sporting activity's during lunch / way home from school. Seems so out dated, I agree with uniform but that can still be casual

Tbh I'm not really convinced by uniforms full stop, I taught in a European secondary school for a year and I didn't witness any clothes related bullying. And we didn't have to spend teaching time arguing about skirt lengths and blazers or teach them how to say "please may I remove my blazer?" in English class. They all just dressed sensibly and appropriately for the weather, bar the odd daft ballet pumps in the snow type thing which isn't stopped by uniform policies in the UK.

My GS has opinion logo . But he can't wear it due to the risk of dd ex seeing them in public if GS had a logo uniform. It would put him at risk. If DD ex found out.

Primary seems pretty easy going.

It’s the bonkers secondary schools. Luckily one of mine has common sense and the uniform is just business attire. No jeans/joggers or leggings, no trainers or hoody’s.

One school near us has a different winter and summer uniform and it’s not private school a rather failing basic school. Boggling.

I agree it needs to be a lot more generic.
I used to work in shop selling school uniform, parents got really angry and aggressive over it because they were so stressed. We were told to upsell stuff but we never did because people were already having to spend a couple of hundred quid minimum on one kid. Both local high schools wanted logo blazers, logo skirts/ trousers, expensive wicking style logo PE kits including specific socks, specific ties which were a nightmare to keep track of because they depended on the house and people didn't know what colour they were supposed to have (that was better when it changed to year group because at least we could say okay they're the year 7 ties, when it was houses half the people didn't know what house the kid was in). Jumpers were optional and I think they were generic for one and logo for the other.
We had to get all the logos embroidered on the machines at the warehouse, we weren't allowed by the school to sell the badges to be sewn on to other trousers except in very special circumstances. And then customers would get arsey at me about it, a random 17 year old on minimum wage.

If they changed to a more generic uniform, say white polo, black trousers, black jumper, the shop would probably fold, but it was so unnecessary. We used to offer credit schemes where people could pay in over the year, and it was well used because school uniform vouchers were going to very very few people compared to who was struggling.

I agree with a uniform because it gets rid of the issues of children wearing very old or very expensive clothes into school and being bullied or envied. However, I don’t think uniform should be expensive or uncomfortable and think it’s reasonable to have several options eg grey skirt, skort, shorts, trousers, dress, leggings or joggers should all be acceptable.

That's exactly what happened at my school, with a side salad of 'disappointment' from the headmistress. Not sure it was terribly effective.