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Original poster

To think that plenty of schools still have brown uniform?

188 replies

Nametobechanged · 17/05/2025 10:52

My DC’s school has brown skirts/ pinafores for the girls uniform. They can wear black trousers if they want but most of the girls prefer skirts.

Asda seems to be the only big shop that’s selling them. M&S, Next, John Lewis, etc have all stopped making brown uniform.

We can’t be the only school with this issue?

OP posts:
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5
Bearybasket · 18/05/2025 23:25

There’s a couple of primary schools with brown uniforms localish to me. Neither are private but possibly catholic.
I’m in Scotland though and I think coloured uniforms might possibly be more popular here than in england? (for primary anyway)

I do think a brown uniform looks lovely for some reason.

BooneyBeautiful · 18/05/2025 23:13

Mynewnameis · 17/05/2025 10:55

The only school having brown uniform near me was private. It's not normal.

Same here. Just the one private school about eight miles away.

YellowSubmarine994 · 18/05/2025 20:08

No one at all in brown here. Always seems to be grey for primary and black for secondary

Cazwest6 · 18/05/2025 19:19

There’s quite a lot of brown uniform on eBay
As the girls are allowed to wear black trousers I would ask the school to eventually phase out the brown for black

lincoln75 · 18/05/2025 19:16

My sons school had brown jumpers and trousers. It changed in September last year to academy and now has grey trousers/skirts and a different colour jumper. Buying brown shorts and trousers was a real pain if needed quickly

DisabledDemon · 18/05/2025 19:12

YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME · 17/05/2025 11:02

Only one I've ever come across was a girls catholic Grammar.

Same here. It's an awful uniform - poo brown and mustard yellow. Absolutely dreadful!

Dollmeup · 18/05/2025 18:45

There's definitely none in my area. Never seen it in the shops anywhere either now that I think about it.

Dawnb19 · 18/05/2025 18:43

I don't think I've ever seen school children wearing brown. When I lived in England our skirts/tights were all navy but apart from that school I went to all the other schools I've seen are grey or black. The same here in Northern Ireland.

ColdWaterDipper · 18/05/2025 18:19

No brown uniforms round here (west cornwall) that I can think of. Secondary schools seem to be dark blazers (black or navy, with tartan skirts) the same as the private schools. Primary schools are blue, green or red with grey shorts / skirts, checked summer dresses and either grey or tartan pinafores. My eldest goes to a private secondary school and they wear a dark suit and school tie. Youngest is at a nearby primary and he wears a navy wool jumper (has to be bought from the school), grey shorts, grey socks and school tie. Brown seems a funny colour for a school - I think my mum wore brown at her public school about 60 years ago!

namechangedtemporarily123 · 18/05/2025 15:15

Annascaul · 18/05/2025 14:52

Gumley House?

Show quote history

Yep

Annascaul · 18/05/2025 14:52

namechangedtemporarily123 · 18/05/2025 12:14

DD’s high school uniform is brown with a cream shirt. The blazer is also striped. Not private school, but Catholic girls convent school. The single school uniform supplier must be making a fortune 😩

Gumley House?

UnctuousUnicorns · 18/05/2025 14:17

Mum and her class mates in first year secondary, in their lovely brown and yellow uniform, in '58. 😂

To think that plenty of schools still have brown uniform?
JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 18/05/2025 14:08

My primary school was bottle green and my secondary school uniform was brown. I clearly lived in a strange area 🤣😜🤷🏼‍♀️

cheapskatemum · 18/05/2025 14:04

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 17/05/2025 11:01

Brown? No, I'd say that's very, very uncommon. I've worked in schools for 30 years and the only one I know of was a local private prep school in Buckinghamshire when I was a kid. Theirs isn't brown any more either.

Davenies School? That was my first thought when I read the thread title.

Dahliasrule · 18/05/2025 13:41

I am afraid, mackerella and TommyandGina i am a lot older than you and went there in the sixties. I think our headmistress was the one before yours, a Miss P.

mackerella · 18/05/2025 13:27

@TommyandGina that's the one! I started a couple of years before you left Smile We all moaned about the uniform at the time but I feel quite fond of it now!

TommyandGina · 18/05/2025 13:12

@Dahliasrule @mackerella must be the same school. I left in ‘89, the same year Miss H left.

TorturedParentsDepartment · 18/05/2025 12:39

ToffeePennie · 17/05/2025 21:15

Same. Brown and yellow and straw hats in the summer. Girls have to wear brown pinafore dresses in the summer and yellow gingham in the winter. I sometimes drive past when the parents are dropping their children off and I always think how cold it must be for the girls in summer dresses on a cold April day!

Show quote history

When I was at primary school the boys HAD to wear shorts all year round - in the middle of the north east England winter as well. Frozen little knees in all my school photos, which, with a dodgy looking priest and nun duo in the centre of the photos look like some kind of book cover for a misery porn biography entitled "Ma sold me for a packet of Lambert and Butler fags and packet of sherbet lemons"

namechangedtemporarily123 · 18/05/2025 12:14

DD’s high school uniform is brown with a cream shirt. The blazer is also striped. Not private school, but Catholic girls convent school. The single school uniform supplier must be making a fortune 😩

PandaCory · 18/05/2025 11:43

I had a brown school uniform 30 years ago and even then it was hard to find. The school uniform shop in our town closed down and after that you had to go into the city to find somewhere selling brown uniform items. Just before I left school, they decided to let girls wear black skirts or trousers (the boys had always been in black trousers). I think they still have brown blazers.

TheNinny · 18/05/2025 11:35

I’m in Scotland, but have seen a brown uniform, past or present

CrackingOn50 · 18/05/2025 11:34

Toddlerteaplease · 17/05/2025 11:45

I wonder if the Catholic schools with them, were founded by people/ orders with a Carmelite tradition. As they wear brown habits.

The catholic high school in my town has a brown uniform. We used to call it the 'dog shit' school as kids can be cruel and the green uniformed school the 'green bottles' whilst feeling all smug in our navy and black itchy clothes 🙄

brownschooluniform · 18/05/2025 11:32

Are you in B S ?
i have dd about to start at a school
with brown uniform

MarioLink · 18/05/2025 11:30

There are over 30 schools on our town and only one has a brown uniform - just skirts and pinafores.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 18/05/2025 11:08

My senior school had a particularly hideous brown uniform - a sort of tan-ish brown. A new head changed it to more of a chocolate brown, only marginally less horrible.

No school around here has brown uniform.

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