Help me with this response to school about uniform....

[nevernotstruggling]

So my dds primary school are doing a parent consultation about uniform. It pretty much reads xxxx is the uniform, even better if?

There's a little essay the head has written with it saying that the kids need to get ready for blazers and then uniforms for working life. This statement makes me want to pull my eyes out.....

Help me with a suitable response

You now have no chance of stopping it.
Every school I know of has never backed down sorry.

Remind them that primary school uniforms are not compulsory and government has decreed they need to be reasonable in cost

Plus children struggle with coats blazers are a nightmare

I don’t get the even better if bit.

You could look Into steiner school, they don’t have uniforms.
Honestly, schools are sausage factories, you’ll be fighting a losing battle with the uniform, because nothing you can say will make the head think that uniforms aren’t important.
You could look Into steiner school, they don’t have uniforms.

Blazers MAY have a place in secondary schools, but not primary. Young children should be comfortable and free to learn and play without the constraints of an uncomfortable, stuffy blazer.

Well not every workplace has a uniform, in fact lots of corporate places have become more casual. European and American children don't seem to have any problem in the workplace and have no uniform.

SEN children can find blazers and the like very tricky. Children should be comfortable and practical, not little estate agents.

Remind them that they will have that prep at secondary and that primary uniforms needs to be practical and comfortable if the students are going to get the opportunity to have a broad curriculum- as recommended by the new Ofsted guidelines for schools, which are going to take a very dim view of narrow, exam based provision. That should put the wind up them.

It’s quite a narrow view of what people wear to work isn’t it? Why does a 10 year old need to wear a bloody suit?!

I find it bonkers that so many schools decide that students need to wear blazers and then aspire to send them all to university. Where they can (and will, in some cases) literally walk around campus in their pyjamas. It's a terrible justification.

There’s plenty of jobs where people don’t need to wear uniforms. And I’m sure it won’t take the average child long at all to get used to blazers at secondary school.

I’d definitely mention what a pp says about them needing to be reasonably priced.
And I’d also express a preference for uniform colours readily available in local supermarkets. One of our nearby primary schools has a really unusually coloured uniform. I got talking to a woman at soft play whose older DC go to that school, and she told me they have to order all their uniform through the school for £££ because none of the local shops stock that colour scheme.

Is he saying that he wants blazers? Or that blazers in secondary are getting you prepared for the world of work.

Surely you do t need blazers in primary to get you ready for blazers in secondary to get you ready for the world of work.

Even my sons nursery has a blazer as part of the uniform!

In their working life, adults wear clothing that reflects the day-to-day activity involved in their job.

Primary school children do a fair amount of arts and crafts at school. How many painters and craftspeople wear blazers to work?

Primary school children spend a lot of time sitting on the floor? How many adults in blazers do this?

Primary school children do a lot of running around in the playground. How many adults with jobs involving a lot of physical activity wear blazers to work?

How many people have to wear blazers to work these days? It's a very old fashioned view.

My pet hates about uniforms are as follows:

1. the environmental impact of having to buy separate clothes for school and home
2. the environmental impact of microfibres from cheap polyester uniforms
3. the imposition of gender rules in uniforms (and the subsequent sexual harrassment of 11yo girls who have already gone through puberty due to the sexualisation of school uniform in popular culture)
4. the impracticality of 'smart' uniforms, particularly for girls who are restricted when doing physical exercise

Do the staff wear blazers/suits? If not the work statement is bizarre at best.

I would ask them if they get a cut (£) from the uniform supplier.

Tell him even Goldman Sachs has relaxed its dress code.
The fuss about uniforms for very young children winds me up.
Imo they should wear comfortable, practical clothes.
Good luck op

I don't like blazers at primary age.

I would include in my reply the government guidelines against singly supplier deals and expensive uniform.

And would say that my uniform preference was for logo sweatshirts, logo polo shirts (perhaps via one of the cheaper suppliers such as Tesco) and sew-on badges with school logo that people can out on to any shirt/sweatshirt of the right colour. Bottoms shouif be trousers or shorts in a widely available colour (navy, grey or black) ditto PE shorts, plus a plain tshirt in widely available colour also for PE (probably coordinated with colour of logoed main uniform tops.

Putting nursery aged children in uniform is ridiculous. I wouldn’t consider sending my child to a nursery like that.

If the nursery uniform is a smock or tabard that goes over home clothes, it's a damned good idea.

But I think OP's consultation is for primary age pupils?

I remember when i started work and i had to get my mum to knot my tie and button up my blazer for me. Oh, no, wait. I've never worn a tie or blazer since school.

We're all going to die of old age one day.

Maybe we can start peparing the kids now. Buy them tiny zimmer frames and worthers originals.

Maybe we can put newborns in blazers too. They might as well get used to it as they'll never suss it if they dont start now.

No idea how the rest of the world manages despite not all having jniforms.

DS has a white polo shirt in infants and progresses to a white buttoned shirt with tie in the juniors. This seems sensible as preparation for high school uniform. The most sensible primary in our area has black polo shirts. I'd suggest this, ASDA sell them and are the same price as white.

We end up replacing the worst stained 3 polos every half term. No such thing as an unstained one, they do all their handwriting practice with wipe board markers. Every day.

II'd also ask about branded uniform and for full disclosure on any £££ incentive that is paid to the school based on sales. I'd personally ask for that to be ring fenced and used to help less well off families with buying branded uniform (subsidised?) Our school merged recently and gave every child in the school one free jumper, the only item that is branded. The merger had been planned over 2 years and the cash was ring fenced to pay for that, taking 3 years of incentive/kickback to pay for it in the end. But it was budgeted for and went a long way to ensuring the parents were happy.

DP works for a huge, world famous corporation, he wears battered converse, a hoodie and chinos.

I work for a small company and wear battered converse, jeans and a t shirt or heeled ankle boots, jeans and a silk blouse (depending on what's clean and what I fancy wearing).

Suits are a bit to us

And GinUp is right we dress for what is practical for our daily tasks. You wouldn't be impressed if a nurse/mechanic/builder etc was wearing a suit and tie. Why do we have to dress up like we're all going to be bankers when we grow up?

My female teachers definitely didn't dress like the girls at my school and most of the male teachers didn't have blazers or itchy jumpers either.

Uniform evidence is quite thin. See: educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/school-uniform/#closeSignup. Schools might be better off focusing on other things (is there anything you think the school needs to focus on instead?)

None of the men in my son’s life wear clothing remotely like uniforms (plasterers, car engineer, artist, tree surgeon, car sprayer, restauranteur, builders). The repeated message that uniform prepares him for adult life that he gets at school reinforces the idea he is building that his life is different/ school is out of touch etc.

From a practical point of view:

At secondary school, a blazer with zippable pockets can be really useful. Pupils move between many different classrooms each day. They often need to carry a train season ticket or bus pass, they usually carry a phone and/or a small amount of money for emergencies, and lockers are not always readily available or easily accessible.

At primary school, most pupils don't need to carry any valuables on them at all, so blazers would not have any useful purpose.