Primary uniform - how much?

[Fleurchamp]

Growing up my mum bought the bare minimum of school uniform. I remember feeling dirty and grotty most of the time.

My DS is starting reception in September and I am starting to get uniform together, I don't want him to feel that way but I don't want to go crazy either.

Can I have your thoughts on the number of items, please?
Trousers x 5
Shirts x 5
Pull over x 3

Is that ok?

Depends how much washing you do, our washing machine is on most days and I have a tumble dryer too so don’t need an excessive amount of uniform.

My DS has 3x trousers, 2x shorts, 10x socks, 4x polo shirts and 2x jumpers. It’s enough.

mine all have 6 of everything - just gives that extra day wriggle room on getting laundry done! Last thing i want on monday morning is to be running around looking for stuff!

and yes to lots of socks!

also second the short sleeve shirts - schools are hot, no sleeves to stain! mine rarely have their jumpers on in class even in winter!

For reception i sent a spare set of clothes in to live on the peg in case of accidents/paint spills etc - reception should be messy!!

When they're younger they do get filthy (food, glue, whiteboard marker) so you need more of everything. Mine are year 2 and 4 now so I can get away with only 2/3 of everything.

Boys grow crazily though so don't get a glut of stuff assuming it will last as it won't eg don't by summer shirt and dresses until closer to the time as they might not fit

We don’t need to have logoed uniform, so I got my DC 5 sets each of trousers, shirts and jumpers. Plus 5 pairs of socks in the regulation colour, 1 PE kit each and 1 plain school coat, and school shoes.
Although you can get away with less uniform if you wash clothes more often and / or have tidy children. Sometimes we have to change the DC into a clean set of uniform before we’ve even left the house in the morning

And label all items of uniform, including shoes. It’s often next to impossible to tell which clothes belong to which child without labels if they’ve got mixed up after PE or whatever.
The only thing we don’t label is underwear. I

I usually get -
2x trousers
2x shorts
2x PE shorts
3x polo shirts
2x shirts
2x jumpers
1x school fleece
2x packs of socks

I don’t bother with name labels anymore as they seem to disappear - just write or stamp on the actual label.

In reception i had a complete set for every day for each DT, they were proper mingers. You might have a less dirty child than mine. I work FT and we dont have a drier so anything to alleviate stress was key.

As they've got older (Y3) we've got three sets for every day.

I have 5 sets of everything, but I work (less time for laundry) and the school accepts supermarket clothes. I have to say that reception was hard on clothes and everything looked fairly scruffy by the beginning of the summer term except lidl stuff!

We usually have a couple of jumpers or cardigans and 5 each of t shirts and skirts. To be fair tho the skirts/trousers would prob do more than one day. Sounds like you have plenty.

DS is about to go into reception and he will have the following...

6x trousers & same for shorts (we usually buy twin packs)
6x white polo shirts (again usually twin packs)
3x school logo jumpers (won't all be new)

1x full PE kit (with spare shorts and t-shirt in the cupboard).

Only the school jumpers will be logo ones, the rest I usually get from Sainsbury's.

I don't name socks but get the stickers that go in shoes and sew in labels on everything else.

Agree, as they get older you're likely to need less. They also do less painting and messy activities. DD gets two days wear out of her skirt/dress/cardigan but changes her polo shirt daily (still getting to grips with remembering deodorant!). Unless she spills school dinner down herself

DD also hasn't lost anything as she has to contribute towards a replacement.

I get 4 trousers, 4 shirts and 2 jumpers. Ds has clean uniform every day but I sometimes get away with 2 days for the jumpers. I wash clothes every day to keep on top of the washing so always clean uniform available

2 skirts (£4 from supermarket)
1 trouser (£3 from supermarket)
4 polo tops (£5 altogether from sm)
2 summer dresses (£9 from SM)
Socks
Shoes
Tights

1x logo jumper £10
1x logo cardigan £9
1x unbranded plain cardigan

PE kit
2x cycle shorts (£3 from supermarket)
3x plain tee (£3.50 from supermarket)

Wellies for forest school (from charity shop)
Coat
Rain coat

This is what we have used over the course of the year. And Ive never ran out or had to send her in with dirty uniform

I had 5 of everything because it’s gets lost! It’s always been returned eventually but in the meantime I’m usually down on something. The days they do pe is the day they lose everything. Someone else picks up a jumper and shoves it in their pe bag accidentally and you don’t get it back til the pe bag goes home to be washed.

DD1 is in reception and we have 5 of everything. She’s never lost anything at school, we still have everything we started with at the beginning of the year.
DD2 starts in September but unfortunately is taller than DD1 so I can’t hand any of it down!

I would go with 5 of everything socks included.
Please please name everything including socks.
We have so many parents popping into school asking if anyone has seen an age 4-5 school jumper. Or pe kit not named.
Really really hard to help.

We have 6 of everything polo shirts come in packs of 3, trousers in packs of 2. I have a tall slim ds. We have M&S slim fit polo shirts otherwise they are too wide & by the time they're not too wide they are too short. He outgrew trousers so quickly that I skipped a size this year & went 7-8 (yr1) but bought skinny fit so you can't tell the trousers are too long & they don't trip him up. We've had 2 years out of the shorts.

I did buy some Sainsbury's school trousers originally but had yo pull the elastic up so much inside that it hurt him so watch out for sizing. I was surprised because a lot of his clothes are from Sainsbury's (we live next door to one!)

I found the logo'd jumpers from the school shop we're Teflon coated so don't mark at all whereas Sainsbury's sweatshirts were a fraction of the cost but didn't last & constantly showed sticky finger marks (from eating crisps & wiping his hands on his jumper).

I work full time & can be away with work so have to have stock... goes off to see if any clean uniform in the house on a Monday teatime 🤣🤣

Also after the first week in yr1 I noticed his jumpers were much cleaner & thought he was growing up... turns out he wasn't eating his lunch... x

I buy enough for the school week for both kids, it means I just need to do laundry at weekends and both DC come home pretty manky whether it’s from dropping lunch, doing painting, playtime etc, I never get two days out of anything except DDs skirts.

I’d also suggest you check the fabric for trousers, my DS has gone through the knees on all of his school trousers long before he’s grown out of them. I needed to buy a couple of new pairs a week or so ago because they were all holey - not what I needed 3 weeks before end of term!

It's a long time ago since I was in this position but I am seriously shocked by the numbers of each item most seem to be recommending! Maybe we were just lucky but I seem to recall buying one skirt/pinafore, 3 polo shirts, 2 sweatshirt, 2 summer dresses, (all with logo), one outdoor jacket and then 5 pairs socks and knickers. 1 set of everything for the sports kit. I bought large lol and they lasted her for three years! The really good thing was that when in school everyone wore a smock which covered up their uniforms!! Also shoes only worn to and from school, pumps indoors and trainers or wellies outside. Takes me back, fab memories.

I have 5/6 of everything. In foundation, they come back covered in pen / dirt / dinner, so they just had clean every day and I washed it all at the weekend ready to go for the next week.

Buy the cheap polo shirts from supermarkets, if your DC is anything like mine, you'll be constantly replacing because they somehow manage to get whiteboard marker all over them every day!!

On our checklist for reception class, they've also listed a waterproof suit or trousers... any recommendations for where I can get these without spending loads?

I made the mistake of getting less jumpers for my son, but he dirties them the most. So I'd suggest 5 jumpers too. I bought the uniform (5 of each item) from Next, they were a bit pricey compared to supermarkets but have lasted the year.
They have been mostly washed on hot wash to get them clean!
I intend on doing the same for when he starts reception in September.

Thatmustbe - Lidl do great waterproof trousers and shoes agreed. They’re a cheaper version of the Playshoes-branded ones - you can often get the latter cheaply on eBay but the Lidl ones are just as good.

That sounds enough for the cloakroom floor. Then you need a set to actually wear... and another set to stash in odd places around the house...

I very quickly bought DS1 a lot more uniform as I was stupid enough to think three jumpers would be enough. He quite clearly wiped his foody hands all over the front of his jumper every lunchtime. Then there was the board pen... I'm not sure it ever actually touched the paper! We often ended up out of jumpers as they were all strewn around the school. Doubly annoying when I was working and unable to check lost property and just had to wait for them to cycle back round again. Admittedly dyspraxia is a major factor for cleanliness and organisation, but some children simply can't re-wear or manage on a tight washing schedule with no slack.

They tend to need less over time as cleanliness and organisation improve.

I tend to do a weekly white wash so I have about 14 polo shirts between two DCs to cover a few going AWOL at a time. They're close enough in size that they just share uniform. Trousers, a token pair for DS1 that get passed to DS2 with tags attached. Shorts... umpteen pairs, enough for DS2 in warm weather and DS1 to live in. They last for years as they don't show the dirt, the waistband gradually lets out and it takes years to get to 70s footballer length

Socks... buy umpteen packs of identical socks. I do this anyway. Much easier to pair them when there's 5 that match from the multipack set

Polo shirts are replaced each September. By this time of year they are generally grubby, marked and yellowing from suncream. There's not enough growing room to give them grace and are only fit for rag recycling.

5 x everything here.
I do laundry in the week but having 5x meant I didn't panic when I missed a load.