School insist on black trousers for summer

[Berrypavlova]

Hi,

My son is in Y7 and so about to have his first June / July at his new secondary school.
the uniform insists on black trousers for boys even on sunniest days. This seems madness to me, but apparently they refuse to budge on the rule.

Does anyone have any clever ideas how to manage without the boys all melting? I have looked for lightweight school trousers but cannot find anything suitable.

thanks v much

My kids just wore what was required and got on with it.
Most do.
Most "cope" just fine.

Mine learned to negotiate with the teachers on blazers on hot days.

They are both at uni now, mostly wearing uni "uniform" jeans, trainers and a hoody.

Assuming this is in the UK, it is not the hot weather that is bad. I could easily pull through with these types of trousers in the summer.
It's the humidity that is the problem. It gets muggy and stuffy in the air making people sweat and feel lazy due to the heat. You should still be able to pull through with wearing school trousers in the hot weather though regardless of the temperature. Whether it's 28°c or 31°c or even 40°c. even in these types of conditions, wearing polyester trousers, jeans or jogger pants are ideal since they're apart of school uniform. Most children don't mention a thing about overheating in trousers at school, so it must means that they barely if ever do overheat in trousers and they don't seem at all phased by it. He will get used to it very quickly like most people do.

Seriously? They're just trousers. It's perfectly normal,and we don't live in a hot country. Yes sure, in some jobs you're allowed to wear shorts, but in many others you're not. People don't melt. It's not about it 'preparing them for work' though. It's not necessary to prepare them for wearing a perfectly ordinary item of clothing that many people wear through the summer anyway. Teachers don't wear shorts. They seem to manage without melting.

Really struggling as to all the formal corporate environments you have worked in where men don’t wear trousers in summer. They all come in shorts?

I’m from and in a very hot country and unless you are a tradie/labourer men tend to wear trousers year round including summer. I mean if men in the UK need to come to work wearing shorts 😳, then ours would need to come in the buff. How ridiculous. My sons also always wore trousers at high school, some schools only had trousers for the upper years (year round), and others from the beginning of high school (year round). No one melted. More importantly, it ‘bred’ a bunch of kids that don’t see fit to go inflict their legs in shorts on everyone in an office.

My grandson (Yr 11) wears trousers and blazer during the school day. On a PE day sometimes they're allowed to keep kit on if it's hot. They survive.

They shouldn’t have to ‘survive’. They should be wearing what they are most comfortable in - some feel the heat, some the cold.

DT’s went to a non uniform school - can wear jeans and a hoodie if they want, T-shirt and shorts if they want.

@Parker231 That's how you see it and I'm glad you found a non-uniform school but they rarely go through life wearing what they feel comfortable in. I think developing resilience is part of becoming a responsible and adaptable adult.

When mine were at secondary they brought in shorts after an uprising from parents.

Not one child has been seen in them.

DT’s are now in their early 20’s - have managed to be successful graduates working in professional careers without any negative impact from having never worn school uniform.

@Parker231 I'm glad it worked out OK for them

Police seem to all wear black cargoes all year round. I wonder how many police officers melt in hot weather?

I don't know about melting, but the uniform ends up smelling very ripe indeed!

It’s more of a problem if they make them wear the blazer and tie in the summer. To be honest, most kids don’t want to wear uniform style shorts at that age. Our son was at a pre prep school for a while where they wore uniform shorts winter and summer. One of the many truly silly things about some private educational settings. I gather they now allow trousers in winter where he was.

. Zombie

Sunburn is a pretty good reason to wear them on the hot, sunny days as well.

ignore all the responses from those clearly suffering from Stockholm syndrome by proxy.

Welcome to the utter idiocy that is English secondary school uniform. The long trousers and blazer are hilarious when you have a 6 mile hilly round trip cycling to school. It’s hit the low 30s every summer for the past 5 years and luckily the school eventually relent and let them go
in in PE kit.

It is a nonsense - both hot countries and many offices have air-conditioning, which makes them quite incomparable. Plus hot countries have more experience with materials suitable for hot days. However, it is very British to expect children to suffer the same they predecessors did no matter what.

And many people see some kind of moral superiority in specific clothing, but are aware how absurd it is, so start with bullying kids into obedience like this:
More importantly, it ‘bred’ a bunch of kids that don’t see fit to go inflict their legs in shorts on everyone in an office.
to make sure they're used to it and don't question it too much.