How many school shirts do you need in secondary school

[Grk]

My child starts secondary in sept, already looking at uniform costs . A shirt is £22 realistically do I need 5 ?
They have to wear them every day and change into pe kit at school

Same with kilts they are £44 each
And trousers are £18 each

It depends if you are able to wash them during the week? A secondary school child will require a clean shirt everyday due to body odor etc. Definitely look to get them second hand, that;s a ridiculous amount of money for a shirt.

3 or 4 shirts ? Whatever they come in packs of in the uniform shop. I usually do a wash either Tuesday or Wednesday evening. One blazer , two trousers , one tie. One rugby kit, one pe kit and one hoodie for sports.

Ds has 10 shirts but just from M&S. means I can just do one white load every fortnight - no one else in this house wears white so it makes up almost a full load when I chuck in a white towel and bath mat!

DD had
5 shirts
2 jumpers, she wore them Mon-Wed and Do/Fr
1 skirt
1 pair of trousers (from Y9)
1 blazer

Blazer was dry-clean only so we used a lot of Febreeze during the weeks and dropped it off Friday after school at the dry cleaner during every holiday.

Skirt and trousers could be washed overnight in emergencies but I normally washed at the weekend.

They do smell after a day in polycotton. Thanks to the rules we couldn‘t even get 100% cotton shirts.

We have one for each day because I only do one white wash a week. Washing mid-week would be wasteful in this house as white school shirts for two DC is still a very small load.

Depends how sweaty they are. DD has 4, and re-uses one a week. It’s fine.
One skirt, one pair of trousers. Washed half-termly.
A state school has no business changing that much for uniform shirts.

We only found out by word of mouth from other parents that we didn‘t have to buy the shirts from the official uniform supplier (where we had to get the rest of the kit) but any shop who sold a plain white shirt with an open neck.

I think we saved a fortune.

I really hated that DD had to wear a girl school uniform with special piping/stripes and a skirt/trousers with logo (and don’t get me on logo PE kit) when the boys school from the same trust just had to buy a blazer and jumper and everything else was M&S etc unless you played sport for the school in an official team.

Depends on the price... I think ours was about a tenner, and it's been money well spent to have a spare for reducing the "hunt the tie, where on earth did you tear it off and discard it this time?" morning stress...

But I'd smell the pre-loved armpits of the shirts (if you can without looking weird). A good wash doesn't always seem to be enough. They must have alien sweat overnight, I think!

This. My DH wore the M&S shirts to work. DC wore them to school. A pack of 5 each. All got washed together on Saturdays.

Supermarket shirts and mine have loads at least 6 each. £22 each is madness; I would probably get 4.

Mine have 3 shirts each. Change every other day, wash at weekend. DD has one skirt and a spare she dislikes, DS has 2 trousers. One blazer, one P. E kit (ds has a spare shirt which is too small now but can wear if needed they picky so P. E once a week now, think it used to be twice).

Just for practicality, six shirts - it means that even if the washing machine goes bang on a Sunday morning, there will always be one clean shirt available for Monday.

Second hand definitely sounds like a plan - some of the suppliers have been very aggressively enforcing contract terms with schools since the DfE guidance was issued, so even with a wish to make as much as possible generic and low cost, it takes time.

I had three and always did a white wash on Wednesday.
When my DS got to a certain age I realised that washing them wasn’t getting the armpits clean, so I replaced them.

To all those saying about M and S and supermarket 5 packs the OP said it is a specific shade of green that the shirts are that are required.

I bought 3 as a minimum then another - depends on how good you are at laundry, ideally they need a clean shirt every day.

It depends how often you do laundry, but I found it's far easier to get into the habit of a clean shirt every day, before it becomes a necessity!

I remember my brothers growing up had shirts (and socks) that would stand up on their own, so my kids have had clean shirts and underwear every day drummed into them since they could dress themselves! 😆

We have 5. They are smelly, need new shirt every day. I wash whites once a week only.

And 2 complete sets of uniform (besides shirts). I do a normal wash about 5 days a week, so they get washed throughout the week, but the white shirts don’t.

You buy 2 ties and always know where the spare is

I drive DS and my neices to school. I keep a tie in my glovebox at all times!

I think mine did have 5 shirts each (also non standard and expensive) but we didn't need two skirts, I just washed it overnight on the rare occasion it got dirty. DS did have two pairs of trousers

I think girls are a bit better for this though DD did need one day of new blouses and P. E kit in 5 years (they are 25.00). My son, though has needed new shirts and trousers every year (luckily supermarket!). This year he's needed 2 sets as he's growing so fast. It depends how much and when they grow. He's 16 and no signs of stopping. He was the smallest in his friend group for ages and is now the tallest.

I think you are going to need 3 and do regular washing. Not to be rude but some children do get very messy and smelly and it's not nice to have BO at school.
I've not read the whole thread but I would say not to buy everything the school tells you to get before your child starts. Mine never ever wore the school jumpers and neither did any other pupil, despite the school's uniform list requiring them. Or the official PE kit, bar the rugby top. Take a wait and see approach.
You might also find you could dye cheaper shirts the school colour, depending on the shade.