How much school uniform?

[blinkineckmum]

Hi.
My little boy is off to school in September, so I suppose I'd better buy him some uniform.
How much do I need? How many pairs of everything? Would 2 be enough to start with? I'm hoping I can pick up some spares 2nd hand later.
And where is the best place for labels please?
And how does the Tesco Direct school logo thing work?
When should I buy school shoes and where from please?
Any other tips?
Many thanks

If your DS is anything like my DD, you’ll need 5 of everything unless you plan to do midweek washing. 4/5 year olds are mucky imo

I think we managed with 3 trousers and sweatshirts/jumpers and 5 polo shirts. The jumpers were dark though so pen didn’t show up and some marks could be sponged off!

Shoes came from Clarks.

By the third child I mostly used marker pen to name uniform.

Thanks. I've just realised I put this in AIBU! I meant for it to be in Chat!
I do lots of midweek washing at the moment as I'm on mat leave with 3 under 5s.. but I suppose that will change.
He is a very neat and tidy boy. Very slight and fussy about clothing!

I'm buying 2 pinafores, 2 skirts, 2 trousers, 5 shirts ( 5 tshirts for summer) and 2 cardigans.

I'm going to get good quality shoes as my older DC went through loads so from experience good quality ones last longer.

you can get cheap synthetic leather school shoes in Tesco etc but if you want leather, go to Clarks. Budget about £30-35 for s pair of shoes there. Buy shoes end of August in case he has a growth spurt.

I am getting through the week with 2 pairs of trousers, 3 shirts and 3 cardies (for DD, don't have boys). you need some school socks & PE clothes too.

when DD started I had everything 5x and really didn't need it. Get less and buy more if you think you need at a later stage.

I never buy logo-ed uniforms. It is not compulsory to have the logo and schools cannot enforce it. most kids at our school are logo free.

I don't use labels as such either but have a laundry pen (or whatever it is called) and write the names inside on the labels. works fine.

We've coped with 3 polo shirts and 2 of everything else. Though I can never find school socks, so I'd say get 10 pairs of those!

Primary schools vary with their shoe requirements. Ours are happy for the children to wear black or blue trainers, so that's what most children do. More comfy and can be worn at the weekends.

I buy 5 of everything so I don't have to worry about washing and ironing overnight (In my defense I don't have a tumble drier!). I buy it all from Asda or Tesco. They're really cheap and last well for the price.

I don't buy logo items directly from school because I can buy 5 jumpers from Asda for the same price as 1 jumper from school.

I generally get my kids shoes from Clark's anyway. But loads of places have a good selection of school shoes.

There is also a Primary school topic in the Education section which you might find useful for the next 3 years.
Personally we always got away with 2 sets of uniform, but my DC didn't play football in the mud. Worn all week, changed straight away after school.
Or buy a 3rd next size up so you have it ready for later.
Apparently some children's feet grow fast so don't buy school shoes too early (our shoes always lasted the full academic year).

When mine were at school (Home educated now) they had five of everything. Five bottoms (skirts, trousers, shorts, pinafore etc) and five shirts and then about 4 cardigans, jumpers, etc.

We’ve tried supermarket and M&S over the years. Supermarket stuff was fine but I found it to be thinner material. I didn’t find the cardigans/jumpers looked as good at the end of the year from the supermarkets.

School shoes we always bought from Clark’s outlet. They have a huge huge variety in the ones near me and paid about £20 a pair instead of £30/35+.

Brilliant saison4, that's reassuring. I'm hoping to not have to spend a fortune unless I really need to. The school is quite formal though, and have said that most uniform has to come from one particular local shop. There's a shirt, tie and blazer, but the blazer is optional.

I ended up going for 7 of everything except jumpers.

While do wash mid week I was finding if we went away for a long weekend we’d end up with not enough for the next week.

We are lucky as the uniform is polo shirt and track suit pants/short so pretty cheap

My boys needed 5 pairs of trousers. I also had 5 polo shirts and 2/3 jumpers (1 new and the others from the school second hand shop) plus a gazillion socks.

TeenTimesTwo, good tips. And good tip on Clarks Outlet. Thanks all.

I have just bought mine. I bough s five pack of vests and two jumpers (m&s) and one cheaper Tesco jumper.

Two pairs of trousers and one tracksuit (pe - all children wear tracksuit on friday)

Five shirts (really cheap in Tesco )

Next school wear is really good my ds starts in September too,it is small size though so get a size bigger.

I've only ever bought 2 or 3 of everything, but I do a wash most days.

I would try to get the blazer 2nd hand

Depends if you're a sahm or a wohm.

My friend works full time, she has five identical sets of uniform for everyday, so that she doesn't need to do washing during the week.

I'm a sahm so have more time to do laundry so only have 2/3 of most things.

Fwiw, my DC never wear anything more than once... everything gets grubby and has that school dinner smell to it!

Clarks for wide feet, start rite or hush puppies for narrow feet!

We have:
3 trousers or skirts
3 jumpers or pullovers
4 shirts (because they come in packs of two)

I'm afraid we do a wash every day anyway, so there's always a clean one by Friday.

we had 5 pairs of trousers stvthe start, by march we had 2 pairs without holes left. i made the ones with holes into shorts for summer. 6 shirts (whiteboard markers....), and 2 jumpers

I have 5 trousers and polo shirts and 3 jumpers. Don’t underestimate what he’ll come home covered in. Pen and dinner mainly. It doesn’t come off so I buy cheap polo shirts from the supermarket.

Don’t buy school shoes until you need them incase of a growth spurt. Logos are not compulsory at our school but they like you to have at least one logo jumper to wear on school trips.

My son usually needs his uniform putting in the wash every day (daughters weren't so frequent!)
Although he has a uniform fleece which only needs a weekly wash
I think you need a minimum of 3 polo shirts and 3 trousers, couple of shorts for summer. If you have 'official' good quality uniform polo shirts available they will last much longer and be generous sizes so better value long term I have these for my son and they were a hand me down and still look good and fit after reception and year one - supermarket polo shirts only last a couple of terms.

PTAs often run second hand uniform sales. Ask the school office whether there is a system at your school.

If they've a second hand uniform shop, do use it! They're usually completely bargainous (DD's school- £3 for a jumper, which are £18 new, and they're immaculate. One can't have been worn more than twice!)
You'll save loads, which is good, and your heart won't sink when they outgrow it in four months time !
Small children grow very quickly, and uniform from small suppliers is often excellent quality and very hard wearing, even though it's ££££.

we also have a blazer. we bought a size too big, and i folded the cuffs up (inside) and stitched on. will last at least another year. pretty much everybody else did the same