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

My son wee’d himself around 3 times a week...so I had 5 pairs trousers. He’s now 11 and I have 4 as inevitably he is covered in mud from football when he returns home.

I had less polo shirts etc back then..4

Can get away with less jumpers- 3

Clark’s shoes. If you can get to an outlet shop you can get them cheaper. I bought ASDA ones once for a wedding and the kids took them off and ran round in bare feet, they were that bad.

I bought sticker name labels. Can’t remember where from- one of the name label places. Most school uniforms have a label that you can write a name on with a sharpie though, which works too. Labels are good for easy visibility and also sticking on water bottles etc.

Ps you’re unlikely to get 2nd hand trousers as they get wrecked!

My eldest is in reception. We have three of everything and it’s been fine.

His shoes are from clarks, they have worn really well and will last the full year. Others bought from Tesco etc and have had to replace several times so if he grows quickly it might be a better option.

We bought a lightweight Mac for September and didn’t bother buying a proper winter coat until later on in October when it started to get colder.

I ordered labels from M&S, it was a text you sent with your details on, then it was charged to your phone bill and they posted out to home. No fuss and good service. My husband then sewed them into everything and touch wood we haven’t lost anything yet!

Don’t forget things like water bottle and hats for winter and summer!

We needed lots as I have a muck monster, sometimes it's tricky to find uniform later in the year when they've ripped the trousers and ruined the polo shirts so I keep new ones stashed away for later in the year. Also buy a name stamp, I got one from Stamptastic but there are others I think, my DS loved name tagging his own uniform with it!

2 skirts & 2 jumpers - my DD re-wore one of each for the whole week with 1 spare.

But 6 shirts/polo tops.

6 shirts is better than 5 because they often come in packs of 2 AND if you are busy at the weekend and don't manage to complete the uniform wash, you've got one ready for Monday morning.

I usually have 5 polo shirts As they get filthy then 3-4 dresses / trousers and 2 school cardigans . She never keeps the cardigan on so stays clean .
School shoes I usually get mid August before the rush end of August .

I'd start with minimum 3 trousers and jumpers, and then 5 polo shirts.

DD has 3 skirts, 2 dresses and 2 trousers but they have been accumulated over the year. Cardigans seem to disappear never to be found all the time!

Don't buy anything before August, he may have a growth spurt.

don't bother with iron on lables - they come off in no time. Stamptastic does mame stamps that are easier, quicker and don't perl off

DD has lots of polo shirts (four, I think) but only two pairs of trousers and two cardis plus one summer dress. She's now in Y6 and we have never needed more than that. It all washes and dries pretty fast so if she covers herself in paint or something I just stick it all in the washing machine when she has changed after school. And I don't bother with school socks as you can't see them under her trousers anyway. Nobody has ever said anything.

Depends what your pain points are. I can't be doing with mid-week washing, and DS gets covered in stuff every day.

Initially I got 3 of everything, and 5 t-shirts but the next year, I just got 5 of everything (and 2 spare t-shirts) - Top tip - keep one jumper for 'best' if you can, so that on picture day they have something presentable!

(these days mine go to a non-uniform school, and it's wonderful)

I, too carefully sewed in labels the first year, but ever since, I just label everything with a big black marker - in huge letters, across the inside of the waistband or whatever. Less risk of being nicked, and easier to see.

4 DC here so we have been through A LOT of uniform over the years!

Generally I go with:

• 2/3 bottoms (skirts or trousers)
• 5 tops (polo shirts or shirts)
• 3 over-tops (jumpers or cardigans)
• 6/7 socks/tights (because these always end up with holes in them or they go missing!)

I usually end up buying a couple of extra shirts through the year because they really don’t stay white all year long at the collars and cuffs in particular. If you’re going for shirts rather than polo shirts I would also recommend short sleeves (or 3/4 length sleeves if for a girl) - this saves cuffs getting filthy.

We always go with 3 jumpers/cardigans - not because of dirt, but because these are the items which get taken off at school and therefore get lost the most.

With skirts and trousers I’ve found 2 each is generally enough for my lot, but they’re not particularly grubby kids, nor are they hard on their clothes. When the DDs wore pinafores they had 3 each because they were forever spilling yoghurt down the front of them. On the upside - their shirts stayed a lot cleaner!

As for shoes - most shoe shops have sales around about June time and you can often get good deals then. New stock tends to come in at the start of the summer holidays so you get the best choice then, but as with buying sale stock in June, you risk feet growing over the summer. If you leave it too late though you could easily find you have very little choice left - particularly if your child has awkward feet (very narrow/very wide/low arches etc) and doesn’t fit a lot of styles anyway.

I can safely assume that the outer layer my DC go to school in will need washing over being worn once. So it really depends how often you're prepared to do washing. Also Beware that jumpers can go missing as kids often just take them off in the playground/lunchroom. Usually turn up if named but can take a week or so.

If you're looking for cheap shoes I found asda good, always still in good condition even when DC have grown out of them. First direct also do good trainer style school shoes (your DS will want to be able to run around in his shoes - don't go overly smart). Asda or sainsbury's also do good shorts etc for school uniform.

A wise woman once told me to have six of everything - to cover the weekends when you don’t get chance to do washing.

After a couple of years we probably have more than that, especially with summer dresses etc.

It depends. My boys are a messy bunch so they have 5 of everything apart from ties. My 7 year old comes home filthy every day and his shirts need to be boil washed at least and sometimes soaked in bleach as well. My nearly 5 year old has 3 ties as he gets his dinner down his tie most days. My name labels are the best for labelling stuff I find. They just stick on and I have never had them fall off. If you have more than one dc just put your surname on the label and it will save time and money when you hand uniform down to your next dc.

We have 5 of everything and 2 cardis because they are expensive. I prefer cheaper tesco/Matalan shoes to Clark's. I find the leather peels off the front of Clark's and they look shabby

I started with 2 and soon learnt that DD destroys clothes daily!
I now have 6 polo shirts, 3 cardigans, 4 skirts and 5 summer dresses. This also allows me to get behind on the washing sometimes...

I have a lot of uniform for ds. I probably have about 15 polos, 10 jumpers, 10 trousers, loads of socks, one pair of school shoes. I work full time. Although I do washing through the week I like to always have some ready, he wears a clean uniform every day and quite often loses stuff.
If you’re at home I’d say three of everything to start. I’ve bought from John Lewis, Sainsbury, Tesco, the school uniform stockist, m&s and also the £shop has a clothing range.
My opinion is best jumpers are M&S. Best polos are £shop or Sainsbury’s. If they get stained etc I don’t mind replacing when they are cheap. Tu I think have 25% off at the moment. M&S do a 20% off if you buy uniform early.
Trousers -pretty much the same. When they are little try to find pull ons rather than zip and look for reinforced knees.
Label everything!

All mine have 5 pair of trousers, 5 pairs of shorts, 5 summer and 5 winter pinafores (for the girl), half a dozen top (shirt or polo top), 5 school jumpers, 2 pairs of school shoes.
Basically one set of clothes per day, and a spare pair of shoes. I found that shoes last much longer if they swap them every day than if I buy 1 pair then another one.
A dozen of pair of socks
A PE kit - which can be used to change if needed during the day.
A sport kit for sport club
A pair of wellies to leave at school in primary

We buy clothes as we go along, when they outgrow something I just buy the next size up (or use one of their siblings hand me down).

It makes my life so much easier not to have to fret about laundry and to always have enough. The day they come back filthy or with torn clothes, they always do at some point, there's no drama.

Everything, socks and underwear included, is labelled with stick-on labels (Easytoname or stickins). It makes their life and their teacher's life much easier to gather their belongings when they get changed.

If you have three under 5s, then are you expecting to be able to re-use uniform? When I bought Tesco trousers for my boys, they lasted a term before the knees ripped through. Sainsbury's/Asda lasted a bit longer but still not great. M&S, though more expensive, lasted until they grew out of them, and still looked good when passed down to DS2. Even when DS2 had finished with them they were perfectly serviceable trousers. Much better value in the long run. I have only needed to start buying DS2 his own trousers, occassionally, now they are both at secondary school and the two boys are a similar size (so DS1 hasn't grown out of his before DS2 has caught him up ). The only thing I now have to do sometimes is sew up a hole in the crotch that appears (teenage boys!). But seeing as these trousers are lasting 3-4 years of use I'm not bothered about that. I think Next are similar quality so they'd probably give the same amount of use as well.

We also have 5 of everything: 5 trousers, 5 polo shirts, 5 jumpers, 2 shorts. For PE: two shorts, two tshirts, two joggers.
We got everything from M&S when they had 20% off
Everything has lasted all year but the white polo shirts are a wreck now... (stains). Bought 4 more a couple of weeks ago.
We also got new shoes at easter.

DD has 4-5 of everything, everything needs washing each day there's always mud or food or pen on things.

If your using the Tesco embroidery service make sure you order early, ideally before end July as they tend to go out of stock very quickly.

We buy 5 of everything, get plenty of name labels inc clothes, shoes, water bottles, snack boxes etc

Also a nice key ring for their book bag so they can easily spot in it in a big pile

My dgs has 4 pairs of trousers - it was going to be 3 but we bought them in M&S sale last year and buying 2x 2 pack was only £2 dearer than buying a 2 pack and a single pair. 3 sweatshirts - wish we had bought 5 of these as it is very rare they can be worn twice - if it isn't pen or paint, it's yoghurt or other food. 5 polo shirts. 2 sets of t-shirts and shorts for PE - again intended to buy one of each but most supermarkets sell as a 2 pack. Shoes - Clarks. The first pair bought at the end of August for £40 lasted until early January as his feet had grown a full size, the 2nd pair were on sale for half price - bargain

We bought the sweatshirts and polo shirts from Tescos and used their embroidery service. It's £5 per polo shirt and £8 per sweatshirt (without logo - £2.50 for a 2 pack and £4 each respectively) - but they don't sell our school's colour in store otherwise we wouldn't bother with the logos for the polo shirts. It's best to order early and as a job lot to avoid lots of delivery charges.
The local school shop is much more expensive - about £15 per sweatshirt but the quality is a bit better (we bought nursery uniform from there). We will be buying from Tescos again this year because apart from some fading (and bobbling on one sweatshirt - other 2 are perfectly okay and all 3 have been washed and dried together so wtf) all tops have washed well and are in good condition. Also nursery trousers were from Asda and they wore equally as well as the M&S ones.

We have 5 polo shirts, 5 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of shorts (soon to become 3 as one of the trousers has holes in the knee so will be repurposed), 2 sweatshirts with logos and 2 sweatshirts without, and a gazillion pairs of identical grey socks. All from Asda and cost about £40 total except the logo jumpers which were about £10 each from the school supplier

We usually do a midweek wash for jumpers although he's not covering them in food and paint at the moment because he's not wearing them.

My 5 yo has a tendency to dive headfirst into mud/paint/leaves/food though so needs clean everything.