To think this is wasteful?

[gotmychocolateimgood]

At my DC school they are asked to wear a coloured t shirt for sports day. They are given a colour eg blue, green, yellow, red. We are given lots of notice for this. Sod's law, the colour my DD has been given is the one colour she doesn't have already.

I know from parents of older children that each year the children are given another slip asking for another t shirt, OK so kids grow but wouldn't it make sense to keep the same colour throughout their time at school? Most parents I've spoken to just buy a fruit of the loom top from Amazon at £1.50 but it seems quite wasteful. It's a big school so potentially over 100 t shirts could be being bought for sports day each year. I've found a bundle of second hand t shirts on ebay including the colour we need, in the next size up so they can all be worn again.

Disclaimer: I watched Years and Years yesterday so Gran's rant about £1 t shirts is fresh in my mind!

Why don't they just have those bands you wear across your chest? Seems ridiculous to have to buy a t-shirt in a particular colour just for that one event.

It's not wasteful here.

Mainly because my son would then wear it at home.

They're always the primary colours plus green, never obscure colours like mauve or heather. I'd hazard a guess most people could drum up t-shirts or borrow one. But I get where you're coming from. Schools always seem to assume every family has limitless time and money to be faffing about at the last minute getting pointless bits of clutter and dross. Believe me , it only gets worse with Food Tech.

True, the t shirt can be worn again. That was my thinking in buying a size up. But most children probably have enough t shirts already. Grabbing a new t shirt at the supermarket while you're there shopping anyway is easier than faffing around borrowing or looking in charity shops so I expect a lot of brand new ones will be bought for this event. It seems unnecessary

I feel the same about Christmas jumper day. So wasteful and unnecessary.

how ridiculous. Why must they wear a coloured T-shirt rather than either their school PE gear or own clothes. I’ve never heard of this happening at any schools round here.

We always do it but they use T-shirt’s they would wear at home anyway so not wasteful.

Our school has four houses and each a different colour. So they wear their house colour throughout all the years.
What I find way more annoying is those silly dress up days that either people spend ages making or buying from Amazon. Ok if your child is little and still plays dress up but otherwise a complete waste of money, time and totally unsustainable!

If they were in house teams for PE normally they could just wear house coloured t shirt. But they all wear white.

Sports day, Christmas jumper day, spotty for children in need, Titanic day, Victorian day, nativity, World book day... I bet the majority of these clothes aren't just lying around in the kids' wardrobes waiting to be found and used. The parents go out and buy a lot of them.

Have to say our village Facebook clothing selling site is really good for this stuff but you have to be very quick to respond to ads!

YANBU. This sort of thing really bugs me. It encourages everyone to but sweatshop products that are then rarely used again as no one wanted them in the first place. So wrong.

*buy

My DD hates red so she didn't have a red t shirt at home already. If she did it would be easy

Is it worth mentioning to the head or would I be a terribly fussy mummy? My suggestion would be that they stick with the same colour throughout school and siblings would be put in the same team too so you could potentially hand them down.

Bring in a big box the day after sports day and get everyone to drop cleaned T Shirt in there. Next year whip it out for children to use. There’s a massive drop in attendance levels on Christmas jumper day lots of families can not afford to buy one-it’s really annoying when you have to buy things for one off use.

Great idea - I like the drop box!

YANBU. We had this during primary, could be a different colour every year. I never dressed my kids by choice in bright red, green or yellow (And certainly not PLAIN t shirts without patterns which was what school expected) so we never had t shirts in those colours and if buying them for sports day they wouldn't get worn again . I think we missed at least 1 sports day, for another we might ve been lucky and got blue (which we did have t shirts in, picked up a couple for 10p at jumble sales, and I'm pretty sure on a couple of occasions sent DC with a white t shirt from their existing wardrobe which had a pattern in the required colour. It really did irk me though. No reason why the kids couldn't just wear coloured bands that's what we did when I was at school!

Drop box is a great idea!

I agree with you that the situation is ridiculous and unsustainable but you will get further by organising something practical like this.

Surely in a few years everyone will realise how ridiculous this sort of thing is. (Haven’t seen Years and Years but I know about Amazon wages, cotton-growing and clothing factory conditions!)

I agree that they should have the same colour every year and siblings should be in the same sporting house. Children (and adults) have favourite colours so there would be no guarantee they would ever wear the t-shirt at home.

For other random colour days I would send in the closest colour we have, such as orange instead of red or yellow.

Seems a bit odd that they don't keep them in the same team every year, but that aside! Yes it's wasteful. The Dropbox is a great idea - maybe something the PTA would be willing to organise and then resell the shirts the next year for 50p or something?

Don’t get me started on book week and ‘dress up as your favourite character ‘

we home educate but my niece and nephew are in school

we go every year and they wear tabbards over their polo shirts

That's ridiculous. Our school does the coloured t-shirt thing (red, green, blue, yellow) but they are sorted into their houses when they start, and remain in the same house throughout. They also keep siblings together - all my kids were in the "blue" house.

At sports day they are asked to wear a t-shirt if they have it. Doesn't have to be a plain t-shirt, just one in the right main colour and not a football shirt. Or a hoodie. Or a pair of leggings/shorts in their colour with their white school polo.

Is your school an "eco-school"? Most are. I would say to the Head that this is not a good way of being sustainable. The same goes with schools who demand elaborate costumes for assemblies.

Ours does the same colour/team that you stay in from year 3 to year 6 - imagine it makes it easier for either teachers or admin as only the "new" year 3s to share out amongst the teams each year

I'd mention it to the head

complete waste of resources - push the green agenda

also is there a way to sort it out among friends?

but agree, they should give them all a sash or whatever.

Our P.T.A bought tabards in the house colours so parents boo longer have to buy t-shirts for sports day. OR kit, house tabbard on top.

Though one family still moaned as they only had one pe kit between their kids! (Kitted them out from lost property)