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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

sports "colours" at school - anyone else remember this?

77 replies

SenselessUbiquity · 22/11/2020 15:31

I went to a convent grammar school in the 80s. Certain girls from fourth year upwards (?) received, eg, "hockey colours" which were awarded in assembly and worn from then on - coloured ribbons tucked into the waistband about the same length as the skirt.
Sounds mad. Does this still happen? Does anyone else remember it? Does anyone's child at school now have "colours"?

OP posts:
Threeforagirl · 22/11/2020 15:34

Still happens in 3 of the 4 schools I've taught in. Didn't happen at the state comp I went to as a kid though!

Threeforagirl · 22/11/2020 15:35

Not always the ribbons in the waistband, but the same idea, called colours.

GreyBow · 22/11/2020 15:36

Still happens in independent schools. Very much prized. In prep school, my DD got a different tie to wear in her final year. She's now year 13, and really hoping to be awarded colours this year in this final year. I don't think it's actually a physical thing though (perhaps a metal badge? But not sure).

Ahorsecalledseptember · 22/11/2020 15:38

Yes - i don’t think my school did it but I remember reading a book which I think was set in the mid 80s at a girls comprehensive and one of the characters got her school colours.

I didn’t have a CLUE what school colours were but I liked it Smile

BellsaRinging · 22/11/2020 15:38

We had colours-but they were little cloth badges sewn onto the blazer pocket next to the school badge. Big status symbol round the school!

Original poster
SenselessUbiquity · 22/11/2020 15:38

thanks! i didn't mean to put this in AIBU and it seems I have asked everyone to vote. sorry!

OP posts:
Ahorsecalledseptember · 22/11/2020 15:40

I’ve said YANBU for reminding me of a book I liked! Grin

Svelteinmydreams · 22/11/2020 15:40

We had colours & half colours - ribbon stitched around sleeves of blazer; local comprehensive in 70s& 80s.
I didn’t qualify 😂

PineappleUpsideDownCake · 22/11/2020 15:43

I was at a garmmar school. It was a coloured bar badge with the sport name written on it. It went on the blazer on the pocket.

KittenCalledBob · 22/11/2020 15:43

We didn't have them at my school but I remember them at uni. My DC (state secondary school) get them too - at their school it's a little metal badge pinned to your blazer (like a prefect badge).

snaxinyourslacks · 22/11/2020 15:44

Yes my secondary school had colours, I went to school abroad.
Our was a scroll/badge to sew onto your blazer and also beading that went round the cuffs and edges of the blazer.
You could get colours for all sorts, academics etc. Not just sports.

Bumply · 22/11/2020 15:45

They had colours at my grammar school. Not that I ever earns one.
Vaguely remember they were badges that got attached to tie

Wingedharpy · 22/11/2020 15:49

I remember these too OP.
Also attended convent grammar school.
Ours were like a slim, woven "belt" with the appropriate colour woven in and a fringed end.
I never was never awarded one but had a friend who got one/several for netball. She frequently gave in to my pleading and let me wear it for the day.
I reckon that's what started my love of dangly tassels and clothing embellishments 😁

TessApricot · 22/11/2020 15:49

Still happens at my DC’s school!

lazylinguist · 22/11/2020 15:50

I've taught in quite a lot of schools. The private ones did colours. Never heard of it being done in a state school. I went to a grammar school in the 80s and we didn't have it.

Meepmeeep · 22/11/2020 15:51

Yes and if you represented your country internationally you got a ribbon that went the whole way round your blazer - not just over the pocket or round your sleeve.

Meepmeeep · 22/11/2020 15:52

Not a private or grammar school - a bog standard academy.

nosswith · 22/11/2020 15:54

One heard of this but one went to a comprehensive so one did not have this at school.

Pipandmum · 22/11/2020 15:55

Yes. Our school does it for sports and drama and I guess music.

teaandcustardcreamsx · 22/11/2020 16:00

Private schooled, they did them for all the sports alongside music and drama. We had badges to wear on blazers.

cologne4711 · 22/11/2020 16:05

My secondary school did it - you got a long thin badge with the name of the sport on it. Some girls had a long parade of them on their school jumpers.

I was crap at sport, although I did get "half colours" for athletics (just a mention in school assembly).

We also had badges for choir and orchestra but I think you had to be in them for at least three years, and although I was, it was interrupted by our music teacher being ill so I never got a badge Sad

cologne4711 · 22/11/2020 16:06

@nosswith

One heard of this but one went to a comprehensive so one did not have this at school.
One went to a state grammar school in my case so maybe that was why we had them!
onemouseplace · 22/11/2020 16:09

My secondary school did it - you got a long thin badge with the name of the sport on it.

That sounds familiar - I think our school had colours and half-colours for sport. I never got them, so can't remember that accurately. Private girls secondary if that makes any difference.

ShivD · 22/11/2020 16:15

My eldest son has colours at his school, they’re stitched on the lapel of their blazer and given for all different subjects like in this pic. It’s a RC state school.

We didn’t have anything like this at my comp growing up.

sports "colours" at school - anyone else remember this?
MillieEpple · 22/11/2020 16:20

My state comp school did and my sons state comp school does.