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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Thinking having a uniform in sixth form is pointless

70 replies

Hja12 · 30/08/2023 19:38

DD got her GCSE results last week. She missed on a grade she needed for her original sixth form choice, but another in a town over only required a 6 for the subject instead of 7 and had space. It's part of a grammar school.
The school requires they were basically the same uniform as the Y7-11 only the blazer is a different colour and jumper a different colour. Other than this still a tie, tartan skirt etc.
We are now scrambling last minute to get these bits. At the one she was due to go to the dress code was business casual.

AIBU to think this is a bit silly and pointless? Anyone else know of a sixth form like this?

OP posts:
Choice4567 · 30/08/2023 19:40

Yes Grammar schools are often like this

Friggingfrog · 30/08/2023 19:40

My sons school is the same. He’s only in year 7 so I don’t know if he’ll go to it or the local college but it’s basically the same thing- different tie I think to the rest of the school. No idea why. Not a grammar school just a local comp

Hellocatshome · 30/08/2023 19:44

Hja12 · 30/08/2023 19:38

DD got her GCSE results last week. She missed on a grade she needed for her original sixth form choice, but another in a town over only required a 6 for the subject instead of 7 and had space. It's part of a grammar school.
The school requires they were basically the same uniform as the Y7-11 only the blazer is a different colour and jumper a different colour. Other than this still a tie, tartan skirt etc.
We are now scrambling last minute to get these bits. At the one she was due to go to the dress code was business casual.

AIBU to think this is a bit silly and pointless? Anyone else know of a sixth form like this?

Why is it more silly and pointless than the rest of the school having uniform? I dont agree or disagree with you just interested as it why you feel it is silly and pointless for years 12 and 13 but not 7 to 11?

TeenDivided · 30/08/2023 19:46

When they are part of a school I can see why they might want the uniform too.

Where I am it is all colleges, and they all wear jeans and hoodies.

TrixieFatell · 30/08/2023 19:46

Our 6th form insists on formal wear so boys wear suits and girls dress smartly. My daughter didn't want to be in a place that polices clothing so chose local college where she feels she can be herself more.

CrazyArmadilloLady · 30/08/2023 19:49

I mean, it’s only really annoying because you’re having to move schools and get a uniform for just one year. Yes, that is annoying.

Hlpfl · 30/08/2023 19:59

My DS sixth form had school uniforms and new parents did initially feel it was unnecessary and that smart wear would be better (which another local sixth form do). The cost was the main objection.

Everyone I know changed their minds when they realised how much parents from the other school were paying over the 2 years that sixth form lasted. Suits for boys were more expensive than the school uniform and the girls definitely spent more on clothes even buying from cheaper shops like H&M as they constantly needed new clothes for different seasons and they couldn’t possibly keep wearing the same clothes whereas with school uniform those problems didn’t exist.

Whataretheodds · 30/08/2023 20:01

More pointless is requiring the 6th formers to wear suits when it's no longer standard business attire.

PastTheGin · 30/08/2023 20:06

None of the schools around here have a uniform for 6th form. They used to all have smart business wear rules, but I was very pleased to see that most 6th forms now don’t have a dress code other than some common sense rules - along the lines of covered from shoulder to knee, no flip flops.

PuttingDownRoots · 30/08/2023 20:07

We live in an area where sixth form is separate to Ks3/Ks4. Our local college sens multiple children to Oxbridge each year but students can wear pretty much what they like. (Obviously Oxbridge isn't everything but just an indicator its academically vigourous)

TinyRebel · 30/08/2023 20:10

I can’t stand the move towards ‘business casual’ either. Sixth form used to be a time when kids could wear what they liked. Mine has chosen to go to college instead, where they are treated more like young adults.

Confetto · 30/08/2023 20:11

I'm not sure it's any less pointless than at other stages of schooling. It's entirely normal in Scotland to wear a school uniform from S1 to S6.

KnottyKnitting · 30/08/2023 20:13

My DDs VI form had business wear- smart blouses/ tops/ tailored skirts/ trousers and smart shoes. She actually missed the uniform- particularly the blazer with all the pockets! Grin

AndIKnewYouMeantIt · 30/08/2023 20:14

I understand at schools but I do think any 6th form colleges having a uniform or dress code is weird. I went to the highest ranked 6th form in the north (of England) and you can wear what you want. It doesn't wash that "you'll have to dress smartly for work" either as nearly all of us went off to uni for 3 to 4 years!

Hufflepods · 30/08/2023 20:14

I don’t really see how it’s any more silly and pointless than any other uniform. I don’t know anyone who went to a 6th form with no uniform.

LlynTegid · 30/08/2023 20:15

I think it should be confined to maybe certain things not being acceptable for school, for example anything that means underwear is visible, covering shoulders or something like that.

andrainwillmaketheflowersgrow · 30/08/2023 20:17

No more pointless than any other type of school uniform.

IDontNormallySayThis · 30/08/2023 20:19

I chose to go to the sixth form that had a uniform 😂 for me it was all about the ease (not worrying about what to wear and looking 'poorer' than others-late 90s).

Hellocatshome · 30/08/2023 20:23

IDontNormallySayThis · 30/08/2023 20:19

I chose to go to the sixth form that had a uniform 😂 for me it was all about the ease (not worrying about what to wear and looking 'poorer' than others-late 90s).

Yes I was in 6th form with a uniform very early 2000s and I think the stress of having to find things to wear everyday would have been a lot.

Also as our 6th form was in a school like it sounds OPs daughters is using the same teachers and classrooms and dinner hall as the other students having a load of 17/18 year old walking around in shirts and ties and the female equivalent would have been a bit odd, half the younger kids would probably think you were a teacher/staff.

NumberTheory · 30/08/2023 20:27

Suits etc. is more pointless. But uniform and restrictive dress codes for general education are detrimental anyway.

MrsAvocet · 30/08/2023 20:31

My DC's school has a uniform. It's different to the rest of the school but still fairly traditional- black trousers, white shirt and a school tie and jumper.
I think it is more sensible than the dress codes that all the other 6th forms in our area have. All my friends who have children at other schools have ended up spending far more on their DC's 6th form wardrobe than I have, and it's still clothing that a teenager won't wear outside of school. At least our uniform is relatively inexpensive and there is minimal scope for argument between parents/teachers/pupils as to what is suitable. I think 6th forms should either have a uniform or genuinely let the pupils wear what they want. "Business dress" is the worst of both worlds in my opinion, and particularly pointless given how few people go into jobs with that kind of requirement these days, especially not straight from school.

Septemberdaysarehere · 30/08/2023 20:32

TrixieFatell · 30/08/2023 19:46

Our 6th form insists on formal wear so boys wear suits and girls dress smartly. My daughter didn't want to be in a place that polices clothing so chose local college where she feels she can be herself more.

This my daughter has to wear a formal skirt or trousers with a blouse and a jacket. The jacket must be with them at all times. I like it.

SlightlygrumpyBettyswaitress · 30/08/2023 20:34

I commute daily on a line which basically shunts kids from bits of Kent and East Sussex to Grammar schools. It's amusing that the kids all wear ties, smart trousers, blazers and polished shoes.
All the adults going to work wear jeans.

Hellocatshome · 30/08/2023 20:35

I think business dress seems a bit like playing dressing up. They are not working in an office they are going to school or college and if the boys have to wear a suit they will be smarter than 100% of the men that work in my office.

Justonemorecoffeeplease · 30/08/2023 20:39

I can appreciate you find it annoying but you have a choice of not sending your daughter there. My daughter is far happier with a uniform rather than agonising what to wear that’s ‘cool’.