To think high schools should have a summer uniform like primary schools?

[Serrina]

I mean, it gets really hot in the summer and they get uncomfortable in thick material especially when stuck in a classroom all day. Those gingham style summer dresses they have in primary school are thin cotton and help keep them cool. Why don't high schools have a summer uniform like this?

Nobody would wear it.
No sense in pointing to Australia - it’s the norm there.
Most of the kids care far more about what they wear than how hot they are.
Last week I gave 3 extra Y11s a lift. Very unusually we’d had a “blazers optional” email. All 3 had the v neck jumper on that they hate. Reason? They hate tucking shirts into trousers!
No blazer means fully tucked in shirts so they all wore jumpers with untucked shirts under 😭

I always wanted a ‘neighbours’ summer gingham dress when I was in senior school.

If my Y11’s school would stop caring about skirt length, her very short (but with Nike pro shorts under) very lightweight black skirt, teamed with short sleeved cotton short would be just fine.

DDs secondary allows the kids to wear a skort or shorts in the summer

My secondary (comp) did have a summer uniform for girls - gingham blouses (not dresses!) with the same skirt as in winter. They were cut rather more attractively than the long sleeved winter blouses (worn with a tie) and were universally worn - they were much more comfortable.

Completely agree.

Hmmm... DD wouldn't be seen dead in a coat in the middle of winter, whilst in the heatwave last week she was wearing a jumper under her blazer. There's no way she'd wear a summer dress. Teenagers are weird.

My children's senior school would allow no blazer and a summer t-shirt instead of usual uniform.

DDs grammar school has a summer dress

At my school students are allowed to wear short sleeved shirts and tailored shorts in summer

I mean they could just wear what they are comfortable wearing and get on with learning 🤷‍♀️

They do wear it! Many of the girks choose to wear the summer dress , usually on the first day it is allowed!

All of the secondary schools in my town (the 3 comps) have the choice of a school polo shirt to be worn from Easter to end of term. Tailored shorts are an option too but not a popular one!

Mine didn’t have a blazer and I left in 2010. Pleated skirt, knee high socks, polo shirt and jumper we could take off when ever we fancied! Blazers just seem archaic now, you very rarely see anybody wearing them.

We are in Australia and, unusually, DD’s secondary school doesn’t have a summer dress. They have a skirt, short and long sleeve shirts that are tailored so you wear them untucked. Then there is a jumper and blazer and tights or socks. Also long pants. You just wear whatever combination of uniform you are comfortable in. Blazers are not compulsory, nor are ties.

In years gone by girls wore the dresses because they were compulsory. But state schools now are required to offer a unisex option which is generally shorts. DD attends a state grammar and somehow they’ve avoided adding shorts but I’m sure they will have to soon.

@charlotte361 is that a school with a long history of it though? Especially a grammar?
There is no way the girls in my kids’ state comprehensive would wear a summer dress if it was newly introduced now. Maybe over a lot of years and a bit of luck with fashion!

Our school has shorts as well as trousers or a longer skirt. The kids swap to shorts with their short sleeve white shirts and tie. It's hardly a big transition.

If it is very warm, they are told to leave blazers at home.

They do feel the heat poor kids are forced to wear them all year, I actually kept my ds off for a week because they had to wear their blazer or where sent home, the rules changed the next week once half the school had been sent home for not having correct uniform and they could take blazer off.

Ours does?

Girls can wear ankle socks with skirts, both boys and girls can wear short sleeve shirts ANY time of year and from May half term they don't need to take their blazers.

This has given me flashbacks to the summer dress my mum made for me in year 8 of high school. The rule (bizarrely as the winter uniform was quite strict) that you could follow any pattern as long as you used a certain fabric.
Not many people (I was probably only one of 2 or 3 in the school) had one anyway but mine was so gaping at the chest you could see right down to my none existent boobs.
needless to say I was back in a shirt and skirt after a day of wearing it.
To be fair to my mum I had asked for one!

I think they should just do away with uniforms altogether.
DD goes to an independent 6th form and there is no uniform, the kids are generally dressed pretty appropriately in jeans and a hoody or tracksuits, it’s not a massive fashion parade.

My sons high school has the same uniform all year round, but they can take their blazers and ties off when the head decides it’s too hot, but they still have to bring them to school regardless.

When I was at school in the 90’s we did have summer and winter uniform (although you could wear winter uniform all year round)

Winter uniform was white shirt, tie, cardigan or V neck jumper, and skirt.

Summer uniform was white blouse with revere collar, cardigan or V neck jumper and shirt. In the summer you didn’t need to bring or wear a cardigan or jumper, not did you have to ask permission to take it off in every lesson (unlike local schools near me!)

I don’t understand this no cost wearing teens i hear about on mumsnet. The children near us wear coats in winter. Every so often i see one here or there not wearing one when it’s freezing or raining and i just assume they’ve lost it or don’t have one.
Is it very common in other areas?

My school had the same weird rule. Lots of us wore the dresses, in a random mix of styles depending on whether your mum was even halfway competent with a sewing machine -- no chance of buying them readymade as it wasn't a standard pattern

Most of the girls in DD's year 6 class last year had grown out of wearing gingham dresses. They wore short sleeve cotton blouses with skirts which they can also wear at high school.