Why are school shirts so ridiculous?

[ProcrastinatorsAnonymous]

OK - posting here for traffic, which is probably the most unreasonable thing about this thread. But can anyone recommend a long sleeved white school shirt with buttons that won't make my dyspraxic son lose confidence every time he tries to do it up? I don't want to do the rip cord / velcro ones, as he is making good progress with doing up and undoing buttons on other garments, and wants to do a "proper" shirt - but the ones on his last set of school shirts were really small and fiddly - even I struggled with them! I'd like to find a set of shirts that will be a bit easier for him this year. Any brand recommendations would be great! Thanks!

Do they need to be long sleeved? My 2 kids always wore short sleeved shirts throughout primary and secondary school

Could most of the buttons be pre-fastened so he can put it on over his head and then do up the rest of them

Yes - son hates short sleeved anything. We've only just got him in T-shirts!

M and s have a decent accessibility range, maybe in there?

Personally with DS I got him him the Velcro for PE days and then the normal for other days when I was able to help if needed. Shirts come with fiddly buttons and aren’t the best to practise with.

The M&S easy dress range ones have velcro on the top buttons but normal buttons on the bottom half which might be a good half way point, so he can do up the ones he can see but Velcro those in the trickier spots. Even if he just used them on PE days so he doesn't get told off for taking too long

Could you buy ordinary ones and get a tailor to make the buttonholes larger and replace the buttons?

It would probably help if you took the buttons off and sewed them on again. You won't even need to try to make them looser, they just will be.

You could also wash the shorts every time you do a white wash until September to soften them. The stiffness is part of the problem I think.

You could potentially get some larger buttons sewn on and if you or someone you know has a machine, you could see in and extend the button hole easy enough.

Ah - I thought the ripcord thing went all the way down. If it's just half way, that could be a good solution - thank you.

This is a very good idea that I wouldn't have thought of - thank you!

Thank you! That's a really good idea about sewing them on so there's slightly more "give" with the cotton - I think that would make them easier to manipulate.

H&M and Matalan are good.

Just looked at reviews and the velcro does go all the way down - perhaps they've changed them.