School Uniforms?

[tearsandtiaras]

My socials are currently filled with anxious posts about being able to afford the correct uniform required for their children.

ND children who won't wear it- parents are anxious how this will be received.

I myself have had sleepless nights considering the cost with zero support from DD father. With added worry that as a full time worker I cannot access the uniform shop in opening times- which offers no option to click/ collect.

I work with families/ children/ teenagers daily- uniform is consistently an adder stressor to their lives.

I cannot understand why in 2024 when most office workers wear smart casual- we inflict this on to our children/ parents. Uniform is outdated.

Aibu?

@HauntedbyMagpies

Wear your own clothes day :) it used to be last day of term or charity day (children in need wear own clothes & say bring a £1 in.

daughters grow quickly too

I grew up and went to school in a country with no uniform (Spain) and now teach, and have school aged children in Scotland where most schools have a dress code but not a strictly enforced one. Like for example my kids wear black trousers and a white t-shirt. I refuse to buy special school shoes or hoodies because they have perfectly good trainers and hoodies and it seems wasteful to buy more just in a specific colour.

I never really understand the obsession with uniform. Surely people only like it because they're used to it. There's no real benefits otherwise how do you explain the fact that the UK doesn't have less bullying, better results etc than Europe/the US? Noone ever can on these type of threads.

I was full height at 12…so only had one set of secondary uniform. I don’t know a boy who did the same. But yes, I don’t deny some girls still grow as fast as some boys!

You're lucky! I got through a fair bit as I was a fairly late developer

I disagree that it's cheaper, it's an added expense as it doesn't replace the need for regular clothes.
I've had umpteen arguments over the years about uniform with my DC. I wouldn't say it looks particularly smart and as for being more appropriate most of the girls in my DC's secondary wear those tiny stretchy bum showing skirts...

We have huge issues with secondary uniform due to sensory processing issues. It really adversely affects my child. We really do need to have practical, inclusive uniforms if we have to have them at all.

I was 14 in 1993 when there was a vote in my school and the outcome was that the vast majority of us voted for the blazer to become compulsory for the girls. Before that it was only compulsory for the boys.

I loved wearing uniform and I'd be annoyed and sad if my DC didn't wear it.

I quite like uniform but our schools are fairly relaxed about it . Kids can wear trainers rather than school shoes for example. Joggers, skirts, trousers, hoodie, cardigan etc are all fine and bought from anywhere so long as right colours.

I think schools with specific, expensive suppliers are unreasonable but grey bottoms and a navy top is fine.

Our primary is sensible- no logos required. The thing I always find interesting though is that while the private schools near me have extensive uniform lists, the children seem to be most often in tracksuits or their pe kits as presumably much more practical than blazers.

Id not be upset at abolishing uniform full stop. My children haven’t had issues wearing their own clothes to nursery, holiday camps etc so I don’t see why they’d suddenly have problems during term time. In the workplace, I have become more casual every year. It is anachronistic to make an 11yo wear a blazer when very few adults still wear suit jackets.

I find this argument completely baffling. My daughter has several jumpers in her drawer. I've just had to spend £80 on 3 school labelled jumpers. I've had to buy a tie, school trousers, special
Pe kit, special shoes, and on and on. This is all alongside her non school clothes. If people really cared about poverty proofing the school experience, why have I spent over £200 on uniform? Oh yes, and she also needs a particular type of pencil case, a special type of calculator, sketch books, and a bloody ukelale!

Hey don't diss the ukulele. Music really helps their brains.

YANBU - why this is still be allowed is baffling

Every time I read a school uniform thread, I’m so glad that DT’s went to a non uniform school

Our most local no longer outstanding secondary (but still trying to trade on the reputation they had for years) has changed their school logo in minor variations about 4 times over the last 10 years - meaning uniform (they have logoed everything they can) has also changed as well. Decimates the second hand market and is a nice shot in the arm for the suppliers... ho hum.

My kids' school is a small academy trust - they keep the blazers and PE kit the same for the secondaries in the trust (thus more stuff available second hand) and just distinguish the schools via the tie, and the non-compulsory logoed jumper. They also tell parents at the new parents meetings not to go nuts on the jumpers as the buildings run pretty hot inside (I don't think the heating is the most modern system they can adjust easily - the school's due to be rebuilt soon) and also really push going for the affordable supermarket options where possible. I like their approach.

They've also ran consultations and reduced the rules on things like shoes, and worked with the older girls to develop a middle ground on PE shorts last year where they researched and found alternatives to the very short Nike style shorts that weren't allowed, but that still found female shorts that could be OKed for PE lessons. It's nice to see that level of pragmatism and working WITH the kids and the families. Even our uniform reminders as skirt lengths crept up have been along the lines of "look, they've grown, the skirt that worked in September isn't quite working in June - can you have a look at it" rather than really snarky laying down the law stuff.

And because they're more relaxed on things like allowing supermarket stuff - the kids don't try to eek out years out of the same horrendously overpriced logo skirt which never fit well on certain body types anyway... so they look smarter in the long run.

I do understand the specifying calculators though - just for ease of teaching them use of it it's handier if they all have the buttons in the same places and labelled exactly the same thing.

Our Maths department though need to update their recommended model as it's been discontinued!

It's like £200 for uniform that's half their clothes for the year. Surely you'd send tons more on normal clothes? Yes you still have to buy some but they only get half the wear.

A hoody a teenager wants easily costs more than a blazer and you'd need 5 for the year vs 1 blazer. Imagine the cost of trainers/ shoes if they wore them the whole time!

Even tops you just need so few compared to 365days of normal clothes.

@OneFastDuck the hoodies my daughter (age 16) and her mates like come from Primark and are usually about £7 if plain colours or a tenner if they have a character/picture on.
I could get about 6 hoodies for the price of one blazer.
Although I don't know why you would need 5 hoodies vs 1 blazer.
If the hoodie needs a wash it gets a wash. If the blazer needs a wash it gets a wash.
What's the difference?

@Needmorelego makes some good points, but I would also like to add this: with non-uniform clothes, they tend to be added to bit by bit throughout a year. And with teenagers, after a certain age they just stop growing quite so fast, so things last.

Uniform has to be bought all in one go - especially if you're in one of those academies that has frequent uniform changes in order to screw money out of parents so they can get kickbacks from the suppliers deal with all the problems the school might have in one fell swoop. Parents may well be able to manage piecemeal outlay throughout the year and yet struggle with a large one-off outlay.

Lastly, once the teenager leaves school, most uniform is no longer fit for resale. The blazer might be - that's pretty much it. The rest gets binned or (we hope) recycled. Whereas my kids transitioned seamlessly to university with the same clothes they had been wearing at their non-uniform 6th form and at home for years.

I don’t get this thinking- the kids all know who has money and who doesn’t.

’plain black shoes’ can be doc martens, lelli Kelly or Asda, same with coats/bags etc.

Then there are the cars they arrive in, the holidays they take, the birthday parties etc etc.

I'm a fan of uniform, provided it's sensible and affordable. Lots of people say primary school uniform should be tracksuit bottoms and polo shirts. One of my DC hated the feel of both of those.

If it was up to me I'd have something like
Bottoms in x colour. Be that black, grey, navy. Skirts, shorts, trousers or tracksuit bottoms.
White shirt/blouse/polo.
Jumper in whatever colour school chose.
Summer dresses in any colour. I hated as a child that they had yellow ones in the shop but i could only wear red!

And it would be the same list for girls and boys too.

@OneFastDuck
I don't think I spend any less on out of school clothes because they wear uniform. My DC wear non school uniform every day they'd just wear it all day if they didn't have to wear uniform for school like they do in the holidays.
They'd be able to have more suitable footwear for walking to and from school and playing football at lunchtime so I'd probably spend less overall on trainers.
If they didn't have to have specific PE kit they could use the training stuff they wear for out of school football and gym.
Mine have to have a coat that can fit in their school bag as they can't wear coats over their blazer inside the school which narrows down choice so we end up with home and school coats.

@SmashingPumps my daughter's primary (regular state, not even an academy) had blazers, ties, branded jumpers and branded PE t-shirts. All only available from one specific shop.
Girls were told off if they wore "blouses" rather than shirts - despite you could barely tell the difference.
It was a pain in the arse.

But you would have had 3+ months to buy the uniform?

We found out our primary school back in May. All uniform (including the logo stuff) except shoes was bought by end of June.