Do we stop wearing coats in high school?

[TheyNicknamedHerTheBolter]

So my DS has just gone up to secondary school.

I’ve bought and returned three coats so far, non of which fit over his blazer. He’s informed me today NOBODY wears a coat, and the blazer acts as the coat. He can take it off in class but has to wear it in the corridor.

Is this typical? What do they do when it snows? Aibu to think this is mad?
or am I struggling to cut the apron strings 🤪

I’m used to bundling him off to primary mittens and a woolly hat!!

It sounds like this is the same everywhere. My, now adult, DD used to say this. She rarely, if ever, wore a coat for this reason as she would have to carry everything round all day.

It's mad isn't it. When I was at secondary school and even Sixth Form we had loads of coat pegs. I think there was always an area of cloakroom allocated to each form. You left anything valuable at your own risk, though apart from the occasional calculator nobody had anything really worth nicking then! But everyone put their outdoor coats there. In fact the teachers didn't want you bringing them in to the classroom.

Any teachers on here know why schools don't have cloakrooms anymore?

no, they don't appear to wear coats at secondary or beyond. I presume at some point it goes full circle and they will start to wear them again.

DD had a 5-10 minute walk to school, but never wore a coat, rain, snow, whatever, just her blazer. It's the same with college, hoodie all year round, even catching a bus at 7am in winter, just a hoodie. she might add a scarf and gloves.

There isn't anywhere to put their coats, not all of them have lockers, and don't have time to get to them before/after school.

At ours it seems to be jumper on over shirt even if it’s 25 degrees outside and never a coat even in freezing temps. I’ve given up trying to talk sense into DD - she’s old enough to decide to be uncomfortable if she wants.

We dont wear blazers at our school, so they where coats. I never understood having blazers for school. It's daft most high schools have them now.

Absolutely no way my teen DD will be seen dead taking a coat to school.Being frozen solid or soaked just doesn't seem to bother her. I have up after she kept losing her coat as I'd make her take it out be shed carry it rather than wear it and end up leaving it on the but, at school etc

At my school lots of the kids wear coats but not at this time of year… it’s perfectly warm enough with a blazer or jumper + blazer here. By October/November, almost everyone wears a coat. Our site does mean a lot of moving between buildings though and we have an hour for lunch where they mostly have to be outside unless it’s pouring - I can see that a school where they’re barely outside from one lesson to the next and then have 20 mins in the canteen for lunch may mean they don’t need one and carrying it round all day is a faff.

Actually, you’re right! We had a cloakroom area with coat pegs at my secondary school. I wonder when it stopped being the norm? Maybe they’ve been replaced by lockers…which hardly anyone uses!

My very nearly adult child hasn't owned a coat since he was 10yrs old, refuses to ever wear one. He spends most of his time in shorts and a hoodie, even in winter, that's a Shetland winter with hurricane force winds and driving rain. They don't even have school uniform here so he can't use wearing a blazer as an excuse.

Saying that I do notice that when the tourists arrive they are wearing their hats and winter coats in summer and the islanders are in vest and t-shirts so 🤷🏻‍♂️

Ah yes, you don't get the memo, only the teens do (I think it's delivered psychically).

Doesn't matter about the blazer, either, it applies to the thin v-neck jumpers also. Afaik it's non-negotiable.

You can try and combat it with lengthy discussions about precisely which coat/jacket would fit the criteria (which you aren't allowed to know & they pretend they don't know) that's always out-of-budget but they'll 'definitely wear that one'. But they don't wear that one either.

Plenty wear coats here. However they don't have jumpers under the blazer. I think the Yorkshire weather wins over fashion if they have a long walk or waiting at a windy and wet bus stop
They just buy bigger sizes.
They do also have lockers and cloakrooms, which I know is unusual

I remember being FREEZING as a kid and dearly wanted a thick winter coat. Are kids seriously opting out of warm coats now?? Crazy!!

DS is 13, fairly particular about what he wears and quite popular and wears a coat over his blazer when it gets really cold but for now is just wearing his blazer. Most of his friends have black puffer type coats (like this) but he doesn't like those so has a mountain warehouse double layer one that doesn't really have any branding on it (this). He only takes the outer waterproof layer if its not too cold or just rainy. As long as it's black and hip length, anything seems to go. I'd hang on for now and see what others are wearing at his school when it gets a bit colder. Oh and at DS's school, none of the boys seem to wear jumpers so that cuts down on the layers a bit.

At my old school (left 1989) wearing school blazer was optional and deeply uncool. Hardly anyone wore one. Coats all round. Fast forward 25 years to when my ds was there (left 2022)and blazers were no longer an optional part of the uniform and coats were only worn if torrential rain or in snow.

I remember having tho exact fight with my mum when I went to high school… genuinely don’t know why but at the time it was very uncool to have a coat. I remember saying “are you trying to ruin my life?”… Absolutely madness.

They wear them here but it's often wet - but school an absolute arse with them.

They have to be in bags once on site - so can't go in wearing them and there no shelter out front of school and are not allowed on playground in breaks. However they have to be black - though that's selectively enforced - so had one kids in navy blue end of school day shouted at while stood near to a neon pink coat that wasn't notcied.

DS favoured a black rain coat that could be put in bag easily - DD2 had years when she could openly wear a brown one.

They also had two years post covid of no heating and classroom windows all open - and HT not allwoeing coats in lessons though many teachers did - they discovered theremal underware and still ware on occaions.

In less wet areas - like where DN was - I think teens and lack of coats are common.

Neither of mine will entertain coats. Maybe very lightweight North Face summer raincoats in a biblical deluge but that's it. But then I do drive them to and from school so they're not out in it much. I suggested DS17 take a brolly last week and he looked very confused and said 'what the fuck is a brolly??' 😂

We had a cloakroom area with coat pegs at my secondary school. I wonder when it stopped being the norm? Maybe they’ve been replaced by lockers…which hardly anyone uses!

My secondary never had those nor lockers- if we took a coat over the blazer we had to carry it round all day. So dead of winter when stuck at bus stops for long periods was about only time I had one.

DC school had lockers you could pay for but they were in inaccesible places for the DC - area they couldn't access - so they quickly learnt not worth having.

My year 10 son wouldn't be seen dead in a coat! He has both a lightweight North Face coat and an Adidas one. I've given up arguing - if he wants to get soaked or freeze that's up to him.

I agree with others that teens will rarely wear them unless it’s freezing. My dd 16 will occasionally wear a coat if it’s extremely cold or rainy.

If your DS has just started secondary though he hasn’t experienced going in in winter. So whilst I agree that few kids want to wear a coat, he might change his mind once it gets really cold!

I do think schools should provide somewhere to keep costs though- adults wouldn’t accept having to carry a coat about all day! Mind you, when I was at secondary I think we just used to chuck our bags and coats on the floor around some pillar type things outdoors (it was a typical 60s built school, with an overhead walkway in a certain place).

OP I’ve had this discussion with Y8 DD multiple times, she wore a coat last year but only when it was absolutely freezing.

She says no one wears coats and judging by all the kids that I see at the bus stop and walking to school she’s correct!

I drove my parents mad with this in the 90s/00s. None of the girls wore a coat. To be fair, our uniform was pretty warm (long skirt and tights, unlike the micro-minis the local girls seem to go for, jumper, blazer, scarf and gloves) and distances between classrooms max 5 minutes' walk, so getting cold wasn't a huge issue. We must have got wet when it rained, but I don't remember that much?!

We had that rule that costs had to be carried in your bag and obviously it wasn't possible to stuff a winter coat into a bag full of books so we learned to do without.

School provide lockers but they have very little time in a morning and only put their pe kits in lockers. The lockers aren't necessarily anywhere near their form rooms so really inconvenient. Neither of mine wear coats. They both bike to school (both girls) and in the winter they wear gloves and very rarely if it's really bitter they'll put a raincoat type coat on that can be stuffed into their bag. But never a coat that would actually keep them warm, because they'd have to carry it round all day. On wet days they get the bus. They did ask me for those heatgen extra warm 60 denier tights from M&S last winter though!!! And very rarely they've worn a thin thermal long sleeved top under their shirts, that no one can see! But it has to be about -10° for that to happen!!

Mine will begrudgingly wear a rain coat if wet but generally they like to be freezing and moan about it a lot while doing nothing about it.