To think that switching to polo shirts makes the school uniform look low-rent?

[Byetoshirts]

My kids' primary has announced a change from shirts to polo shirts (previously just KS1) for all years except year 6.

I just think it looks a bit rubbish - all the other (in the main more affluent) local primaries have kids that look smart, and ours now get to look like they've just rolled out of bed. My DC are annoyed as they enjoy looking smart at school.

I associate polos in school uniform with young children and others who struggle with buttons and spilling stuff on themselves.

They also wash and wear badly (as stains kind embed themselves in polos) and the collar doesn't sit properly when open so a lot of (KS1) kids wear them tightly buttoned up to the neck, which doesn't exactly seem comfortable.

Our secondary and primary have polos. I'm all for it and don't iron them either. Put on hangers to dry.

Is snobbery really such a sin? I expect almost everyone is a snob about something; I know I am.

A friend’s children’s senior school changed their uniform to a gender neutral one with polo shirts and quite a few people were very cross about it.

If she didn't want to be accused of snobbery, she woud have left out the 'low rent' from the title.

It was the mention of “low rent” that did it!

Your post is proof that school uniforms are all about snobbery.

I think that school uniforms in this country are old fashioned and need modernising. Children need to wear something comfortable and practical. Don’t get me started on girls school shoes either!

My DCs’ (now 18 and 16) secondary school had polo shirts right from when it opened the year before DD started there. The school are just as strict on every aspect of correct uniform and smartness as if they had shirts / blazers.

Being comfortable and able to get on with their work is far more important than wearing a shirt simply because people think it’s ‘low rent’ . What would you find more comfortable to wear If you were sat down at a desk in a hot room all day OP?

I hated my blazer at school too. Hot restrictive acrylic fire hazards that were forever getting lost.

I think you are missing the point somewhat.

Ours wear polos upto y6 on pe days (twice a week) it’s tracksuit bottoms, t shirt and hoodies.

Low rent? You sound like Hyacinth Bucket. Don't be so common.

This is satire surely??

Why do your kids care if they look smart at primary age? More fun things to care about surely.

My son has PE today and is wearing a hoodie t shirt and black joggers, he looks poor, it’s a travesty 😅
honestly lady there’s a war raging people are dying and starving all over the world and your biggest problem is polo shirts…

I think primary school uniforms should be about comfort and practicality (for parents and children, and teachers!).

I’d prefer joggers, sweatshirts/hoodies and polos or t shirts, with trainers, personally.

I hate the stupid “smart” grey Teflon trousers and skirts, and uncomfortable and impractical black shoes, particularly the ones designed for girls.

For secondary, I’d support a uniform hoodie/sweatshirt/t shirt and whatever trousers/skirt you prefer.

Though my children had shirts and ties for primary as well as secondary, and did actually like them.

Shirts at primary school is mental. I don't care whether polos are associated with the worst villainous drug-and-crime addled dregs of society; they're easy to put on, easy to take off, easy to wash, warm and comfortable. My kids are 6 and 8, they're not going to a wedding, a tea party at Balmoral, or a job interview, so that'll do.

Honestly who cares how smart they look? A more comfortable uniform doesn't harm the education the school offers.

My children's primary and secondary both have uniform polos. Their primary is one of the best in the city, and the secondary was rated as the best in the region by the Sunday Times. Every school in special measures in the city has a smarter unform of shirts and ties.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying a smarter uniform makes schools perform less well. I'm just offering another data point to illustrate that the relationship is not straightforward.

@Byetoshirts In a word - yes. But parents are low rent too! I valued a uniform and dc liked theirs. I prefer a V neck blouse for girls and DDs had this at secondary school. Low rent sweat shirts were gone too. I think if you want decent fabrics and a smart look, you pay and go private! Shoes is another issue too!

I agree with this and it's the same for my area. The top schools all have polos while the schools that struggle have tie and (cheapo) blazer. One of mine went to one of thrse schools and went through 3 blazers in the first year playing football at breaktime. They also weren't allowed to remove their blazers without special permission from a teacher
Art lessons, drama and heatwaves in shirt, tie and blazer is utterly ridiculous.

More likely our regular school uniform fetishist.

I wore (gasp) jeans to school! And yet I am a functioning adult.

A previous poster mentioned shoes. If you think about it logically, it’s actually really bizarre that it is so accepted that you need smart shoes for primary especially for infants when they should be doing play based learning. As an adult I wouldn’t go for a run in ballet flats and yet we want kids to be active in their play. It has never bothered mine to be fair but I suspect they take their shoes off a lot at school judging by the state of their socks.

It is noticeable that for my external school trips they say wear trainers with uniform.

Right. Many countries don’t have uniforms and their children and teens come out being functioning adults and able to dress themselves properly and appropriately for the right occasions.

Want a uniform, fine but at least make it comfortable and practical. How is it practical to sit in a polo, jumper and trousers for six hours a day, five days a week when many adults don’t in their workplaces and the whole it being an equaliser is such malarkey. Doesn’t seem to be doing that considering the bullying in schools.

Plus, it’s obvious just by going to other kids’ home, birthday parties, looking around their environment, etc who has money and who doesn’t.

My children's school shoes are effectively black trainers, mostly from Clarks or similar. There is no requirement for them to be smart as such. I can understand the requirement for a particular colour, and rules about not having prominent brands etc., as allowing kids to wear expensive branded trainers seems likely to lead to problems.

I do wonder whether the emphasis on school uniform, in state schools anyway, is a more recent phenomenon.

I started school in the 1960s and primary didn't really have a uniform. My last couple of years there the HT suggested it would be nice to have a "uniform" of grey trousers or skirt, white shirt and plain red tie but it was entirely optional.

I went to secondary school in the 1970s and our uniform was the worst thing you could possibly imagine. I have never met anyone who had a nastier one. Until a couple of years earlier it had been a very normal traditional uniform involving blazers and ties. However, when it changed from being a Secondary Modern to a Comprehensive someone decided to mark this change by re-designing the uniform to be more modern and "70s". Unbelievably nasty and also so impractical that in a fairly short space of time what people actually wore instead stopped being very uniform.

Sixth Form was wear whatever you want so was mostly jeans.

Roll forward 20+ years and my own DD (also at state schools) had a primary which insisted on shirts and tie, a secondary similar but also a blazer and in Sixth Form it was smart business wear. The smart business wear for Sixth Form was a recent innovation, previously they had been allowed jeans.

Personally I think many schools are rigid about uniform because they see it as a way of imposing discipline because they have so few other ways of doing that.

I didn’t put my primary age dc in trainers because they don’t measure width of feet and are not a fitted shoe. I think for young dc, they are not shoes which support growing feet. Trainers for sport - of course. Secondary - the school gave us options and again, trainers for sport.

I do agree that uniforms are battle grounds but my parents were proud of us in our school uniform (state school) and it wasn’t cheap. No uniform at primary. I like smarter attire for 6th form but offices now hardly require it - but jobs like nursing and the military do. It’s no bad thing to look presentable.

I mean I find the entire notion that primary age kids should dress as 1990s office workerss completely insane in general. Who can learn and play in a shirt and tie. Office workers don't even wear them anymore.

And the whole looking affluent thing... really, who cares?