To buy school tops in the wrong colour

[katiestar]

Our state primary school stipulates either the school sweatshirt which is bright red or bright red jumper / cardi with grey skirt/ pinafore.
I have bought my DDs dark grey cardigans to go back to school in for the following reasons.
1 They always get stained because the school doesn't have enough whiteboard markers so children have to use their hands , which inevitably ends up on their top.

2 Only buy uniform from M&S and their stocks were decimated , but had grey in every size.

3 Won't look too diffreent colour-wise from those wearing a pinafore.

3 Am really pissed off at the school who have agreed to be my placement school for a course I have been doing , but failed to return some paperwork in time for the deadline so I have wasted £200 and many hours for nothing.Not really relevant to the school tops but indicative of my feelings to the school.

5 MOST IMPORTANTLY looks lovely against their long pale blonde hair

People will think you are too poor to afford the proper uniform and bought cheap seconds. They wont think your daughters are quirky or pretty just poor.
Or put another way-
Uniforms help to keep pupils the same, so no one is singled out by the clothes they can afford to by or chose to wear. It enhances a sense of community in a school and encourages children towards common goals in team work achievement and pride in their learning.
If you cannot respect the purpose of uniform rules then I really am puzzled as to why you would want to do a course that involves education as a component.

You are being pathetic and unreasonable because your kids will be penalised for your choices and not you.

When going down the anarchist route pick a reason slightly better than because she looks prettier and you can't learn how to wash her clothes properly otherwise you just look stupid.

YABU. Kids don't need to look different either.

Get the proper school uniform. Note the word uniform.

YABVU, for all the reasons everyone has already stated.

Why bother with uniform at all? If you're going to use a different school's colour for the cardigan and break their rules then why not just send them in day clothes?

I do think your excuses seem a bit weak. You could have ordered the red ones from the M&S website.

I would hate to send my DD to school in a way that she didn't fit in. Children can be horrible if you don't conform.

I would expect that the school would have a second hand uniform sale and so you could pick them up very cheaply and then not worry about the staining.

However,I don't think it is anything to do with it-you have merely decided that you don't like the uniform, or probably any uniform; but it isn't about you and you are not the one who has to have the daily embarrassment. These things a very important to a DC. I expect most of the other DCs will, as Silver suggests, just think that you are too poor to buy the correct uniform.

Someone further back thought it was funny that I would feel bitter as an adult but it is the sort of thing you don't forget! A clear indication that the mother puts herself before the feelings of her DCs.

Am I the only one who is wondering what sort of placement katiestar was going for?
Not a student teacher, please?
With that kind of inflexibility?

It crossed my mind that they missed the deadline on purpose Goblinchild!

Btw, as everyone knows, M&S will refund or at least exchange without a receipt. Lack of receipt is no excuse.

I'm amazed that this has caused such an outrage.
In my dc primary it is clearly stated that the list is the recommended uniform(navy top,grey/navy bottoms and yellow t-shirts) however they cannot make it compulsory.

Some children wear grey jumpers, some wear blueish hand knitted ones, some have official school ones so they all look different anyway.

When I moved schools aged 10 I had to wear the completely different uniform including tie (why the tie mother?) from my old school from November until the following July when about 60% of children didn't even wear uniform, unless you call a shell suit a uniform. What I would have given for a grey cardigan (sigh).

Stayingsunnygirl- She isn't a first born ,she's a third born

Agree that people will think that you can't afford the uniform and have acquired some from somewhere. The only child in my dd's class who has not got the uniform has not got it for that reason.

I work in the school uniform shop in our school and there are people who can't afford the uniform and the children come to school in clothes that are as close as they can to the uniform. Our uniform is red and green and the boy in our class has a red jumper (same as the shirts) instead of bottle green.

'however they cannot make it compulsory.'

That really isn't the point-why make life difficult for your DC when you don't have to?

YABU

It is the head who states that not me piscesmoon.
The point I was trying to make was that they don't place too much emphasis on wearing the exact uniform, infact with EYFS they regularly ask for them to come in tracksuit bottoms so they don't wreck school trousers/skirts but no-one seems to listen presumably because of the fear of making their childs life difficult by wearing different trousers.

I agree with Greensleeves and also concur that uniform isn't compulsary in primary children. I really dislike all the "rules" and people HAVING to "obey" them. All that teaches your child is that they must act like a sheep and do what everyone else does. Thank god not everyone is like that or there wouldn't be much progress in the world.

We have bright red jumpers over WHITE (WTF!?!??!) polo shirts. Also can only buy them from one shop because it has the logo on it. It is cute as hell but does stain.

I don't know if this helps but I actually get Mum to send me Napisan from Australia, you can buy it via the Australia Shop website. It is a Vanish product but seems a million times stronger than what you can buy here.

I have yet to come across a stain that can withstand it. Take clothing with grass stains, chocolate stains, pen stains, paint stains, tomato sauce stains and various mysterious stains, dissolve capful of napisan in boiling water (in a nappy bucket!) place clothing and soak overnight, run through washing machine the next day as usual and they are as good as new.

I wouldn't send DS in a different uniform, even in reception the kids can pick someone "different" and like a pack of wolves that is all it takes. Why set them up for it if you can help it?

Sounds like your children need to move schools to one that suits your free spirit more.
Some schools are strict, some are not.
This one doesn't suit you at a superficial level, but it may be a sign of more significant conflicts in the future.

Why not try a Steiner school? They don't have uniforms and you'd find all the 'quirkiness' you'll ever need!

Katiestar - you're acting like your child is sooo much more precious than everyone else's children - she's too special and 'quirky' to wear the proper uniform - the very essence of pfb behaviour, even though she's not your firstborn.

And you are teaching her a very bad lesson - that she doesn't need to obey those school rules that she, or you, don't like. That's not a good thing to teach her, and could come back to bite you as she gets older, and decides that she can decide which of your rules to obey and which to quirkily flout

Don't turn your daughter into the infant version of those adults who think they can pick and choose which laws to obey - ie, they can speed because they are good drivers, or they can drive through red lights because they are in a hurry, or jump the barriers at the underground because they don't have time to queue at the ticket office.

And now, for some reason, I have a song from 'Earth Girls are Easy' running through my head.

'Coz I'm a Blonde'
Flips lovely long blonde hair and pouts.

Morloth, I don't know if it helps but you can buy Napisan in the UK, online and in some stores too.

Are you lost KingCanute, or just underwater and confused?

M&S have red cardigans available on line for the princely sum of £3.50 -£5.50

MOST IMPORTANTLY looks lovely against their long pale blonde hair

Red just doesn't fit the bill I'm afraid.