to think people should dress their children in the correct uniform?

[pigsinmud]

The uniform is blue shirts or polo shirts, grey trousers for boys and navy skirt/pinafore for girls. There is a boy who always wears a white shirt and now his sister has started she is wearing a white polo shirt with a grey skirt?!

I mean does the mother not notice that her children are the only ones in white shirts? All other girls are in navy pinafores apart from her dd. Her dd looks like she goes to a different school as she looks so different to the other girls.

It's getting on my nerves. AIBU?

While trying to divert myself from work at silly o'clock last night, I was reading this topic when I got a text message from ds2. It said "Guess what, Mum. I've just met Mrs XXXX at the XXXXX Beer Festival. For the first time ever she didn't send me home to change my shoes".

ds2 is now a 26 year old pub landlord. However his final two years at school were blighted by constant problems over a school uniform that the school hadn't thought to make available in the size of him and several other Year 10 and 11 students - 6ft 2 upwards and built like the school rugby team. Which they mainly were.

I was constantly having to send notes to ask whether he could be allowed to eat in the dining room/use the library/avoid detention on the grounds of being inadequately dressed. All this at a time when his GCSEs were what he needed to concentrate on and I was not alone in being thoroughly pissed off about the ludicrous, one-sided interpretation of uniform rules.

I remain entirely unconvinced about the so-called benefits of school uniform and certainly it is nonsense to suggest it is any sort of leveller so far as class/economic status is concerned.

Uniform is there so that we can bend the rules - without uniform what would we do?

My dd doesn't wear the correct uniform and last term wore a blue sweat top instead of red - reason I didn't have the cash to buy a red one and the only one we had was in the wash. I am not letting her get cold just because it is the wrong colour.

Not so unlikely. Local school has now changed uniform again, this time to pretend it is some sort of academy given the blazers, monogrammed jumpers etc. Friend who teaches there and thinks uniform is vile, was warned that teachers can expect a stricter dress code to be introduced.

Well, I have never come across anyone wearing the wrong colour to school before - that was the reason I posted. Obviously it is quite common. None of the uniform has to be bought from the school - there is a school sweatshirt, but any navy sweatshirt/jumper/cardigan can be worn.

An awful lot of jobs require a uniform. Dh, when performing in a concert, doesn't think sod that I'm not wearing a dj I'll go in my jeans.

My children don't have many out of school clothes and the uniform is cheap - even ds1's secondary school uniform. I don't think buying a uniform makes much difference to how much I spend on clothes, as if there was no uniform I'd have to buy more everyday clothes.

As for uniform = uniformity - what tosh.

YANBU. This really annoys me too.

At primary school, the correct uniform is not often expensive, surely the parents must realise that their kids stick out like a sore thumb.

An awful lot of jobs require a uniform and it is provided with the job, if the uniform is not provided then tax reduction can be claimed for the outfit.

I have never known a school provide uniform for the pupils - unless they went to borstal.

My child wears enough of the school uniform to make him feel happy.

he doesn't wear the same colour polo shirts as some of the other boys - the choice is blue of white, nd if you can have blue, why would you choose white? For a 6 year old?

he where black cargo pants and black trainers, because I Don't Do Teflon.

HE WEARS BLACK CARGO PANTS

sorry

I used to be fairly pro the very basic primary school uniforms (grey trousers, school polo shirt type). However since moving to countries which just don't do uniforms (except as a status symbol for private schools) I realise that uniforms for primary age in any case are really pretty redundant.

There is no extra hassle of deciding what to wear, there has been no bullying on the grounds of clothes, and school pride and discipline is totally dependent on the ethos of the school.

The view that uniform is a leveller is a bit rubbish too. It was obvious which children were poor at my children's UK school. Their clothes were much more worn out and faded than everyone else's, and at the end of the week they tended to be dirtier too. I assume that's because they bought them second hand, and had less of them. At school now all the children look different so it is much less obvious, and if a child looks a bit scruffy it's just as likely to be because that's their nature as because they have poorer parents. The only rule here is that girls shouldn't show their shoulders (primary finishes later, with the transfer to high school at 13) and that seems to be fairly well followed.

Uniforms seem to be a constant source of friction for schools. One of the things I have taken on board as a parent is to pick your battles, and to be frank fighting with a child about triviality such as whether their badly made shirt is or isn't tucked into their badly designed skirt seem a very petty battle (can you tell that's the one that I had a lot of as a tall child - the shirt was too bloody short to tuck in anyway!). Plus when the person telling you off is very sloppily dressed themselves (as many teachers are) I think it is a bit of an insult really.

Lets ban any kind of uniform, all rules (except the ones we like that mean we get a better deal then someone else) and let everyone do their own thing, structure is bad bad bad, and putting children in a uniform is the start of all things evil

You choose your job though. Children don't get to choose whether to go to school (with a few HE exceptions). And lots of uniforms are just ridiculous, ugly, ucomfortable and poorly made.

Do many people actually choose a job based on uniform?

I can't see many people sitting thinking "Oooh I fancy being a fireman because you get the cool outfit". It just comes as part of the job.

Our school has uniform grants for those on certain benefits - is that not standard?

I send my school in a grey cargdigan instead of a school uniform red one because we both think she looks nicer in it (and so does her teacher )

I like uniforms. This is cause I think they look cute as hell all dressed up together and also because I don't have to think about clothes for DS through the week.

DS's is quite reasonable, isn't too expensive and is bought from one shop (which is around the corner).

I even like the teflon shorts, cause a quick wipe with a babywipe and 90% of stuff comes off meaning no need to wash!

Anything that reduces my decision time/washing pile is a winner as far as I am concerned.

Flamesparrow, really I meant more the other way around - ie one of the reasons dh likes being in IT is because it's a jeans and t-shirt sort of world, and he hates suits. But more that if you decide to be a policeman/fireman/nurse then you know uniform/special clothes is part of the deal. Usually there is a fairly good reason too (recognisability, protection etc).

My parents did do the uniform loop hole, and we were sent to a primary which had the full tie and blazer uniform in totally non-uniform kilts . To be honest we would have stuck out regardless, but I do wonder what my dear mother thought she was doing to us.

I think this is one of those times when I realise I am actually lucky living in a poor area. I don't know the amounts given, but I know it is enough to cover the full lot from Asda or somewhere.

Things should be even. I hate the state schools with the "you must buy our official blazer, t-shirt etc". A state education should be accessible to all including uniform.

I'm in the situation of needing uniform because it actually helps DD. She seems much younger than other 6 yr olds, and they have actually picked on her for her clothing choices for school discos before if it was too young looking, or the same thing repeated. Same with a sodding lunchbox. At least with uniform she sort of slots in better.

happywomble to answer your question from a long time ago. No of course "no children are the same". They are all genetically different arn't they ?

I remember starting a new secondary school (we had moved) I was 11, my dad and stepmum sent me in my old uniform, completely different colour for 2 weeks, I was bullied everyday, it was'nt because they could'nt afford the right uniform, infact I found a uniform hidden at home, it was just an act of cruelty. So for me its quite important that children are in the correct uniform.

I know a boy who is 12 and he has to wear sorts to a fairly posh private school. He is a day boy and he insists his parents bring long trousers with them when they pick him up from school so he can get changed in the back of the car before he gets home so none of his 'home friens' see him wearing shorts.

whoingodsnameami - that sounds horrible.

ABetaDad one of the schools near us has purple shorts as the uniform. I cannot imagine what that must be like for those boys. They even have a buckle on the side. It makes me think of Smeltings in Harry Potter. Those kids look so unhappy.

whoingodsnameami that is a horrible story.

I Honestly don't have a that much of a problem with structure and rules . However, when you see a kid at school wearing stripy tights one day I don't see the point in stressing about it. One mum told me she hated another mum becasue she sent her son to school in non school uniform once . I happened to know that his dad had walked out that weekend. I think we should give people a break.