Explain the School uniform please?

[unfriendlyfriend]

Hello everyone

I'm a FTM and my son will be starting reception this reception. I'm not familiar with school uniforms in England. So any help/suggestions of what to put children in according to weather would be helpful. My child's school colours are blue. Do they wear a polo shirt or a button up shirt under the sweatshirt? and how many trousers/shirts/polo/sweatshirt do I need to buy? I don't want to buy too many. I'd already missed M&S sale. Everything's sold out in my child's size🙄

Also if they wear a coat on top of the uniform to school. Will they get to wear it out at break time/outdoor play time? Thanks I'm a complete novice if you couldn't tell plus I've no friends with same age boys as me so I can't ask anyone.

Schools do vary, so take any information you get here with a caveat.

The school itself will send you information about the required uniform (surprised you don't have this already actually ....)

The norm for state schools (you don't specify what type of school your child is going to) is that boys wear a polo shirt, a sweatshirt and then trousers or shorts.
The polo shirt is worn under the sweatshirt and both in school colours. Schools sometimes specify colour of trousers or offer a choice of black or grey. Some schools insist on logos on sweatshirts/polo shirts; others don't care.

Your child will be able to wear their coat outside when they are playing. Depending on the school they may be instructed to put it on whether they want to or not :)

I'd suggest hanging around outside the school and you'll see what others are wearing. If there is a summer fair after school that's also a good place to see others.

In terms of how much uniform you need it depends how much you want to wash, how messy your child is and how much you can afford. Some parents like to have a full clean set every day, but you can definitely manage on much less.

Find out from the school or the school website what they expect. Round here different schools have different uniform. Our school is white polo shirts. Next school is white shirts and a tie.

It varies from school to school. They have different expectations. Some schools also have a lighter uniform in Reception like joggers and polo shirt, while older pupils wear shirts and tie.

As per previous posters. You need to ask the school not randoms on the internet. Some schools want you to wear specific socks. Others you can wear whatever you can find from the supermarket in the right colour. And then there is everything between the two extremes.

I’d imagine the school will send you a letter/email in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn’t buy anything until then. There may be some second hand uniform sales coming up. They wear coats outside over the top of their uniform if it’s cold. Don’t worry about having to buy loads now - you could always get more in September/October when you know more.

You really do need to contact the school.

You'll probably find that some stuff has to have the school logo on it but most doesn't.

I used to buy one logo polo shirt and jumper for photograph day/Christmas concert type stuff and just use supermarket items for the rest. Sainsburys and Tesco and Asda all sell school clothes if marks is sold out.

How much you buy depends on your schedule. I buy 10 shirts, 5 dresses, 4 trousers and 5 jumpers or cardis every year because my Dd is messy and I work full time so need clean uniform available every day.

The school should have a website with a uniform page on it.

Use Google to find the website if you don't know what it is in the form [name of primary school] [area] e.g. st marks primary school stockton

Is it not on the school website? The schools round here have the uniform policy on their website. See if there's a "parent" tab, it could be listed under there.

The two of the primary schools I looked at both had red as their colour but one is red polo shirt and the other is white shirts so it really depends on the school.

This.

Also remember children grow, so your child may grow a few inches between now and when they start school.

As others have said you need to find out from the school because every school is different.
About coats though - Reception is a lot of free flow learning meaning they move around the classroom as they want. This may include an outside area which access is always open so they can be in and out all the time. As a result most children don’t put their coat on to go outside because that takes away precious minutes of play.
If you worry your child might get cold towards winter then dress him with a vest under his polo/shirt. He won’t stop for his coat. He just won’t!!

As others said school website will have it on their website

For example this is ours

So white polo shirt. Blue jumper with logo or without

Black trousers

Coat any colour - dat is good as hides dirty