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Original poster

What do you wear to a school open day?

155 replies

upsidaisie · 04/10/2007 09:13

We are off to an open day for an independent school at the weekend and I have no idea if you need to be dressed in casual or smart clothes for these things . It only really occurred to me last night when DH asked if he needed to wear a shirt and tie, adding that he hoped not!! A recent episode of Eastenders springs to mind when Ian made a total prat of himself and I am keen to avoid standing out for being different/stupid!! My feeling was smart casual probably, but if anyone else knows different I'd appreciate some input.
Thanks

OP posts:
Hulababy · 04/10/2007 09:16

We just went smart casual type. Didn't wear jeams as we were unsure about it all - but others there did, and since DD joined the school, we have been in jeans too No need for DH to wear shirt and tie.

Original poster
upsidaisie · 04/10/2007 09:18

Phew! Thanks

OP posts:
brimfull · 04/10/2007 09:19

top to toe Boden

foofi · 04/10/2007 09:23

I'd say that (around here anyway) people DO dress smartly for visiting independent schools. For state schools anything will do though!

nailpolish · 04/10/2007 09:23

oh god dont wear jeans
i would wear smart trousers and nice shoes and smart jacket/coat
i would tell dh to wear trousers and shirt (but no tie)

bozza · 04/10/2007 09:26

Agree with np on the middle ground, only I would wear a skirt and knee length boots and thick tights

Anchovy · 04/10/2007 09:32

When I went to look round the DCs school (private, but not hugely fancy) there was a father there in a navy blazer with a checked shirt and a cravat. A cravat. I nearly turned round and left on the spot. When DH asked me how it went, that was the first thing I told him!

I now have 2 children at the school and haven't seen a sniff of a cravat since, thank goodness. I'd like to think he was escorted quietly but firmly from the premises.

mwamwa · 04/10/2007 09:36

Went to see a school the other day in the rain....wearing strappy sandles...big mistake when you are invited to do a tour of the grounds! Headmasters wife lent me some wellies two sizes too big to pad around the lawns. Looked very fetching with my Boden skirt. Rah, rah, rah...

Anna8888 · 04/10/2007 09:42

I wore a dress and long suede boots.

Anna8888 · 04/10/2007 09:43

And my partner wore a suit - he'd some straight from the office.

seeker · 04/10/2007 09:48

Wear whatever you want to. You are paying them. You don't worry about what to wear when you go to Tescos, do you? (Waitrose, maybe.....) Seriously, you are the customer - they are selling to you. You are in charge!

Anna8888 · 04/10/2007 09:51

Seeker - ah, but Waitrose doesn't select its customers - it'll take anyone with the cash to pay. Independent schools do select their customers - you have to sell yourself to the school first and foremost.

Hulababy · 04/10/2007 10:40

I agree - no jeans for first visits. However once child is at school I think it is less of an issue. DD is going in for the Open Day this weekend. Dh and I will drop her off and probably have a quick look round the preprep area - want to see the new nursery setting, and also have a nosey at some of the art work in the art room, etc. to see DD's stuff. Then we will go out for brunch and wait for her - so we will be casual, not very smart!

We find the Open Days pretty relaxed.

However when we went to do our own individual visits - which I think are way more important than an Open Day - on a school day we got more dressed up. Seemed more formal.

I guess it does depend ont he tuype of school. DD's is a very traditional, quite formal type of prep school but with a very caring relaxed environment.

seeker · 04/10/2007 11:05

Can I quote this thread next time somebody tells me how wonderfully inclusive private education is?!

singersgirl · 04/10/2007 11:09

But seriously, at Open Days there are hundreds of people milling about. Why would it matter what you wore? The admissions team are hardly likely to remember your jeans when they come to interview your DC in several months' time. Why would anyone notice you unless you were bizarrely dressed?

We went to a private secondary school Open Day recently and there were loads of prep school boys there in full school uniform. I couldn't work out why, unless they had come straight from Saturday school. (Do prep schools still do Saturday school?)

EricL · 04/10/2007 11:13

Oh

My

God

jalopy · 04/10/2007 11:15
Shock
Anchovy · 04/10/2007 11:16

Well, yes, seeker, but I'm not exactly sure what point you are making.

Personally DH and I both wore suits to the school open days, but that has nothing to do with the school and everything to do with the fact that we had both raced there from jobs where we wear suits.

As to how "inclusive" private educaton is. At my DCs school it depends on someone paying £3k plus a term, so its not going to be a hugely representative cross section of the country/society.

However even though I can afford to pay that, I do wear jeans at the weekend and would happily do so to to anything up at the school. My pj bottoms mostly come from Primark (I don't wear those up to the school, but that is for reasons of appropriateness!)

singersgirl · 04/10/2007 11:19

At the Open Days I've been to (at the weekend) most people were just wearing what you would expect people to wear at weekends - jeans, casual trousers and shirts. I imagine at the Open Evenings there are, as Anchovy said, lots of people who've come straight from work so more people in suits.

Hulababy · 04/10/2007 11:26

singersgirl - the children were probably there in uniform on purpose.

DD's prep school doesn't do Saturday School. However the girls have been asked - purely on volunteer basis, no pressure - to go in on Saturday morning for the Open Day. They go in full uniform and get to do various activities in the school that morning. The eldest girls in Prep 4 show parents round, in pairs.

IME that is not unusual even in state schools. Both schools I worked at (secondary state) had Open Days or Open Evenings. Pupils were always there, in uniform, in the classroom, doing specific activities. Parents could then chat to the pupils about the school, etc.

Hulababy · 04/10/2007 11:27

Ooops, sorry Singersgirl - just realised you meant prep schildren in uniform visiting the secondary. Although chances are they might have been at their own school's Open Day previously as many independent schools in an area have Open Days the same day.

Caroline1852 · 04/10/2007 11:29

If you wear a ballgown it might look like you are trying too hard.
Open Days are informal and I think jeans would be perfectly acceptable as long as they are not scruffy.

singersgirl · 04/10/2007 11:33

You may be right, Hulababy; I thought they probably had come from school, but there were lots of them in different uniforms and I doubt they'd all have had Open Days on the same days.

But it is Open Day season and these few weeks are chockfull of them....

Hulababy · 04/10/2007 11:36

Might have been recommended to them to go to the Open Day in uniform by their schools???

hatwoman · 04/10/2007 11:39

not that dds are going to go to private school, but if they were I would not want them to go to one that cared what I wore at an open day. cared how I behave, cared about my attitudes to education, cared about how I brought up my children (and cared about my wallet...) yes. but prepared to judge me for wearing jeans? no thanks...

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