What do you do if your child's school doesn't have a uniform?

[scampadoodle]

The one thing I really don't like about DS1's new school (apart from the children calling the teachers by their first names, but that's a whole new thread! ) is that it doesn't have a uniform. Not sure how to approach it to make my life easier - should I just decide ad hoc each morning, or should I buy 3 or 4 sets of cheap, basic clothes for school & save his decent stuff for weekends? He'll be 5 in September.

What have other people done?

[garin]

Calm down dear!

Some promary can be scary tho. DSIL was told to 'Fuck off you cunt' not that long ago. She teaches y5

a sea of grey?

well hardly

bright red and blue sweaters
white, blue or red t-shirts
red or blue gingham dresses
charcoal trousers or shorts

they look so gorgeous and like part of a big proud group of happy smiling kiddies .. far better than the one-upmanship you can get if there is no uniform .. and I'm talking from parents not from kids

I dread to think what DS2 would be like if this is him with supressed personality/individuality :o Seriously though, I don't see one jot of difference whether he's in uniform or not.

I notice a marked difference as I've spent a bit of time in both sorts of school. But there you go.

Oh, perhaps I should translate .....

Baaaaaaaa! Baaaaaaaaa!

well if you allow your child to determin their own worth by the clothes they wear, as an extension of your own belief that clothes are that important.. of course you'll see uniform and see sheep

I'm just hugely relieved that I don't have to have a uniform ready each day...I'm just not sorted enough.
Some people prefer uniforms, some prefer not, neither will make or break a primary school, it's Friday afternoon, open the Pringles!

Utter rubbish.

Don't you wear clothes you like then Twig? Colours which please you? Materials which suit your skin?

Or do you opt for the teflon two-piece.

of course its rubbish spider .. much as saying kids in uniform are sheep .. gah

I feel the same about uniform tbh Blu .. never have to think what to get out or worry that his favourite shirt / trousers aren't clean .. he has 4 shirts / jumpers / 2 shorts / 2 trousers .. and he just gets up and goes .. no stress at all

I was actually insinuating that the parents are sheep which is, of course, far less offensive Twig.

Exactly! You're happy one way, me the other.
There's a nursery rhyme about it - Jack Spratt, I think!

I only like plain Pringles, tho' - not sour cream and chive. Horrible.

ba ba baaa baaa baaaa bbaa ba baa baaaaaaa

so there

Hey baby, you go your way and I'll go mine. And in the meantime ...
(Boom chicka')

When we're together, smooching and swaying, and our ... um ... no. This is getting inappropriate now. Ahem!

but my daughter loves choosing her clothes ...certainly no one up manship at her school and no boden in sight...not trying to suggest children in uniform were dull merely that i found the uniforms dull .

pipsqueak you're my saviour and I love you.

Twig, Soupy and the other 90% or so ... You've won. My kids wear uniform. At least let me rant about it.

tbh if / when Ds starts choosing his clothes and caring what is available to wear, I might go off the whole thing!

At the moment he simply wears whatever trousers and t shirts I get from the drawer, give or take some negotiation over accessories and his Willy Wonka coat.

And the best thing of all i have found about DS's school (so far...fingers crossed!) is that there is no one-upmanship about anything at all.

probably because the fact that they use first names promotes the Big Happy Family . 9(joking...not arguing!).

But if there was, I wouldn't give a flying fimble, let alone join in!

I have to keep washing horrible static nylon and teflon things and make sure they are available. I also have to buy them! How's that a social leveller? I can't afford a whole nother genre of clothes so I resent forking out for it. I resent laundering such hideous stuff too.

God I've got a temperature. My whole family have just gone to meet friends round a campfire for a little supper. I can't go cos I'm ill again.

Can you tell?

Yes

Not fair - sorry you are at home sick Spidey...but gald your chiroperson sorted the cause of your lung failure etc.

ds1 doesn't have to wear uniform, although they have school t- shirts they can wear if they want (different colour for each day of the week- ds2 is fascinated by Friday "look Mummy it's ds1's purple party day"). Trousers wise I go for a mix.As long as he can manage them himself. My favourite are a checked pair of Boden brushed cotton pull ups SIL bought him for xmas (Fio- Boden are great for elasticated waists).

First names at ds1's school as well, although I don't know how many of the kids can actually say the names. (Actually that was my very first mainstream gripe ds1 was expected to call his lsa Mrs X even though he couldn't say mrs X but coulsd approximate- VERY approximate- her first name- apparently it would have confused the other children- ffs her first name was tracey and he said a--ai or something, the other kids could have called her Mrs X and wouldn't even have knoiwn he wasn't - wanders off muttering about stupid bloody mainstream schools and inclusion....)

sorry but i would not like the thought of my child calling his teacher by her first name.
i may be old fashioned but i think they should wear a uniform and call teachers MISS/Sir/MR etc

i think that first names allow a familiarity that is no help when you are having to deal with bad behaviour. they are there to teach not make freinds.

as for the uniform i think it makes each child equal, right from first look. there is no "keeping up with the jones'" as everyone is the same. plus it makes life a hell of a lot easier on the pocket when they dont ruin outfit after outfit with paint.

personaly i would buy a pair of trousers/shorts some white T shirts and a jumper that cn be worn each day as if it were a uniform.

Isn't school uniform simply another of the myriad of "rules and boundaries" that make up everyone's life? Is making a child wear a uniform so different to insisting that they behave like everyone else? That they learn to write like everyone else? That they eat what you want them to eat etc etc? That they go to school at all.... etc etc

I don't want another row about uniform - and I will even admit that occasionally as both Inferiorettes rustle through their clothes for something they deem suitable for the day (DD2 isn't three yet but is, how shall I put this, sartorially strong-minded) I yearn to bung them in nasty polyester and be done with it...

...but I do find myself somewhat riled by the suggestion that because this is combined with calling their teachers by their first names Blu, I and similar are raising a tangle of feral children who will run amok and generally contribute to the Decline of Modern Society.

DD1's school is really a rather sought-after little school, attended by nice kids.