Stupidity of white polo shirt for infant school children

[Newbie887]

Been up since 5am despite it being a Sunday and am already on 2nd load of panic washing before Monday morning.

This has sparked intense fury at all my kids uniform consisting of a white polo shirt, despite them all being in infant school still. Who on Earth thought it was a good idea to force 4-7 year olds to wear pure white on a daily basis?? All their shirts bought in Sept are completely trashed and stained. Wouldn’t it be more logical to make the uniform a navy or bottle green shirt?? And is a white shirt standard in most primary schools or is there’s an anomaly??

the school they were at before had light yellow shirts so no better. In fact almost worse as they went discoloured really easily.

refuse to replace shirts as they still fit and we are only in January. School will have to put up with looking at my trampy kids instead. Hopefully they will smell that they are in fact clean 😂

My tips:

Only buy the cheap ones, not the expensive branded school logo ones.

Try to stop caring about the stains - it's only school uniform and it saves their normal clothes from getting trashed.

Enjoy the scuddy polo shirt stage because the "white shirt that must be ironed or it looks terrible even though I bought non iron so why is it so terribly creased?" stage is far worse imo.

I don't have primary school aged children (yet) but I couldn't agree more!! As if parents don't already have enough pressure on them!

Absolutely agree. Our school eventually went for navy blue. Game changer.
Presumably it came from parents complaining so perhaps raise the issue? You're probably not the only one.

I don't mind it, at least with whites you can put stain remover on or put them in a hot wash without them fading. Our school has coloured jumpers which seem to fade dreadfully no matter where I buy them from. I do object to things that need ironing though!!

I agree, totally ridiculous. We are in Aus, polos for primary school tend to be navy, green, red or yellow (weird but better than white). I was very happy ours were navy but I hadn’t realised that if you put navy polos to line dry in the Aussie sun they fade within hours! Only did that once.

I love plain white school tops. Soak with bleach , rinse, dump in washing machine and everything will come out perfectly clean.

I work in primary 1 and I promise we won't notice or care if washed clothing has stains. It's very easy to tell the difference between unwashed/dirty and stained. No need to buy more. I agree navy or black wound be more sensible. I actually buy black polos for dd as logo ones aren't mandatory and the worming of the uniform policy includes black school wear. No one has said anything so far and on out 3rd year now

White can be bleached.
Other colors fade or discolor.
They all end up various shades of the intended colour.
White is fine by me. The whole lot goes on a longish (60 C if DH does it cooler if I do it) cycle with some vanish once a week. It's infinitely better than the pale blue we used to have.

Try not to worry about the stains they'll all have them! As annoying as it is I can't get mad at the polo's, we had to wear a shirt and tie in primary

Ours are green, it doesn't help much with the staining - whiteboard pen arrrggh - and if you are too harsh with washing the colour fades to nothing. DS goes in to school covered in pen, if I replaced the tops they'd be ruined again in a fortnight so I won't bother. They're washed and ironed.

I actually find it's easier to get stains out of whites because you can use stain remover containing bleach. Also hanging out in the sun removes stains (but fades colours as PP said). The only stains we can't get out are black marker pen, we can get it to fade but not disappear. It is annoying but I've just resigned myself to buying cheaper polo shirts and accepting that they're stained.

Can you lobby the school? I know they will be very reluctant to change the uniform but they may be open to adding an option in.

So in our school the uniform is red/white/black/grey. So we can choose red or white polo shirts.

It's just a small amendment on their part.

I would be arguing the cost of living crisis makes it difficult to afford constant stain remover and replacement of tops. Also whites are unable to be passed down to younger siblings so less environmentally friendly.

Ask them to put it to the governors and eco council kids.

I just bought polo's in the school colour and nothing has been said. I guess it depends how strict the school is. Ours are happy as long as they turn up clean and fed.

They don’t bother me too much. You can buy them really cheaply and most stains come out with a bit of treatment pre wash.
However when it’s time for sun cream, they develop a really nasty yellowy brown stain around the neckline that I can never get out. I think that would be visible with other colours too.

Eldest starts secondary in September, I’m dreading the ironing. Will miss the polo shirts.

Stains are different from dirt, so just don't worry.
But I agree that white isn't necessarily the best option for young children or their parents!

Asda polo shirts washed in biological washing powder with a scoop of vanish or similar. It's got to be a longer hot wash not a quick 30 min job to get the stains out. I programme a delayed wash to come on at 5am so it's done by the time I get up.

Do a wash the night before and then a delayed wash for 5am and there's no need for you to wake up at 5am. You need to plan better that is all.

Yes this! Never been a problem for me and my two have been at Primary for years.
I have never thought about it to be honest.

Oh and iron out the creases as soon as they come out of the washing machine then dry on hangers. Job done.

Our primary doesn't use polo shirts, ours are in an actual white shirt and proper tie (not elastic) from reception.

Who cares if they are stained? they are mainly worn under a jumper or cardigan no?

We spent half nothing on the white ones for infant school and for DS’s middle primary school and our kids wore them until they didn’t fit anymore irrespective of stains they picked up along the way. They were always washed so they were as clean as they could be but yes invariably they got stained along the way. My DDs middle primary school had more expensive light blue ones which weren’t any better for stains.

Try having white shirts instead, with a tie... who honestly thinks that a good uniform for a 5yo?

I've heard of schools which produce the uniform in a variety of bright colours to pick and choose from, with plain coloured items also allowed.

My ideal primary uniform... dark leggings/shorts/joggers (and skirts allowed but not encouraged) with a school coloured t shirt and jumper.

i will try soaking in bleach. Stain remover (spray or granules) is not cutting it! And is too expensive. Can you soak in bleach then wash with other light clothes? Or will that ruin the other clothes if they aren’t all true white?

Honestly white is so much better for being able to bleach clean rather than worrying about the dye cgaanging colour with stain removers.

With any colour polo shirts, there’s inevitably 673 different shades of the colours from different shops (even before the inevitable fading from washing/wearing) and to me it makes uniforms less of a uniform. White is a standard colour.

Agree with the other posters - buy as cheap as possible (supermarket), don’t stress about stains too much and just get on with your life.

They're not good for teenaged boys either!

Ours (in Australia) are school specific so cost a fortune and can't be bleached because of the badge and piping.

I refuse to do any more than wash them normally, if the stains don't come out too bad!

I agree op.

White polo's are an absolute nightmare - and ime bleach and vanish don't get everything out by any means. Nor does hanging in the sun.

We started off on white but our school changed it when ds3 was in Reception and now it's red. Red is THE best colour, it feels indestructible and you can't see any marks at all.

I would ask the school to add in a colour option, can't harm to try.