new to school - uniform how many sets are needed?

[mousymouse]

I didn*t grow up with school uniforms so am a total novice in that respect.
ds starts school in september and I would like to know how many sets of uniform I would need.
at the moment at nursery with lots of messy play he wears trousers two or three days and jumpers one or two day depending on if they are dirty or not.
do you think 3 of each (polos, jumpers, trousers) would be enough?
I find it very daunting that my tiny newborn is starting school already.

Well, at that age I had a set a day and one spare - 6 sets. That way I wasn't washing daily! They spill EVERYTHING - drinks, dinner, paint, mud, glue, pen ink, the lot!!!

depends how often you wash and if you're going to iron them. ds has a new set every day and I wash the lot at weekends. he was the proud owner of the dirtiest polo shirt in school every day in reception.

I hate uniform myself, think it is dreadful to be trussing up little children in polyester trousers.

we have 3 jumpers, 3 trousers, 4 shirts, infinite socks and one PE kit. We could have got away with one fewer shirt as I wash fairly often with three kids.

Depends on how often you want to wash (as PPs said) and also how messy your child is (can you use items for more than 1 day). And whether your child will wear their school jumper .

3 of each would get you through the week even with a change each day if you were prepared to wash/dry/iron on Tuesday/Wednesday night.

We have 6 sets of everything, clean set for each day if needed then and a spare. Polo shirts I do buy spare packs of though as they stain very easily and dont look lovely and white after a few months.

I agree with ambivalent. I find that as trousers/shorts are black or grey you don't have to change so often. But the tops get everything on them, especially when they start learning to write and the white board marker pens get everywhere.

I tend to buy from M&S as they have good 3 for 2 offers at the start of the summer hols.

Word of advice - get the iron-on labels and start labelling when you get stuff. When my DD started school I had everything bought 2 months ahead and tucked in a drawer then had a mad labelling session day before term started.

One for each day - ds is a complete mucky pup (and they play out a lot), so theres no way he can make an outfit last two days

I think 3 of each is enough to be starting with, as long as you don't mind doing a mid-week wash.

I actually only have 1 school jumper for both my boys as they are expensive and none of us like them. If it's mucky when it gets home, it's straight in the wash, tumble dry and ready for the next day.

Or like this morning, in the tumble dryer during breakfast as I left the wash in overnight! I would rather have fewer bits of uniform and spend the money on weekend clothes. Also they take up so much room and you very quickly find they've grown out of something and need to next size up.

When they are primary I would say a shirt/polo shirt for every day, and 3 of everything else. Plus 1 pe kit.

Mine are all at secondary so it's at least 5 shirts, 2 pairs of trousers, 1 blazer, and 1 jumper...they hate the jumpers and would rather wear a skin tight white cricket top under theier shirts on very cold days. I always buy a coat but they hardly ever wear one. PE kits, mine have 3 sets but they do lots of sport.

I started off with 3 shirts, 3 trousers, 1 tie, 1 jumper, 1 blazer.

Now I have 6 shirts, 6 trousers, 2 jumpers, 2 ties, 2 blazers and are much more calm! We have a good second hand uniform shop for the non-tumble dryable, logo'd stuff.

DD has different needs. She is constantly wiping stuff on her cardy so has 3, but DS uses the top of his trousers to wipe his willy so never gets 2 days wear.

I'd say a set for each day unless you have to buy expensive stuff, you can get generic uniform so cheaply these days it's more economical to buy more than it is to keep running the washing machine and drier if they wouldn't normally be used. Reception kids get very mucky IME. I've needed less up through the school but always have plenty of polo shirts.

I have for each Dc
5 trousers (from supermarket)
5 polo shirts (from supermarket)
(Because i do not use the washing machine every day)

0 long slweeves proper shirts because they do not wear them anyway

2 school jumpers with school logo on (directly from school)
(because they are more expensive + my dcs seem to take them off when they get inside the school building so they can be worn 2-3 days in a row)

I'd start with one set for each day. Complete change is normal for little ones :)
But as you have more dc in uniform, you need a lot less. There's no way I can wash uniform only weekly with 3 dc and a dh - 20 white shirts at a time - no way! (and I don't iron them)
So only 3 shirts, 2 skirts/ trousers is do-able when the children (and family!) get bigger.

thanks so much, one set a day sounds sensible. so will probably do that. am much calmer now.

I would say 2 of each, so 3 would be plenty. Sometimes the 1st set lasts the whole week.