School Uniform

[thisnickname]

My daughter will be going to school in September FS1 it's a part time place so only 9-12. She will have to wear a school uniform. But how much should I get? Also when is the best time to buy it?

Sorry I just haven't got a clue she's the my eldest and my family aren't in this country and the kids get to wear their clothes to school. So I've been making little lists and it just seems like so much for should a small amount of time a day.

Any help would be so appreciated.

Is that nursery ? Buy about 3 tops, 1 jumper/sweatshirt and 2 bottoms then see how it goes . Offers normally start in July but some items may be school specific with badge so look out for 2nd hand.

Is it a state school? If so no uniform is actually compulsory - though many school send out uniform lists. In ours about 80% of the kids wear the branded shirts and jumpers, most of the others wear generic school uniform in approximate school colours. A few seem to wear whatever they like.

As for quantity I'd have at least 2 jumpers, 2 skirts and or trousers and 3 shirts, that way you can always have one in the wash and one to wear. If you go for the generic stuff that all the supermarkets sell you can get it very cheaply and it is always worth having an extra shirt or two. Perhaps you can get one or two logo'd items for school events and photo days - schools usually have a second hand sale somewhere along the line where you can get items for 50p to £1 each.

For FS1 (pre school) they get messy so plan on changing clothes daily. How much you need depends on how often you wash. If you do a load daily then 3 of everything should be enough - one wash, one wear and one spare.

Shops usually start the back to school sales in June/early July. Whilst it is tempting to wait until nearer the time sizes often sell out. Some shops like M & S do special deals like 3 for 2.

Check with the school whether they like you to have logoed items from the school or their supplier or if clothes from any shop are the norm eg blue skirt, white polo.

If you can - check what the other children are wearing in practice before you buy eg At DD's school the girls uniform in the nursery is a skirt or joggers but I know in practice all the girls were skirts.

wear not were

Don't forget to add some name tapes to your list- or write in the labels if there is room.

What about reception? My eldest will start full time in reception. I plan to buy trousers/pinafore dresses from Asda or tesco, & the shirts (polo shirts or shirts?). I will probably get logo'd jumpers which I believe are about £7 I think thats reasonable. How many of everything? Eldest is a dd & youngest a ds. Is it worth getting neutral bits to pass on to him (ie polo shirts without scalloped collars etc)

Ours is almost all logoed so we get lots from pta second hand sale. Most girls seem to wear pinafore dresses in reception, and as you only get a little bit of sleeve and collar sticking out the polo shirt often can be reused, the pinafore dress catches all the paint, yoghurt, glue, etc so you need a few of those, and I usually put them in a skirt when I know they have pe.

For name tags we have an unusual surname, so we just have surname and a little picture - saves me having to replace name tags for each child. I would get unisex clothes, especially as your ds will probably mess up his clothes everyday (if he is anything like the boys in dd2's class); the more the merrier!

3-5 polo shirts and 2 or 3 sweatshirts ( logo or otherwise) and 2 or 3 sets of bottoms ( trews/ skirt/ pinafafore) seems to work pretty well. chose Sturdy shoes that they can run and climb in. some girls shoes are rubbish and fall off as soon as the child flexes their foot. If you have younger siblings then yes do buy gender neutral tops. Trousers might or might not be worth passing on depending on how hard on the knees your child is.

DS started reception with all hand me down or second hand sale uniform, during year 1 we bought him 2 or 3 more logoed items and a larger size of plain shirts and trews.

I did buy DD and the DSs separate clothtes. Mine wear white poloshirts under their sweatshirts and I found DSs lasted the year and that was it. This was mostly because the collars went nasty with sun lotion in the summer term. So I tended to buy each child new poloshirts each September, but big enough to last the whole year. The girls didn't usually wear trousers, and DD wouldn't have worn boy's trousers, so separate bottoms too. Trousers were passed down through DSs though, and Sweatshirts through them all, though I am tending to find the second-hand ones I bought are wearing our for DC3.

we have trousers 3x, polo shirts 3x, jumper 2x, socks in abundance.
so far we have been ok. boy here, though, so no skirts.

What a lot of information :) trousers are out of the question she won't wear them and she has so many pretty ones :( and as for name tags I've had them for months I made the girls some dresses and they were on offer at the fabric shop so I picked them up then.

Well I was just going to buy the logo sweat cardies for her but when we saw them at the school I tried them on her and the fit was horrendous she's very tall and slim. So i will be buying her cardies from the high street and buy the badges to sew them in. So I'll only be buying the loggod polo shirts from the school.

Shoes she can wear any she will just need some trainers for PE but do I need name tags for her shoes? Surely nobody will "steal" her shoes?

So the list now looks like this. It was well over double!
2 polo's/shirts
1 skirt
1 dresses
1 pinafore
PE top
PE shorts
1 Cardie (will buy more when it gets colder)
1 long sleeved painting shirt

Is that everything?

oh and thank you for all the help I'm not so baffled anymore and I'm also glad I didn't listen to my husband who said to get them in August.

no tags for the shoes here. but I wrote the initials with a sharpie inside. the shoes are so similar and are very easy to get mixed up. dc once came home with two left shoes of very different styles

I label shoes. You can get stick on labels that do for shoes/lunch boxes/water bottles etc.

Black school shoes/pumps are often v similar.

Don't think you can over label - I do the works hats, gloves etc - not lost anything yet.

I'd write her name in the shoes - chances are another child will have the same design and it just helps to make sure the right shoes end up with the right child.
Whilst you can't always get a good range in the shops, lots of places sell uniform on line.

Don't think I'll buy labels for her shoes just use a sharpie we have a common surname I knew we should have taken mine! so no point buying shoe labels for two pairs shoes Plus she'll be home for lunch so no lunch box needed.

dixie hope you haven't covered you house with labels, I did that before she was born so everything went in the wright place.

Beamur I can't buy clothes on line I have to touch them to feel the quality some fabric's makes me want clean my hands cord and silk is the worst. I know its strange

Haven't forgotten anything have I? We are going on holiday for three weeks in August so if I forget anything I shall only have a week before she starts.

of course you have forgotten something but don't worry, the big stores (MS, JL) are usually well stocked.

I bought everything in June when M&S had their stock in. DD wears mainly M&S plus a couple of bits from Sainsbury if they have it in stock when I shop there.

I found that the size 4-5 was sold out extremely quickly.

When DD started she had 3 of everything. Strangely enough now end of the second term she comes home a lot more dirty than when she started and I bought more, she now has 5 of everything. I work p/t so washing during the day is not always possible.

I label everything apart from tights and underwear. For shoes I used the sticky labels and added a shoe cover. They may not steal them but the chances are you have more than one child wearing the same shoe and when they change for PE the clothes and shoes are everywhere.

One reason for buying early was practicing. DD needed to learn how to dress in the full set independently. Luckily in our case there are no buttons.

We got a complete set of everything for each morning DS is there. Now we're extending hours it's working well. I don't have to do the washing until the weekend if I have a particularly horrible week at work.

Yes, label everything. And then some. We have 3-in-1 coats which are snapped together - I labelled all the parts. Have to admit didn't label the socks. But it was about all I didn't...

DS came home Thursday wearing someone else's coat. Magically became his own again yesterday!

I also sewed a label round the lunch box handle. There are others with the same design of bag so it's handy that he can spot his by the label!

I'm a sahm so luckily I can do washing whenever I want I do a minimum of 2 loads a day! She'll be in 5-6 by the time she starts as I said she is very tall and slim I normally have to alter her clothes :( she's 3 now and is in 4-5 I think by the time she's 12 she'll be taller than me!

I don't need to worry about lunch boxes yet but good point about around the handle I will remember that for next year. Shouldn't need to worry about her bags as we get hand made ones on our holidays so very unlikely if another child will have the same or similar.

PrisonerofWaugh I think you will find uniforms can be compulsory in state schools.It is up to the Governing body of each school. What they are not allowed to be is too expensive and to be easily available (Eg from Tesco's ,Asda,M&S etc...not a single specified retailer). Our town has a "Uniform Shop" Where the uniform for all the surrounding primary and secondary schools can be bought ( State and some private), including Brownies,Guides and Scouts. Also a large department store also sells the same sort of school items.

Even if the item is distinctive labelling helps get it returned to you.

eg if your child comes home in the wrong top you can easily give it back to the correct parent the next day.

Sound like i'm label obsessed but it annoys me if DD comes home with the wrong item and it's unlabelled and you have to ask everyone to check rather than a quick swap.

Some of our parents embroider their child's name on the front of their fleece/jumper/polo shirts, that way there can be no mistake!

I would never embroid her name for the world to see anyone could pretend to be my friend to her and take her because they would know her name. I can remember wanting one of these head bands with names on and begging my mother and she always said no :( makes allot of sense now but how I hated her for it

My son is in a school nursery class at the moment. Two-three of everything sounds very sensible. If you think she'd be going to the primary section, you could always buy a couple of extra bits in a bigger size, just in case you get behind with the washing. My son only started proper PE after Feb half term, so find out when they start. The uniform isn't compulsory, however they all pretty much wear it. Some of the children wear jogging bottoms instead of trousers though.

I wouldn't embroider full names, but some of the older children in the school have initials embroidered onto the sleeves of jumpers.