£120 so far.

[Manchesterhistorygirl]

Ds1 needed new everything and so far it's set me back £120 including shoes! That's for four pairs of trousers, six polo shirts, 3 logoed jumpers, lunchbox and shoes.

His dad is giving him one of his many rucksacks and it doesn't include the two pairs of shorts I bought him just before term ended!

This is for primary school! Year 3!

See, I don't think four- and five-year-olds need to look "smart" every day. Neat and tidy possibly for the ten minutes before they throw yogurt or paint all over themselves, but not smart.

Well mine manage to look smart and feel comfortable in shirts and ties, and have done since P1, they're now in P7 and S5. In fact the secondary schools in out town have recently had a drive on getting the kids back into blazers, and what a difference it's made to how they all look and dd has even admitted a certain pride in her uniform.

Why is it that shops seem to only sell shirts in packs of 2 or 3 and not 5 though? There are 5 days in a week, not 4 or 6!

Research has long since shown that a smart uniform and appearance helps to influence attitude and work ethic even amongst small children, which is part of the reason why the majority of academy schools have shirts and ties as part of their uniform.
The children in shirts and ties at my sons school wear track suits for physical education and any subject requiring relaxed clothing.
a child in trousers and short sleeved shirt with tie is hardly going to feel any less comfortable than the one in a polo shirt.

Aren't they, Running?

I mean, I choose not to put a jacket on inside the house myself. Why would my children want to wear one for schoolwork?

Fortunately DS1's school is academic enough to shrug off the idea that a blazer per child would raise its results.

I suspect DS2's school (less academic, more arty) would have a rebellion on its hands if it tried to smarten up its rather Bohemian bunch of scruffballs.

In most schools they don't actually wear the blazers much. They have the blazers for assemblies and for events where they represent the school, the resin the time they wear shirts, ties and pullovers.
But although you are right that we don't wear blazers in the house, my husband wears one for work as part of his suit and doesn't feel uncomfortable. When was working I wore a suit daily in the office and didn't feel comfortable or overdressed.
Blazers do look smart and if we look at the high school that I attended as an example; we wore polo shirts and sweatshirts and had appalling behaviour, terrible results and terrible truancy, it would have been in special measures today. When I was in year 10 we got a new head teacher who changed the uniform to blazers and ties and overhauled a lot of aspects of the school and it is now one of the best schools in that area (it was within a couple of years of the new head taking over). In my opinion uniform is part of the schools expectation levels - you don't see any private schools wearing polo shirts and sweatshirts as part of their normal uniform and whilst there are exceptions, private schools are outperforming state schools and academies are following a lot of the practices used by private schools, including the style of uniforms.
I have one child who wears a blazer and tie and one who wears a polo shirt and sweatshirt combo and they do both look presentable, but it isn't justified to say that a child isn't comfy in a tie and blazer.

Actually, running, at primary level a lot of expensive and prestigious private schools eschew blazers/ties in favour of polo shirts and jumpers. Admittedly secondary school is generally a blazer zone, but not necessarily prep.

The preps in my area must be unique then because out of the 6 we looked out they all had blazers as part of the mandatory uniform. My son must also be unique because he loves wearing his shirt and tie. My other son hates uniform and wears a self modified version (even though the actual uniform is only polo Shirt and sweatshirt). Suppose it shows that different children are comfortable wearing different things.

All the prep schools round me have blazers too, and summer and winter hats. DD absolutely loves her blazer and insisted on wearing it round the house all day today, I'm just hoping she feels the same when she starts in September and has to wear it every day.