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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Non-school-uniform clothes requirements for reception age DC?

50 replies

TinyGargona · 03/08/2016 03:34

Am trying to work out what effect wearing school uniform will have, on the total amount of clothes my DD will need.
Storage space is massively limited at ours. My DD will be in school uniform from Sept which is already taking up a lot of her wardrobe space and I haven't got all the logoed stuff yet.

Can I cull a lot of her current 'home' wardrobe or will she want to change when she gets home, ie she will need two separate outfits per day? (groan!)

And if I get rid of a load of stuff and only replace it minimally once outgrown or trashed, how best to deal with school holidays?

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drspouse · 04/08/2016 11:48

I can see her wanting to change into pyjamas etc after school more than anything else

Oh gosh I hadn't thought of this but I can definitely see my DS wanting to put on pyjamas the minute he gets home from school. I am going to hold off suggesting this and maybe hide his pyjamas... I can just see us unable to go and meet DH at the station due to DS being in pyjamas and not wanting to put his shoes on.

On the issue of only wearing the top 2 t-shirts, I always put wash back in the bottom of the drawer and rotate the ones in there so the bottom ones are actually visible. I do this for DD (who doesn't take her own clothes out of the drawer) because otherwise DH just puts the top two on again and again, too.

I was planning to get a few multi-hangers and hang up DS school uniform either on a hook on the back of the door or on the clothes rail that's only used for DD dresses (she doesn't have a huge number) and DS smart shirts (even fewer!). That way the non-school clothes stay in the drawers (well, and pants, socks) which are as you say full to bursting.

I'm just not buying as many in 5-6 but he has lots of lovely ones in 4-5.

Our school has an own-trousers day every Friday anyway so at least his home trousers will get worn.

mrz · 04/08/2016 12:33

Don't children play after school?

Mine got changed .. went to the park, rode bikes, got muddy in the garden, tore trouser knees and scrapped shoes. My son could be guaranteed to ruin at least one pair of school trousers per week

drspouse · 04/08/2016 12:41

A lot of families here seem to go to the park on the way home from school and I've already promised DS we can go to the park near school (we see it driving past but have never been there). So then they'd be in their school uniform.

noramum · 04/08/2016 12:45

DD is tall for her age, she just turned 9 but wears 11-12/12-13. So she outgrew the cutie-girly things from M&S (up to year 7) and H&M (up to year 10 online) early but was in no way ready for the pre-teen clothing.

Especially as she only wears dresses and but is not "ladylike" enough for the ones ending mid-upper tight.

So we ended up buying lots of Next, Debenhams and Boden in the sales.

redskytonight · 04/08/2016 13:16

DC do play after school but just play in their uniform. Primary school uniform is generally pretty hard wearing. DD used to kill tights at a rate of knots :)

mrz · 04/08/2016 13:23

I would have had to buy new uniform every week if my kids had played out in uniform

user789653241 · 04/08/2016 13:41

Mine always played in school uniform and torn lots. But By the time we need to buy new ones, it was too short for him anyway, so it worked out ok.

MrsHathaway · 04/08/2016 13:44

Mine come home in grubby uniform (curry, paint, mud) so they can stay in it unless we're going somewhere.

I replace trousers a lot. I have a couple of very old pairs which are cut up for patches and they get mended a couple of times before they're retired. We love shorts weather.

drspouse · 04/08/2016 15:05

I would have had to buy new uniform every week if my kids had played out in uniform

Friends of slightly older children do say this (and that they replace trousers a lot anyway) but what else can you do if they are playing on the way home from school? I'm not really going to make them go into the loos and change and they won't be changing in the playground past about Reception.

mrz · 04/08/2016 15:25

We went home first

drspouse · 04/08/2016 15:56

Most families round here seem to buddy up to go to the park on the way home - so children are playing with whoever they've been walking home with. Timings etc. are easier that way unless you have something specific to do at home first.

A few of the families at my nearest school that go to my nearest park will get there by walking past home but we and all of the largest local estate families would go past the park to get home. We also walk past the park on one of our routes home from town and I have to subtly change the route if I don't want to be begged to stop off in the park!

TooTweeOrNotTooTwee · 04/08/2016 16:56

Slight derail - what's the best place to buy reasonably priced but hard wearing tights, in navy?

I've just realised the two pairs I've invested in so far are unlikely to last long!

onemouseplace · 04/08/2016 18:34

We have a playground that backs onto the back gate of the DC's school, so it would make no sense to go home and change first. I haven't had to replace anything yet for wear and tear from that (make them change and get straight into the bath as soon as we walk through the door - yes! - much magnets that they are).

TooTwee - I find John Lewis tights really good.

SharonfromEON · 06/08/2016 17:01

CMinder .. here..All the kids stay in there uniform..Never had request to change them.. However in reception most come home in dirty clothes through dinner or paint or mud...

My DS never has got changes unless he was doing something he wanted to get changed for..

He has limited storage space..^6weeks holiday summer shorts are in his uniform draw... new uniform in my room. g al

Before ditching all her clothes see how it works for you..
BTW my DS is year 5 this year and have never managed to adapt to not really needing many clothes.

Notso · 06/08/2016 17:32

Mine always get changed unless we go somewhere straight from school. Even then the youngest wears joggers so I change his top. I can't stand school uniform.
I am always amazed at how much uniform people on here buy.

jamdonut · 09/08/2016 10:17

I'm a bit at "outfits" . Don't you just have mix and match stuff...outfit implies special,matching! Outfits in our house are for weddings or special occasions. Everything else is just clothes to wear.

I'm lucky enough to not have to buy uniform ever again from this year ( youngest going in to sixth form), but we usually got away with 2 sweatshirts, 3 polo shirts, 2 trousers for each child. Usually they got changed after school, into whatever was comfortable.
If you buy too much gear, they've usually grown out of it before they get to wear it!

drspouse · 10/08/2016 11:06

DS' outfits are "whatever clashes the most that he's pulled out of the drawer".

DD starts off wearing tops and bottoms that don't clash too much but a) she's 2 and b) she's potty training.

I have a question about shoes. We have properly measured, room to grow, velcro school shoes, they are slightly trainer style. Uniform list says black pumps or trainers for PE and DS has insoles and they wear PE kit all day on PE days so he will not get by with pumps. Do we really need trainers? Or are trainer style shoes OK? i.e. his main school shoes. The kit list says "trainers or black pumps" which to me implies that trainers need not be all black (the wording on the main shoes is very firmly all black) which is good because Clarks, our only local shop, does no plain black trainers in his size, only black with a bit of white.

And will he also need another pair of non-school shoes or do your DC tend to wear school shoes all the time? For the moment he can wear his closed sandals that he's got on these days for nursery but he'll grow out of them/it will become Autumn.

noramum · 10/08/2016 11:51

Drspouse - girl mum here.

I would assume they mean proper trainers and if they are like DD's school I wouldn't want her school shoes used during PE, they would suffer far too much.

DD has a pair of school shoes and non school shoes. Mainly because I prefer shoes being aired on a regular basis and I find black shoes on children just don't look right anyway. I know friends only do school shoes and trainers and party shoes for girls.

DD has a pair of trainers at home as well (PE kit always stays in school) which she wears outside where normal shoes don't work and on activities.

In addition she has a pair of sandals in Summer and boots in Winter. Plus wellies and various slippers, riding boots, walking boots etc. DH thinks she has more than me but I think that's not 100% true (yet).

drspouse · 10/08/2016 12:02

Hmm I definitely think we don't need that many shoes (yet!)
As they wear their entire PE kit all day on PE days we will be sending him in trainers and he'll be coming home in them so he can wear them for active stuff at home. So I will need to be getting a properly fitted pair that can be worn with insoles. Gah - bank account is going to need a lie down.

I guess I'm going to need to look for at least one other pair too. Sandals for next summer aren't worth getting yet, he will need new wellies because they leave a pair of those at school too.

He won't wear slippers, we do have a pair of walking boots but they were hand me downs, he doesn't ride, and even for DD I am not going down the route of fashion boots I don't think!

MrsHathaway · 10/08/2016 15:45

My mother used to think we didn't need much in the way of non-uniform because we wore our uniform so much.

To this day she has no idea how much I was picked on because of that decision.

Mine are all boys so "outfits" aren't really a thing. I'd say they each have enough t-shirts to wear a different one every day for a week or two actually with DS2 it might be a month or two and then a couple of hoodies, and 3-5 trousers/jeans/joggers and another 3-5 shorts.

Footwear makes me weep. In addition to school shoes and school PE trainers, they each have:

Wellies
Crocs
Sports trainers
Weekend trainers (Skechers type)
Football boots

My eldest son will need all of these replacing (ie seven pairs) in August as he's had a growth spurt. He is in adult sizes so £££. It's likely all his jeans will need replacing at the same time as we're now seeing flashes of sock between hem and shoe! Very Eighties.

drspouse · 10/08/2016 16:13

I don't see the point of crocs. They just fall off when kids run about.

MrsHathaway · 10/08/2016 16:22

They're extremely useful for camping. Also for quick changes for swimming lessons.

drspouse · 10/08/2016 16:32

I'm a Guide leader and the girls just bring wellies for camp, and trainers for if it's reasonably dry. Or hiking boots if they own them. I would actually be concerned about stray pegs etc. if they were wearing crocs (even if we are not using axes, saws), plus we play running around games (and I see children running around on regular camp sites). So I wouldn't let them bring them.

MrsHathaway · 10/08/2016 19:07

Ah ok. Yes, Guide camping is very different. My children are much younger and we basically glamp.

drspouse · 11/08/2016 10:04

I have just realised that DS will be wearing (probably) non-uniform shoes one weekday as well as weekends as they have a non-uniform-bottoms day once a week. So I'll get him a new pair of those to wear over the winter.

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