Reception - How much school uniform do I need?

[Bringmewineandcake]

DD1 will be starting school in September. Before I head for the shops to stock up on uniform, how much will she actually need?
She has the choice of summer dresses / pinafores/ skirts, no blazer required.
I'm just not sure what would be a reasonable ratio of socks, jumpers, polo tshirts or blouses, cardigans, skirts, pinafores and dresses.

My DD wore a summer dress in September at the start of Reception. I just bought her one (£4 from Asda). About half of the girls wore summer dresses.

It’s easier for girls to stay tidy in pinafores because there is nowhere for shirts to become untucked. The stretchy pull-on jersey styles pinafores don’t last so well (they bobble), but are useful for PE days. DD had one of these and two ‘nice’ pinafores from M&S which, at first, she had great trouble getting changed into, as they don’t stretch at all, so the jersey one was a godsend for PE days (or pull-on jersey trousers for PE days).

White polo shirts – four was plenty for DD as, with wearing a pinafore and cardigan, the shirt hardly got dirty, so she would often wear it for two days.

Cardigans – she had three in YR but I’d say this was the stress point – they would almost always come home dirty, with a bit of food or dirty cuffs or marker pens (the bane of my life while DD was in reception – WHY do they let them loose with marker pens?). Unless you have the means of washing and drying cardigans over an evening, it might be worth getting more than three unless she doesn’t like wearing them.

It sounds obvious, but you’ll need more of whatever your DD wears for most of the school day. Eg, my DD kept her cardi on so these got dirty every day. If your child takes their cardi off, the pinafore will get dirtier. If she wears a skirt or trousers rather than a pinafore, the shirt will get dirtier so you’ll need more of these.

Unless your dd is confident (and quick) putting on tights, buy at least one pair of trousers for PE day.

My DDs in reception had

• 2 polo shirts
• 1 skirt

-1 pair trousers

• 1 jumper
• 1 cardigan

And in the summer term 2 summer dresses. 5yos don't sweat. Mine were clean eaters, and changed out of uniform when they got home. Normally 1 set did the whole week no problem.

Don't go overboard in buying multiples of skirts / trousers / pinafores until you see what they actually prefer to wear. Agree tights make life hard for PE days.

Our second hand uniform cupboard always used to have loads of reception age logo uniform, nearly new. Maybe check before forking out loads on logo items.

Oh yes – regarding tights, this was the one item where it was worth buying better quality (M&S or John Lewis rather than supermarket ones). The supermarket ones shrank and bobbled and weakened at the groin very quickly. Also, I’d recommend getting one size bigger than DD’s age.

If your child is the hot type, don't buy more than one sweatshirt/jumper/cardigan. In two years at middle school, my ds has worn his sweatshirts less than 5 times. OTOH a friends ds always wear his sweatshirt and so rather than the logoed polo shirts, she buys cheap ones on ebay

My dd wears leggings under her school dresses on cold days as she finds tights uncomfortable and a faff for toilets.

I have bought 1 summer dress, 1 pinafore, a 2 pack of skirts, a 2 pack of cardigans, a 2 pack of polo shirts, a 2 pack of pe shorts and 10 pairs of plain white socks. Other than finishing the pe kit, I think I will only buy a couple more polo tshirts and then not buy anything else till she starts and I know what she likes wearing and how dirty she gets.
I bought the dresses with zips on the front for ease of changing. Thanks for the tights tips!

most of the reception girls wore a summer dress in September even those without hand me downs. the only cost £4 from the supermarket. we got 5-6 and so it was big then and fits perfectly now.

we cope with 2 pinafores and a skirt for back up. we got a pack of 2 from sainsburys with a zip so easy for her to change out of for pe. fairly easy to wipe clean.

she gets through a polo shirt a day so we have at least 5

Omg 5 of everything?!?! It's true they get messy, but I like doing laundry, so not a problem to wash mid week. Summer dresses I only bought two because they wear them so little at start of year and my DD already grew out of the ones we bought for start of reception. I bought them at perfect size, as can't stand to see kids in oversized clothes that don't fit right. So now it's spring, I've bought two more at bigger size. I bought 3 of winter sweater, shirts and skirts. Never felt like she needed more. Now for socks and tights, bought loads as those get dirty fast and holes in tights etc.

we just don't have enough white stuff to wash to do a midweek white wash hence the 5 polo shirts and they seem to get grubby (this has changed now we have a newborn baby producing lots of white laundry!)

That's why we always had 5 polo shirts (actually 6 as they came in packs of 2 or 3), only enough whites to wash once a week. 10 shirts (2 DCs) plus a week's worth of DD's socks and the odd item from me fill the machine.

we have 5 of everything!! it saves washing in the week

5 of each, he comes home bogging everyday and the white board pens they use are horrendous to get out.

Reception I bought 3 of each.
Year 1 I bought 5 of each.

Year 1 was sooooo much easier and if you buy extras from supermarket you won't really notice the cost increase.

Don't know if this has been mentioned but after the first lot I stopped buying long sleeve shirts. The cuffs were revolting after only a few weeks. Short sleeved have lasted much longer and the kids don't mind, schools are like furnesses anyway.

Furnaces FFS!