When do you start buying school uniform?

[Whattodo112222]

Following on from today's offers thread - just wondering when parents will start buying school uniform?
DD4 will be 5 the week after she starts school so I am guessing 5-6 would be best for her in everything?
Gosh, so much to even think of in the coming months!

I would wait untill at least the the first of the summer holidays. My child grew alot from now untill he started school so buying now could be a waste.

My DD is wearing size 5-6 clothes now, she is one of the smallest amongst her peers and not all her peers parents are taller than us. (My DD is autumn born as well.)

So buy it from the start of the school holidays. Also find out if the school your child is going to sells second hand uniform to see if you can get logoed items.

Depends on height. My youngest (5 in the summer) is already in 6 to 7 dresses as she needs the length and 7 to 8 tights as her height seems to be mostly leg. It's a massive pain as everything is big on the waist.

I'll buy her logo'd cardigans and her big brother's jumpers before the summer holidays but will hold off on his trousers/her pinafores and dresses until closer to the start of term because the one year I bought dc1's trousers early, they were too short by the middle of the first term back.

I wouldn't wait until the school holidays at all, stuff sells out. M&S, Sainsburys and sometimes Asda will have offers on school uniform before the Summer holidays as well.
The only thing I would leave until later is school shoes and PE pumps if needed.(we didn't need PE kit in reception, so i'd wait and see exactly what you need!)

Also worth noting that you don't need to buy the school logoed stuff if you don't want to, you can buy plain jumpers/cardi's/polos from supermarket/M&S. Not everyone knows that and the logoed stuff is expensive!

Yes, I am having a look on the ASDA website and can get everything at a FRACTION of the price!

I would look at if your school has a second hand uniform sale first. But I wont wait till the end of the summer holidays. I usually buy them in late July.

Keep an eye out, Sainsbury's, ASDA and so on have offers on school uniform before the summer holidays. I tend to get on and buy shortly because sizes and things do sell out before the summer. If you're in infant/primary you don't need a lot of logo'd uniform, and if you have a child like mine who is likely to get school dinners/paint/pens over them then buy a few spare!

Marks and Spencer normally do a 20% or 25% off offer in June. So I’d buy then if it were me. I normally buy the age my child will be, eg he’ll be 8 in August so I’ll buy 8-9.

Not all schools work the same obviously so may not be the case with the logo items, therefore not quite true

Yes I was wondering this, and also how much of everything people buy.

Branded stuff I got in June, other stuff throughout the summer holidays.

I used to get as much as I could a size up if necessary during the year (jumpers, sweatshirts, poloshirts) to allow for growth. Also socks, book bags etc throughout the year especially as it’s not one huge cost in July-August. It’s all in the planning and reducing stress 😄

I would start in May/june before they break up for summer

I wouldn't worry about stuff selling out. I've been buying school uniform for 29 plus year s now. Places like Asda have uniforms in stock all year round as do uniform shops. I've always waited untill 2 weeks before they go back to try on uniform and replace anything outgrown and usually buy stuff year round as they outgrown certain items. It's never been a problem and can always find the items they need

I always picked mine up in the discounted period in June/ early July and got their age for the school year - I must have very average/ slow growing children as none of my DC ever outgrew uniform before they needed it.

When the M&S uniform sale starts, which I think is usually in June.

Beware that the official branded uniform supplier could take a very long time to deliver. Ours does.

I buy from Sainsburys in June when there is 25% off. Asda can be good for some things too (pe tops, rugby shorts etc) but I don't find it as good quality as Sainsburys.

Have never bought M&S, it's not worth the extra cost.

First of all - you should get information from the school about what uniform requirements they have.
Try & find out if there are or will be an second-hand uniform sales or shop, as there will be loads of smaller sizes.
Personally I try & buy most in June/July when Sainsbury's has its discount.
You know your DC & one average how they grow; so for example my DD has always been super tall & wears clothes approximately 3-4 yrs bigger than her actual age, whereas my DS is usually in same age or next size up.
How much uniform you buy will depend on how much washing you want to do & how often. Personally I prefer having about 10 of polos/trousers/dresses etc so that there is 2 weeks of uniform available if the washing machine breaks/accidents/lost items & because I probably only do 3-4 washes a week. Others want the bare minimum with say 3-4 polos, & wash through the week, but I wouldn't have enough whites for example for a full load if I did that.
Logo'd uniform - check what the school requires, but it's usually a good idea to have 1-2 logo'd jumpers/cardigans for school photo day & any school trips etc.
For school shoes - I try to get them sorted at the start of the summer holidays, but really depends on what you want/need.

Hey everyone can someone help me please, my daughters 4years old shes starting reception in september, im not sure what size to get my daughter in school uniform due to shes only just grew into size 4-5 and the sizes my childs reception have for uniform online is 3-4 and a 5-6
Im not sure whens best to buy the school uniform as i do wanna buy it soon due to i left it last minute when she starting nursery. but dont want her growing out of it too quickly.
Also not sure how much uniform to buy

@Shanicekx what do you need to get with a logo on? At my dc school they just ask for the jumper/cardigan to be logoed and the rest we can buy from anywhere in the right colour.

my dc are tall but skinny so for ds he is in a year behind age in skinny fit or extra long (with adjustable waists)
dd I've bought the 5-6 for reception because of length really tall and as I've stuck to pinafore and summer dresses it doesn't matter if it's a bit wide as it won't fall down.

Depends how fussy your child is and what your holiday plans are. Or what they want to wear. One of mine would only wear shorts and often they are not available or there is much less choice outside the summer term. I also prefer cotton over other fabrics and those items do sell out - I like to get everything sorted before summer holidays, and if I find something that is good I buy the next size up too for use during the school year.

branded school jumpers can usually be bought from primary from the school so that can wait until school starts and there may be second hand sales at the start of term but the basic stuff like socks and polos and so on I like to have organised before we go on holidays.

it probably also depends on your personality! My brain does not like last min overwhelm so I like to get organised ahead of time when there is choice and time to return things. I don’t like the idea of returning from our holiday end of august and then having to sort it all out. But there are plenty who find that just fine - hopefully you know which type you are!

In terms of how many things — I aim for a clean shirt option for every day as reception/ ks1 kids seem to get filthy and then 2-3 shorts trousers or skirts/dresses what have you and one new school sweatshirt. I then try and pick up one or two spare sweatshirt/jumper from second hand uniform or a plain option too, so that I’m not tied to my washing machine if it’s a busy week. At least five pairs of suitable coloured socks (one school we’ve had black only, other schools a choice) plus a rain coat, a winter coat and hat/gloves and a summer sun hat / baseball cap. Shoes we can wear black trainers so one pair of those and they do PE in them too, but yours may have different rules.

DD always, always has a growth spurt in the summer holidays so I tend to get everything relatively last minute. Asda is great for uniform though and they do plenty of trousers with adjustable waists which is even better.

Logoed stuff I tend to get early just because our primary school supplier takes a fucking age to get it done for you (our school jumpers are a strange two-colour setup so have to be specifically ordered from suppliers to embroider onto). To be honest - now mine are older primary/lower secondary - I tend to have the bulk of ours done by now to allow me to procrastinate the crap out of labelling the stuff for as long as possible. This year I'm later on the primary stuff as my last child is going into Y6 so I'm not buying too much, and I've had to fork out for the secondary uniform so need to spread it over a few months.

I do find Asda particularly a bugger for selling out of some stuff online but you can usually find an equivalent if one particular skirt isn't in stock. I just do a big click and collect order usually - can't be bothered raking around stock in the shops - and need to get longer length stuff in some things as my girls are all legs and no blooming width to 'em (lucky buggers).