Reception school uniform, how many items?

[Croissantsfordinner]

Was browsing the school website as DC starts reception in September. How many of each should I purchase? Do they also need a little backpack in addition to the school book bag, usually?

We bought double for things like skirts, pinafores trousers and PE shorts.
White blouses usually come in a pack of 3, so we bought 3 packets.
Dd wears a new blouse everyday and it’s good to have spares as a couple are already stained.
We bought plenty of socks, tights & white vests.
1 logo school jumper and 1 logo school cardigan.
1 PE tshirt with the logo on.
They do PE once a week and send the kit back with each child at the end of each term break to be washed.

At dds school, they have book bags until they go
into year 3.

Thanks all for the answers! We can purchase most items from generic stores, with the exception of cardi/jumpers that need to have the school logo. I am thinking of getting an outfit per day and maybe only 3 cardis plus the PE outfit and see how we get on.
I work from home once or twice a week so I can easily do one load mid week if needed.

For reception-aged DD we have...

6 x polo shirts
2 x pinafores
2 x skirts
4 x summer dresses
6 x tights
5 x ankle socks
5 x knee high socks
3 x school-branded cardigans
Black school shoes
Cycling shorts to wear under dresses etc in Summer, so she isn't showing her knickers
Book bag
Bag to hold her water bottle/extra snack/random crap
Coat

For PE:
Shorts
2 x PE t-shirt
Jogging bottoms
Hoodie
Socks
Trainers

In her school, they go in in their PE kit for PE until year 3 (they also start to wear shirt/tie then).

I wouldn't bother with too many branded items- most people only usually get the jumpers/cardigans and book bag.

Also see if the PTA do a uniform sale to get the branded stiff cheaply- in reception, they tend to get dirty/grow fast/lose things anyway, and it's less annoying if you haven't paid the earth!

If you're not sure whether one pack of polo shirts will be enough, then buying another pack in the next size up is quite a good strategy. You'll need them the next year, and a slightly larger one will do in an emergency.
Some people recommend keeping one shirt out of circulation until after the school photographer has been, so that you have one that hasn't got paint/whiteboard pen on it.

Buy things like summer dresses large - then they can usually do two years.

Check what the school says about shoes; if the rules are fairly relaxed and they haven't gone up a size for a bit you might want to wait until half-term to buy them. I bought DD's first school shoes in August, and the second pair in October because she'd outgrown them. The next year I realised that she could just go back in doodles, and waited to buy until after her next autumn spurt.

PE uniform always catches mums out at ds school. They wear it for the whole day on PE days (2xweek) and on forest school days (1xweek). So minimum 2 days a week. At one point with no notice they were doing PE 3x a week and only wearing classroom uniform once a week. Absolute shit show of a laundry situation.

Reception ds had 5 sets of trousers, shirt, jumper and a set of pe kit, this year 4 sets and 2 sets of pe kit, plus 2 lots of after school sports club kit. In winter he had long sleeve shirts and long trousers in summer short sleeve shirts and shorts. I usually keep a couple of items in the next size up (especially if there's a sale on when I'm buying uniform) and an extra pack of school socks, because they vanish. I do one uniform load and one white load a week, and it all gets ironed by DH on a Sunday. I haven't got time midweek to be thinking about if he's got the right uniform, washed and ironed.

ETA infants at DSs school are only allowed to take in book bag and kit bag, no backpacks etc.

No extra backpack - usually there is a huge lack of space. We only allow the school book bag as there is no space for anything else.

When my DCs were in primary they had two “bottoms” (DS trousers, DD skirts as girls not allowed trousers), six shirts/blouses (they came in packs of two), two jumpers/cardigans, two ties (mainly in case of loss). Bottoms were usually fine for two to three wears, same with jumpers, clean shirt every day.

Where I work now we sell the badged sweatshirts and most parents only but one or two (but they can have plain sweatshirts if they want).

Do they change for PE or wear the kit in? At DD’s school they wear the PE kit in on PE days, so she only goes in in uniform 3 days a week, and PE kit twice. So she doesn’t need that many polos, tights and pinafores.

It really depends on what the school requires.
For instance in my DS' school in Reception children wear the PE kit every day (jumper with school logo, polo and joggers), so you'd need 5 sets a week. But other schools might have children wearing PE kit once or twice a week and the standard uniform on the remaining days. That changes everything in terms of how many items do have.
My DS was a very messy one. It was impossible to wear jumper/joggers/polo twice in a row. But we managed with 3 sets as our laundry routine coped with that.

Your biggest variable is going to be the approach to pe. At our school it goes in on day 1 and comes home at half term for washing unless they’ve done something very muddy. Other schools seem to use pe kit as a replacement for uniform on the relevant day.

The times I’ve had uniform slip-ups have been when I haven’t had an item for every day and assumed I’d done a mid-week wash. It’s only happened. Cardigans don’t matter as much (my children’s ones end up stuffed in bags or left on the field annoyingly regularly). My biggest learning point was to get jump suits as well as dresses for summer. Makes such a difference when girls are in a cartwheeling phase at school.

It’s also worth getting a few summer items for the start of school as September can still be really hot. A lot of new starters (including me with my first) kit out for autumn/winter. It means you’ve then got some items if the weather turns hot early in the spring and summer stock isn’t fully in the shops.

6 of everything. It's amazing how often one comes out of the machine with stains still on it. I like to have a clean set per day and wash at the weekend.

Sorry to add to the above two sets of PE kit. But our school they change at school rather than wearing it in. Also I'd forgo the fancy name labels- sharpie names on the back of the neck label works better than anything else we've tried!

5 polos, four jumpers and four pairs of trousers

All 3 of my DC have
5 x t shirts
5 x jumpers/cards
5x shorts (won't wear trousers)

1 pe top
1 pe shorts
1 pe bag

1 book bag (have school dinners everyday so don't need a pack lunch ever)

All of mine are very 'active' at playtime & always come home covered in mud, grass stains, food etc.

I genuinely couldn't cope with having to do a mid week wash on top of a full time job & having 3 kids!

DD is always filthy! She's started reception this year, pe kits are worn all day on 2 x pe days per week. I have:

4 x skirts (3 to wear, 1 stays in school as spare)
4 x polos (3 to wear, 1 stays in school)
2 x cardis (I had a jumper but she didn't wear it)
4 x summer dress (3 to wear, 1 to swap in as spare)

PE kit
2 x tracksuits
2 x pe t-shirts
2 x shorts for summer

Occasionally I get a second day out of a jumper or skirt but not often!

2 cardis, 2 polos, 2 skirts, 1 dress, 2x pe stuff. Was all on weekend ready for next week