Junior school uniform: Sweatshirt/polo shirt or knitted jumper/shirt/tie? What's the Mumsnet view?

[RustyBear]

The head at the junior school I work at wants to change the uniform from the current seatshirt/polo shirt combination back to the original shirt and tie (clip-on/elastic available) with a knitted jumper/cardigan. The change would be phased in from September, so no-one would be forced to buy a lot of uniform at once.

All the parents at the parents' forum agreed it was a good idea, looked smarter, was more hardwearing etc (the current sweatshirts tend to fade quickly, though they are the best we've tried so far) but after a newsletter came out mentioning the proposed change there has been a certain amount of vocal opposition from some parents...

My mumsnet addiction is well known to the head, so I suggested starting a thread to see what the reaction was on here....

Hate ties, especially on girls.

They look strangled at junior age and a male fantasy in their teens.

However, my secondary school had quite a nice blouse option for girls; a softer, open necked blouse. (Thought it horrible at the time).

My preference is no uniform at all.

Oh, for a smart colour, red. My dd wears a red sweat shirt and it looks far brighter than the more typical royal blue look. And great with a grey pinafore and red tights!

Oosabeauta has a good point about smart uniform creating a better atmosphere for learning. It may sound crazy but the kids always seem to behave worse on non-uniform days. You can put a certain amount of it down to excitement at dressing up/wearing mufti but there's a definite drop in standard. Staff at our school dread non-uniform days!

DDs school (state primary) has a shirt, tie, pinafore, cardigan combo for girls and equivalent for boys.

they do look smart, much smarter than many of the other state primaries with sweatshirt/polo shirt.

BUT getting dressed in the morning takes ages
PE takes ages
at 6 i am still helping DD get dressed (school mornings only!)

i can't wait for summer term when she can switch to the summer dress and cardigan. SO much easier.

but in some ways i like that they look smart, as smart as the very poncy private preps all around. i wonder if children coming from DDs school feel better about themselves as they get older from looking smart? not inferior? i don't know if children think much about it really. any psychologists out there?

Of course they're a bit wilder on non-uniform days; it's exciting and different. The simple fact of wearing a uniform doesn't make them behave better. What makes for good behaviour is the ethos of the school as a whole.

oh and i never need to iron the shirts (wash and tumble dry, looks perfect, and i do iron most other clothes)

the cardigan is great quality and washes/wears well.

the children don't seem to mind the tie... the shirts aren't tight at the neck so the tie isn't "strangling" them. my whole school life i wore shirt and tie and never found the tie uncomfortable.

As long as they wear something in the right colour e.g. red jumper or sweatshirt, white shirt or polo shirt and grey trousers or grey skirt I can't see why it has to be so specific. Ties - no. Definitely no. NO. They are completely pointless. Someone give me a good reason why ties exist because I can't think of one. Apart from 'looking smart' they are about as much use as wisdom teeth.

Knitted jumpers and ties definately (on elastic of course)

My dc had the polo shirt/sweatshirt option in nursery and they were phased out eventually by parental request. The sweatshirt logo faded really badly (on the jumpers the logo is embroidered in rather than screen printed and they fade and go shabby.

The polo shirts just looked baggy and grubby, at least a short stays in shape and you can always resort to bleaching it back to white!

My children take a real pride in their uniform and they both are able to dress themselves (age 6 & 8)

Incidentally boys at my dc's school do wear polo shirts in the summer and I don't think they look half as nice. I think they are going to move towards a short sleeved summer shirt but there is a new uniform being announced shortly with new logo and colours due to a change of school name.

We put a dressmaker's dummy up after school, wearing the possible new uniform to show on parents' evening tomorrow and Wednesday - the comments from the parents collecting children from after-school drama club were all positive, especially about how smart it looked.

I think we are going to turn the dummy back to front tomorrow though, as our supposed 'junior school' pupil has rather large boobs, which we couldn't flatten - there were a few comments about how 'grown up' it looked.

Knitted jumper and cotton polo-neck (like these)(winter) or polo shirt (summer)

Knitted jumpers designed for school wear are way more hardwearing than sweatshirts. DS's were secondhand when we got them and apart from a slightly chewed cuff still look good as new - they will certainly be going back into the secondhand shop when he is done with them - I can't imagine any sweatshirt lasting through 3 or 4 DC in decent condition.

We have shirt, tie and pinafore here (and no elastic tie- you will be surprised at how easily they learn to tie them, my DD tied her first one by herself at the age of 6 and only needed to be shown once!

Oh, and knitted cardigan.

Her previous school was a polo shirt and sweatshirt one and I think her look is much smarter, and no more trouble.

I don't know where your schools get the sweatshirts but my dd has been wearing her red embroidered one for two years and it still looks bright.

well, I don't want my children to look smart. They don't go on business trips/meetings, they are playing in plygrounds etc

I like the multicoloured cheerful clohthes we have in my "home country".

[Over the years how many times have I now mentioned on mumnset that I HATE uniforms]

Oh I so detest ties. They are so archaic. I hate to see young, well all schoolchildren trussed up in them. So uncomfortable.

Storm in a tea cup

People need to shrug and go with it IMO

I hate ties on young children and they don't look smart when they have chewed them! Polo shirts and sweatshirts are much more sensible.

Did worry Rustybear that your HT might be a mumsnetter. Hope you haven't posted on any of that kind of Friday night thread that has been highlighted in the Telegraph recently

My son is in reception, is an august birthday, and can do all the buttons on his shirt himself (bar the top one). His tie on elastic has only been washed a few times- it doesn't seem to get particularly dirty, but even if it does, washes easily. He hasn't chewed it and has never complained it is uncomfortable- it is not tight around his neck.

And he looks gorgeous in his traditional uniform! It has worn well- the shirts are white and can be bleached if he gets pen marks on them and the knitted cotton pullovers have kept their shape. I'm all in favour.

Don't worry mymumsweats I am very careful what I say under this name on mumsnet, as DD is an occasional mumsnetter & knows this name...

ROFL at tie-chewing. Does it happen a lot?

are the knitted jumpers you are all talking about bog standard ones from M&S?

If my dc were at your school I would be one of the objecting parents.

The schoolchildren that I see in poloshirt-and-sweatshirt uniforms look much smarter - particularly at the end of the day - than those in shirt-and-tie uniforms.

Ties end up being tied short/long/sideways. Shirts are untucked (which doesn't matter with poloshirts, they still look fine).

Ties are a bully's invitation: clip-ons get pulled off, elasticated ties get tugged and snapped back, and proper tied ties get tightened and yanked.

Knitted jumpers get frayed, and wear at the elbows.

And pity the poor mums who have to do all the ironing! With 3 dc, one a messy eater and one just messy, we used to go through 5 or 6 school shirts every week, often as many as 10 in summer, when they didn't wear their jumpers.

You've moved with the times to change to a 'sporty', practical, comfortable uniform - why go backwards?

I hate ties in primary, I really do.

And tbh they are just a pain - the kids wear them outside their shirt (it's optional at our school; about half a dozen kids wear them) and they get in the way generally.

Our sweatshirts must be better quality than some then as the logoed version stays nice for ages IME.

knitted jumper? Wot, hand-knit????

I mean the kids wear the tie outside their jumper of course, doh!