If it was down to you, would you want your child to wear a blazer?

[MrsJamin]

I personally don't like them at all but am interested what others think as I'm on a group deciding school uniform for a Secondary school. Are there any manufacturers that make comfortable ones? Would it put you off a school or make you excited if they didn't have a blazer?

essentially uniform has nothing to do with education, zilch, zero, nada; but everything to do with making children 'look smart' and conform, and keeping the parents happy....if you want to weep over your son in a suit, do it in your own time!
fgs 'smart business dress' in sixth form? what is that about?

Yes.

When we chose a secondary school for dd we wouldn't really consider the school where the kids wore polo shirts and sweaters. Kids looked as scruffy as hell and I don't think it reflects well on the school.

Funnily enough that school has now changed to a very smart blazer and the headmaster in their school newsletter said he believes the new uniform has reflected positively on behaviour in the classroom.

I'm not really bothered one way or the other. The DC wear them for school. They are the cheap washable fabric type so quite user-friendly. The other comp up the road have polo shirts and jumpers and they are fine too.

See I would guess a head teacher wouldn't change the uniform to a blazer and then put in a news letter that they believed the new blazer was causing the behaviour of the students to become disruptive

haha exactly ivykaty, he would say that wouldn't he?

Incidently I don't believe that a HT would change to polo shirts and sweat tops and put in the school newsletter that it was causing disruptive behaviour in the classroom either

My DSs both went to a non uniform school. At the time they were there it had the best GCSE results in the county. Both did really well and have successful careers as do their classmates.

Time moves on. New head introduces uniform at the behest of the parents. School now in special measures.

The way children are dressed has bugger all to do with learning and education.

I liked mine. It's handy with all the pockets, and they are comfortable.

doyoulikemy - do you wear a blazer?

Ds1 school didn't have a blazer just an awful acrylic jumper with the house colour as a band on the v, white shirt and no tie.

Ds2 school has a blazer and tie the jumper is just a

Plain grey I branded one.

Ds2's uniform has fared much better even after only one term ds1's uniform looked scruffy ds2 looks much smarter. It would appear that the school with the blazer is much firmer and has higher expectations than the one without but I can of course only speak from my own experience of the two schools.

I like blazers. The 3 of mine who had them had machine-washable ones with a sew on school badge.

Our local high school describes their uniform as smart. KS3 have a polo shirt in Homebase green, which suits nobody. KS4 fare better in blue. They all look really scruffy.

My kids have to wear blazers, I hate them. They are vile looking, overpriced and poorly made. Wouldn't remove them from the school over the blazer issue, but if I had a choice of schools and all other things were equal I would choose a school with a less pretentious uniform that didn't use a monopoly supplier. Uniform is not the great equaliser it's claimed to be, there's a massive difference in appearance between the kids who are forced to wear the same set everyday for 5 years (because of the prohibitive costs) and the kids who have a clean set everyday and it's replaced every year.

I like the idea of blazers.

However in reality, even the smallest sized one that our school does swamps my DS.

I think blazers are smart and practical, as dc can put phones, keys, travel passes etc in pockets. A local school used to have sweatshirts and polls - they looked awful. They now have a tie and jumper uniform which looks a lot smarter. Also, teens do not where coats, so a blazer gives a little protection from rain.

I teach in a school which introduced blazers a couple of years ago. Before that, we has polo shirts & sweatshirts - round-necked and totally unisex. Looked hideous on girls once they developed a bust, and the vast majority hated it. Now most girls wear fitted blouses and v-necked knitted jumpers under their blazers, which are shaped differently to the boys' blazers. They all prefer it, and they look a heck of a lot smarter. As a teacher, I always wear a jacket.

As for proper coats - none of them wore them before, and hardly any of them wear them now. Comments to my tutor group along the lines of "if you're cold, why don't you wear a coat?" are usually met with derision and/or disbelief.

actually some pockets would be good

I don't think polyester jackets look 'smart'. Nor is there, afaik, any research whatsoever proving a link between uniform and academic performance. DD1 has a fairly scruffy and nominal uniform. I am far more concerned about the school's teaching than its uniform policies (and am living proof that it is fully possible to break all uniform rules and get top results in any case).

Couldn't agree more motherinferior

DCs school is blazers and ties

Blazers are now nylon - in the washing machine every half term and dry in two hours on a hanger over the radiator

they have pockets for phones and bus money and pens and god knows what

they are a darned sight smarter than sweatshirts

the lapels end up covered in different badges - some school, some not

they go well with ties - which are used to mark out houses, prefects and the like

and as a blazer lasts a couple of years they work out cheaper than jumpers

Truesay, MI

Well DS1's 'polyester jacket' looks very smart and he doesn't break any rules and is in top sets.

Ooh actually I have no idea if it's Polyester or Nylon now.

sparkling
ditto - all I know is that they are not wool - which my mother had to put up with four of us coming gome from school smelling of livestock in the winter

the boys' and girls' blazers are very different cut
and the boys wear their shirts loose and not tucked in and the girls wear theirs "fitted"
they can wear jumpers under them if its freezing and loose coats over them if its polar
but the main thing is that they are all wearing basically the same outer garment

having done non uniform 6th form I'm a total fan of uniform

At dd's school they have a smart school jumper with their house colour in a thin stripe round the neck, the school logo and the academy status in the arm

The girls wear an open neck blouse and the boys wear shirt and tie

Skirts are allowed but have to be ankle length so strangely the girls all choose to wear trousers!

They look very smart.

I had to wear a blazer at school and it was terrible -there was a girls and boys version and being very tall, the girls version nipped in at the wrong place and looked stupid.
The boys version was incredibly broad across the shoulders and had different splits in the back and it made me look like a tank
-anything but smart