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?

the above school introduced school uniform to year 7 in 2004 So by 2009 the years 7-11 all where wearing school uniform and had been since year 7 from back in 2004 when they started.

results are here fro the same school trinity in 2004

Where else can they store their bus pass, dinner card, pens, mobile, and money safely?

Teens around here will not wear coats either. I recently heard about a school who tried to introduce coats instead of blazers and pupils rebelled resulting in the staff backing down and doing a u turn.

And that was all because of uniform, ivykaty?

I can't see that a thin layer of polyester adds any warmth.
Except when all sweaty in summer, of course.

It's funny, this not wearing a coat - round here (S London) they all wear thick puffa jackets, hats, gloves, scarves, the lot! from Sept - May.

bus pass - in school bag
dinner card - in school bag
pens - in school bag
mobile in coat pocket
money - no money in school as they have cashless system, so no cheques either as every payment is made online

Is causation and correlation part of the curriculum at that school, Ivykaty?

I have no idea if the results went down so much due to the school uniform - but it sort of blows away the argument that they introduced the school uniform to make the results better - as that certainly didn't happen for three years of wearing uniform all through school. Then suddenly the last two years the results are bak to what they were in 2004

Oh, I see - you are saying that the uniform made no difference?

Blu - I have no idea if the uniform effected the results - but looking at the results they were far worse with students wearing uniform than before 2004 without any uniform.

Spanish school uniforms look like pjyamas
Greek school uniforms are lovely
Caribbean school uniforms are impeccably smart
American lack of school uniform at High school enhances the tribal nature of the places
Private schools in the USA (12% of pupils) often have school uniforms
Japanese, Korean, Indian, Chinese schools all wear uniforms

Indian children don't have to go to school though and thousands don't go to school in India - which is fortunate as there are not the school places for all the children of school age in india.

I'm largely neutral on uniform (ugly, looks cheap but is a rip off, but I agree it saves on faffing time) - but can we have a bit less of the fallacy that teaching staff introduce, or choose to enforce, or indeed give a rat's arse about, uniform?

Generally speaking, we have no part in the decision making process & only nag the kids about it because we are required to do so.

Tell me again why children need to be "smart"?

Particularly when "smart" appears to mean looking like somebody behind the counter of a building society?

curlew - children don't need to be smart and they don't need to be in uniform to learn and get decent results when they finish school. I put up the results of the school as I thought it was interesting that the school introduced a uniform and effectively made there students "smart" then when those first "smart" year 7 students took their GCSE's 5 years later the exam results they produced were very much lower than the results of the year 11's that had not worn uniform 5 years previously.

Blazers are just not practical at all for children travelling to and from school. Waterproof coats and fleeces would be much better.

Blazers .... meh! not bothered either way.

DS always has had one. Cheapy (£21?) M+S with badge sewn on. EAsy wash and wear- no picking oin boys for having/not having the embroidered one. Even at 6foot 2 he has an " age 16" boys size! Even DS managed 2+ terms out of each blazer.

DD didn't have a blazer and didn't " have " to have one as they were introduced after she started but she wanted one this year. Hers is shop embroidered ( no choice) and ladies sized so £32. BUT it's doing well and will see her though years 10 and 11.

THe kids like them. pockets are good.

And uniform in 6th form is a dream!

Both my DDs (15&16) wear coats to school - 1 Topshop, 1 Next (their choice). All of their friends wear coats to school. It would be difficult to wear a coat over a blazer (without buying a bigger size and then no good for outside school.
I have to wear a jacket for work. 1 company I worked at used to keep the air conditioning cold so we never took our jackets off. This is not comfortable work gear.
DD2 wears uniform which includes a V-necked navy sweatshirt with school badge on (and shirt & tie) - have to be purchased through school but at a reasonable cost. She looks smart enough and more importantly comfortable.
DD1 now 6th form so no uniform.
School results are good for a non selective inclusive state school - "98% of all students achieved 8 or more GCSEs and of these, 78% achieved 5 A*-C including Maths and English".
I hate blazers on school children.

Not keen on 'em tbh.

They're really expensive, constantly minging (because they have to be dry cleaned), not warnm enough in winter, too warm in Summer.

Uniform gives teenagers something safe to rebel against. Also solves the 'what to wear today' dilemma. BUT the post about girls v. boys dress was interesting - I hadn't thought of that before but yes, blazer and tie is definitely a default male form of dress. Can't think of any adult female roles where you have to wear them. How strange that we force teenage girls into male clothes yet some schools are insistent that they wear skirts not trousers.

I discovered recently I'd forgotten how to do a windsor knot. As ds was almost on his way out of the door to a carol concert. Really awkward, in a hurry, to remember something I hadn't attempted since 1980! Took me four or five goes to get it right.

(No ties at ds's primary nor at my secondary... but a few members of his school choir were recruited to sing at the local Rotary carol concert, and were asked to wear ties.)

The upper secondary my DC attend has blazer, jumper and tie. It also has the best exam results out of the state schools in our county although the two aren't neccessarily linked.
Both of my DC who have attended the school have loved wearing blazers. There are girl and boy blazers apparently which I didn't realise as it's only been my girls at the school so far.
The two main reasons my girls like/liked them are the amount of pockets and that they are loose fitting.

Teens would have pockets if they were allowed to wear hoodies, jeans and trainers, Which is what they would all default to within a month.

I hate the "default male dress" as well. I am so glad my dd has never had to wear a tie.

School hoodie. Problem solved. Interestingly, at my dd's school they have a hoodie as part of the pe kit, and the 6th formers, who don't have uniform, wear them all the time.