Uniform

[Mumjane1971]

My dd14 and ds12 school recently tried to change the uniform but they got a 80%no vote from patents including me I want to know why they head wanted a new uniform the current uniform is fine and always would be
Current uniform
School sweatshirt
School polo shirt
School black trousers
School shoes or plain black trainers or plain black plimsolls
No heels or boots

Proposed uniform
School blazer
School shirt and tie
Black trousers
Leather school shoes
No trainers plimsolls heels or boots

Our local comp bulk buys black washable blazers, and sells them from the school shop.
Badges are sold separately.
My DS liked them because they had lots of pockets.
I like them because they wash and dry overnight and look like new in the morning.
School sweatshirts are for primary age.

I know that what I dont understand is the need for schools to wear blazers polo shirts and jumper formal enough

Wash all uniform once a week

It sounds horrible. Toddlers wear that 'uniform' to nursery. Time to grow up!

One polo shirt lasts three days?! On a stinky teen?! And I thought I was slovenly!

I know that what I dont understand is the need for schools to wear blazers polo shirts and jumper formal enough

What's to understand? Jumpers and polo shirts look shit on teens.

Polyester blazers, wrinkled ties, and wipe-clean trousers look shit on teens too. Polo shirts look fine if they fit and are a flattering colour for whoever is wearing them.

Also tie-wearing is declining rapidly and probably by the time these kids grow up will be a fashion choice like a cravat - even civil servants have open necks nowadays, and DP works at a conservative multinational in a polo shirt and smart jeans (was T-shirt and any jeans until his small company got taken over).

If you need smart clothes for ambition, how do the whole populations of Germany,Scandinavia and non-Catholic USA manage?

You wash their uniform once a week and only have two sets each? Your children must be amazing because mine would reek, with their teenage hormones and sweat.

I looked at a school once which had a uniform like yours, and I thought it a shame that even in the photos of a girl getting a prize she looked "scruffy".

All schools around here have Blazers and Ties. None would allow plimsolls which are totally inappropriate footwear - they don't even provide any protection in the Science lab or DT workshop.

I'd ideally prefer a middle ground, if there has to be a uniform: smart shirts/blouses, smart jumper and trousers/skirt. Maybe a tie - though I don't really think it is necessary. Though I think polo shirts are fine for summer uniform.

No blazers. I hate horrible polyester blazers, especially compulsory ones that children are never allowed to take off indoors. I don't think they look especially smart, I think they look cheap and nasty.

When the time comes to choose a secondary school for DD (currently at a non-uniform school), I will look very favourably on schools with relaxed uniform codes.

Thank the lord dd's school uniform is of the coloured polo shirt / sweatshirt / trousers variety, cheap (clean shirt every day here!) easy and practical. They all look perfectly smart, IMO.

Frankly, I can go from one month to the next without seeing someone dressed in formal business attire round here (rural Wales), it'd be daft to make them wear blazers.

(Though running with the work wear idea - they could all wear oil and silage stained boiler suits, maybe with green cords and battered wax jackets for the 6th formers )

Or maybe gowns and wigs, or operating theatre scrubs? We want children to be aspirational, don't we, so why dress like estate agents?

at boiler suits or scrubs.

DH and I have had plenty of jobs between us.

Neither of us have ever had a job where we had to wear a jacket or tie (admittedly I'm a woman, but the men didn't have to wear them either.)
Never worn a sweatshirt either.
But I have worn jeans and t shirts, and I have worn smart trousers or skirts with a blouse and/or knitwear.

Maybe the kids should be asked in year 7 about what sort of job they aspire to, and then dress accordingly (or would that mean most of the class wearing football strips)

My DS looks lovely in his polyester blazer and tie. Nothing like an estate agent!

How can jumper polo black trousers and black plimsolls look scruffy tie and blazers and trainers would more daft

But if they had changed the uniform then they wouldn't be abke to wear cheap plimsolls would they?

Are you the poster who started 96 threads about whether you should buy your ds plimsolls from ShoeZone for school?

No they would of stoped it yes and no

Mumjane you sound very immature for a 43/44 year old.

How ? I'm just stating the fact that the head of my kids school is wrong for trying to change a perfectly good uniform in a good school

Ds is 12 and in his final week of year 7. Spent September-April at school 1. School jumper ( jogging bottom material not wool ) white shirt, tie, black trousers, no blazer. It was horrible looking.

After being badly bullied ds started a new school last month which has a blazer and he looks so much smarter.
He loves his new uniform, though I'm not sure about the trend for "short, fat ties" ( north west school ) as in last school the jumper hid most of the tie, the new school only wears a plain grey wool jumper in winter months and I noticed the strange length of the pupils ties whilst visiting the school.

Anyone else?

Why are you carrying on about it if the change didn't happen?

I'm not a particular fan of uniform but your teens ' uniform sounds pretty scruffy to me and I don't think plimsolls are appropriate footwear at high school.

I have two opinions on blazers:

1. They look uncomfortable and I suspect their popularity is down to trying to look more like private schools which a state school shouldn't have to do. 2)When I went round the school we eventually chose for DD I thought how smart the kids looked in their blazers and I suspect it made me think this school seemed more "serious" than the others. So I'm either a raving lunatic or a hypocrite, but probably I'm the reason schools tend to like blazers! Incidentally, the massively oversubscribed school in the next city is one of very few to not have a uniform at all - so it isn't necessary for success if everything else is right.

Perhaps you should get together with this poster. I think you'd get on well.

SoupDragon you'd be amazed at the number of people who join Mumsnet just to start a thread about their children wearing canvas shoes to school. It happens on a regular basis. Sadly, no one on Mumsnet seems to care enough, as they often seem to re-register under another name and then do the same again.

How is a jumper and polo shirt uniform scruffy ?

I'm a middle ground person, sweatshirts and polo shirts I think get scruffy really quickly great as sports wear otherwise meh. Though I prefer the new lightweight sports tops to polo shirts.
I like smart skirt/trousers, blouse/shirt and proper jumper. Fortunately DD's senior school is also of the same opinion.
I do believe a school should inspire it's pupils to be proud of wearing their uniform smartly.