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

must stop posting one blazer, £21, lasts three years so £7 a year. Black polish able shoes, £10, 2 pairs trousers, £10, pack three white shirts, £8, tie £5 lasts 2 years so £2.50 a year = £37.50a year. Beat you OP and dcs don't have soaking wet feet throughout the winter. Washing machine on less too.

Do the £10 shoes last all year ? Ds doesn't have soaking feet all winter only if it rained

I really don't understand this obsession with 'business wear' for school uniform. Children go to school to learn not to 'do business'. Surely their comfort is far more important than the schools corporate image?

My children attend a secondary school with a uniform similar to OP but they are just entering into a consultation period on a new 'smart' uniform, because all the other schools around are already smarter. However, my DCs school is easily the best in the area and the most over subscribed. They don't need to use uniform to attract people.

In this area I've always believed that the smarter the uniform the weaker the school - they need to use the uniform to look better than they are.

I will be very sad if they move from a comfortable uniform to clothes 'fit for the office' when the vast majority will either move into professions where smart clothes are either not necessary or involve uniform, or they will go into manual jobs which equal do not require 'formal dress'. They really don't need to do it for interview practice - most people are sensible enough to dress smartly for an interview, they don't need to practise every day at school!

Thats what everyone said at our parents meeting a couple of months back and the head started to realise there wasnt any need for a office type uniform

I agree about how unnecessary 'business wear' is. The first time I saw a bunch of children in black suits, I wondered if they had all been to a funeral and thought how sad.

My nephew 15 has to look like that every day dd and ds make fun of him lol my sister prefers my kids uniform to her sons

What returning said

I have never seen any study that conclusively proves that uniform has any effect on behaviour or performance

It's an outdated concept and purely for parents' benefit Imo. The time wasted on uniform infringements in secondary schools gives me the despair

my kids are going from a school where they can wear whatever they like to one where the visible stripes on their ties get counted

WAAAAAAAAAAH

School uniform seems to me to only exist in countries that were once part of the British Empire or which were heavily influenced by it. Are there uniforms in the rest of Europe? I've seen children in uniform in Australia and the Far East, and also in Africa, but I think in the US only private schools have them?

Think schools should always have unifirm but more schools should have a uniform like my dd and ds school tie and blazer is over the top

You see uniform in Cuba and Peru also. I haven't been to any other Latin American countries, so can't vouch for any others.

But the school didn't adopt the proposal so why are you still banging on about it?

And I really can't imagine how plimsolls can be appropriate school wear.

Blazer might be 'over the top' (not sure how, it's just a jacket) but sand shoes on teenagers in the winter is decidedly under the top.

(can't believe I've been sucked into weird thread)

What are sand shoes ?

sand shoes are plimsolls/pumps/daps/tennis shoes depending on where you live.

sand shoes

There pumps or plimsolls where I live

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

The vast majority of Catholic children in the US do not attend Catholic schools. Catholic schools in the US are independent, fee-paying schools, and most Catholics send their children to state schools.

Many non-Catholic private schools in the US do not require a uniform.

A few state schools in the US have uniforms, but the requirements would more properly be called a more restrictive dress code than a uniform (eg. dark jeans might be allowed).

AlpacaLypse We live in Spain where all private schools have uniforms; the old-fashioned style with blazers, ties, kilt-style skirts, etc. In the state primary schools, the ones near to us seem to have polo shirts and sweatshirts with the school's logo but possibly they are not mandatory. Also school-logoed backpacks and book bags. The three state secondary schools near us do not have a uniform, but in a nearby district the state secondary schools (at least two that we pass regularly) do have one. So I think it is up to the district or the individual school.

What a strangely compelling thread, my DS has a blazer and tie, smart shoes and trousers, but tbh he is quite comfortable in it, it isn't restrictive and I think the whole school look smart. Ii's not very expensive either and thr PA sell second hand every half term. But I do think proper shoes are needed for all day long wear and wouldn't let him wear plimsolls regardless of the actual uniform rules.