Sixth Form Dress Code

[DaisyB73]

Morning! My daughter is going to be starting at a 6th form where the dress code is smart / business dress. I am a candidate for the least fashion conscious person in the world. Not wanting my daughter to stand out like a sore thumb I wondered if any of you might give some tips of what sort of thing she should wear? TIA

There is an option on the Next app (and I guess website) called " Teen School Wear for her " which has lots of ideas. Many 6th forms are no jeans/hoodies/trainers so the shops will be full of smart 6th form clothes in coming weeks.

My daughters 6th form is the same. She has:

A few pairs of smart trousers, some plain and some checked or striped
A couple of plain black pencil skirts that are about 2 inches above the knee.
Some blouses - white, cream, black and patterned
Knitted tank tops
Plain cardigans and a few roll necks
Black patent loafers and Dr Marten lace ups.

If it is a smart dress code, she’s presumably looking at smart blouse and trousers/dress, jacket and smart shoes.

A lot of sixth forms have very strict rules on dress so I’d definitely check the specific requirements for your DD’s.

DS1 is just starting year 13 and he is expected to wear a full suit and tie. Very strict rules on how it has to be worn as well- top button done up, shirts tucked in, shoes polished and only allowed to remove jacket with permission.

Poor kids!

Next has some nice stuff. DD has to wear a suit or jacket with skirt/trousers and we got some last year. They have lasted well and can be washed too.

@yumbroadbeans they're not going up chimneys! They'll be fine

Check next clearance. Not many have been into the office this year and there is loads of business attire on there. I got ds suit jackets for £19 instead of £85 for example.

yes, check school website for guidance.

If by any chance there are younger years in the school, she will probably want the clothes she wears to be very distinct from what they wear as well (so eg prob not a navy skirt and jacket if year 7-11 wear navy)

DDs school requires "business wear", and that equals a suit for boys, and smart skirt/tailored trousers, blouse or smart top and tailored jacket for the girls. DD will be wearing DM shoes, black opaque tights, black pencil skirt, white blouse, black jacket. She could, of course, mix up the colours a bit, but she seems to want to wear black and white - perhaps she will get more adventurous as she goes on!

DC school is smart business wear too.
In practice the girls have a much wider interpretation of that - all the boys wear suits.
DD had a couple of pairs of smart trousers with blouses/tops, some short skirts with similar tops and a few dresses. Most of her sixth form clothes came from H and M which has a pretty good range with some from New Look and TK Maxx.
I tried to ensure that everything was easily washable in the machine.

I love it when schools insist on "smart/business dress"

I'd ask if any of the staff or governors have actually been into an office in the last ten years to observe what people actually wear!

I once queried why DDs 6th form teacher was allowed to wear a denim jacket to teach kids wearing "smart/business dress" and was told teaching "wasn't that kind of job"

My DC’s school has the same for sixth form. Girls tend to wear skirt or trouser suits in black, dark grey or navy, with tailored shirts and thin fitted sweaters in a lighter colour under the jackets when it’s colder. Skirts tend to be pencil skirts and quite fitted to above the knee and trousers set also quite fitted tapered to the ankle. They wear brogues or loafer style shoes. Next, H&M and M&S are good. If you get a jacket, then maybe get matching skirt and trousers to get more wear out of the jacket. Definitely get machine washable too.

If they're going to be so prescriptive, why not just continue with the uniform? They're just swapping one for another.
Pencil skirts aren't the most practical of school wear.
Why not let them wear their own choice with a few explicit exclusions?

Doesn't solve OP's problem, I realise, but we're a bit obsessed with school uniform in this country.

God, we wore whatever to sixth form. It was so liberating. Fashion mistakes all round!

Drives me crazy.

One of the DDs went to all girls school and their 6th form dress code was no boobs, bellies, bums or shoulders on show - much easier!!

The other one is business/smart and it's basically having to pay out for a whole extra wardrobe.

Poor kids!

I agree - they either look as though they are trainee estate agents or car salesmen, or look as though they have just been to a funeral.

@Peregrina

😂😂😂😂😂

You are so right!

Check the uniform regs really carefully. DC1 the girls had to wear a jacket and dress skirt or trousers in matching fabric, plain or a faint pinstripe navy charcoal or black. Blouses had to have a collar, be a plain pastel colour or a stripe (also pastel) no lace trims etc and if they wore a jumper in the colder months it had to be a v neck.

Meanwhile the female staff breezed around in t shirts and cotton skirts in the summer....

Sounds like An office from the 1970s!

DD's 6th form had that dress code. She more or less lived in trousers from Uniqulo with assorted tops and a blazer we bought from eBay

Hereabouts only the independent schools have the smart dress code. I can only think that it loses them a lot of students because one of the state 6th Form colleges is considered the best non independent in the country