School uniform help please!!

[rainydaysarebad]

My Dd starts school in september and I have no clue about where I can buy good quality uniforms. I'm veering towards M&S as they have a 20% sale on.

SO, how many polo shirts should I buy? I want to buy her a pinafore dress, but should I get a pair of trousers too to change during the week? Should I buy her summer dress this year or wait until next year?

Shoes - clarks? Or would M&S shoes be ok? Are they good quality? I'm figuring if I'm getting a discount I should get everything from one place.

PE clothes - where do I buy PE shorts? I've seen some unisex ones in M&S and they look like baggy boys shorts. Should I get her cycling shorts instead? And also where would I get a blue tshirt from?

That's it really, the school will provide the jumper and I will wait until August for the coat.

Thanks for any help.

How much you need depends on your child I think. My dd is quite messy and her school has a muddy playground so I have three pinafores and five tops. And four summer dresses.

I have always bought mine 'proper' shoes but they both have ridiculously narrow feet. My dd's shoes have always been out grown rather than worn out though.

Dd doesn't seem to get her clothes dirty very quickly - likes to keep prim and perfect, but not sure if that will happen in school.

Her feet grow really slowly so I'm not worried about her growing out of the shoes, more that she is comfortable as she will be wearing them all day.

My DD was always great at keeping her clothes clean - until she went to nursery school this year! Between dinners, chalk (which there seemed to be lots of!), paint, outdoor play, and others, I began to count myself extermely lucky if the same uniform was worn two days in a row! I'm not home until around 6pm and have to have myself and DD out for 7am, so it was a challenge to stay on top of uniform washing!

DD is a girly-girl, so there was no point in me even buying trousers. I had two pinafores, which she mostly wore in the winter, and two skirts, which she wore the rest of the year. I bought two packs of 2 polo-shirts, which was actually probably too much, but 2 shirts probably wouldn't have been enough.

I bought her uniform in M&S on the recommendations of friends, and found them to be very good, so will use them again this year for primary school. Def buy now with the 20% off, as it represents a good saving. As I only had M&S this year, I can't comment on how they compare with others though.

I would get the smmer dress. Most of the girls at ds's school wear the summer dress all year round - but with tights and a cardi/jumper in winter. I find the m&S stuff good quality, but I also have some very cheap polos from ASda which are 100% cotton and wash well too.

It's tempting to buy lots to start, but children do grow and most places stock uniform all year round - so you can get more as needed.

Think it depends on the school - what do the other kids wear - she'd probably like to fit in.
BHS do a great range of school uniforms - various styles and cuts of trousers and skirts so something to fit all shapes. Quality good enough to last until children have grown out of them, and cheaper than M&S.
BHS do lots of PE clothes too.

I always got Clarks shoes, or other "sensible" brand like Startrite or Elefanten, and got them properly fitted. They wear them all day, so they need to fit well.
I wouldn't buy summer uniform until you need it - DD is bound to grow between September and summer.
I just got one pair of trousers and one skirt - three polo shirts and three school jumpers. They are all made of synthetic material, so will dry overnight if you need to wash them.

I don't want to have to do laundry during the week -- so I have 5 uniform outfits. I've purchased M&S and John Lewis both have lasted well.

So for me it depends on how much you want to do laundry & your budget.

We have 4 polo's, 3 pinafores and 1 skirt (for pe days) and 2 cardigans. On a friday they wear a tracksuit to school for field sports. During the summer months we have 4 summer dresses. All bought from M&S last year with the discount except the summer dresses which we bought at easter.

PE kit also from M&S, we have the unisex shorts. H&M are great for plain t shirts in most colours, we got navy and whitenin the bous department for dd.

Shoes, we have start rite, have got through 2 pairs due to growth. Wanted a good fitted brand as she is wearing them all day, every day during the week.

Dd is messy, she comes home every day with paint, food, pen etc on her so for us a set of clothes for each day means I can wash it one go at the end of week.

Thanks for the replies everyone! It's good to know how many shirts other children get through to get an idea of how many I'll need. Will probably get 4, as DD doesn't grow very quickly, so she'll probably get a good wear this year.

MrsRoger - can I ask how the unisex shorts from M&S look when on your DD? They looked really loose and boyish online - does your DD like them?

My DD (age 7) has five cardigans, three pairs of trousers, five skirts, four pinafores and four summer dresses. She also has five polo shirts and five blouses. I have to replace the blouses every three months or so given that school is VERY fond of poster paint and DD is not so fond of an apron.

She does have A LOT of uniform but it means that I don't have to worry about doing laundry in the week (her uniform needs washing every day) and it doesn't matter if I have a week off the ironing! All of hers is from Asda and has worn very well.

As others have said, at least 4 sets of everything, preferably 5! Less polo shirts if she will be wearing pinafores.

Tesco have drop-waisted, long zipped pinafores which I have been very pleased with year after year, and easy to get on/off too.

I would buy a 'big' summer dress or 4 in the sale, right at the end of July, ready for next summer.

And a gazillion pairs of tights, as mine can go through the knees of one a week....that little hole that gets picked at and picked at during assembly..

At your DDs age I bought properly measured shoes, but now DD is yr5 she is pretty sensible about choosing ones that fit from e.g. M+S. It depends whether they wear them all day at school, or pumps indoors too, or whether you have a distance to walk to school etc.

Don't forget to get a photo on the first morning......

PE cycling shorts from M&S are good. They have few small sizes so buy them now.

Polos from Asda are very good.

I was surprised by the number of cardigans I needed. Yoghurt on navy/black virtually every day = lots of washing.

Summer dresses always worn in September by people who have older kids and know it will get some use!

Trousers...I bought 2 pairs ,but they were never worn. It depends on your children....they are not practical and like to wear anything.

rainydays dd is fine in the unisex shorts, she is very fussy and would tell me if they weren't ok. She does also have the cycling shorts which she wears for gymnastics after school and they are fine also.

I would say don't buy it yet! I bought DD's uniform for reception this time last year. She grew 3 inches and a went from size 8 to size 9.5 in shoes over the summer holidays. Had to take the whole lot back :o

DD has 2 pairs of joggers (reception uniform at her school), 5 polo shirts, 4 sweatshirts, 3 summer dresses.

From September she'll have 2 pinafores, 2 skirts, 1 trousers, 2 cardigans, plus the same polo shirts and sweatshirts.

I bought pinafore dresses and summer dresses for my DD when she started reception (she's now in Yr5)

My DD is tall and slender so I bough the dresses a couple of years 'up' but they were awkward for her to get off/on because the buttons were to waist level and the waistband was fixed.
John Lewis were much better, buttoned down to mid-thigh or a shift dress with a zip.

For PE days in winter we gave her trousers -they asked us not to send DDs in tights unless they could put them on themselves.

Polo tops were a nightmare- she (thankfully) had to wear blouses in Junior.
The M&S ones shrunk in length, the JL ones were tiny, Tesco ones went yellow. Sainsburys were the best I found.

My DS had the school embroidered Polo Shirts and they lasted really well. (DS doesn't put weight on. He grows up but not out . His Junior polos lasted him 4 years !)

M&S shoes didn't have good reviews on website (though I buy M&S shoes for me and they are fab)

Clarks for us.

I stopped buying Clarks for DD (then 6) last year due to inconsistent measuring/awful range/patent pushing and moved to M&S shoes, they have lasted the year.
I might not get them for DS though as I am not confident he would tell me they were uncomfortable until I got home!

I have always bought primary school clothes from Next or M&S and shoes from Clarks.

In my experience Reception children invariably need clean everything on everyday so unless you can claim to be a member of the GB Washing squad best to make sure you have at least 3 of each item! One family i remember had 5 of everything for each child and she only washed at the weekend!! And make sure you label them clearly - or you may get somebody's manky, yogurt stained, chewed sleeve cardigan in exchange for your brand new sparkly clean one!! ps velcro shoes make life easier!

I only wash at the weekend.

Yes will buy shoes from clarkes - hope I can get a good deal from Bicester village or Swindon outlet centre!

I'm pretty sure Dd won't be wearing her school jumper for more than 15 mins as she gets hot really quickly so hopefully I won't need more than one but might buy extra trousers as dd is bit of a tomboy! Thanks for the advice about thr summer dresses!

clemetteattlee do you mean the school uniform or everything? Just I seem to have at least 2 loads most days and more at the weekend! 2 adults/one child

How many clothes are you wearing in a day ?

Sometimes I will do a couple of loads in the week but generally I just do it at the weekends as I can't get it dry in the week.

Depends on how often you want to do washing - DD1 is quite a neat person but they are lot more unsupervised in Year R than at pre-school (or Year 1 & upwards for that matter) so she regularly gets impressively dirty with pen, paint, mud and all sorts.

We have 12 M&S stain-tec polo shirts (so only have to wash once a week & no tumble drier) and four grey pinafores (2 John Lewis & 2 M&S). Pinafores have the advantage of covering up a lot of the (white) polo shirt & don't show the dirt as much. No trousers or skirts as too much polo shirt on show & DD1 very skinny with no arse so she'd be constantly hiking them up or untucked - so pinafores look neater. I figured the less choice I gave her, the less rows we'd have over getting dressed in the morning.

How big is your DD? If she's small, then you can probably pick up some new (or barely worn) summer frocks off Ebay as a lot of people buy size 4 or 5 for the beginning of the autumn term & they've grown out of them by the following year. All of DD's were 2nd hand last year. This year she has 6 - 4 2nd hand M&S and 2 new Asda - but check the quality of the fabric from there as the cheaper ones are really thin cloth. The more expensive Asda ones (ie £6 each) have lasted really well. We also have two cute matching kelpy sun hats from Sainsbury in red gingham.

Socks are M&S with cute matching trim or their red tights. Shoes are Clarks - patent has the advantage of not requiring polishing - just a quick buff with a baby wipe brings them up lovely. Most schools prefer velcro to buckles for Year R.

Black not horrendously baggy girls shorts from Tesco & black track suit from Asda - found finding one without logos in small sizes quite difficult.

When does the 20% off at M&S finish?