What are your year 7’s wearing?

[Dazzlemered]

I’m making lists trying to get organised for September.

What shoes and pe trainers are your year 7’s wearing?

What backpack? Or do most girls have a handbag?

Lunch Box or bag? Do they use these?
Any black coat?

My dd is getting really really nervous about going to senior school, she comes from a tiny primary and in her words she just wants to fit in. I know it shouldn’t matter if she has different stuff but I’d like to make sure I don’t get it completely wrong.

Also long sleeve shirts or girls?

DD wears black Nike Air Forces (I think) - she's allowed to wear leather trainers as long as they're all black and can be polished. She also has some smart Clarks lace up shoes that look like golf shoes to me.

Black rucksack with a small Nike logo on it.

Short sleeved shirt.

We live really close to the senior school so we have seen them all walking to school while DD1 was going through infants / juniors. It's the best way to get an idea of what they're all wearing etc.

For September??

Wait until at least early summer, her interests and tastes will change.

Honestly making such a big deal about it that you’re making lists about what sort of lunchbox or bag she needs is probably rubbing off on her and causing or at least exasperating the anxiety.

Far too early even to think about getting anything. Put the money aside and wait.

It will probably depend on where you are in the country and what the school uniform list says but my daughter at a standard comp in Worcestershire wears/has:

Clarks lace up brogues
Adidas cross trainers
Black lightweight puffa type coat (Regatta i think) that can be scrunched up into her Puma rucksack.
Uses an insulated lunch bag
Wears short sleeve unisex shirts (hates long sleeves)

Most of her peers are very similar, she definitely doesn't stand out from the crowd. Lots do have black handbags rather than rucksacks but she didn't want one.

They seem to show a bit of identity through hair accessories and earrings it seems, surprised how my bow hating daughter has now got quite the collection 🤔

Hope the transition goes well for your daughter.

We are in Hertfordshire. Our School doesn't allow handbags or trainers (except for PE). DD wears short sleeve blouses, a very short (rolled up😳) skirt. Black Vans backpack, black slip on shoes, black hollister jacket with fur trimmed hood (didn't want a big/long coat) black addidas trainers for PE, black nike swim style bag for pe kit. No lunchbox, either loose in bag or school lunch, various water bottles

Probably not the best person to answer this, as dd is a bit eccentric and doesn't really care for fitting in (her ideal outfit would be full Tudor dress, complete with elaborate hair 😂). But dd wears:
Short sleeve shirts, girls ones because she likes the slightly puffed sleeve
Adidas trainers for PE, with school standard PE kit
Trousers
V neck jumper, they are allowed jumpers or jumper and blazer at her school, most of them seem to opt for a jumper
Vans black and white check rucksack
Plain purple lunch box

Dd is quite small, at almost 12 she's only 4'4" with size 2 feet, so it can be difficult to get more grown up shoes. Her school trainers have Velcro straps and her school shoes are chunky flat dolly shoes with a Velcro strap (chosen by her for their Wednesday Addams vibe). No one seems to notice or care really, she gets more comments about her height than what she's wearing

How daft is your reply. I have 4 children so a lot of stuff to buy. It’s definitely not too early for making lists to get organised. I like to make good use of sales and I don’t want buy the same thing twice so I tick it off my list.

I don’t talk to my dd about it, they’ve been doing stuff at school and she’s had several visits to senior school since the beginning of year 6 so she’s been talking to me about it.

Thanks for the other replies with helpful comments 😀

Depends on the school rules and is also very area dependent. In Y7 DTs wore:

What shoes and pe trainers are your year 7’s wearing?
DMs, black puma trainers

What backpack? Or do most girls have a handbag?
Nike backpack, had to be black with a small logo. They switched to totes in y8 and quickly switched back when they realised how much they had to lug around.

Lunch Box or bag? Do they use these?
Mine mostly have school lunches but when they take lunch in it gets rammed in the backpack, no lunchbox / bag.

Any black coat?
They all wear a particlular brand here that I cant remember the name of, short kind of bomber jacket with a big furry hood. But if you went to the next town over they all be in North Face.

Uniform is a short sleeved shirt, kilt that gets rolled higher and higher up as y7 progresses (they all wear nike pros under them), jumper (not compulsory), blazer to be worn at all times (ridiculous rules).

Standard all girls comp.

ETA - we went to the second hand uniform sale bought two kilts each, a load of shirts, jumpers. They are still wearing it now in Y9. Bought blazers new and they are still in those too. I sized up:)

Honestly leave it until the shops have their summer stock. What the kids buy now will be different to September. I’d even say make do with what she has if you can, and buy stuff a couple of weeks into term when she can get an idea of what the other kids do.

we have a fairly prescriptive uniform which helped. The only thing I will say is as a co-ed school very few girls choose the trouser option, it’s always a skirt, and you can tell which year they’re in by the level the skirt is rolled up to 😂. Year 7 full length, year 11 lucky if it covers their arse.

shoes it was brogues for a while, then ballet flats, now it’s a trainer ish as they can get away with.

handbags are not used, as they’re impractical. The older girls have black tote style, big enough to fit their A4 in still.

Brilliant thread op! I have been wondering the same so will be watching this thread with interest. My dd is getting nervous too, she's also from a super small primary.

Dd isn’t trendy but still likes to fit in.

Black backpack - dd actually has a HUGE backpack, because she has a long walk (1.25miles) and cannot cope with a handbag. By Y8 most girls have handbags but a significant minority stick it out with a backpack. Dd doesn’t get any stick from anyone for the backpack, it’s a neutral choice.

She has Nike black trainers with no logo for school shoes. Expensive but hardwearing.

Rarely wears a coat but “it must be a black puffer than will scrunch up small enough to squish into the backpack”.

Very short skirt.

Short sleeved shirt.

Nearly opaque black tights that should have a few holes in, ideally.

No lunch bag or box. Just stuffs it in her bag and buys stuff at the cafe/canteen, or eats nothing. Starving or subsisting on chicken pops and cookies seems quite trendy for obscure reasons.

Plain water bottle, nothing fancy.

Hair bows popular although dd has resisted so far.

I wouldn’t worry until later in the year. They might grow between now and then! Also, the big retailers have promotions in July, eg M&S did 20% off last year so there’s little advantage to any sale shopping now.

Check out the school’s uniform guidelines and check that these won’t change between now and September, particularly with the new rules around fewer school-branded items coming in. Some secondaries allow more informal Airforce style shoes etc, some don’t. Mine wear PE kit many more days than they have PE and no one cares, so more PE kit and less formal uniform needed here.

Lunch - definitely not a lunchbox! Just loose in their bags. Or they buy from the canteen. Branded water bottles all the way here…

Also - no handbags allowed at ours either! Very impractical too for all the stuff they carry about.

It's going to vary hugely not just from one part of the country to another but from one school to another in the same city!

I also agree it might be too early because what they're all wearing now might not be what they're all wearing come September.

I'd recommend waiting until June/July and parking up outside the school to see what kids are wearing.

If it reassures you though, I would say it feels like much less of a thing to have the right brand than people think it is. As long as you're not sending her off with a briefcase and an obviously strange coat then she'll probably be fine.

Ps bag choice depends a bit on your journey, your “tribe” and the locker situation. My dd has a huge school campus and her locker is on the edge, she barely uses it except for her PE kit. She lugs everything around - her bag is so heavy. And she is now doing art gcse so she carries a heap of supplies with her on art days.

I would not invest too much in a bag as dd may change her mind. Mine eventually said whilst she’d love a trendier bag, practically it was a ludicrous idea and she’d stick with the biggest backpack we could find, thank you.

But then there is the PE bag… that is a very specific thing and I got it “wrong” (too small, then too big, the wrong brand… ).

I eventually made her pick one on Vinted and she likes it enough to stop the complaints!

Wait until transition day. Your dd will see what other and older girls are wearing and get some ideas.

My dd wore brogues in year 6 and continued to wear the same ones until year 11. long or short sleeves is a matter of preference. My son liked short where as his sister liked long. It’s a school with blazers so impossible to tell until summer anyway. The safe choice of school bag is black - my dd went for backpack for comfort as some days involve carrying PE kit or food tech ingredients and she walked to school. Safe colours for coats are black but my dd favored khaki which she wore on weekends too. PE shoes- Nike or Adidas in black would be the safe choice. Her weekend trainers will take more effort to consider as it depends on what her group wears and fashion changes quickly.

My DD is year 11 and wears the flat black ballet pump type shoes, with black airforces for PE. Bag is a large black tote handbag, and on the days she takes her own lunch it just gets shoved in there. Coats are just plain black puffer coats but they rarely wear them. This seems to be the standard rig out for most girls in all year groups at her school, but as others have said I'd wait until she has been for transition days to see what the girls there have.