General Chat

we were happily keeping all our eldest two's uniform for the youngest thinking we would not have much to pay out how wrong were we!

I agree - the laugh is with the blazers though. We are allowed to buy outside the school shop and can generally get one for about £13 cheaper. But then you have to buy the badge, which costs ...

£13!

As an aside, the parents guild also run a 'second hand' uniform shop, where blazers and those flippin' kilts can be purchased at a knock-down price. This is done with the school's blessing.

it does get mad dont it Ed?

its sposed to be simple n inexpensive too right!

It's not so much the uniform as the PE kit Mel. She spends about half a term each on swimming, hockey, rugby, etc, so the kit is outgrown before it is worn out.

When I was at school, all we needed was a white polo shirt/shorts/socks trainers for gym, which also doubled as summer games kit, then black shorts and football shirt and socks in house colours for games in winter. You only needed a pair of footy boots, which you also wore for rugby. Shin guards/gumshields were for wussies. And for swimming you just wore a pair of trunks.

Trouble is ar school as recently attained to being a sport and technology college n now they wanna inforce new silly unform the old one is great but there you go!

I think school uniforms are essential for all the reasons listed by the previous posters. Anyway, here we go, my eldest daughter's school uniform (she's Year 9):

Bottle green blazer with badge - £28
Kilt in MacLean Hunting Tartan - £30 (and she needs more than one)
V-necked bottle green sweatshirt with badge - £18 (optional in summer and again more than one needed)
White fitted blouse (fortunately we can get these from most high street stores)
Black trousers (can only be worn instead of kilt between November-February)
Sensible black shoes


PE
Black one piece swimming costume
Swimming hat and goggles
Yellow polo shirt with school badge and initials on chest
Bottle green skirt with initials
Green cycling shorts (only pupose is to go under skirt)
Black shorts
Black sports socks
Reversible green/maroon rugby shirt with initials on (these cost a flippin' fortune and are a bugger to wash/dry)
Grey sweatshirt with initials and school badge (they withdrew this after her first year!)
And replaced it with - a black tracksuit top
Black tracksuit bottoms with one white stripe down the leg (special design that has to be bought from the school shop)
White trainers with non-marking soles
Rugby/Hockey boots with safety studs
Football boots with safety studs
Shin Guards
Gumshield

I think when we kitted her out for her first year this little lot came to about £450. We also had to get an Atlas, scientific calculator, various bags and holdalls.

She's still wearing the same 3 kilts we got when she started there - they do last for ages and whilst she's a bit taller, fashion dictates that the kilt has to look like a pelmet anyway! We're on the second blazer - we cheated and got one from BHS then sewed the badge from her old one onto the pocket - it saved us £13 over buying one from the school shop and nobody can spot the difference anyway.

The boys uniform is pretty much the same - except they wear black or grey trousers, white shirt and a maroon tie. Trousers can be bought from the high street so a boys uniform can work out a lot cheaper than a girls (don't have to buy those kilts!)

They're allowed to take the blazer off in class and don't have to wear the blazer in the summer if it's hot. I don't think the boys have to wear the tie in the summer either. Oh and they aren't allowed to wear the tie so that it's about 3" long - it has to come down to waistband.

They don't wear a uniform in 6th form but both lads and lasses are expected to wear a business suit (again lads with a tie) and sensible shoes.

The youngest, who's still at juniors, wears:

White polo shirt
Navy trousers or grey skirt
Navy sweatshirt or cardigan with school logo
In the summer she can wear a blue/white gingham dress.

PE is black shorts and a tee shirt in house colours, black plimmys for inside and trainers for outside. She can also wear a sweatshirt and trackie bottoms if it's cold.

Mel, it sounds as if your school is going for a new image but that is very unfair tp parents to bring it in all at once. hasn't anyone complained?

We used to have gymslips in first and second year Sue, with collarless square necked blouses. Then navy skirt, white blouse and school tie 2 - 6th year (except I left in the fifth year). Summer uniform was candy striped dresses in blue, green red or yellow but we had to have at least one in our house colour. And we got detention for not wearing our berets.

Shimms, us girls had PE on a Friday afternoon. One girl.. Julie had a hot date that night so was in a hurry.The girls school uniform at the time was a one piece cotton dress.
Now our Julie being just a bit keen to get home grabbed the nearest dress. Me being me .. came in 10 mins later by which time our Julie who was 4 foot 2 in platforms had legged it home in record time leaving me who was 5 ft 7 and at least two sizes bigger to squeeze into hers..
believe me Jordan had nothing on me that day as I walked home..
by the way Julie .. if your looking in you owe me big time!
LOL

Sue .. we had a milk bar near the school. The owner did a roaring trade at lunchtimes. There was us being all cool; an grown up .. a milk shake an a number six . She would shout .. Headmaster!! an hide us in the back of the caff..
Poor old Headmaster got so desperate he phoned the public phone box next to the school and when someone answered asked if anyone was smoking...
answer? er no.. honest
:))

psst, Newby ...

Moi used to roll her skirt up, very faint make-up too when older. :))

The boys used to have an inspection, if their hair was just an incey wincey bit over the collar ... then home it was until it was cut lol!

lol at Newby.

We were inspected for correct unfiorm before we left the school grounds and if we were caught not wearing our berets we were up before the head and in deep trouble!!! The length of our skirts were measured (as were my daughters). All shirts to be tucked in and not waving about in the breeze!

I am not going to tell you about my gymslip which we had to wear for the first two years before we were allowed to progress to skirts :-((

School uniforms for all children gets my vote.

AWW come on.. bet you Mums used to do the exact same thing?..I know I did .Triny and Suzanne would have a field day!
LOL

I agree with school uniforms
It makes them all the same & feel part of the school community

Daughters school, Primary

Its black / grey... skirt / trousers
Red sweatshirt with or without logo or red cardi / pullover
Red or white polo shirt
White t shirt & black shorts for pe (any style)
Dark colour shoes & white or grey socks

Sons school....secondary (uniform looks very smart !)

Boys

Blazer, black with logo
Black trousers
tie in house colours
Shirt, white
Jumper black v neck pullover
Black or grey socks
sensible black shoes

Boys PE
Summer kit, black shorts & white polo shirt, white socks & white trainers with light coloured soles (dark ones mark the sport halls floor)

Winter kit
Sweatshirt in house colours
Black shorts
Red footie socks
Footie boots

Swim kit
swim shorts in black

Girls

White shirt / blouse
Black trousers with school logo (because girls trousers come in different fashions opposed to boys trousers for school hence only one type being allowed)
School black skirt with logo (again for the same reasons as above)
House tie
Black jumper / pullover v neck.
Black or grey socks
sensible black shoes.

Not sure of the pe kit for girls as daughter is in yr 5. but its simpler than the boys garb & it involves pe drawers :o)))

Swimming costume in black (regulation school one i think
swim cap in house colours.

Uniform in my day was bought big enough to grow into lol.I remember rolling over the waistband of my skirt to make it short,and my gabardine mac was huge lol.

As a schoolgirl I hated it but as a Mum I love it...................I think it actually works out much cheaper than buying lots of clothes all year round.

I have 4 girls.............can you imagine the rows we avoided over who wore what and when!! :))

Mufti day is a nightmare..................how long can a 10 year old take to choose what to wear?

Hours and hours :((

I must admit we had to wear uniform when I was at school. What us kids did was adapt it into a fashion statement. Kipper ties , top button of our blouses/shirts undone. Everyone carried their books in a carrier bag, cuffs of shirts were turned up. Platform shoes! .. head of year spent a whole year brandishing a ruler to measure the hight, anything over 3 inches and we were in trainers. Trouble was then wearing trainers was the new Vogue of high schools.
:))

I think on the whole they're a good idea - as long as they're comfortable and affordable, and available frommore than one outlet.
Why do some schools still insist on ties? How many of you ladies wear a tie?
At my daughter's school they dropped the summer uniform and even short sleeved shirts, so in the summer they had to wear the same as in the winter - long sleeved shirt, tie and blazer - but could 'drop' the jumper!
It was awful! the first summer it was very hot - and they had to wear ties and nasty nylon blazers.
Not exactly conjusive to learning - more like a torture.

n we thought uniforms were inexpensive!

Sons school uniform... High school 1st year (sorry can,t get my head around this yr 8-9 etc) he was 14 .. The Blazer has Blue ribbon sewn around the sleeves. PE kit is a certain colour. Year 2 of high school blazer does not have ribbon and different PE kit. Girls wear blouses in blue and white pin stripe , they can only be bought from one school shop.
6th form blazer with different badge , new tie only can be bought from one shop.his school used to be a Grammar school until the late 70,s
Other son , different school.. same uniform throughout and just a suit and tie for sixth form.. This school was the comprehensive in the late 70,s.