Tracksuits To Become Standard School Uniform?

Track suits are sport and leisure wear and IMO not appropriate for school after about age 9.

I don’t think ultra short skirts or skintight shiny trousers for girls appropriate either but school rules wil just encourage that. Best left to parents.

Paperbackwriter

"I agree that the skirts are ridiculous, barely covering the arse!
In a school full of boys with raging hormones."

Maybe one of the functions of education could be to teach the boys to control their reactions to girls, rather than teaching girls that it is up to them not to challenge the boys' impulses.

Indeed.

Perhaps teaching boys to control themselves.

It's not female clothing, rather male bad behaviour.

Yes Norah. We are seeing a bit of victim blaming going on here.

MartavTaurus

I've blown hot and cold on this one for many years.

When I was Headmistress, woe betide any girls who didn't wear their kilts properly, lengthwise!
Now, in the 21st century, provided the tracksuits are school branded, and every one has the same, I think it's a good idea.

Teaching abroad for a while, where pupils don't have school uniforms at all, I can't say I noticed any deterioration in behaviour or discipline.

I am delighted to hear someone with practical experience of this. I really don’t understand why we are so obsessed with school uniform in the UK, unlike our close neighbours in Europe and even in the US. They seem to have overcome all of the problems that British schools claim will arise if there is no school uniform.

MartavTaurus

Astitchintime

MartavTaurus

At the moment parents can get shirts , trousers,skirts etc from supermarkets at lot less
And also school tracksuit bottoms in Marks for £14 - £20 a pair depending on size. I don't consider that expensive. They come in 3 different colours.

£14 - £20 for kids tracksuit bottoms?! That’s IS expensive, particularly when they’d need more than one pair and had siblings needing them too! Get real MartavTaurus!

Did you read a pair? That's £7 each. The price of M & S trousers are exactly that too, so no difference. I expect the likes of Asda are even cheaper.

By the way, I am very real thank you, so keep your shirt on, or your hoodie on!

RUDE!!!!!!!!

My kids went to 2 different primary schools and both schools had a blue tracksuit as the uniform. The kids didn't look like chavs and it was cheaper for the parents.

What I do disagree with is how schools are now like mini boot camps and the uniform rules are unbelievably strict.
Kids go to school to learn and supposedly prepare for the grown up world, I'm still trying to work out what job involves a strict uniform outside of the services.

mae13

So - parents have been consulted and have given the 'Thumbs Up' for their offspring to attend school looking like Chavs?

Talk about dumbing down!

I attended a convent school and the uniform rules were fiercely imposed. God help any girl who didn't knot their tie correctly or was caught turning their skirt over at the waistband to make it shorter.

Wonderful discipline!

Times change. Every generation will get old and start ranting about “back in my days” and everything else we don’t understand about the youth. It’s what we do as humans. We all think things were somehow better in the past once we get older. Ahh those rose-tinted glasses we tend to look at the past through

Fwiw, I personally thought the nuns at school were practically barbaric with the way they were allowed to “discipline”. Disproportionate, even hysterical over things now seen as normal. Such is life!

MartavTaurus

At DH's school, pupils wore/still wear the traditional uniform with pride. A recent vote was unanimous to keep it.
Apparently, the bright yellow stockings were originally worn to fend off rats in the City of London! 🐀 🐀 🐀
He still has the leather belt with silver buckle. That was the only item you had to pay for. Everyone was given a new uniform every few years
I can't say I'd be over keen to wear it daily!

Ah, I know which school that is!

Astitchintime

MartavTaurus

Astitchintime

MartavTaurus

At the moment parents can get shirts , trousers,skirts etc from supermarkets at lot less
And also school tracksuit bottoms in Marks for £14 - £20 a pair depending on size. I don't consider that expensive. They come in 3 different colours.

£14 - £20 for kids tracksuit bottoms?! That’s IS expensive, particularly when they’d need more than one pair and had siblings needing them too! Get real MartavTaurus!

Did you read a pair? That's £7 each. The price of M & S trousers are exactly that too, so no difference. I expect the likes of Asda are even cheaper.

By the way, I am very real thank you, so keep your shirt on, or your hoodie on!

RUDE!!!!!!!!

😲

Just wondering who is RUDE!

keep your shirt on, or your hoodie on!
No tie?

No tie?

Get knotted!

The main advantage of school uniforms is that they prevent children realising that some parents are better off than others.

That is one of the myths used to justify uniform, other children and their parents know which children come from well-off families and which do not. Children do not wear just a track suit at school, they wear socks and shoes and anoraks and change for games, they have satchels and some get free school meals and others do not.

Whether a child comes from a rich or poor home should be irrelevant, all children shuld be treated with respect regardless of background.

M0nica

^The main advantage of school uniforms is that they prevent children realising that some parents are better off than others.^

That is one of the myths used to justify uniform, other children and their parents know which children come from well-off families and which do not. Children do not wear just a track suit at school, they wear socks and shoes and anoraks and change for games, they have satchels and some get free school meals and others do not.

Whether a child comes from a rich or poor home should be irrelevant, all children shuld be treated with respect regardless of background.

Hear hear.

It's all very well to say that boys Should learn to control themselves, but girls should also be taught not to walk around flashing their knickers at everyone. When I was at school it was called Jail bait.

My grandson's suit and tie has to come from the school outfitters. So does all his sports wear including the extra shorts and tops he has to wear for some classes as his place at the school is partly down to his sporting ability. The school sells second hand uniform and also has a sale of out of school clothes every year. The boys are asked to bring in any outgrown clothes because there are pupils who have problems affording any clothes.

That's an appalling comment. I honestly thought we'd moved on from the mentality that women and girls deserved unwanted attention - or worse - just because of what they were wearing.

Goes both ways, boys should be told to pull their trousers up if they are flashing their backsides. I imagine girls probably do look if only to think they don't fancy boys with grubby underwear.

"she led him on".

Well out of date now and not acceptable. Boy and girls and men and women will always play flirting BUT it's never acceptable "blame the girl" because of what they wear.

My grandchildren go to a Primary School in an area that is a mixture of very poor indeed and middle class. Their uniform is currently trousers and Polo shirts/sweat tops with badges, in the summer girls can wear a simple dress.

The cost of suits and ties type wear from proper outfitters is astronomical and completely unecessary.

At this primary school some mums had got together and they have an annual "hand me down" fair.

People bring not just uniforms but other clothes too, and people are told to pay what they can afford.... which includes nothing. Cakes and tea laid on. It's a little school, such events are not too hard to organise.

ViceVersa

That's an appalling comment. I honestly thought we'd moved on from the mentality that women and girls deserved unwanted attention - or worse - just because of what they were wearing.

Get real!

Oreo

ViceVersa

That's an appalling comment. I honestly thought we'd moved on from the mentality that women and girls deserved unwanted attention - or worse - just because of what they were wearing.

Get real!

Please elaborate - do you really think it's ok to blame girls for what they're wearing?

If skirts end just below the pants why else are girls doing it if not for male attention?
These aren’t just the mini skirts of yesterday btw.
.Not all girls I will add wear them but a substantial number of them do.
Anyone who trots out the old ‘never acceptable to blame a girl for what she wears’ lives in another world.
How boys manage to concentrate in class is beyond me.
So tracksuits for all would solve lots of problems.
I don’t suppose all schools will do this, some already have strict uniform rules of their own.

ViceVersa

That's an appalling comment. I honestly thought we'd moved on from the mentality that women and girls deserved unwanted attention - or worse - just because of what they were wearing.

It doesn’t matter if they deserve unwanted attention or not, they’ll get it dressed in a certain way, won’t they?.
Who says it’s unwanted attention anyway?

Maybe try to educate the boys that a girl isn't 'asking for it' because of what she is wearing? It's exactly the same as claiming that a woman deserves to be raped if she's walking down the street late at night in a skimpy dress. I genuinely can't believe some people are still clinging to that attitude in 2026.

No it isn't the same thing at all ViceVersa so don’t try and skew things.
Nobody thinks that boys at school will be raping the girls for wearing the skirts just below the pants but it’s a huge distraction for teenage boys with much potential for physical embarrassment as they can’t control their bodies.
Am amazed that schools can’t even lay down the law as regards their own uniform rules and wonder if they’re afraid of pupils and parents.Uniform doesn’t have to be draconian just sensible.

Girls have rolled their skirts (even mini skirts) over as long as I can remember. Certainly since my schooldays.
Could boys manage to control themselves back then, where they can’t now?

fancyflowers

Which school is this? Can you give a source, please?

It was all over the media so would be quite easy to find.

Oreo Am amazed that schools can't even lay down the law as regards their own uniform rules

I can't generalise about all schools but at the place one of my DCs teaches, the staff fight a non-ending battle against the girls rolling up their skirts. It doesn't help that the stupid, mock tartan pleated skirts are easily converted into a tuchy little frill.

The decision to adopt this unflattering garment as part of the uniform, which is a symphony in man made fabrics parodying a public school uniform, was in no way influenced by the teaching staff.