School uniform

I wonder when the next wave against uniform will begin. During the seventies and eighties there was a swing away from school uniforms. I went to uni with someone who hadn't had to wear uniform in her sixth form. In my sixth form, each year group could choose fabric with which to make their school summer dress. My year chose a print that came in pinks or blues. The school uniform was bottle green.

During the late eighties my kids' Oxfordshire primary school didn't have a uniform. When Minibags went to the same school in the noughties, it did.

Time to swing back soon, I reckon.

One good thing about school uniform is that it gives angry hormonal teenagers something harmless to rebel against.

Yes! Minibags is quite glad they have a uniform, although compared with mine during the sixties and seventies, it's very flexible. It limits the effort she has to put into the "what to wear?!?" problem. Now the pressure comes from make-up and hair dye instead.

Teenagers will always find a way to pressurise their peers.

thatbags - It was a girls only convent.

indinana, I thought by your uniform description that you went to the same school as me! Until you mentioned the nun.
We did wear the large navy blue knickers, for Indoor gym lessons we were dressed in those knickers and airtex shirts. Our first names had to be embroidered on the shirt in inch high red letters. I never knew why, the staff all knew our names!
Indoor and outdoor Clarkes shoes worn, as well.

I'm in favour of school uniform, but not to the extent of stuff that I had to wear!

J52 our regulation knickers were purely underwear. I think most of us wore them in the first year, but not afterwards. For indoor and outdoor sports we wore divided skirts, airtex shirts and V-necked pullovers. The divided skirts had box pleats front and back - and this was in the days before stay press pleats, so we had to press the pleats back in regularly. The same with our pleated school skirt - we used to roll them and feed them into a stocking to keep the pleats in . And yes, regulation indoor and outdoor shoes too!
Like you I am in favour of school uniform, but it was all a bit extreme in those days, wasn't it?!

Yes, for outdoor sports ( pr games, as they were called) we also wore the divided short/ skirt!

Until the 3rd year we wore gym slips, after that the dreaded pleated skirt, when you rolled them up at the top to shorten them, all the pleats went uneven, rather gave the game away! When they were bought you had to kneel on the floor to make sure the hem reached the floor! So they were just under knee length!

Yes! And nuns would randomly order girls to kneel to see if their skirt was the right length . Such tyranny!

Our nuns wouldn't allow the woollen, divided, pleated sports shorts to rise abeve the knee - so immoral - so we had to replace them with the more "seemly" version. Thank goodness for second hand uniform sales.

Bellanonna - how can something below the knee possibly be referred to as sports 'shorts'? . Heavens, I thought our nuns were bad enough!!!

Yes, indinana, bit of a misnomer there. I actually had a note to take home as I'd grown so my "shorts" had shrunk. This particular French nun said they looked like "neekers". Well they would certainly approve of the shorts I wear today as they are very modest !

I am bogged down with"affiliation clothing" My granddaughter, who lives with us has school uniform, ballet outfit, guides uniform, and stage school outfit. She starts secondary school this year, so now we also have a new, very fulltime catalogue of new stuff to buy, including official bags for P.E and academic equipment. Be thankful if your school doesn't worry too much!!

One thing that I don't like about school uniforms is that are often such dark colours. I see teenagers walking home from school on dark winter afternoons and I worry about them getting knocked down.

Another thing I don't like is when girls have to wear ties, they look ridiculous.

And another thing is blazers as they are such an impractical garment.

I would like uniforms to have a sense of style, keep the children warm in cold weather, cool in hot weather and be visible on dark evenings!

I went to a school run by nuns. When I was in sixth year, we used to roll our skirts up, so that we would have mini skirts, We used be walking along the corridor, when all of a sudden our skirts would be yanked below our knees by a vigilant nun. Also, we had to wear hats, when outside of school. Often members of the public would call the school to say that they had seen "a convent girl out in public without a hat!"

Anyone know the price of a pair of school black pumps??

Marydoll we had a Senior Mistress at our school, back in the 50s. She always carried a ruler. If she thought your skirt was too short you had to kneel ( wherever you were) and the distance to the ground measured, Too short and you got 100 lines. She also had a thing about hitched up bosoms, and would make you lower your bra straps. The fun was to see what you could get away with.

We had a uniform at my school in the 50s and 60s -

jeans, t-shirt and trainers - or VERY short skirts in late 60s

Took a quick look at this this and thought “Half term again?”

So did I Maw maybe later in the week eh?

Yep, half term again

Yes half term in UK
but probably not in Switzerland

I thought we were in for some fun when I saw the title. Or maybe granjura’s having some fun with us.

Indianana - I went to a grammar school
and in the first year we had to do gym wearing our navy bloomers! When we actually had to go outside in them and run around the field we cringed with mortification. Then the gym teacher made us stand in a line and you had to turn the waist of the knickers over to show her you had white ones under as a liner. Can you imagine that happening today!

At our convent school it would have been unheard of to show your knickers!

I would not like to see the end of school uniform. It should be as affordable as possible. Having to wear school uniform at least means that pupils who do not have the money for fancy designer clothes do at least look the same as all the other children and not as if they are the poor relative.