School uniforms - for or against?

I hold strong views that uniforms are very good for children so I m polar opposite to you biglouis

I was not from a well off family and had handmade or second hand uniforms but I don’t remember it ever causing me too much trouble I was proud of my uniform and although we all hated parts of it looking back now I m very glad I had one and indeed I think it brought us more together to have a moan about the hats or length of skirt

I would have shown my ‘class’ much more if I d have been wearing home clothes

However I agree that uniforms should be more generic with just one item with a badge or logo on it

My children wore school uniform and all my grandkids (five overseas 2 different countries and 2 in U.K.) have too and indeed I don’t know of any schools that don’t use school uniform certainly none round here

I think it levels kids, gives you proud in your school, keeps your home clothes from wearing out and gives you a shared identity

So I m a ??

I'm all for uniforms, second hand or new. Keeps children equal, no kids wearing designer gear. My daughter went to a private school and sometimes had uniform shop seconds

Totally in favour of uniforms but dd is going to secondary school in September and uniform will cost in excess of £300. Everything has to be purchased from their supplier with their badge and house badges...including pe kit. Its unnecessary

In in favour of school uniforms. I am from a low income background and would not have had many other clothes so that would have been.

I am very much for it. My daughter can buy my Grandsons uniform from Supermarkets. He is in primary School.
I also think it instills a sense of pride. I remember my son doing a Queen song with his School Choir. I remember these young boys all from different backgrounds, all looking immaculate in their uniforms, and the sense of pride they felt as they sung their hearts out. One of the few times I had tears in my eyes.

I'm completely out of touch with all of this pricewise. I do know my GC have a uniform but it rather seems they can mix and match at will. I used to underwrite the shoes each year but now they've simply opted for trainers. Don't remember much of an enforcement in my own primary school but I looked back at phosphorus and there was an attempt at it there. I was fiercely proud of my secondary school and delighted to wear my uniform even though there was no choice in the matter. Once recollect a couple of rebel girls deciding to test the system by turning up in luminous socks (hideous but absolutely top fashion) and they were sent home immediately. For the record, I was from an impoverished area. I seem to remember my Mum had a 'club card' which she paid something like ten shillings a week into and my uniform needs were met out of that.

Having taught in city comprehensives, where unrestricted access raises problems of safeguarding, it might be worth bearing security in mind.
Confronted by a teenager or young adult on a school site you know that if they are not in uniform they are not part of the school . Legitimate visitors will have reported to Reception and be given a visitor’s badge or lanyard.

Hope 'photographs' is more obvious than my machine allowed it to be. I don't usually put in corrections as they're mostly pretty obvious. Talk about a mind of it's own!

A vote for uniforms from me too. My GM bought my first Grammar School uniform as a reward for passing the 11+. I was proud to wear it - it represented the school and we knew any ‘problems’ in the City would be reported back if it was thought the school was involved.
My DD’s first school had a fortnightly second hand uniform sale and another Mum approached me to ask if she could buy both Winter duffle coats when they were leaving. Their senior school had a similar set up and we parents donated grown out of clothing. It was all in good condition as it was good quality, expensive and well cared for. Thankfully by then most Supermarkets and M&S were selling basic stuff, so only certain items to be bought from named suppliers. I will be buying DGS1’s uniform to start his first school in September and as far as we know only the jumper has to be purchased from a specific retailer.

I'm also in favour of school uniforms. However, the schools that demand children wear specific brands do little to help the less well off families.
My siblings and I all wore uniforms at grammar schools, provided they were of the correct colour it didn't matter where the clothes were purchased. My summer uniform consisted of a cotton dirndl skirt - quite expensive to buy but cheap as chips to make and my Mum made several for my school friends as well as for me. It was the same for my sister, different school and different colours but all garments were available from a range of outfitters.
I thinks it's disgraceful for some schools to demand that children have a specific style of sports sock embroidered with the school logo - for goodness sake, the pressure on low income families is enormous.

Uniform definitely but agree should be more generic.

I loved school uniform, but often mine was old and blazer threadbare and I felt awful. However non uniform days were a nightmare.
Yes, there may still be a difference, but would be much worse if pupils wore their own clothes.

I believe in secondary school age children wearing school uniform, but I think this idea of having to go to a selected school supplier isn't fair. When you can buy the equivalent items from other sources at lower prices it makes it easier for lower income families to compete.
We were lucky in that I didn't grow very much at school so the skirt that we bought when I was 11 still fitted me when I was in the fifth year (age 15/16). ! And I also bought a skirt in a jumble sale that was suitable for school Cardigans and jumpers were knitted for me by Mum and grandmother.
There were always second hand uniforms available through the school for those less well off.

I loathed my own school uniform but was relieved when DD started school after nursery and went into uniform. I was sick and tired of the arguments over what she would wear. DS was at private school and most of his uniform came from the second hand sales. I would send him to school with the cash and tell him to ask one of the mum’s in charge to find him what he needed. None of the boys seemed to care about being smart.

I wore homemade and secondhand uniforms.
However, my 3 DDs didn’t and I think a lot more time and money was spent on what to wear. No way could I spend as much as others on my girls clothes.
When I worked in schools some children felt uncomfortable with what they wore because it was either a hand me down or not in the latest fashion.

As a child I went to lots of schools (10 in all) and although most were state funded, on only one occasion can I ever remember being aware of the relative wealth of child and beyond realising that this girl had free meals, I didn't really think about it and I can never remember the relative poverty or wealth of families ever being something that we children ever talked about or noticed.

As for uniforms, I wore them and like most children in school uniform I made a habit of subverting their purpose, hitching my skirts up, or in my particular case, having lots of visible repairs. I was an army brat and at 11 went to boarding school, we had a strange head teacher always preaching about to monetary sacrifices our parents made for us, which was ridiculous, as most of us were army brats and the Minstry of Defence paid our fees. Anyway, I made a habit of making it clear that my uniform had lots of repairs because I was conscious of the sacrifices my parents were making. It really irritated the head teacher, which was my aim.

At my children's primary school they did not have uniform, but they had rules. It was the 1970s and trainers, jeans and T shirts with pictures or slogans were banned.

As children grow up and leave school, they need to learn that in the adult world, you need to know how to dress for the occasion. Different jobs require different clothes and the same applies away from work. The best way to learn this is by understanding what are appropriate clothes for school and not just mindlessly putting on a uniform and then subverting it.

I cannot remember at any school I went to, nor any my children went to where any other than a very few, took pride in their uniform. Most hated being labeled by their uniform, advertising which school they went to and took it off the moment they got home.

As for being 'good' for children. If children get labelled for being poor or whatever, the fault lies withtheir arents who brought them up to think poor people should be sneered at.

I’m very much in favour, for all the reasons given by others. And I think the stigma of wearing second hand is much less a thing these days as even the more well off buy and sell on Facebook Marketplace, etc.

I’m in favour - saves arguments over what to wear and especially at the senior stage, is a leveller - nobody is going to feel bad because their parents can’t afford expensive clothes.

Though having said that, I do remember feeling a bit hard done by on starting grammar school, when it seemed that everybody else had everything brand new, while I had all hand-me-downs from my sister - including the indoor Mary-Jane type shoes we had to have.

For this reason, although there was a flourishing 2nd hand shop, I was determined to buy all new for dds when they started senior school. And it certainly was expensive - winter coat* all the PE kit, etc. but after their first years I bought nothing new except shirts and socks.
*which none of them ever wore! - so I only bought that for dd1.

As a teacher, school uniforms are a blessing. I've worked in 2 schools where there was no uniform and OMG, I wasted sooooo much time policing what students were wearing. I'm a teacher. Not dress code police!

Fortunately, most UK schools have realistic uniforms with generic colour specific trousers and sweatshirts.

I did once work at a very exclusive private school where the students would take their bog standard blazers to a tailor and get them modified!

School uniforms can be useful for parents..here are your school clothes..put them on! However some schools/ parents mistakenly think uniform creates pride in belonging an institution, helps to manage behaviour, reduces difference in financial background etc. If children do not feel a sense of belonging unless they are all dressed in identical outfits the institution is not doing its job well enough. If behaviour is managed through strict dress codes it does not properly understand behaviour management.
I fully appreciate why uniformed services need their strict dress codes..the discipline needed in life or death situations requires people to have quick response to orders etc.
Schools should just have an identifier sweatshirt/ logo and school colour/s for skirts/ trousers/ shirts but not from particular suppliers. Kids know each other & who lives in a big house & who does not..it does not take clothes to identify family income. Amongst my 4 DGC & their friends they have a range of friends from very different socio economic backgrounds. That is a school that has done its job well..value people first..not the quality of their clothes.

Gagajo I ws a headteacher in a school with no uniforms & kids used our first names. Behaviour management at that school was no easier or harder than schools I worked in with uniforms. It is not about clothes!

Dds went to an independent senior school where the head was not in fact in favour of uniform at all, but it stayed because the parents preferred it. But if they wanted it, it had to be the right uniform.
She subsequently got so fed up with girls not wearing the official red school jumper/sweatshirt, but a different red one, that there eventually came a very firmly worded note saying that if your daughter came to school in the wrong jumper, she would be provided with the correct one and the cost would be added to your bill!
That head was brilliant - long gone now, RIP.

I am for school uniforms. They look smart and identify a child as belonging to a particular school. These days the bulk of school uniform can be bought at the supermarkets. Blazers and jumpers usually have the school logo on them so cost a bit more but many schools have second hand sales to help those on a tighter budget. It makes life easier too. If students wore their own clothes each day the ones from poorer families would be easier to identify and children can be pretty nasty to each other over things like this. It is bad enough when school has a mufti day. It takes ages for my granddaughters (9 of them) to go through their wardrobes and decide on what to wear, driving their mothers to distraction. Uniform every time.

Ragtime

Totally in favour of uniforms but dd is going to secondary school in September and uniform will cost in excess of £300. Everything has to be purchased from their supplier with their badge and house badges...including pe kit. Its unnecessary

It is a big expense at first but my dd stayed in same uniform for her 6 years..in lreland. New shirts every September but skirts, blazer and jumpers lasted the whole way through. Boys were going around with blazer sleeves half way up their arms but no way would they invest in a new one. Pretty threadbare jumpers in her final year but that was part of her plan ..to not wear a brand new one. As a price per wear you will not get better value. Sometimes they had non uniform days and some kids stayed home as couldn't decide what to wear or were afraid of not having the right gear. Dread to think what it would be like dealing with that every day.
It was a private school but all the parents queued up to the second hand sale to buy hand me downs so money didn't make a difference clothes wise at least.
I am all for uniforms.

In terms of wearing a uinform per se I did not mind it so much as resent the fact that there was not sufficient money at home to provide me with the new clothes other kids had. I was once sent to school with cardboard in the soles of my shoes because my mother said she could not afford another pair. Once again my gran stepped in and bought me a pair of ugly but well made Clarks lace up shoes.

Apart from the school tie our school uniform was pretty generic and was not enforced strictly for the last year. By that time I had a part time job so was able to buy generic clothes (plain dark skirts for example) that I could also wear outside of school.

I went to my first interview wearing my school skirt and blouse (no tie) and accompanied by my gran. That was considered quite appropriate in the early 1960s and many interviewers liked to see a young person accompanied by a parent or guardian.

I went straight into the civil service from school and was very conscious of having to buy the "correct" kinds of clothes to wear in the office. I wore my school blouse and skirt until I got my first pay because I had nothing else suitable.

Ive seen so many threads where parents said they received a long detailed list of what they had to supply for the DC. In some cases it even specified what kinds of hair bobbles the girls were allowed to wear!!!!

One poster said she was having to spend £750 per DC on the right kit, including all branded sports kit. This was not an exclusive private school but a state school.

There were other threads where children were punished by being "isolated" for some minor infraction like having the wrong shoes or astripe on their socks. I thought there were laws against "inhuman and unusual" punishments.

Im just wondering how many parents will be managing to find these ridiculous sums of money with the current cost of living rises. My guess is that there will be more pressure groups forming and parents lashing back hard against all but generic style uniforms.