School uniforms - for or against?

Mollygo you would notice rich and poor children because you are an adult, but do the children?

it is wrong that schools esp academies can choose their pupils by having a very expensive and strictly enforced uniform policy.
they probably have a commercial tie up with the suppliers of logo-ed sports socks, with different colours needed for different sports. this nonsense continues down to every detail.
this putts enormous pressure on many ordinary families, and puts off lots from even applying, which is probably deliberate.

I loved my school uniform ,I passed for grammar school and my parents decided to just have days out instead of our usual 2 weeks holiday in Wales in order to pay for my uniform which was extensive and looking back did I really need a shoe bag,sport skirt,grey knickers ,socks with the school colours round the etc...I think a uniform is still a good thing but perhaps not as expensive as mine and others in the 60s cost.

My GS’s comprehensive has a polo shirt, hoodie or sweatshirt with a logo. All must be purchased through a designated supplier. It’s one of the top rated secondary schools in the country and DH made the comment that he thought they at least ought to have a “proper” uniform. I told him to cast his mind back to when DS went to his boarding school (service family) and we were sent a very long list of clothing to be purchased at a specific supplier in Guildford. Everything down to socks, and a tuck box. We came out of there reeling and dreading every growth spurt thereafter! He still has the tuck box!

MawtheMerrier

Bossyrossy
Some schools use expensive uniform as a way of keeping children from lower income families from attending. Segregation by the back door.
I would absolutely refute this as hearsay.
Schools have a clear and definite admissions policy as well as defined catchment areas.

Hearsay-true, apart from private schools, but if you choose those schools, you’ve chosen to pay for the uniform.
True about admission policies as well. You stand a better chance of getting into a school because your child has SEND, or is a ‘looked-after’ child than because you have money.

It's probably hearsay MawtheMerrier but it will often have that effect. I could have gone to grammar school. My headmistress offered to pay the maintenance fees but my parents couldn't buy the uniform.

"Defined"

Bossyrossy

Some schools use expensive uniform as a way of keeping children from lower income families from attending. Segregation by the back door.

I would absolutely refute this as hearsay.
Schools have a clear and definite admissions policy as well as defibed catchment areas.

I was always against school uniforms because of the….well, uniformity.
But when I discussed it with my children as teenagers, they said they much preferred not having to think what to wear in the mornings.
The cost is a different matter. I remember when I was teaching, and uniforms were rare in state schools ( that long ago!) state school were only allowed to insist on uniforms if the local authority had a scheme to provide them for lower income families..

Grandsons shoes must be leather, must be lace ups, must not have anything on them to indicate what brand they are.. blah blah blah.
He had to have 4 pairs due to lockdown and him selfishly growing, and he hardly wore any of them.

In my first year of high school we had a uniform requirement for shoes: we had to have two pairs, one for indoors and one for outdoors.
There was a choice of three styles for indoors and three styles for outdoors, all Clarks.
We had to arrive in the outdoor pair, then change into the indoor pair for lessons, then change into the outdoor pair for playtime, and so on ?

What I mean is, if you haven't experienced something you can't know how it feels. Try reading my post again.

You can't comment on something you haven't experienced!

Uniform does not subdue identity., it highlights it. The children in uniform look similar, not identical, and their personality is not obscured by designer outfits or very 'unique' clothing.

I do think some people here were far more conscious of their second-hand clothes than their classmates. I honestly don't remember anyone being targeted because of secondhand clothes; I don't remember noticing anyone with second hand clothes; having seen the damage pupils of all ages can inflict on their expensive uniforms they all end up looking scruffy very quickly.

Buying secondhand is quite the "thing" now.
No longer frowned upon, eco friendly, and all the rest of it.
Unless you're genuinely poor - then it isnt quite so much fun.

PECS

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!

It's about personnel choice. I would not have sent my children to a school with no uniforms and the teachers were called by first names.
My children wore their uniform with pride, one went to a Grammar School and one did not, but they both liked wearing a uniform.
I agree it is easier for a parent if the School has a uniform, but I think it is also good for the children.

I am in favour of uniforms. I remember being proud of my grammar school uniform, and looking forward to being in the sixth form, where they wore grey instead of navy blue.

I think it promotes a sense of belonging, and pride in appearance.

Both my girls, and all my grandchildren wear uniforms, both in the state and private sector.

All the schools have second hand uniform sales, so the cost can be brought down.

nadateturbe

I cannot see how wearing a uniform hinders development in all those areas Daisyanne but feeling poor and inferior at school causes lifelong harm in some people.

We are all entitled to our opinions. However I speak from experience.

I would think we all went to school, may have sent children to school and possibly seen GCs go to school nadaturbe. We all have "experience".

Pro uniform here, though the price when specific brands or suppliers are obligatory is ridiculous.
It’s an initial big spend-quite horrific for less well off. That’s a problem that needs addressing. However, when it’s a non-uniform day at school, it’s really obvious which are the less well off families. When I first started teaching in a non-uniform school, the children from poorer families really stood out in the clothes that they came in.

M0nica

Uniforms are meant to turn out little uniform children. But it doessn't mean it always works!

The one thing that my best friend from school and I still have in common, is that we always questioned and challenged everything we were told and were both described as 'deeply subversive'. And we both still are!

Oh M0nica ... I too was that person.

Some schools use expensive uniform as a way of keeping children from lower income families from attending. Segregation by the back door.

I cannot see how wearing a uniform hinders development in all those areas Daisyanne but feeling poor and inferior at school causes lifelong harm in some people.

We are all entitled to our opinions. However I speak from experience.

please ignore my last comment. wrong thread . Have requested deletion

Uniforms are meant to turn out little uniform children. But it doessn't mean it always works!

The one thing that my best friend from school and I still have in common, is that we always questioned and challenged everything we were told and were both described as 'deeply subversive'. And we both still are!

Riverwalk I was talking about children at school noticing that other children were poor. not an individual noticing they personally were poor.

When I was school, lots of them, I was vaguely aware some children got free meals, but didn't know why and didn't ever ask. If anyone had asked me who in my classes (all of them) came from a poor home and who from a wealthy home, I really couldn't have told you, and it wouldn't have seemed relevant to me. I liked other children or didn't for what they were like at school and whether our personalities meshed.

I started school in 1948, just after the war and I can assure you, I had very few clothes, nobody, regardless of income did have many clothes then, indeed, most of my clothes were home made or knitted and often made from old army blankets and parachute silk.

All the photos taken in childhood, where I was attending family events like weddings, show me in school uniform because my school uniform doubled up as my 'best' clothes.

Perhaps that is why I loathe school uniform so much.