Will Replacing School Uniforms With Tracksuits......

Well the schools were so darned cold!

Good idea. Comfortable, reasonably priced.

Good idea. Blazers and ties aren’t comfortable or practical.

School uniforms can be ridiculously expensive. So it’s not always so equal if some parents can’t afford the ridiculously high costs needed to kit out their children. My gd is at a state school and when she started there 6 years ago her skirt was £60, for a polyester jumper also £60. £40 for a polyester blouse ( she needed 3) etc and £65 for a blazer. Two sets double the cost.
I am reliably informed that Schools decide on uniform costs and take a cut of the Profit made by the official school shop. Polyester blouses and jumpers for £40 are a rip off.
There is no school uniform in Europe and most of the rest of the world and though they are smart the expense can be crippling.

Tracksuits would be cheaper than the traditional school uniform, the expense of which can be crippling for many families.

However what it to be said in favour of school uniforms generally , is that they don;t distinguish between rich and poor.
This is often given as a good reason for them, but depending on the uniform and its cost is often untrue. Poorer children have to wear their uniform items for longer even when they are obviously outgrowing some items or they're showing a lot of wear, richer parents can afford to replace much sooner. We've been sorting through old photographs recently. There was one of my husband in his school uniform that was too big so that he could 'grow into it' and it would last longer, not that unusual back then. Nowadays it's not common to start with items too big so they don't need replacing frequently. Basic uniform of supermarket available items isn't too bad but many schools still insist on uniform available from one supplier and they can be horrendously expensive.

Caleo The idea that uniforms disguise how well off children's family are is an illusion. Children always know which children come from poorer homes; shabbier secondhand uniform, their shoes, underwear when changing for games, free lunches, so many indicators.

I cerainly knew which were which when I was at school. It didn't interest me much and it certainly did not affect whether they were my friends or not, but I knew - and everyone else did too.

MartavTaurus

Forgive me if this thread tackles a different idea, but you already started a 10 page discussion on this subject in February
mae13??

Er.......why should I forgive you? I only got back from hospital yesterday, after 6 weeks treatment for Long Covid.

Explain please. If there IS an explanation......

M0nica

Caleo The idea that uniforms disguise how well off children's family are is an illusion. Children always know which children come from poorer homes; shabbier secondhand uniform, their shoes, underwear when changing for games, free lunches, so many indicators.

I cerainly knew which were which when I was at school. It didn't interest me much and it certainly did not affect whether they were my friends or not, but I knew - and everyone else did too.

That is true. However school uniforms do prohibit fashionable excesses.
The old fashioned trad uniforms where girls wore skirts can issue in short skirts that are too short for modesty.

mae13

MartavTaurus

Forgive me if this thread tackles a different idea, but you already started a 10 page discussion on this subject in February
mae13??

Er.......why should I forgive you? I only got back from hospital yesterday, after 6 weeks treatment for Long Covid.

Explain please. If there IS an explanation......

Why not just carry on with the original thread when you got back I think that’s what was meant

Goodness me, what a pugnacious response to a post! They are correct though Mae, why start a thread which duplicates your original one?

Don’t worry Mae.

There are endless repetitive threads and posts on GN.
Showering, bedding and cleaning just to name a few, and that’s without politics threads which are frequently started by the same posters.
Even I have a topic which I’ll repost about if something has cropped up about it in the news.

Glad to hear you’re out of hospital. Hope the after effects of LC won’t cause you problems.

Caleo Most short skirts are worn over very thick tights or leggings, it is often difficult to know which. The skirt is over such thick underpinnings it isn't really necessary for modesties sake.

M0nica

Caleo Most short skirts are worn over very thick tights or leggings, it is often difficult to know which. The skirt is over such thick underpinnings it isn't really necessary for modesties sake.

That might be true in winter, or when it’s chilly, or for some who wear those as a fashion statement, but in town today, Thé skirts were short with bare legs.

Short skirts, or regular skirts rolled over at the top were de rigueur for teen rebellion , when I was younger.
Then we wore maxi skirts and that was wrong too.

Watching schoolgirls where I live they seem to wear thick black tights all year with uniform. Out of uniform it is another story.

The rolling skirts over to shorten them came too late for me. We used to turn our blazer and shirt sleeves up andleeave the blazer unfastened

Most academies and secondary schools have a specialism, so if the school was a sports academy would so many grans feel as disgusted?
I see no need for the comments about “scruffy tracksuits”. Good quality, well made uniform tracksuits can be very smart as our Olympian athletes have shown.
The somewhat old-fashioned obsession with ties and blazers is bound to set schools on a collision course with parents and students. There are other ways of being smart.

As a retired teacher who had no end of issues with students and their methods of changing their uniforms , track suits, polo shirts are a great idea! Not a lot to customise there !!

It's dumbing down. Can things get any worse?.

Never seen the point of school uniform - it really doesn’t hide the discrepancies between rich and poor. It discourages individuality (though generally children in countries where they don’t have uniforms tend to wear their ‘tribe’s’ clothes) and allegedly makes it easier to control children. My view is no uniform, but if you must, then tracksuits seem a good compromise.

It’s even more of Americanising our society and I hate it.

At my grandchildren's school they have to go in wearing either leggings or tracksuit bottoms two days a week for PE. This saves the time and effort spent changing clothes and gives more time for the actual PE lesson. Also I'm guessing it results in fewer clothes lost!
Most primary schools already have a sweatshirt type of top today, rather than a jumper and shirt, so it's really the same as a track suit top anyway.
I'm guessing that they'll still wear thinner clothes in the summer, ours wear polo shirts or summer dresses.

If this takes away young ladies wearing their school skirts so short I would agree with the change.
Maybe I sm old-fashioned but I have to turn my head when noticing some skirts practically up to the edge of their knickers

School uniforms fulfill one purpose: everyone is dressed alike, so no child is a walking demonstration of the fact that his or her parents are poorer than the parents of others in the class.

However, at private schools uniforms are expensive, so changing to something that can be bought cheaply makes sense.

All school uniforms are hideous in the children's eyes - only grown-ups ever thought them nice, so it honestly does not matter if children wear track suits to school. They will still hate their uniform.

School uniforms were never a fashion statement - they were only every changed once in about twenty years.

When I was over 60, I saw London schoolgirls wearing the exact same summer uniform as I had worn when I was seven!

I remember my first school I taught at where the children all wore tracksuits and trainers the rich kids wore designer uniform and the poor kids didn’t and unfortunately the poor kids were picked on because of the clothes they wore.

I have seen so much change in peoples habits etc the main one is that people have lost all respect for their appearance and most look as if they have just come from a building site even going to restaurants in old jeans or shorts and T shirts .I come from a time when i would wear a suit and tie when i went out for respect of the girl i would be with .so encouraging children to to go on that downhill stretch is another nail in the coffin for respect not for themselves but others