Go on, who had the strictest School Uniform ???

Talking of the old fashioned Charnos full nylon briefs I started wearing in my late teens (see above), does anybody out there know where I can buy some more? I hate these skimpy thong things and adore slippery nylon for the feel and comfort. The shops don't seem to sell them anymore. Handkerchief size jobbies or horrible cotton granny pants, that's all. Apologies to us grannies, but why not live a little longer?

Thanks, Marjorie

In the first year at Secondary school we had to make our own school skirts as a project for needlework. It was considered very sluttish to have (a) ladders in nylons and (b) any glimpse of petticoat beneath the hem of the skirt. I was pulled up by the Headmistress and severely reprimanded when the elastic of my petticoat snapped and (after rolling it up round my waist) about an inch escaped, showing under the skirt.

We had bottle green knickers and had to lift our skirts for the nuns to check we had the correct ones .sounds a bit creepy by today's standards but never questioned at the time.!!!

Not me - brought up in Switzerland in the 50s and 60s, I never went to school in anything but jeans, a t-shirt and trainers

Talk of navy blue school knickers reminded me of the creations we all had to wear, come rain or shine. Mine were often hand-me-downs and far too big. Mom could stitch them back to life whatever happened. There were strict rules at my grammar school. No gaps between stocking tops and knickers for example. A letter even went home about it. But by then an “accidental” exposure of thigh above your stockings was proving good currency with the boys and it was too late. I was petrified of any such thing and lived in fear of a suspender or knicker elastic giving way.

By the fifth form I was put into a white roll on. OK for standing up in, but digging in when you sat down. Mom explained it held your tummy in at the same time. One benefit of the big drawers was that you could pull them right up over the whole shooting match, particularly good in winter. Even in the Upper Sixth we had the same ridiculous knickers and skirts with white shirts and ties and blazers. The acreage of navy needed unrucking after sitting down for any length of time.

Even at university mom sent me supplies of school pants, always the same style. Little parcels of navy blue wrapped thoughtfully around a Mars Bar. But by my second year tights and short skirts were coming in and I preferred to be without them when my boyfriend was around. My final pair gave way in rather ignominious circumstances, duly rendered out of reach of mom’s darning needle in the process, their resilience under fire contributing to their downfall and the sentiments with which they were dispatched. They were very sweetly replaced soon afterwards by a very sheepishly delivered pair of Charnos nylon panties.

Mom was a great hoarder and never threw a thing away. Lots of my school stuff is still up in her loft with all my certificates, some things still in their old wrapping, untouched. She asked me the other day if Banardos would be interested but I said no-one wears those sort of things these days. Not the enormous pants at any rate.

Marjorie

All the secondary schools and most primary schools have uniforms here in Queensland, Australia. Some are very much like the ones we wore in the UK over 50 years ago, but in a lighter material. I prefer it because there are no arguments, there's no fashion angst, and it gives an egalitarian feel to the school.

At junior school my lads had to wear a T shirt with the school logo on, grey shorts, white socks, black shoes, and a school hat, Hats are essential for health in this very sunny place. High school was similar but they wore a white cotton shirt and tie, not a t shirt.

The whole uniform thing made life simple for me, and being lads, they just didn't mind what they wore .

At the end of school, they all signed each others shirts, using black nikko pens. What a mess!

Then came university - the 'uniform' there was jeans and t shirt: very simple and cheap. I guess I had it easy here, as a parent.

Convent school in the 50's. Brown tunics, with matching thick brown knickers. My mother bought them large when I started to make them last - and they did! I was still wearing them in the 5th form. I used to pull them down to my knees in gym and they were longer than my shorts! We had strange hats, again brown, and called glengarries. They were long and thin and worn front to back. If you had fluffed up hair and lots of clips, you could make them almost disappear.

Did anyone else have the craze for swapping scarf tassels with other schools?

Usual strict uniform in a hideous green colour, with straw boaters with blazers in summer and velvet cloches with gaberdine coat in winter I folded both hats in half and either shoved them in my satchel, or pinned tham as far on the back of my head as possible - cue headmistress - Miss Manners (and didn't she suit her name!) in a foul mood because I had been seen on the bus looking like this!

Like most convent schools the nuns were fairly strict about uniform, especially hats and gloves, but what I remember most is the headmistress at assembly announcing that a friend of the school had informed them that a convent girl had been seen on the bus/train without there hat/gloves and would that girl please step forward. Frankly when I knew it was me being referred to I never bothered to step forward. It struck me as petty and pointless.

What puzzled me most even then was; who were all these small-minded people who had nothing better to do in life than ring the school and report that they had seen one of us breaching the uniform code in a very trivial manner. It wasnt the nuns because if one of them saw anybody that was stated in the announcement from on high.

nanamoo your uniform sounds like mine! Was your headmistress miss Gent?

We had grey pinafore dresses grey lisle stockings,red and white striped blouses, black shoes, grey bloomers with liners,gre overcoat, grey mac, grey felt hat,grey blazer and red tie.
Shoes, I pr outdoor, one pr indoor, pumps, lacrosse boots and at the boarding bit , one pr indoor, one pr outdoor best for Sundays and apr of pumps. Ooh forgot the slippers! The school had originally been the site of a Franciscan ( grey friars) friary.

I'm sure our uniform was unique- we had brown mortar boards. The metal school badge was sewn on the front of the cap and a browm silky tassel hung down from the top. We had to have elastic under the chin or it would blow off! How we were jeered at by the boys. Our skirts had to touch the ground when kneeling. We had to wear black woollen stockings in winter and fawn lisle ones in summer. Awful problems with suspender belts!. Same uniform all year "what keeps out the cold keeps out the heat"!

Hi Annobel. Grrr. French didnt deserve to win... frustrating game to watch wasn't it.
Back to school uniforms, some schools seem to disgorge lots of girls who are rapidly trying to create a strippagram look. Pull up the skirt, unbutton the blouse etc. Others don't (my pet school doesn't) Why is this? Is it girls schools? Is it the forced wearing of skirts?
Kids in NZ much less fashion conscious bless em. Even when they are not in school uni.

Hello Jess. I've seen those NZ uniforms. I suppose they won't object if that's what they all wear.
Seen any of the rugby? Weeping for Wales?

I've already commented on this thread regarding what type of uniform I wore at one school I went to. However, I just remembered something that shows how important that uniform was to the school, it was a private school just to set the scene.
One of my friends [we were ten years old] was seen by a teacher chalking a pavement somewhere in town. I think she was writing her name and drawing a picture. Nothing naughty. The following morning at assembly she was called out in front of the school. Her crime was that she had done the chalking in her school uniform and had brought disgrace upon it. For this she was put into Coventry for 2 weeks. Her desk was moved to one side away from us, she ate her lunch alone and we were forbidden to talk to her at all anywhere!! I thought this was so cruel , my Mother thought it was a bit over the top but accepted that is how the school punishes and there is nothing to be done. Can you imagine this now in a state or private school. There would be an uproar.
At another school when I was much younger, about six years old I think. This was in Canada who used the strap as a punishment not the cane. I can't remember my crime, in fact I remember at the time I didn't know what I had done. I was taken to the basement to be strapped after school, I refused to hold my hand out. So the teacher let me go, I do remember her patting my shoulder and saying 'just go home now'

Our comprehensive has gone formal too, with ties for the boys and blazers for all. Much smarter than faded sweatshirts.
My miniscule granddaughter in London has just started school in a shirt, pinafore dress, jumper and blazer. Most the time at home she's in a fairy dress or naked. Her mother said her little one didn't realise she had to wear uniform every day!

Hello Jess - are you having a wonderful time Down Under?

For an interesting take on 21st century school uniforms NZ takes the biccy. The girls schools have spectacularly hideous uniforms (lets get into a room and dream one up, starting with an enormous, three quarter length kilt) and the big boys wear grey flannel knee length shorts with shirts and ties... Strangely they do not seem to mind.
In "my school" in the UK the kids recently voted for a more formal school uniform, upgrading from polo shirts to shirts, ties and v necks. All the girls wear trousers.
When i went to grammar school in the 1960s we particularly hated our berets, which we were supposed to wear all the way home...

Our school uniforms were not too bad. My big problem was big feet (for a school girl - they shot up to a size 7 early but thankfully never got bigger). The choice in the local Clarks for sensible school shoes was dire, that coupled with a rather Victorian father who thought that anything that was not flat, black and laced up was somehow tarty, has left me with a real shoe love/hate problem. As soon as I was able to buy my own they had heels that made me 6 foot! To which my mother used to make comments along the lines that they would lead me to having problems getting a boy friend! Is it any wonder I am a little strange?

I went to a Grammar School in North London.The Summer before I started my Mum tried everywhere to get the right gymslip with a V-neck.As I was very skinny and small we could only order one and for my first day of term had to wear one with a square neck.The head of year came in to inspect us and I was made to stand up in front of the year group to explain why I wasn't in the proper uniform.As a shy and nervous little 11yr old I never forgot this.Would it happen with my grandchildren today? I certainly hope not.

Nanapug. I am amazed too at how many of us went to convents. So much of the above is familiar to me. The talk of 'non catholics' is just one example. As a catholic I remember being told that I must never go into a 'non catholic church' and on a Monday morning being asked to put our hands up if we had been to mass on Sunday. As if we would have dared to declare we hadn't, for that would have been a sin. And should we be knocked down by a bus on the way home from school with a sin on our soul then hell would have been our destination. And I belived it all! Oh, and by the way, school uniform was strict as well!

Woody, your post could refer to me entirely! And Allule - I feel the same about brown - to this day, 50 years on!!

Our school uniform was purple - years before I could wear the colour as an adult.

I am loving these posts too, takes me back 50 years! i still have my old school tie and the cookery apron that we had to make in the first year before we started "housecraft" lessons in the second year. I passed my 11 plus and went to Grammar School (very posh!) My parents werent well off and I now realise how much a struggle it must have been to buy the long list of uniform they were given but they managed it somehow.

I am loving these posts, really made me smile today. I went to a Convent school too and had all the usual uniform horrors. The worst was the hat, a bottle green 'skull-cap' with a yellow tassel, a cross between the pope and tommy cooper, needless to say, the boys from the school down the road took great delight in pulling the tassels off the hats. Also, we had to have a briefcase, no satchels allowed, a cookery basket and our own hockey stick. One year it was cookery and PE on Monday so the spectacle of going to school with skull-cap, hockey stick, cookery basket and all the weekend homework in the briefcase was quite something. In the winter, we had a special hat, the skull=cap had ear-flaps and a peaked front ! Some how mine got lost.