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

I remember spending ages with hair grips trying to fix my beret flat on the back of my head in order to preserve the bouffant hairdo! And the smell of hair lacquer ( remember that?) in the girls' cloakrooms.

And, Grumpyoldwoman, I still feel uncomfortable eating an ice cream cornet in public because of the rule against eating in the street.....

Joan, I just giggled at your hat detention. I hated mine - a sort of beret but in corduroy. I spent my time removing it and once even spun it out of a train window (unintentionally). I was always in trouble for not wearing it. As you say, it was not really naughty, just rebellious, a sign of our age I suppose.

Gosh, I'd forgotten about swimming. When my older sister went to our school she had to wear a green woolly swimsuit and when she passed some basic test (swimming 2 lengths?) she was given a square white, red embroidered badge that she had to stitch to her bum (the swimsuit's, not hers). Later, the regulation cosi was changed to an aquamarine man-made fibre effort that became almost translucent when wet. It was deeply embarrassing for those girls who gave swimming, diving and lifesaving displays to parents on open days.

I lived in Canada from 4 years old to 9 years old and 13 years old to 15 years old - so we didn't wear uniforms. However, when here I went to a private school and they were very strict about uniform. We had viyella blouses, red pleated gym slip with a red 'girdle' worn around like a belt, we had scarlet cardigans and a red and scarlet tie. Our socks were black and we had black lace up shoes. Outdoor wear was a navy blue serge overcoat and black velour hat with the school badge on the hat. In the summer we wore pretty pink and/or blue flowered dresses [I had one of each],white socks and Clarks sandals. We also had a scarlet blazer with the school badge and a panama hat. We had all in one gym dresses and navy blue swim suits. I loved it and felt very smart. We used to go into Derry and Toms to buy it and then had afternoon tea on the roof garden.

Notsogrand Some teachers were just marvellous and inspiring, some were dull and dreary and one or two proved to be unreasonably cruel. I once inadvertently poured gravy over my iced sponge pudding because I thought it was chocolate sauce – that says a lot about the respective qualities of gravy and chocolate sauce provided by the school kitchen. I was forced to eat the resulting mess to "teach me a lesson". It taught me that a) that I don't like iced sponge pudding with gravy and b) that the mistress concerned was an untrustworthy, mean, old b***h.

We had a very strict uniform policy and you could get a detention for being seen on the way to or from school with your blazer undone or your beret not at the right angle.
My most abiding memory though, is the day I forgot to bring my hockey boots to school and was made to play in bare feet. This was the middle of winter on a field covered in tiny points of frozen worm-casts.
I wasn't allowed to wear my plimsolls, not even allowed socks. I needed to be 'taught a lesson'. This resulted in two outcomes. In the short-term, the lesson was learned and I never forgot my hockey boots again. In the long-term, it has resulted in quite a few interesting encounters due to a life-long rejection of irrational and bullying authority.

hel, it's a long time ago and my memory may be inaccurate, but I am fairly sure that a boy I played with as a child did wear a liberty bodice - he had a 'bad chest'. No reason why boys shouldn't have worn them. I had to wear one after having pneumonia and suspenders were indeed attached to it.

A lot of the liberty bodices had rubber buttons near the hem so that you could attach suspenders, only way to keep the long wool stockings up. I wonder if that was the reason for them rather than modesty.

Does anyone know why girls wore liberty bodices and not boys? A little sexist if you ask me, because at the age that girls wore them, they didnt really have anything that the boys didn't have!

Goodness apricot - blouses buttoned on to your knickers and your name embroidered on your tummy - how wonderful you must have all looked.

Just thought - if you were buttoned into your knickers it must have been quite a task to unbutton yourself when you needed to go to the loo, or perhaps they thought that "young gels" were safer buttoned in - a form of chastity belt perhaps

We wore square-necked blouses with buttons round the waist, to button on to voluminous black gym knickers with your name embroidered across your stomach.
My mother made all my uniform, from vague little sketches, so everything was different from everyone else's. Even my blouses were Viyella, cream instead of white cotton.
I wore white socks until I left at 18!

We had to wear horrible purple and grey, most unflattering! Hats were compulsory - grey felt bretons in winter and stiff boaters in summer (actually the boaters were quite fun and attracted a lot of attention from tourists, and we used to scrunch up our bretons behind our back-combed hair). Grey gloves in winter, white in summer, and occasional 'glove inspections' at the gate to make sure we were correctly dressed! Ugly, clumpy shoes, thick socks or 60 denier stockings; a summer dress that looked like a florist's overall. Everything quite deliberately designed to make us look as dowdy as possible, in fact!

I loved my school uniform, blazer, boater, Clarks shoes, 30 denier stockings with seams- but have a strange memory:
it was the day of the first year (Upper 3rd) medical and we had to line up outside the Headmistress's office wearing only our thick navy knickers (it was a girls' school!). I was horrified when I walked in to be examined by the school nurse to find the Headmistress sitting in her chair with her poodle on her lap, watching. Strange or what?

harrigran Not dissimilar, but not that interesting, I'm afraid. Still, it did give us all something fairly harmless to rebel against. A wet velour hat shoved into a satchel full of homework once you're safely away from prefects never looks the same again.

Ha absent now I know you were one of Miss Jean Brodie's young ladies

This all sounds hideously familiar. In winter, Lower and the first two years of Middle School had dark green gymslips and pale green blouses with round necks. Last two years of Middle School had very slightly more flattering dark green gymslips and pale green blouses with Peter Pan collars. Sixth form had grey skirts and pale green blouses with revers. Dark green macintosh or coat, black velour hat with wide red and green headband bearing embroidered school crest until sixth form when the hat was a bit like a bowler with a narrow ribbon and silver badge. Clark's indoor and outdoor shoes – black plimsolls with red laces for games and with a gusset for gym. Hideous grey skirt shorts and a white tee shirt with your name embroidered in red for games until the sixth form when you could wear a Fred Perry shirt with your initials embroidered in red. A strange tunic garment for dance in your own choice of colour. Green or blue overalls that tied at the back for science until A level when you could wear a white lab coat. Summer uniform was a pale green moygashell dress, dark blazer with school crest on the pocket and a panama hat.

We also had a school song, but ours was in Latin and known as the school carmen. I don't remember much f it but it had several verses and we had to learn it off by heart. We also had to walk in silence along the right-hand side of the corridor between lessons and had a silence bell rung on the High Table at lunchtime when all 700 girls had to shut up until the head or senior mistress rang it a second time. Morning prayers at 8.50 and evening prayers at 4.50.

Ye Gods! I rest my case. See above.

Oh, I remember that 'hat' thing. In our case it was a brown beret with a brass school badge on it. A prefect saw me take off my beret as I walked down the garden path of my home, and put me in prefect's detention. I was disgusted and refused to go. The headmaster sent for me and asked why. I told him that schoolchildren like her did not deserve any power over other children (I was about 12 she would have been 17 or 18). He asked if I accepted his power. I said I did, so he put me in detention. I told him I was happy for that.

At detention I learned an important fact of life. The most interesting kids are the dissident, naughty kids. I was the youngest there, and all we had to do was clean the school silver. I was used to doing that at home, for my brother's cycling trophies, so it was no big deal. What I did enjoy was being in the company of the older ones.

I was never a naughty kid - just bolshie.

Hey GOW, did you go to St. Augustines? My school uniform, right down to the regulation maroon knickers, was also purchased from Barries. I went to a Manchester grammar school which had a very strict uniform policy that was rigorously enforced by the deputy headmistress. It was a punishable offence to be improperly dressed on the way to or from school - heaven help a student spotted not wearing the hat! This was a felt 'jockey cap' for girls in the summer. Teachers used to board buses to try to catch students out. It seems extraordinary now.

I went to a grammar school in West Yorkshire and the uniform code was very strict, even down to how you tied your tie, the length of your gymslip skirt, and the school knickers - yards of brown interlock which gripped the waist and the top of the legs with industrial strength elastic.

I remember how the lads rushed for the bottom row of locker at the start of the first form, so they could look up our skirts as we stood at the top lockers. expecting a glimpse of satin and lace, perhaps. Poor things! I reckon what they saw was the start of the gay rights movement in Britain - they wanted the right to NEVER see anything like that ever again!!

Oh ...I'd forgotten about indoor and outdoor shoes ...that was a real stretch for my parents ...I'd only ever had one pair of shoes until then ...only replaced when I grew out of them ...they didn't wear out because Dad always repaired the heels and soles!! (He had a cobbler's last ...so everyone's shoes were repaired)
This has brought back some long forgotten memories!

Done it again! Sorry!

As a big reader of school stories, I was so envious of my cousins and friends who went off to boarding school with a trunk full of uniform. Now, I am so grateful I wasn't subjected to that particular discipline!

As a big reader of school stories, I was so envious of my cousins and friends who went off to boarding school with a trunk full of uniform. Now, I am so grateful I wasn't subjected to that particular discipline!