Did you have to wear school uniform?

[Jockice]

I went to five different schools. Four primary/junior and one secondary. All Catholic places. The first and the last two had uniforms but the second and third didn't. Couldn't quite work out why.

I suppose there are arguments both ways. For the first there was the fact you were at the whims of what your parents put on you. At my second school I have a memory of me begging my mum not to send me off that day in what was obviously a girl's cardigan. But she shoved me out with her usual 'nobody will notice.' And she was right in that nobody did notice. For about an eighth of a second. However at my third school I turned up one day in a tracksuit and for some reason was seen as a great trendsetter. Soon several of the other kids started wearing them too. I invented sports casual you know. In 1975.

With uniforms however everybody was dressed more or less the same but it could make you a bit of a target. Like the time me and a mate accidentally caught a bus full of kids from a rival school. Lucky to get off alive.

Even though that place was pretty strict about sticking to the uniform (the head nun used to stand at the entrance checking us out) we didn't have to wear it in the sixth form, so The Inbetweeners always struck me as unrealistic in that way.

How about you? Were you free to wear what you wanted or what?

[Fambo Number Mive]

Yes, at all three of the schools I went to. When I was in the sixth form we had a bit more freedom, could wear smart trousers and a shirt, brown or black shoes, a jacket/blazer/sports jacket and the school tie. People were able to wear sports jackets lower down the school as well, personally I'm not a fan of sports jackets.

Shorts were part of the school uniform when I was younger. I don't like wearing shorts.

Not really sure how I feel about school uniform but it is concerning how a lot of schools seem to be very specific in their uniform specification judging by what is in the media, meaning that parents have to spend more money on uniforms than is reasonable. rather than being able to buy cheaper more generic but still smart school uniform trousers and shirts.

[Cuellar]

I didn't have to

[bgmnts]

Yes.

[olliebean]

Yep, at CofE junior and secondary schools. My dad once complained to my junior school that I was forced to wear shorts even in the Winter, no matter how cold the weather got, but the headmaster was intransigent. Then in 6th form at secondary school, a bunch of us got together to complain that whilst the 6th form girls could pretty much wear what they liked as long as it was smart, the only choice the boys got was that we could, if we wanted to, substitute the standard school tie with the 6th form tie (which was a deep pink colour with a sort of prancing lamb motif, so nobody actually wanted to wear it). But that headmaster was also intransigent.

Both schools have since closed, so I got the last laugh.

[Jockice]

Weirdly, for a place that was so strict in the first five years there seemed to be no restrictions on what you could wear in the sixth form. Which in my case was band t-shirts, baggy jumpers, army gear, knackered (and sometimes ripped) denim, bunnymen-style overcoats and my usual checked shirts and stripy tops. All this, combined with my burgeoning mullet made me the king of cool. Or so I thought. I even got my ear pierced, which was strictly forbidden for boys in the years below.

Yet, although I often got sneered at for my fashion choices by fellow pupils I can't remember any teacher complaining about it. I probably did look a bit of a dick but at least I looked like a bit of a dick on my own terms.

[Alberon]

I was specifically told not to wear a school uniform.








28 years old I was.

[dissolute ocelot]

Growing up long ago in Edinburgh it seemed most people, whether educated by the state or the billion fee-paying schools, had to wear a broadly similar uniform; the only difference was the private primary school boys had to wear shorts year round. For a while after that, the state schools switched to poloshirts and sweatshirts and the like, but now most seem to be back onto blazers and ties. When most workplaces no longer require a tie (even in Morrison's Market Street) it seems profoundly pointless, but I guess it makes a change from thinking up badges and mottos and mission statements. Uniforms certainly don't stop old men perving over schoolgirls or trying to police their bodies, but I guess if you have a bad woodworking/catering accident, a tie makes a handy tourniquet.

[popcorn]

My primary school (state) had no uniforms. The pressure to have the correct trainers was crushing. I begged my mother for Nikes, with real air bubbles in the heel, not those plastic fake ones. Hi-Tecs meant certain death. That I, of all people, was concerned about fashion says something about the amount of pressure exerted.

My secondary school (also state) was a strict tie-and-blazer place. Horrible scratchy jumper, all so rigid and uncomfortable. I deeply resented it, and at some point in year nine or ten I was complaining about it, and some of the lads at the table - who were otherwise your classic bantering bullying types - insisted it was important to represent your school and look smart and have pride. I was absolutely astonished that any teenager would subscribe to this opinion, what a pack of traitors. Young tory twats.

So I think perhaps the answer is somewhere in between. Have the blandest, plainest, most comfortable, least restrictive, least sexy, least oppressive, least formal uniform imaginable. It relieves the pressure to dress a certain way and makes things simple for parents, but without dressing kids up in ridiculous Victorian garb. I mean at this point British children dress more formally than 99.9% of adult workers.

[popcorn]

For a while after that, the state schools switched to poloshirts and sweatshirts and the like, but now most seem to be back onto blazers and ties.

Yes I've noticed that too. The uniforms kids wear at my old school are now even more uptight and formal than they were when I was a kid. Even the girls have to wear ties now.

I managed to get through most of secondary school without ever actually tying a tie. I would just loosen mine to take it off. I didn't wear a tie again until I went to some job interviews in Japan a decade later. I had to watch YouTube videos to learn how to it.

[idunnosomename]

yes or daddy wouldn't pay me. yow!

[Dex Sawash]

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Yes. Primary and secondary school. Primary school uniform was a navy pinafore and cardigan with pale blue blouse and navy fake tie on an elastic loop, navy socks/tights and black or brown shoes, except for P.E. day where you could wear any tracksuit/T-shirt combo you liked. Secondary school uniform was a bottle green V-neck jumper, skirt, socks/tights and proper real tie that you had to tie, with pale yellow blouse, and black or brown shoes. You had a choice of bottle green anorak or gaberdine. There was also a PE uniform consisting of pale blue polo shirt and navy pants. Why navy and not green? No clue.

The style at the time was to roll your skirt up at the waist to show more leg and pull the knot of your tie down as far as you could get away with. Because of the pale yellow blouse, we were not allowed to wear black bras. You know, for the two weeks in May when it was actually warm enough to take our jumpers off. We were not allowed to tie our jumpers around our waists because, and I quote, "it looks cheap and streelish". This was an all-girls school with only two male teachers, by the way. The year platform shoes and slingbacks became fashionable, they were banned. Nobody took any notice. I remember a girl falling forward off her platforms while descending a small flight of steps and absolutely faceplanting. It was awesome.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I once drove past a lad in Dumfries in school uniform who was wearing a fez, like he was Tommy Cooper or something. To this day I'm not sure if he was cool and unique, or if he was just a cunt.

[The Dog]

In the late 1980s, when I briefly attended the Cliff Thorburn primary school for boys.

[greencalx]

Three schools. Three of what I would call "normal" uniforms: grey/black trousers; white shirt; black jumper with the school badge (my first primary might have been green) and a tie. Here, the local high has basically the same uniform. The primary has dialled it down a bit with polo shirts instead of the real thing, optionally with the name of the school stamped on it in an HMP-style font. Just the ticket.

I really don't get elaborate uniforms. Along with homework, they are one of two things that a certain type of upwardly-mobile parent fetishises but - according to research - has limited impact on the quality of learning (caveat: homework effective at secondary; mostly a waste of time at primary, bar providing some means for parents to develop an awareness of what's happening in the classroom). If they've become stricter and more prevalent in recent years, I suspect that will be due to the creeping marketisation of state schools (at least down south, less so up here). Easy way for a new head, for example, to be seen to be Making Improvements without any of the hassle associated with making actual improvements. Stories I hear from people across the border is that policies can be extreme, with kids sent home for the tiniest transgression. Handy signal the head's a fuckwit; probably bullies their staff as well.

The argument about reducing discrimination / basis on the basis of what people are wearing is completely bogus. There is always some scope for variation, and the teenage cool/not-cool mindset will latch onto whatever is variable, arbitrarily declaring some to be cool and others to be not. I could never figure out how, when people came into school on the first day of term with new bags, it was already clear to Team Cool which ones were cool and which were not. (Needless to say, I was not a member of Team Cool). A colleague tells a story of how, at his school you could purchase the official school blazer or get a generic blazer and add the school badge to it. His mum was very proud that they had splashed out on the official blazer. It turned out that this marked you out as uncool, and all the cool kids had the sewn-on badges.

So yeah, something comfortable and unremarkable is what you want. We didn't have uniform in my sixth form. The first week everyone was clearly paying attention to wearing a different, carefully-selected outfit each day. After that, we all just retreated into a pair of jeans and a baggy jumper and effectively ended up with a uniform as a consequence.

As said upthread, basically only politicians wear ties these days. Even when I'm dispensing my most formal duties at work, it'll be jacket and shirt (unless it's graduation, but that calls for a whole load of silly gear which I think is fair game because it's essentially a pantomime). Certainly forcing girls into ties is perverse. At my school they brought them in for girls when I was in Y9, I think, in return for allowing girls to wear trousers. Would have been better off just dumping the fuckers completely. Likewise blazers, a garment that I've never had to wear, thank god. Horrible ugly and uncomfortable-looking things that they are.

[Jockice]

I once drove past a lad in Dumfries in school uniform who was wearing a fez, like he was Tommy Cooper or something.

Nah, that's just Madness.

As to what my uniforms were, at St Mick's it was a black blazer and trousers and red and yellow striped tie, at St Marie's it was a plain blue tie, trousers and jumper. I can't remember having a blazer there but I only went there for a year so it's possible my parents decided not to get me one. And at Notre Dame, we had green blazers or jumpers, black kecks and a tie which was mainly green but also had thin red, yellow and white stripes in it.

I think shirts were uniformly (see what I did there?) white or grey, although my mother of course tried to subvert that. I distinctly remember her sending me to St Marie's wearing a bright yellow shirt that had some sort of raised pattern on it. I genuinely think she was either verging on blindness or had no concept of someone who was already an outsider wanting to just sort of...you know...blend in.

[greenman]

The argument about reducing discrimination / basis on the basis of what people are wearing is completely bogus. There is always some scope for variation, and the teenage cool/not-cool mindset will latch onto whatever is variable, arbitrarily declaring some to be cool and others to be not. I could never figure out how, when people came into school on the first day of term with new bags, it was already clear to Team Cool which ones were cool and which were not. (Needless to say, I was not a member of Team Cool). A colleague tells a story of how, at his school you could purchase the official school blazer or get a generic blazer and add the school badge to it. His mum was very proud that they had splashed out on the official blazer. It turned out that this marked you out as uncool, and all the cool kids had the sewn-on badges.

As you say when the uniforms get too elaborate then simply the cost is going to mark out family wealth, I went to a full blazer, cap and even rugby kit(moreso due to being in Gloucester than being posh) catholic school and things like quality and age of blazer did make wealth divides stand out.

The cap was mostly used to rap people on the knuckles on smack them in the back of the head on the bus, seems to have been dropped since as a result.

[earl_sleek]

My primary school (state) had no uniforms. The pressure to have the correct trainers was crushing. I begged my mother for Nikes, with real air bubbles in the heel, not those plastic fake ones. Hi-Tecs meant certain death. That I, of all people, was concerned about fashion says something about the amount of pressure exerted.

My secondary school (also state) was a strict tie-and-blazer place. Horrible scratchy jumper, all so rigid and uncomfortable. I deeply resented it, and at some point in year nine or ten I was complaining about it, and some of the lads at the table - who were otherwise your classic bantering bullying types - insisted it was important to represent your school and look smart and have pride. I was absolutely astonished that any teenager would subscribe to this opinion, what a pack of traitors. Young tory twats.

So I think perhaps the answer is somewhere in between. Have the blandest, plainest, most comfortable, least restrictive, least sexy, least oppressive, least formal uniform imaginable. It relieves the pressure to dress a certain way and makes things simple for parents, but without dressing kids up in ridiculous Victorian garb. I mean at this point British children dress more formally than 99.9% of adult workers.

Yeah I used to dread non school uniform days at least in high school. My parents couldn't afford to get me trendy clothes, which didn't matter in primary school, but was pretty hellish in secondary. I was glad for the uniform most of the time, anything that helped me blend in was a godsend.

Never had to wear blazers, it was schoo-branded jumpers for me in infants, juniors and high school. Round here the high schools don't have their own sixth forms, there's an umbrella sixth form college that everyone attends which doesn't have a uniform (at least it didn't 20 years ago when I attended). Having the right clothes wasn't such an issue there, as there was a massive metaller/indie/alternative crowd that I fell in with and was popular for the first time regardless of what I wore. It probably helped that wearing my own uniform of plain black jeans and t shirt was cheap and perfectly acceptable in that kind of scene.

Like others, I'm baffled at how formal and expensive school uniforms have become. Yet another reason I'm glad I'll never have kids, school was ridiculous enough when I was a pupil, I don't wanna vicariously relieve the insanity through my offspring. 

[Icehaven]

Yes at both my schools, Catholic infant/primary then private secondary. We had a blazer with the school badge on at my secondary, and I remember on almost my first day being 'advised' by someone a few years above that no one wore the blazer after their first few weeks anyway, which was true, we all dutifully turned up wearing it at first then gradually realised it was the mark of the dorky newbie and never wore it again. Also the blazers were black but went a weird green colour after the first time they were dry cleaned, which was another reason not to be caught dead in them.

[timebug]

Secondary School demanded Tie,Blazer and grey trousers. Some poor sods had a cap too! School Badge had to be sewn onto blazer pocket, and black shoes were meant to be compulsory,although loads of my schoolmates wore brown ones. In the days before trainers were around, pumps,sneakers etc were totally verboten! You could skip the tie wearing by having your top shirt button undone,and the tie in your pocket. A few brave souls turned up in 'Beatle Jackets' when that was the going thing,and were sent home to change!

[Jockice]

PS, I quite like wearing ties now. And suits. But the only chances I've had to wear them in the last few years have been at funerals and one engagement do for a wedding that was supposed to take place last year but still hasn't. Just over three years ago I had to go to three funerals in the same week - the mothers of two friends and a former work colleague - and I'm quite proud that I managed to wear a completely different outfit for each one of them. Well apart from the shoes. But I was wearing different suits, shirts and ties and - it goes without saying - underwear. Not that anyone noticed, let alone gave a toss. I don't think there was a single other person I knew who attended more than one of these funerals and even if there had been I doubt very much if I'd have been congratulated on my change of clothing.

[The Dog]

The argument about reducing discrimination / basis on the basis of what people are wearing is completely bogus. There is always some scope for variation, and the teenage cool/not-cool mindset will latch onto whatever is variable, arbitrarily declaring some to be cool and others to be not.

Of course, for us it was the sponsorship logo, and the Anusol badge on my little waistcoat made things very difficult for me. Also, the big boys said my snooker stick was too short, which was hurtful.

[Jockice]

As for non-uniform days, in my first year at secondary school I remember proudly wearing my blue Snoopy sweatshirt. But I also remember a kid from another class who I didn't really know at the time but ended up being one of my best mates turning up wearing a suit. He vehemently denies this but I have a definite memory of him dressed like Little Lord Fauntleroy. Which won't go away no matter how much I try.

A few years later we had another, and this time I proudly wore my green Le Coq Sportif t-shirt (a present from an aunt. I've already mentioned my mum's total disdain for buying anything branded) only to be told by the coolest kid in the year that he had a similar one - but he only wore it for playing football in the park. Talk about building up someone's self-esteem then destroying it within seconds.

[Marner and Me]

Primary school, was grey trousers, then a choice of grey, blue or white shirt and tie, in summer it was relaxed to polo shirts and shorts if you so wished, which Jamie Houston got ripped into during that blazing hot summer of 96 or 97 for still wearing trousers instead of shorts.

High school was grey trousers, white shirt and tie. Some would always turn up with black trousers, which looked smarter tbf. Which would ensue arguments with teachers. Kids would start wearing branded shirts like Ben Sherman, however if you didn't wear Rockports or loafers on your feet and you weren't a mosher, you were a no body.

[Jockice]

Weirdly, for a place that was so strict in the first five years there seemed to be no restrictions on what you could wear in the sixth form. Which in my case was band t-shirts.

I had a Simple Minds' New Gold Dream one with the big cross on it, which I was wearing one day when the headmistress stopped me in the corridor and said: "I like your religious t-shirt.'' Er yes, Sister Marie, whatever you say...

A few years later they were knocking down one of the buildings so they had a reunion day. A friend of mine had a Jesus Is A Lie t-shirt that he'd got when we'd been to see The Shamen a few months previously. I borrowed it off him but chickened out of actually wearing it that day. Sheer cowardice on my part.

[Zetetic]

Gown.

[sevendaughters]

High school mandatory. Primary school - they brought it in when I was in last year, but decided top years didn't have to wear it.

Guess which cool guy still ended up wearing uniform anyway!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Yes.

Sounds wacky but me too.

[Tony Tony Tony]

On my first day at secondary I rocked a short grey pleated skirt with white knee length socks paired with a neatly pressed white blouse all topped off with a delightful straw hat with just the prettiest light blue ribbon. Being an all boys school the other kids didn't half take the piss.