Topic: Did you have to wear school uniform?

[idunnosomename]

Children ought be schooled in the nude!

[Marner and Me]

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!

Was it the cool kid in school her wore it to bring himself down to everyone else's level?

[Gurke and Hare]

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.

At my secondary in the 1980s it was death not to tie your tie back to front so that the thin bit was at the front, and then tuck the back bit into your shirt below the top button.

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.

Obviously, whether they were HEAD bags or not.

[seepage]

Instead of the usual shirt, tie & blazer, my comprehensive went for a royal blue v neck jumper over a gold roll-neck jumper, topped off with a blue nylon bomber jacket. I think you were allowed to take off the outer jumper in summer.

[greencalx]

Obviously, whether they were HEAD bags or not.

Yeah, they came out of nowhere. Always thought the logo was a bit too close to looking like a bellend to be an accident.

EDIT: for the uninitiated



It was "TEAM ADIDAS" or some other shite (ADIDAS MAX?) the next year.

[greencalx]

I tell a lie, it was (BRAND) ELITE but the BRAND escapes me. I think coming so soon after the (dick)HEAD bag phenomenon, I always thought of them as DUREX ELITE bags.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I caught one of my supposed friends writing the word "Dick" above the "Head" on my Head bag in permanent marker but he never finished, so it just said "Di".

[El Unicornio, mang]

Primary school - bright red jumper and dress trousers

High school - typical comprehensive school uniform, with this badge featuring old cliche



The thing about uniforms being good because it means everyone has the same and poor kids don't get bullied was nonsense though, the poor kids still had the hand-me-down drainpipe trousers and winkle picker shoes and the well off kids had the trendy bags and whatnot.

[popcorn]

The thing about uniforms being good because it means everyone has the same and poor kids don't get bullied was nonsense though, the poor kids still had the hand-me-down drainpipe trousers and winkle picker shoes and the well off kids had the trendy bags and whatnot.

Of course you're never going to be able to remove all opportunities for bullying but I suspect, from experience, that it is possible to remove some of them. I experienced schools with and without uniforms and the stress/mania for the right brands in the non-uniform one was 100x worse.

[Bently Sheds]

I went to a Comprehensive that had been a Grammar a few years previous. Some of the kids turned up in Grammar school blazers (alternating dark and light blue stripes) that must have been handed down from an older sibling from the school's better days. I could never work out if it was a case of the family not being able to afford a new blazer for the younger kid or the family making a "look at us, we're a Grammar School family" statement.

The official blazer colour was blue and could be bought from selected shops in town. The wool blazers were a royal blue, the cheaper man-made fibre ones were more a navy blue - so even when the uniform was meant to be, er, uniform, the rich and poor kids were segregated by the shade of blue (and shininess) of their blazers.

In 6th form a load of cunts came from a different school with no 6th form and were allowed to wear their uniform of black jumpers and grey trousers. Although we were meant to still wear our blazers, none of us bothered when we saw those bastards get away with not wearing them.

Sheds 1 and 2 both went to the same "Academy" school a few years apart, both had to wear black blazers we could get from Asda and other relatively cheap places. We could buy the school badge as a patch to sew on the breast pocket Towards the end of Sheds2's stint the school decided that they were the sole provider of uniform - featuring a blazer with an embroidered school logo that was three times the price of an Asda blazer. The PE kit was only available via the school and had to include a specific design of reversible shirt unobtainable anywhere else. It was a complete stitch up. Parents eventually set up a donation scheme where old uniforms and games kits were donated to the school available at knockdown prices to which the school reluctantly agreed. I think there have been at least three redesigns of uniform in the 5 years since Sheds2 has left.

[idunnosomename]

someone at my school had PE socks that said "GO ON" on them so we called him a goon which is fair enough in retrospect

[Bently Sheds]

If you wore your shirt with the top button done up and the tie right up between the collars you were "college" and ripe for a kicking by the rough lads. I dimly recall the rough lads seemed to get away with not wearing blazers...

I only wore my Le Coq Sportif tracksuit top for games once because everyone shouted "Nerrrr, Sheds is a Cock! Look at his Cock top!!! Sheds is a Cock!! Hurhurrhurr!!" The next year Le Coq Sportif was "IN", but my brown tracksuit top was yesterday's news & deeply unfashionable.

[popcorn]

If you wore your shirt with the top button done up and the tie right up between the collars you were "college" and ripe for a kicking by the rough lads.

At my school (I suspect this was a general UK thing?) if you wore your rucksack with both straps you were an absolute twat, you were supposed to have it hanging off you by one strap, affecting an air of slacker disaffectedness. I noticed Japanese kids never, ever did this.

[spaghetamine]

my school was known for being shit hot on uniform, absolutely militant about top buttons being done up and shirts tucked in, i dyed my hair dark red in my final year and the deputy head went fucking mental at me, just a completely disproportionate reaction, really quite scary - the boys wore a black blazer, black trousers and a white shirt with a marroon and yellow striped tie, the girls had the misfortune of wearing a maroon blazer, maroon tights and grey skirts or trousers

[Marner and Me]

At my school (I suspect this was a general UK thing?) if you wore your rucksack with both straps you were an absolute twat, you were supposed to have it hanging off you by one strap, affecting an air of slacker disaffectedness. I noticed Japanese kids never, ever did this.

Fucking hell, who two strapped their rucksack? By year 11 I didn't even bother with a bag, pen behind my ear or pocket and books rolled up in my coat pocket. Only took a bag for PE

As for none uniform day, in primary school we had one and the kid who tried to bully alot of people me included, he turned up in Tesco Two Stripes and had the piss ripped out of him, he then cried to a teacher, fucking weasel.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I dimly recall the rough lads seemed to get away with not wearing blazers...

Yep. There was one kid at my school who was transferred over from the roughest school in the area, and held back a year, who never wore a blazer and always had the tie tucked in so you could barely see it. About a week after arriving he already had a "gang". I actually got on fine with him but he could deck anyone, including probably the teachers so he was left to his own devices. Shortly after leaving he was sent to prison for murder.

*WARNING: GRIM READING*
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/strangler-dupes-new-love-1500368

[Thursday]

At my school (I suspect this was a general UK thing?) if you wore your rucksack with both straps you were an absolute twat, you were supposed to have it hanging off you by one strap, affecting an air of slacker disaffectedness. I noticed Japanese kids never, ever did this.

It wasn't a massive thing, but it did seem to be the attitude... but the thing is... wearing it with one strap felt really uncomfortable. Like it's so much more comfortable with both straps. I mean for me it didn't really matter anyway so it was a loss I could accept. It's not like it was something you'd be harassed for every day.

[Quote]

The cool way to wear your rucksack/bag was across the shoulder at my school, but it was too much of a pain for me to bother with. I almost strangled myself trying to take it off on one of the few occasions I bothered.

Like this:



Not that style of bag - for some reason Eurohike rucksacks from Millets, often in mad 90's fluorescent colours were the ones to own.

[Campbell Soupe]

Vile purple polyester blazers were the order of the day at my secondary - Nasty, scratchy things that would go all shiny at the elbows by October half term.  Tie wearing was vigorously policed - not too short, not too long and definitely no “big” knots.  You’d also get a bollocking if you were the hapless recipient of a “peanut” (which, given that this was a popular form of low-level bullying, seemed a little unfair). 

Shirts could either be white or grey.  A grey shirt, however, immediately singled-out the wearer as a “gypo”, and thus were not a popular option.

Sixth Form was exactly the same, but with a slightly different tie.  The upper part of our school used to be a grammar school and some of the teachers clung to the vestiges of that by wearing gowns.  It was helpful to the new starter that these teachers were easily identifiable as they were, to a man and woman, utter cunts.

[Rolf Lundgren]

My sixth form allowed as to wear anything except large logos and "extremes of fashion". It's a phrase I've held dear to my heart ever since conjuring as it does groups of teenagers teetering to schools in 10 inch heels, black bin bags and tiaras on beehives from the latest Vivienne Westwood runway. We tried to get a mate sent home under the "extremes of fashion" rule for wearing luminous green socks to no avail but one boy was turned away for wearing Ray Mears inspired khaki shorts.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Vile purple polyester blazers were the order of the day at my secondary - Nasty, scratchy things that would go all shiny at the elbows by October half term.  Tie wearing was vigorously policed - not too short, not too long and definitely no “big” knots.  You’d also get a bollocking if you were the hapless recipient of a “peanut” (which, given that this was a popular form of low-level bullying, seemed a little unfair). 

They weren't militant about the knots at my school, as a result all the "cool" or "hard" kids had these increasingly ridiculously huge knots while the bullied "loser" kids scurried around with their peanut knots.

[Marner and Me]

We had a teacher who password to get into his class room was to have your top button done up and your tie on, so Tom Stoops, mosher still talk occasionally turned up with, all buttons undone, apart from the top one and his tie on. Can't remember the outcome. I think he was told to come back when he was correctly dressed. I don't think he did turn back up. Lasting memories of that teacher was his black shoes, grey trousers, grey shirt matched with a bright pink tie. Also on one of the desks in big black marker was Sir is a mole 05

[greencalx]

Huge knots were yet to come in while I was at school. See kids out and about with them now (well, not right now, obvs) and I find them oddly fascinating. There doesn’t seem to be enough material in the tie to make a knot that size. What’s the secret?

[Marner and Me]

Huge knots were yet to come in while I was at school. See kids out and about with them now (well, not right now, obvs) and I find them oddly fascinating. There doesn’t seem to be enough material in the tie to make a knot that size. What’s the secret?

Always thought it was a girls thing a big knot

[A Hat Like That]

They weren't militant about the knots at my school, as a result all the "cool" or "hard" kids had these increasingly ridiculously huge knots while the bullied "loser" kids scurried around with their peanut knots.

you could peanut a tie, to pull it so tight the poor kid couldn't undo it.

an atomic peanut, iirc, involved dropping the kid to achieve the effect i.e. a lynching.

[A Hat Like That]

oh, yeah, uniform? a suit.

could wear a jumper (blue, or grey) underneath.

cue many 11 year olds rocking up in September, braving a suit two sizes too large, waiting to 'grow into it'.

[Campbell Soupe]

you could peanut a tie, to pull it so tight the poor kid couldn't undo it.

Scissors would be the only response to a quality peanut.  Serial peanutees would stuff either a 2p coin or a biro cap behind their knot as part of their morning regime.  That way there was at least some hope of releasing that cruel noose...

[Gulftastic]

Primary and middle school, no. High School, yes.

Standard blazer, shirt, tie. Trainers were forbidden, as were white socks. I got into a row with the head for wearing a CND badge on my lapel. I still regret backing down.

The style of tie wearing was crucial.

Long, thin side showing.
Short side with only a few inches showing.
Fat side with only a few inches showing.

These were acceptable.

Fat side, normal tie length was social suicide. It instantly marked you as a stiff.

[chveik]

I'm sure there are better ways to prevent bullying than to make kids look like massive twats

[earl_sleek]

At my school (I suspect this was a general UK thing?) if you wore your rucksack with both straps you were an absolute twat, you were supposed to have it hanging off you by one strap, affecting an air of slacker disaffectedness. I noticed Japanese kids never, ever did this.

At my high school sucking a man's cock and swallowing in front of everyone would probably have been considered less gay than wearing both straps. Fun times. I still tend to try and wear rucksacks with one strap, before I remember I'm pushing 40.