I am not what I would consider old....only being my twenties. When I went to school there was a strict school uniform.
Shirts and ties were worn by all pupils, smart trousers and blazers for the boys and skirts for the girls...later included trousers because we demanded it :)

Anyway when I moved to Sheffield I was gobsmacked. My step daughter got up and ready for high school. She had jeans and a white gym shirt (that is what I would call it anyway) and trainers on.
Now at my school trainers were banned as a form of normal footwear for various reasons not to mention the label wars.

Now in my opinion the kids in these type of uniforms looks scruffy and the uniform is despite my husbands arguments flippin expensive...£8 for an embroidered 'gym' shirt as opposed to £8 for two shirts and a few quid for a tie that may last them through the school.

I understand the concerns over the ties as a safety issues...pulling the ties of the 1st years was a favourite passtime when they first started.

What are others opinions...obviously I am not a native Sheffielder...so i was wondering what you guys think.

Moon

I like the polo shirts and sweat shirts, no ironing. :D

They can still look smart. Does annoy me when they can't stick to it though. Loads of grief about uniform at school, and a lot of the time little lady didn't leave the house looking like that :o

we had a 'proper' uniform at the comprehensive i went too, came under the rotherham lea though i think rather than sheffield.
didn't have any uniform at primary school and it never seemed to cause a problem their though...

re:tye pulling, could always go for clip on ties.

We had a uniform, but it was horrible, all nylon so you nearly electrocuted each other if you got too close and way to hot in summer.

Eventually they got rid of it and everyone could wear what they liked, except trainers for some reason.

I hated that uniform and put it on a guy which we burnt on bonfire night.

My mum went mad.

My school was a newly-independent grammar with appalling ambitions. It wanted to go from state school to Etonhood in one athletic bound, using its status as one of the nation's oldest schools and its ferocious zeal for rugger and cricket as a springboard.

One fine day the Second Master mooted the idea of a uniform change for 6th formers. Wouldn't we like to saunter around town, he enquired, sporting woollen blazers and natty Tom Brown-stylee caps in 1-inch stripes of the schools colours? Navy, emerald green and white as it happens, which I'm sure are also the colours of a war-torn Rhumbabwe-type nation's flag.

We the prefects marched en masse to his office for a quiet chat, and the idea was swiftly dropped. Which is as it should be. The kiddies in Sheffield look just fine in nice practical polo shirty stuff, and trousers for girls are an excellent wheeze. What caring parent would want them sashaying forth in way-short-of-regulation skirts in these dark and dangerous times, when paediatricians lurk lasciviously in every doorway and internet cafe?

Mind you, schooldays deprived of pretending to hang first formers by their ties and filling their blazer pockets with laboratory rats just aren't schooldays in my book. The poor little mites are culturally deprived, if you ask me. Mind you, I did see a couple of sweet, tradidionalist little urchins the other day playing the time-honoured game of dog-poo conkers. Ah, happy days...

Back to uniforms. I remember the days of school blazers and free school milk. What pleasure we had from persuading the first years that they were allowed to save their break time milk and take it into the canteen as long as they hid the bottles in their blazer pockets. How were we to know that the nasty fourth formers would barge past them bashing them into the wall and breaking said bottles. Oh, happy days.

A number of my friends who are teachers and have worked in different schools say that in those that have strict uniform rules, they find it much easier to control some of the kids. They feel that they can stamp their authority easily by telling them off for small things like not having their shirt tucked in and stuff instead of having to wait until they do something naughty. I suppose having a proper uniform might help with discipline and respect for authority and rules???

Hey your no pussy cat - teachers stamping authroity, nice uniforms etc.......kids , no-one needs that. All part of the schhol/work conspiracy. Also, of course a mjor fetsih activity. Enough said. Educate your kids at home! Right on etc....oink oink

Thankfully I never had to wear School uniforms throughout my School life, not even in comprehensive.

My old comp did suck though (sorry Dirk Diggler aka DaB)

harriet: my school was the only school in my part of london not to have a uniform and it did us ok. We were allowed to wear whatever we wanted, do whatever we wanted to our hair etc. the only thing we weren't allowed was short crop tops that showed our midrifts, haha! We were even allowed offensive and political slogans because our school encouraged free expression and independance. I think if we had had a uniform people would be less pressured by what clothes they were wearing, but they would have only be picked on for some other reason anyway!

i think uniforms can give a sense of pride and inclusion and identity for the pupils, but they can also cause uniformity and suppression.. i think there are plus and minuses on both sides of the arguments.
I'm not sure about the argument that says uniforms improve behaviour though, i know that people at our school were just as proud of being part of the school that didn't have a uniform as people whose schools did!

All schools should have a uniform dress code, this way the kids can't tell the rich from the poor, you know how cruel kids can be when it comes to who's wearing what to school.

That was the idea Poppins, but in my day there was still a difference, The poor kids uniforms were home made and it showed.

Originally posted by ThePiglit
Hey your no pussy cat - teachers stamping authroity, nice uniforms etc.......kids , no-one needs that. All part of the schhol/work conspiracy. Also, of course a mjor fetsih activity. Enough said. Educate your kids at home! Right on etc....oink oink

Hey! I object to being referred to as a fascist. My post merely related observations made by people on the front line of our wonderful education system...

You're right though - me no pussycat :D

Originally posted by Moon Maiden
I am not what I would consider old....only being my twenties. When I went to school there was a strict school uniform.
Shirts and ties were worn by all pupils, smart trousers and blazers for the boys and skirts for the girls...later included trousers because we demanded it :)

Anyway when I moved to Sheffield I was gobsmacked. My step daughter got up and ready for high school. She had jeans and a white gym shirt (that is what I would call it anyway) and trainers on.
Now at my school trainers were banned as a form of normal footwear for various reasons not to mention the label wars.

Now in my opinion the kids in these type of uniforms looks scruffy and the uniform is despite my husbands arguments flippin expensive...£8 for an embroidered 'gym' shirt as opposed to £8 for two shirts and a few quid for a tie that may last them through the school.

I understand the concerns over the ties as a safety issues...pulling the ties of the 1st years was a favourite passtime when they first started.

What are others opinions...obviously I am not a native Sheffielder...so i was wondering what you guys think.

Moon

Yeah, that school my relatives daughter's go to have "turn up in what you want" - I can't remember the name of the damn place - near Psalter somewhere.

Alex

No matter what the uniform is the students will always use their 'imagination' and turn it into something 'stylish' to them. I had the traditional blazer and tie thing and the girls used to wear either skin tight shirts and mini skirts with the tie hanging down about 4 inches long if that (sometimes just a knot.) Or there were the other lot who had really baggy shirts only just tucked in to make a huge hanging section which seemed to be 'stylish' to them - again with knots for ties and 'black trainers' for shoes.

I dont think they make any difference to the school to be honest. The people who wore the uniform correctly were singled out as 'boffs' or 'snobs' anyway.

I never had to wear a uniform and i had the p**s taken out of me for wearing 'Eddie Grant' clothing all the time.
Although my daughters school has a uniform, it is not compulsery. Thankfully my daughter loves her uniform but i have always promised myself that, if she askes, she will ALWAYS have the best clothing money can buy because she will never feel the humiliation that i did at school.
Having said that. If i ever find out that she has made fun of any children less priveliged than her, she will be in deep do do's!

kittykat
Is that realy you in the photo ?

Originally posted by poppins
kittykat
Is that realy you in the photo ?
No, no - that's "some dude" from Little Britain. (BBC 3)

Alex