Yeah, you never see kids who are playing truant.... still wearing their school uniforms.

You see groups of them hanging around town centres well into the evening in their uniforms so I don't think it's that they're opposed to.

It's doing a bit of work they don't like. :hee:

At our school there's a lot who pack clothes into their bags and change after school, and a lot who wear their own jumpers and get ISO for it.

Kids tended to take their ties off at my high school or put their own fleeces over the school blazer if it was extra cold. That's just people being people.

Doesn't mean they're being prevented from freedom of expression nor does it mean they truant because they have to wear a uniform, especially when most of them truant IN the uniform. :laugh:

Urgh, I would have hated having to pick out my own clothes every day / think about what to have ready :umm2:. Having a uniform was so easy... Just a row of white shirts and black trousers and my tie. Ahh. Simplicity. Gives you MORE free time is anything. I rarely even bothered getting changed after school, I pretty much only wore my own clothes at the weekend :joker:.

Sounds like they have a lot of free time to express themselves

What a great post Withano. Totally agree. My wife works in a school and we've had this debate before.

I think uniform is a great idea as it does train you in discipline at an age when you desperately need it. That said, a dress code does tick the box too. The amount of money we've spent on uniform over the years is ridiculous. Now you can go into asda and there's cheap jumpers and skirts which is great for growing kids and parents on a budget.

Regarding the 'express yourself' argument, I'm not sure the workplace is a place for expressing yourself through your appearance, so why should schools be?

As for hiding whose parents can afford nicer clothers argument - I think that's stupid. Whilst i'm in favour of uniform, I don't think thats its purpose. It's not like kids don't see each other outside school. They wear backpacks, trainers, you name it... besides I think kids are clever enough to work out whose parents earn more money without uniform (From going round each others houses etc)

In my eyes uniform at school is about discipline and preparation for the world of work. That's why I think it's a good thing. R.

I'd also add that as yet I haven't had a job where I didn't have to wear a uniform... And again I prefer it that way for convenience sake. No wondering what to wear or digging about for clothes... Just "Is uniform washed and dried? Yes. Done."

I don't need to be trying to pick out clothes every day! Yawn! Who has the time :joker:.

I also find it sort of worrying that the only way "kids these days" know how to express or individualise themselves is through fashion choice. Ffs. "I am me because I have this hairstyle and I wear this jacket and that tells you what you need to know about my identity". Nooo. In fact one of the major benefits of a school uniform is that it makes kids LESS likely to "tribalise" and "stick with their own"... It promotes integration, and lets people get to actually know each other, and for their individuality to shine through their personality and not their t-shirt slogan.

I don't wear a uniform for my job but I work in an office in a small company and it's all very casual, I can just wear clothes that I would normally wear but my husband he doesn't have a uniform but he has to wear clothes that are more formal than he would normally wear so he has had to get a whole separate wardrobe of clothes for work because you can't wear the same shirt twice a week if it's not a uniform kind of a thing

Exactly, I can wear the same stuff like 4 days in a row and get away with it...

...... ... :umm2:...

:laugh2:

I don't mean without washing them, i just mean if it's your own clothes you need to get alot of different stuff, where as if it was a uniform shirt, you could have two or three just and wash them in between

No wonder people are turning to online gambling, if TS isn't bothering to change his shirt :hehe:

my school use to have a fbook page where people would post pictures of other peoples outfits that they thought were awful.

:laugh2:

That's awful :/

I agree with the uniform bit... don't agree that today's youth are any more shallow than any other previous group of unexperienced young people.

I know that my daughter is more preoccupied about having the latest phone rather than which dress or pair of jeans she's wearing. She goes to Primark and so do most of her friends. R.

My daughter and lots of her friends get alot of their stuff there too (it's called penneys here) It's actually my son who costs me a small fortune on clothes and shoes because it's all the branded sports stuff he wants and all his friends get, they're so expensive

Primark is wonderful really. Trends with girls change so quickly it's great that there's such an affordable way to keep up with them. I would have thought there'd be a stigma about getting clothes from a "cheap shop" but my daughter doesn't seem to care, neither do her friends. "A cute dress is a cute dress" i can hear her say now haha.

When my eldest was growing up there were sports brand everywhere. My eldest was a bit of a tomboy and liked dressing in trackies and caps and sportswear. They were the cool clothes and it cost me a fortune! I thought sports brands had gone out of fashion but it seems to have made a bit of a comeback lately. I see a lot of people in sports brands again now. My youngest hates them however, she likes "girly girly clothes" as my wife would say. R.

Yeah, it seems perfectly acceptable for the girls in daughters school to buy and wear primark stuff. They could spend hours in there looking around and buying stuff......(she doesn't take after me, I hate shopping :laugh: )

I can't stand it either. My daughter is 'too old' to go shopping with her dad now anyway. I used to get told off for anything I picked out for her! Better i'm not there really! I like helping Margaret shop, she always asks my opinion. However, clothes shopping for me - no thank you! I'm easy to please. I'll got to M&S and just pick out a few shirts and I'm done! Don't want to waste any more time than i need to! R.

Same. When I was at school I desperately wanted no uniform but now I've left school I agree that it stops any potential bullying etc, and puts all students as equals.

Saying that I don't wear designer brands and go to college dressed in Primark clothes!

People are less concerned with how other people dress when you start getting older anyway

*looks Niamh up and down*

:bored:

I think that a uniform is a good idea in that it gives the children a sense of belonging to the school and being part of a team. Though you might argue that rather than it helping poor families it is an extra expense. I don't think it aids learning particularly and the only real benefit is a sense of belonging.

I think there's a flip side to that as wearing a uniform can be beneficial for poorer children who don't have a wardrobe full of expensive clothes. It prevents embarrassment and puts everyone on an equal level. All round I think a uniform is a good thing.

Yeah i agree.

I asked my 16 year old daughter actually what she thinks about having to wear a uniform and she said she much prefers it because she doesn't have to spend ages trying to decide what to wear every morning