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School Uniforms??

Juliestcyr

Juliestcyr

Grammar nerd and proud of it
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Feb 17, 2015
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So, my eldest - Naomi - is starting Grade 7, and going to "High School" now. When I was growing up, "High School" only started in Grade 9, so I have a hard time thinking of this as real High School. Naomi of course, now believes she's 12 going on 16. But that is a whole other problem.

We are also sending her to a Catholic high school, which means uniforms. In Ontario, we have publicly funded Catholic and Public (non-denominational) school systems. And, anyone can attend the Catholic schools. (About 25-30% of students, are non-Catholic) But only the Catholic high school students wear uniforms. We've got her a gym uniform, a skirt, a pair of pants, three blouses and a sweater. But... what else are we gonna need?

She grew like crazy this summer and most of last year's clothes don't fit. How many jeans, sweaters, t-shirts and the like am I going to need for evenings and weekends? Do they still do "Civvies Day" once a month? She wanted to do back-to-school shopping this weekend. But, I held off because I literally have no idea what we will need.

Anyone who's kids have attended a uniform school have advice?
 
I have no advice, I just want to say that I always envied the school kids in uniform when we were on vacation. School uniforms are not a thing in my country, but they are in neighbouring countries we visited. I always thought it would be so cool to have a uniform! So yay Naomi, rock those outfits for me!
 
This is my daughter's 6th year in a Catholic school uniform. She started in 5th grade and we quickly got lazy with the outside of school wardrobe. She was okay with things until like 7th or 8th grade, but then we had a rude awakening when she had nothing to wear to anything outside of the house... since then we've had to make sure she has several weekend outfits. The thing is that since she's so rarely out of uniform, she feels like she can only wear things once. She feels like everyone remembers that she wore that same shirt the last time they saw her on the weekend. That said, she's mostly in sweatshirts and leggings on the weekends. For their hanging out outfits, they tend to almost pick another uniform! Quarter zips are big in her circle... they have a few different colors and black leggings. Her friends are all Catholic school girls since kindergarten... so maybe there's comfort in knowing what you're going to wear at all times... lol!

As for uniforms... sounds like you have a good start. My advice would be to not buy anything more until a couple of weeks in. You have no idea what's "cool" yet... lol! I know it's a uniform, but there will be preferences. My daughter started Catholic high school last year and I bought her a couple different skirts. She liked them at home, but a couple weeks in, she had picked one style as her favorite (it's the "cool" option because you can roll the waistband to make it shorter... sigh). She had switched between skirts and khakis in elementary... but in high school, she exclusively wears skirts. The khakis I bought her are still unworn in her closet. So, having just enough to be clothed (even if you have to wash midweek) in the beginning is the way to go until you figure out preferences. Oh... find out if there is anything not bound by the uniform rules. Grammar school didn't have any leeway... but in high school socks can be anything. So Clara and I did some shopping for fun socks the other day. Jewelry and accessories can be big too.

I don't know what it will be like for your daughter's school... but both my daughter's grammar school and high school have had out of uniform days BUT they have always had a theme and usually for an event... not just a free for all dress down day.

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask anything... I kind of got to rambling and I don't know if any of this was actually of any help! :-)
 
Is she boarding? Is that why you're thinking about other clothes?

I think pretty much all schools in Oz have uniforms (with maybe the exception of Montessori schools). I'm not sure if it's the same as there but they have 'Mufti days' - where whatever or particular colours or styles days - like they wear red, yellow or black on NAIDOC day, they're Aboriginal flag colours and DD's highschool (she's yr 7 - theres no middle school here) did Jeans for Genes day, that type of thing as fundraisers, but otherwise wear uniform 4 days and sports uniform 1 day a week (plus take it to change into during 'PE' lessons). I usually dont even think of 'other clothes' unless there's an event or holiday/vacation break coming up!

(And that said, after readind Tracie's post, my DD would wear the same thing over to events and not care who sees or whatever (i think she gets that from her dad!) - she calls certain outfits her 'weekend uniform' - and it may drive the mammarazzi kinda crazy ;) )
 
I don't really have any advice, I just wanted to say that I totally wish we had uniforms. It sure would cut down on a lot of issues! And I would love it if teachers had them, too, so I would have to always be deciding what to wear :giggle
 
@IntenseMagic - Naomi is really looking forward to not having to worry about what to wear in the mornings. That is one of my favourite parts of the day.

@bellbird & @tkradtke - Thanks for the kinda helpful breakdown of what to expect. it's not boarding school. But, we've talked about I think I'm just freaking out because all her clothes from last Fall are too small, and we're walking through the mall seeing all the back to school specials, and I can't figure out what to actually buy her...

I am totally not ready for this "highschool" thing...
 
That's great advice @tkradtke !

And I wished we had uniforms in high school. I hate picking out clothes. Can I have uniforms now?
 
Uniforms at most of the schools here in NZ now too. It cost $1000 (US$700) for DD's uniform at the start of last year, and that was 2 t-shirts, a blouse, a skirt, a pinafore, a jersey, a cardigan (plus top and shorts for sports) Ouch.
 
I wore a school uniform through to the last two years of high school...if your daughter has a preference for skirts, can I recommend that you get double the amount of stockings/tights you think she may need? They just don't seem to stand up to a full day of school all that well!
 
My oldest 2 attend a private christian school that requires uniforms. We purchase gym outfits from the school and then we just buy enough khaki pants and button up shirts to last a week so I am not washing every day. They are allowed to wear school emblemed tee shirts and hoodies on Fridays so that helps also. They are both in upper grades but when they were in elementary it was a little more for our daughter since we also would do dresses and skirts and with those came knee socks and leggings etc...I think many of the public schools in our area have gone to uniforms so it is easy to find a selection in all the stores around school time.
 
I wish our kids has school uniforms...would make getting ready in the morning a LOT easier!!
 
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