Vocal Voices

Did you wear one at school?
At primary school we didn't have one, but I do remember having to wear long white socks summer and winter some of my friends wore those thick tights that came in either red or green My mum never let me have them
At secondary school our uniform was grey and gold and in the summer my mum would make me a couple of cotton dresses in lovely floral yellows...must be where I get my taste for all things chintzy

We didn't have one at primary school either.
My secondary school did though, we had to wear a maroon jumper, either a sky blue or white shirt and a black or navy skirt for us girls and black trousers for boys who also had to wear a tie which was optional for girls. A black blazer was optional for both sexes, some people wore them.
By the 5th form I was wearing a white tshirt and short black skirt

That school now has the strictest and, in my opinion, nicest uniform around here which includes a blue, grey and red check pleated skirt for girls and a mid-blue blazer for all. They look so smart!

Jo can you imagine any of us as 14-yr-olds liking a school uniform that looked smart?

We didn't have one at primary school. Grammar school was very strict, and you had to have the regulation items from the proper supplier.
The winter uniform was ok in parts, navy skirt with two pleats front and back, navy jumper. But the shirts were truly horrible, mid blue with different coloured stripes. And socks had to be ghastly beige, I've a feeling tights (or actually stockings) weren't allowed till maybe the third form.
Oh and Tuf lace-up shoes
The skirts were good as they had elastic on the inside of the waist, with a button, so you could adjust it. They were meant to be near knee-length but of course we rolled them over and over in between checks. No need to roll them by about the third form though, as we grew No-one ever had more than one throughout 5 years, so although expensive they were worth it.

The summer one was awful a strange dress with round neck with collar, straight but a front pleat, in the odd mid-blue, with stripes...carefully designed to suit absolutely nobody

Primary school: Green blazer, green sweater, white shirt, green and gold striped tie, grey shorts - no long trousers - grey socks and sturdy black shoes. Girls had skirts instead of shorts, white socks and there was no summer option.

Secondary school: Almost black navy blue blazer, grey sweater, white shirt, navy, gold and white striped tie, black trousers, grey socks and sturdy black shoes. Girls had skirts and cardigans instead of trousers or sweaters and grey tights. In summer they had a light cotton dress and white socks. The boys were allowed shirt sleeve order but only with short sleeved shirts.

Tuf shoes! There's a blast from the past!

Di, a few of my old school friends are on Facebook and we were talking about the new uniform when it was introduced and all of us loved it - one of them did wonder if we'd have felt the same if we'd had to wear it though

Tom and Joe's school introduced a new uniform a couple of years ago, the pupils voted for the final colours and design and it wasn't until later when I saw a picture online and noticed that the winning combination was almost the same as the uniform in Glee, the TV show that was popular at that time, with red binding around the lapels, red logo badge and a red and black striped tie

We had school uniforms when we were at school in South Africa

Primary School was
girls - a delightful (not) orange with while polka dots dress with a little white collar
boys - grey shorts with a white shirt, grey socks with black shoes

High School (Secondary School here?)
girls - a royal blue skirt, white short sleeve blouse, white socks and black shoes in summer and in winter it was a long sleeved white shirt with a tie (even for the girls) with the blazer and black tights
boys - all wore grey long trousers and regardless of whether it was winter or summer they had to wear their blazers - which at times was ridiculous given the temperatures. Only when it was over 30 degrees and 80% humidity or something like that were they allowed to ditch them

None at primary school, but when I went to the grammar school it was a real hardship thing for my poor mother finding the money for all that uniform and tennis racquet, hockey stick etc. etc. etc.

Primary school was a black skirt, white shirt and black and yellow tie. There was a black blazer but they weren't strict about that......

Grammar school was a different kettle of fish! We had to wear a pleated royal blue gymslip for the first two years until they modernised a little and allowed knee length royal blue skirts, white blouses, navy tie with the school badge logo on, blue woollen blazer with badge, white knee socks (third year and up were allowed to wear American Tan tights) and worst of all the school beret which we had to wear when we left school grounds until we were changed out of uniform. If we were spotted on our way to or from school without wearing it we got detention Our coats had to be plain royal blue, and wool....Our skirts got measured to make sure they weren't too far above the knee The uniform was very old fashioned for the early '70s and many of us got 'stick' on the way home from the kids from the local secondary, which had a much more modern and relaxed uniform code, and the girls there even got away with wearing makeup - our head would have had a seizure if we'd worn makeup

PE kit was navy cullottes, white aertex blouse, blue hockey socks and black hockey boots when we played hockey and plimsolls and white ankle socks for PE - all of this from a very expensive local school outfitters, no chance of buying anything cheaply, and like yours Rodo my parents struggled to pay to kit me out

PE kit just those words bring me out in a cold sweat Oh how I hated PE and all things sporty. I haven't changed

Weren't they expensive? Same here with my Grammar School uniform and the special outfitters. My Dad kept going on about buying a cheap blue blazer from somewhere else and sewing a badge on but those school badges were woven into the fabric and you couldn't buy them on their own. He had the right idea!

Those terrible hockey boots.! Those horrendous divided skirts for games! Wearing a school tie - a tie - I ask you! Ghastly seersucker striped summer frocks with puffed sleeves! I have never worn puffed sleeves since. I hate them. Having to make our aprons for Domestic Science in the Domestic Science lessons with smocking! Smocking! Took me a whole term to finish mine and until we'd finished them we couldn't do cooking. It was years later before I discovered I loved dressmaking and sewing.

My Dad refused to buy me a hockey stick so I had to use the beaten up old ones belonging to the school. I did the usual making a fuss saying I was the only one without their own stick. But he knew me well because I loathed hockey and good job he said No.

If we were caught outside the school gates wearing uniform with no school beret on we had to wear it for a whole day in school. Had to do everything wearing it. Horrid rules, zapped personality, made me seeth with teenage angst, hated the uniform, hated school, the discipline over what we wore and how we wore it was suffocating.

I' m all tensed up at the memory