How uniform has changed.

September the second chance of a year to set new resolutions, new goals. Being a teacher September is as much a new year to me that January is. I don’t party as hard as new year the night before term starts, as having a hangover at school is hardly professional! Although I am on a break from teaching I still see September as full of promises and full of hope. This year as I took the obligatory photos of the children I couldn’t believe that this year CChloe is doing her GCSE’s and Dylan has joined her at secondary school. As I watched them go off together I freeze time and just pause for a while. Yet I couldn’t as I still have a cheeky five year old pulling me along to her school. Erin was a bundle of excitement, eager to play with friends and meet her new teacher.

I loved school too, until I hit sixth form.  My primary school and secondary school were both filled with happiness and I simply had a blast.  My uniform was not much different to what Erin wears today as the photo shows.  I had a similar skirt to what Debenhams sells today.  However the collars on today’s shirts are not so huge not so 1980! But notice the socks are just the same, knee length and patterned!

Emma 3

One difference was the homemade look.  My lovely nan was a sewing whizz and long before she made all my bridesmaids dresses she was knitting my jumpers and sewing my PE bags.  This is long before mass created and printed school bags instead mine was probably made with some leftover material from a pair of curtains she was making.  The advantage was that children could easily recognise their bag in the cloakroom.  None of this 30 bags exactly the same!

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I shared my photo with my children and they laughed at me and said my hair is still the same as it was 36 years ago! However we agreed that uniform has not changed much.  One thing that was never comprised on was good fitting school shoes.  This is something that I adhere to and probably even more so as Erin can only wear good supportive shoes due to her ddh and hypermobility.

School uniform
So today’s uniform has not changed much from mine and in a way I’m glad.  As a teacher I am glad we have a uniform as it means our children look similar and it reduces the anxiety I have seen and heard about non uniform days.  Children thrive with routines and wearing a uniform means there is no worrying about what to wear or is it trendy enough.  For me though I still wish mum and dad had bought me a PE skirt with pleats that everyone else wore when at secondary, instead I had a homemade A line skirt.  It was a good job I was good at sporty or I could have been teased.  Sometimes it is better to just to follow the crowd and not stand out.  For kids at secondary today the only choice and thing to think about is the bag they carry, everything else is uniform.
Although I am out of the classroom, it’s still September and a chance for fresh starts – so what’s your new year goal?
This is my entry to a Debenhams competition be quick and you could enter too.  check out the details on Rock & Roll Mum, Mothers Little Steps and Cats Yellow Days.

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