Showing posts with label uniform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uniform. Show all posts

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Have I broken Amazon?

Was I right about Daughter coming home more dishevelled in winter uniform? Not entirely although she did come home one day with her collar turned inside out, which on closer inspection (erm, when she got changed for trampolining) was because her entire polo shirt was inside out.

Next week she will have to be more hevelled on TWO separate days. Wednesday - whole school photo. Thursday - individual photo. I hope they don't do PE with Reception in the morning and then photograph them in the afternoon. Complicating factor - I will be here on Wednesday morning, albeit in a hurry to get out and go to work, but I won't be here on Thursday as I'm away with work. So Husband is entrusted with getting Daughter to school in a reasonable state on Wednesday (with some oversight from me) and then doing it completely unsupervised on Thursday. I will have to leave instructions. He can't do anything other than put her hair in a ponytail (not that I can do much more) but from the front she won't look any different in a ponytail or a plait. Pigtails would have been nice, but not to be.

Lunch continues to go fairly well. Daughter apparently completely forgot that she had a second compartment in her lunchbag one day last week, despite having had lunch from it at home on most days three weeks in a row, and didn't notice she had a sandwich. She had a school dinner on the other day she was in for lunch, and couldn't finish it because she had to go and play with her imaginary friends. She does appear to be making some real friends, but has a large coterie of the imaginary variety at the moment (originally six, but they keep having babies).

I've had to turn down the chance of some initial governor training because I'm away with work. Meanwhile, I've bought a book on the subject, but have neglected it because the same Amazon order also brought me Battle Royale, which I'm currently reading.

I had hoped that my Amazon recommendations would become an even more peculiar mishmash as a result of this - school governance, manga, children's books and slow cooker recipes. But I think I might have broken their algorithm.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Sickie Day #2

Didn't take Daughter into school today, having established there is a rather vague 24-48 hour exclusion for vomiting, provided it wasn't demonstrably caused by too much birthday cake. She is fine now, although the fact that she had the worst tantrum of her entire life at her friend's house this morning leads me to think she is not quite right yet.

I escaped the bedtime routine last night to go to the new parents' meeting at the school. There was wine! I approve.

There were various bits about school routines which I've taken on board and filed away somewhere, but not too much of great significance.

My only notes concern:
- having been told not to bother with plimsolls until the spring term, as they don't go outside for PE before then, we've not been told they ARE needed, for going on the new climbing equipment, so I now need to source size 10 plimsolls in late September, which may be reasonably challenging
- we've been advised that if our children are going to have school dinners at all, it's a good idea to make sure they have them early on, as they will get a lot of help and supervision at lunchtime (hot or packed) when they first start staying, so it's a good opportunity for them to learn how school dinners work

I asked the mum we saw this morning about this, and her daughter is going to have school dinners on a Friday (chip day) and maybe one other day. Daughter is quite keen on this little girl at the moment (only one in her half of the class from nursery) so it'd be nice if they went to lunch together, and they'll only do this if their lunches 'match' (ie packed or hot). So I think we will at least do the Friday thing. Head is rather dismissive of the healthiness of packed lunches, but I don't see what's so intrinsically healthy about a school menu which potentially allows a child to have something-with-custard for pudding four days a week.

Also on the subject, it's a bit strange catering companies inventing things to put on their menus - bit trick to help your child choose what they're going to eat if you haven't a clue what the dishes are! For instance, if you Google 'larkhay biscuits' (one of the puddings) you get five hits, all of which are school menus by the same catering company. Mysterious biscuits!

Other than that, I have food for thought on whether it is appropriate to let a child play around a war memorial, and had a chat to Daughter's class teacher and both teaching assistants, who all asked after her. Apparently all the children were concerned about her too, as she's the first child to be taken out of the class poorly. They were very kind and said it was quite understandable that I'd made a wrong call (both TAs are parents too, but not the class teacher), which made me feel better. Insistence on mentioning that her lips had gone blue - not so much.

Back in tomorrow - Daughter was disappointed not to go in this afternoon, which I am actually really pleased about.

Unrelated to last night - I need to think about whether to put Daughter's name down for the work playscheme. I don't intend to use it this Christmas or Easter, or probably even next summer, but if I want the option I may need to do something about it soon-ish. Although I'm not contracted to work the long holidays, it might suit to have her go and do something for the day during the holidays anyway, to give us a little break from each other, and give her something to do. I suspect not for the foreseeable future though, as she's not really the kind of child who can just drop into a situation, make friends and have fun, she needs quite a lot of settling in. But it's worth considering and finding out more for the future.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Dunlabellin

All labels now sewn in/ironed on/written on. What do you mean, I have to do this again next year, if not before? Unfortunately my reel of white cotton is missing in action, so the final label (painting apron) is sewn in with black cotton when white would have looked better, but no great disaster. I just hope that no buttons fall off white polo shirts ...

Have managed to politely answer Husband's query as to had I not thought of just writing on the labels already in the clothes without poking him in the eye with a needle.

I've been thinking that we're pretty lucky with the uniform in some respects. There are only two school-specific items available - jumper/cardigan, and tie. A lot of other schools seem to include logoed polo shirts and PE kit, and other things. I believe at primary level schools can't make uniform compulsory at all, let alone specific items, but of course where there is a uniform there is pressure to wear it, and where there are particular items, there is pressure to wear them.

I rather think state schools (primary and secondary) should only be allowed to stipulate certain items (tie, and jumper/cardigan/sweatshirt/blazer) and beyond that only specify colours. It's nice to have a certain degree of identity with a school badge etc, but if you say the uniform is logoed this and logoed that, even if you explicitly state that unlogoed equivalent is okay parents will feel pressure to buy the logoed stuff, and children to wear it.

Personally I'm cheerfully ignoring the bit in the school's 'for parents by parents' guide which says please put children in proper shirts and please put them in a tie - the photo on the front of the very same guide shows at least one child in a polo shirt, and no more than half of them wearing ties!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Counting down

We're into the real countdown now, and I'm wondering whether we're actually going to hear anything from the school before Daughter starts. I'm not quite sure what else we need to know, but I do feel like I need a bit of hand-holding.

Daughter has actually just this moment* asked if today is a nursery day. No, I said, it's Friday, you don't go to nursery on a Friday. Then, seizing the opportunity, I said she only had three days left at nursery. Smiling she said 'that is not good!' And then she said she was going to tell two of the members of staff about it. Well, no, I said, you can't tell one of them, she's not in work next week. That's why she gave you a big hug yesterday.

I didn't go on to say 'and that's also why she was crying when she gave you that big hug'. I just did a lot of staring at the ceiling and blinking.

More of the same next week. Sigh.

Since this morning, Sainsburys have failed to provide any school tights, but my Next delivery (due yesterday) did include two pairs. Age 5-6, they fit nicely in the legs, and will also keep her armpits lovely and warm.

* when I started writing this over twelve hours ago

Monday, August 18, 2008

Too late to buy

Now I'm pretty sure that when I was at school we used to moan about the shops putting their 'Back to School' signs up the moment we broke up for summer holidays - not two weeks before the schools break up, as it is now. Has it got worse at the other end of the summer holidays? I don't know, as I don't remember anything about getting school uniform, it just seemed to be there. But now it does seem rather awful.

We have most of Daughter's uniform, but I decided today I'd get her a couple of pairs of tights in case the long socks really don't cut it in colder weather. We only looked in a few shops, as I didn't want to drag her across town, but even so I'd have expected a little more success.

BhS - had a fair amount of stock, but mostly in black, navy and white. Grey only seemed to come in 128cm height, or a hip size - the latter presumably for teenage girls rather than littler ones, by which time they're all in 7 denier tights no matter what the weather. Or trousers.

Mothercare - have sidelined their school uniform (not that the selection was good anyway). Well, obviously it's far too late to be buying uniform, with only a whisker over two weeks until term starts. Plenty of grey tights - in age 2-3. Okay, I'm happy for the parents of very tiny Reception children, that they can get uniform in appropriate sizes, but it would be nice to be able to get stuff for a slightly more robust four-year-old.

John Lewis - for a start, while they have a 'back to school' section at the front of the store, it includes no tights or socks, which are with the rest of the children's clothes. Nothing in Daughter's size again.

So it looks like cold legs for winter. Or online ordering.

I'm also rather baffled by the consistency with which local shops stock summer dresses in green gingham, but NOT green knitwear. I'm beginning to think it's a good job that Daughter's school sells logo cardigans and jumpers, because I'd be struggling to find a plain bottle green cardigan elsewhere. Actually I AM struggling to find one, but I'm not too concerned as I only wanted one for spare. Fortunately the fibre content of the official school one (acrylic, acrylic, and more acrylic) should mean that it'll pretty much dry the moment it comes out of the washing machine, so if it suffers any mishaps it can probably be turned around for the next day.

Tights aside, we are now all set, with a few omissions:

- need to ask my mum nicely if she will turn one of Husband's old shirts into a painting overall (I lack the sewing wherewithall, and the elastic)
- need to practise eating packed lunch (undoing pots and packets etc)
- need to get fit of ballet shoes checked, and (probably) buy new ones - this isn't exactly school-related, but required about the same tme

I am in denial about the bottom-wiping issue, as is Daughter, judging by her reaction to my reasonable request that she give it a go herself.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

New shoes and ...

... lots of other stuff.

Now, the Other Blog is where I will go 'squee, I bought Daughter's schools shoes, they are ...' and link to the (probably) Startrite website. But this is about the practicalities. This is going to be, day by day*, what it's like to send your child off to a state primary school in 2008.

Daughter's school uniform consists of grey skirt, trousers or pinafore (trousers or shorts for boys), white shirt, official school cardigan or jumper; school colour gingham or candy-stripe dress in summer; white socks and black shoes. Pretty straightforward, although on describing it I was asked by a colleague if it was a private school. Is it unusual in that it specifies cardigan or jumper rather than a sweatshirt, and shirts rather than polo shirts? Oh - and there is a tie.

We were sent a guide for parents, by parents and teachers. It says to please put your child in the tie, and please put them in shirts rather than polo shirts, unless you think they'll struggle with either, or fiddle with the tie. Against which, in the safety of my own home, I rebel. Daughter is FOUR, for heaven's sake, she will fiddle with the tie, and she is not the most grown-up and independent of four-year-olds, she will struggle with a shirt. Why inflict a shirt's-worth of buttons on a child (and her teacher/teaching assistant/parent helper) when you can reduce it to a mere three buttons on a polo shirt?

Anyway, I've closely inspected the photos on the website and in the prospectus, and peered out of my living room window at the children on their way to school, and they definitely don't all wear the tie! Phew.

So, in interpretation, this is what Daughter has lined up in her wardrobe waiting for September:

- two grey pinafore dresses, selected for long zips (£10 each, cheaper ones often have short zips)
- three gingham summer dresses, one zip-up (£8) and two with buttons (£4 each), I figure it may still be warm enough for dresses in September, and if not they're in age 5-6, so should (!?) still fit next summer
- six white polo shirts (they come in packs of three, £3 per pack)
- official school cardigan (£9.50)
- five pairs of long white socks and five pairs of white ankle socks (I think £11 in total)
- plain white t-shirts for PE (£3 for a pack of three)
- black shorts for PE (£3 for two)

So that's £68.50 on basic uniform. The shoes will take it over £100, and then there'll be plimsolls to buy in the spring - they don't do PE at all in the settling-in period, which is 6.5 weeks, and after that PE is indoors in bare feet for the rest of the autumn/winter term.

It's not a fortune, but it's not inconsiderable either. But I could have economised on the pinafores, easily, and bought only the cheaper summer dresses - or no summer dresses at all. The cheapest way to do it, I would think, is to buy skirts which will do for all year round, provided not excessive growth takes place. But I think pinafores are easy to deal with for a small child, and certainly easier for a small child to keep vaguely smart - no coming untucked. And the gingham dresses are lovely in the summer. I could also have bought a generic school colour cardigan - seeing as the uniform is officially optional (I think this is a legal requirement of state schools?) I don't see how they can actually mandate a particular cardigan.

During the first of Daughter's one hour twenty minute familiarisation visits to the school, I visited the school shop for a few items. One was the cardigan, and the others were a bookbag (£3.50), water bottle (£1.50) and PE bag (£1.50). It seems no bad thing to have the bookbag so that I'll know exactly where to look for letters from school, and homework when it comes. The children are encouraged to have a water bottle to drink from as they please, and £1.50 seems like a fair price, and the school has a requirement for PE bags for the reception class (don't ask) which means most off the peg ones aren't appropriate. I was going to ask my mum to make one, but at £1.50 she couldn't undercut the school shop! She has customised it though, so it stands out a little from the rest.

There's another £6.50.

And finally, lunchtime accoutrements - Daughter wants a packed lunch. I unwisely asked her if she wanted school dinner or a lunchbox while she was happily tucking into a Waitrose cafe lunchbox, so of course she opted for a lunchbox. She is sticking to this. So she has a completely unnecessary Disney Sleeping Beauty lunch bag, which she will probably want replaced with High School Musical before Christmas, and a pink gingham reusable sandwich wrapper.

£14.00 in total.

£95.50, and no new shoes yet.

You'll also notice that the nametags are missing. I'm not counting those - hey, I have basic accountancy training, I'm not counting the cost of something that'll be used over the next ? years! Anyway, I bought most of them four years ago when Daughter started nursery. I quickly came to my senses and realised that labelling a baby/toddler/pre-schooler's 'nursery clothes' potentially means labelling ALL their clothes, and used hardly any of them. So I have a vast number of sew-in and iron-on labels at my disposal. I've used sew-in for the items that might be passed or sold on (dresses, pinafores, cardigan) and iron-on for those I expect to get trashed, and/or were extremely cheap (polo-shirts and PE kit).

* although the process actually started last May, when we visited the school, and happily decided we liked it enough not to bother visiting any others. In fact, really it started over seven years ago when, with child-rearing in mind, we bought a house not far from what we vaguely understood to be a good school.