Figure 1.--.

I started school at a Church of England primary school in Kent (South East England) in 1968, at the 5 years of age, and stayed there through to the age of 11. I remember when I started school there was a bizarre muddle over the uniform. As it turned out, the uniform was not compulsort, but many of us wore it. For those who did wear it, the uniform was light grey pullover, white shirt, yellow and blue striped tie, dark grey trousers or shorts, grey socks and black shoes. For the girls it was similar but with dark grey skirts, and I think they wore white socks. Blazers or caps were not worn. Some boys used to wear their cub-scout uniform to school. For us boys, the vexing question was, of course, whether you wore long or short trousers. There were no school rules about this, so it depended largely on the parents. At the age of 11, I transferred to the local secondary school (boys only), where uniform was compulsory. This was similar to the primary school, but with the addition of a black blazer (including the school emblem on the breast pocket), and the tie was now yellow and black. I can’t remember whether shorts were explicitly forbidden, but no-one wore them; any boy unfortunate enough to be sent to school in shorts would have been mercilessly mocked.

Church of England Primary

I started school at a Church of England primary school in Kent (South East England) in 1968, at the 5 years of age, and stayed there through to the age of 11. I remember when I started school there was a bizarre muddle over the uniform, because at an introductory pre-school parents evening the headmaster told the parents that the colour of the school pullover was navy blue, whereas in actual fact it was light grey. (I can only imagine that they had recently decided to change it, and that that was the cause of the muddle.) My mother was furious because she had knitted me some Navy blue pullovers herself. But in the event it didn’t really matter because the uniform was not compulsory. (So I wore my blue pullovers anyway.)

The uniform

For those who did wear it, the uniform was light grey pullover, white shirt, yellow and blue striped tie, dark grey trousers or shorts, grey socks and black shoes. For the girls it was similar but with dark grey skirts, and I think they wore white socks. Blazers or caps were not worn.

Not compulsory

Although not compulsory, most children wore the uniform (especially once the blue pullovers were eventually out-grown), perhaps less so in the summer, when some used to wear T-shirts. In those days there seemed to be fewer flashy logos on T-shirts, they were all fairly subdued; I don’t remember anyone ever being told that their clothing was not acceptable. The only strict rule was that jeans were not allowed, for some reason.

Cub uniforms

Some boys used to wear their cub-scout uniform to school. This was like the school uniform but with a dark green shirt, and a green and red neck-tie instead of the school tie. Also the long grey socks had dark green pieces of material at the tops. Most of us wore the school uniform, but I think the wearing of cub uniforms to school was looked upon quite favourably by the teachers. On the other hand, I don’t remember any of the girls ever wearing their Brownie uniforms.

Trousers

For us boys, the vexing question was, of course, whether you wore long or short trousers. There were no school rules about this, so it depended largely on the parents. Boys fell into one of three categories: Some (probably about one third) wore shorts all year round. For some reason these tended to be the children from less well-off backgrounds (for example all the children from the local orphanage, who used to attend our school, always wore shorts). The majority (including me) wore long trousers in the winter and shorts in the summer. In most cases the "shorts" period lasted from Spring half-term (late May) through to Autumn half-term (late October), although a few hardy souls would start wearing shorts straight after the Easter holiday. Finally, each year there were usually two or three boys who always wore long trousers. I remember asking one why he never wore shorts, and he loftily replied "because I don’t like them", which made me very jealous because most of us weren’t given a choice in the matter.

I think most of us would have preferred to wear long trousers all year round, probably for two main reasons. Firstly because most boys at that age want to pretend to be more grown up – it is, after all, slightly harder pretending to be an FBI agent or a fighter pilot if you are wearing shorts. And secondly because the usual way of administering discipline at that time was a slap across the back of the leg. In those days the shorts were fairly short (not like the almost knee-length ones that kids wear today), just right for getting one or two sharp slaps. And you also had the indignity of a red slap mark lingering there for half an hour or so, so that everyone else could see what had happened. This all seemed a bit unfair to me, especially as some of the boys never wore shorts.

Secondary School

At the age of 11, I transferred to the local secondary school (boys only), where uniform was compulsory. This was similar to the primary school, but with the addition of a black blazer (including the school emblem on the breast pocket), and the tie was now yellow and black. I can’t remember whether shorts were explicitly forbidden, but no-one wore them; any boy unfortunate enough to be sent to school in shorts would have been mercilessly mocked.

Selective School

After 2 years, the more able pupils went to the selective school nearby (which had until recently been the Grammar school), while the remainder stayed at the secondary modern. (This system, a sort of compromise between the traditional grammar school system, and a fully comprehensive system, is fairly unusual in the UK, but quite a good idea, I think). The new school (where I stayed until leaving school at 18) was even stricter about uniform; even the PE kit was specified (white T shirt and white shorts), and there were all sorts of bizarre rules, like the fact that you could wear a pullover under your blazer, but if you didn’t have your blazer on then you must not wear the pullover either. The headmaster had a particular obsession with top buttons – anyone who did not have his top shirt button done up, even on the hottest day, was in trouble. The uniform itself was similar to the previous school except that the blazer was now dark blue, and the tie was pale blue and dark blue stripes. Also, in the sixth form pale blue shirts were allowed (as well as white).

The pros and cons of having to wear a uniform were debated from time to time (not that we had any real say in the matter). Some pupils resented it. I remember one boy used to express this resentment by using the end of his tie to blow his nose into (actually quite a practical idea if you think about it, although somewhat messy). In fact as an act of minor rebellion it became quite widespread for a while, until this "disgusting behaviour" was expressly forbidden by the headmaster.

But overall, I don’t think the issue of having to wear a uniform raised strong feelings either way. For lazy people like me who were not at that time particularly interested in fashion or clothing it made life a lot easier, not having to decide what to wear. I moved away from the area many years ago, so I don’t know whether they still wear the same uniform. I expect they do, though – some things never seem to change.

John