What bits of uniform are worth spending more on?

[kelly]

Ours are in 'indoors' because the school got carpeted a few years back, to be fair the carpets are still in excellent nick so the indoor shoes rule worked.

If we didn't change at our school then i'd spend out for decent shoes for both boys for school.

[donna-j]

It is just one of my bugbears. I really don't want him in plimsolls all day. He has particularly smelly feet but also has my problem of having wide feet with a high instep and narrow ankle and I want something that fits properly.

[redhed]

Tricky to say because imo the big volume suppliers (whether that be supermarkets or M&S) all outsource production to overseas factories they don't own and don't even have much control over and sometimes will source the same garment out over several factories and what looks like the same item on the rail will wear and wash differently depending on whether you bought it in May or in August because they were different batches from different places. It's really clear when you look at the M&S feedback on uniform that some items go through "phases" of bad reviews which can't be co-incidence.

So fwiw, we've had OK polo shirts from M&S but other people have found them rubbish, and rubbish tracksuit bottoms but others have found them fab.

[thirzasmum]

I wouldn't buy the £3 plimsolls - I make sure we have the Clarks ones.

The rest is fair game.

ETA: not cheap shoes.

They only loose expensive pumps! Buy cheap- they wear them so little.

Never cheap shoes. Good fit and relative durability (but don't expect them to last all year for most kids).

We did manage to hand uniform down mostly, and TBH it didn't really matter if it was marks or tesco, some lasted other stuff didn't.

Never buy an expensive coat - it'll be lost, nicked, or spend all day on the muddy floor of the cloakroom.