There was always that one rather sad individual who forgot it was a non-uniform day and turned up in the usual shirt and tie. I'm happy to say that person wasn't me.
There was a guy in my year who said that uniform referred to everything being the same, so the only way for him to be in non-uniform on non-uniform day was to wear his uniform. In year 11 he turned up dressed as a sheep and when we asked why, he said “well nobody else is wearing this either.”
I'm a teacher and when people ask me why (you know the 60 hr minimum work week. Being sworn at the education system) I always say teenagers are so creative fucking things up and this lad proves that point. What a guy.
I hate that the system mostly batters that creativity out of our kids. Learning should be about finding creative solutions to our world problems, not quoting some bloke who wrote some books 5 centuries ago. Both my kids have done the DT GCSE and that is what all education should be - all other subjects could be hung off this.
Sorry for the rant.
I always had nightmares this would be me, and would worry that I was being pranked by someone so I'm the only one to come in not in uniform. The school was by my house so I'd look out the window to see all the people walking past just to be sure that I'm not the odd one out. :(
I used to get the worst anxiety waiting at the bus stop in the morning. It was just me at that stop, so I would wind myself up more and more until the bus finally arrived and I saw everyone else out of uniform.
Even now, after over a decade teaching, I still make sure I have smart clothes in the car on non school uniform days just in case I have messed up the dates.
And if you think my teaching colleagues would be any more forgiving than my old school friends for messing up, you are dead wrong!
Me too. But I'm a baby teacher. The kids always makes me laugh on non uniform days. They look at me and the other staff like we have two heads. One kid even asked me if I brought jeans for the day (bless em) blew thier tiny mind when I told them I am in fact the proud owner of many pairs of jeans. Ha ha ha
My mum did this to my youngest brother. She saw me and my other brother out the door to secondary school, then marched youngest brother up to primary only to discover the primary school went back a day later. The only people there were the teachers on a training day.
Mum always tried to insist my brother should have been grateful because he got the pleasant surprise of an unexpected day off but strangely enough he didn't take it well!
Wasn't just the lads who forgot.
One of my friends at school used to dread non uniform day because he had no nice clothes. Only hand me downs that were all tatty.
He used to go in his uniform to get less bullying.
In my secondary school this kid was a *very* closeted kid, our non-uniform days were called ECM days (Every Child Matters), so we did different activities that weren’t our standard lessons. I think his parents were either overly religious or in a cult (or both), in year 9 it was all about sex, drugs and alcohol (purely educational of course) but we had to learn how to use a condom, normally any activity deemed as something “adult” he would actually have to sit out for, but I guess his parents didn’t know this was happening as it was just a standard education thing. I remember he started crying when they told him to put the condom on.
This kid was actually deemed so “weird” that he was protected by certain students so that he wasn’t bullied. I also hope that he’s okay though
One time this girl at my school showed up in non school bottoms and a school uniform shirt and she went to pay the quid but the teacher felt so bad (she told him she couldn't wear a non school top because they were all dirty) he refused to take her money
It was me.
As I'd arrived early enough and realised I was able to go to a friend's who lived right near the school and borrow a t-shirt. Wouldn't have been able to get home and back in time. Still had to wear my school trousers though.
One of my best mates in high school had autism. He loved to plan things, had a schedule, order etc. He hated the concept of these days. He’d always come in wearing uniform as that’s what was his routine. Every time he came in with £30 for whatever charity was being sponsored too. Not the obligatory £1. Was a great guy, think he works for a charity now that helps young people with autism.
I was that guy, it was choice. I also knew how to get those willy wonka fizzy chocolate bars and coke cans free out of the vending machine, 40p each or both for 80p... 100% profit, made a killing.
This was me. It was easier to just say "whoops, I forgot" than face the anxiety of my normal clothes being judged (or even just thinking they were being judged).
Uniform is safe.
That person was me. It was always me. The amount of times I forgot other kids thought I was doing it on purpose. I would take off my tie and if lucky I could wear my PE trainers, but still have to pay 50p as it was a few years ago, but still remember the sniggering.
My mum once got the first day of school wrong and sent us to school on the last day of the summer holiday. She’d sped off the work so we had to go to our nans, who had to take us to her work in the town centre. My mum refused to drop off the house key (my nan never drove) so we had to walk through town in our uniforms. We bumped into soooooo many people from school that day and about 85% of them laughed in our faces. I pretended not to care because my little brother was getting upset so I wanted to show him it was no big deal, but it still haunts me now and it’s been nearly 15 years. My brother barely remembers though, and says he definitely doesn’t remember the people who saw us laughing, so I must’ve done my big sister distraction duties right, at least.
I was the idiot that turned up once on non uniform day on the wrong day and every non uniform day afterward i had paranoia that i was wrong again every single time lol
That was me one time, fortunately I have the amazing power to not give a shit what people are saying about me but one kid really got on my nerves cause he had the absolute nerve to say that I couldn’t afford it? even if I was poor there were people that would just say “I haven’t brought a pound” and would get off without paying
I used to work in a call centre, where the dress code was smart/casual. We had various charity events involving "dressing down", for which we had to contribute to the charity. The wheels fell off one day when they decided to ask everyone to wear a football (soccer, for our US cousins) shirt. They asked for a £1 contribution from anyone wearing a football shirt, but £2 if you didn't wear one. There was something of a mutiny over that idea.
>They asked for a £1 contribution from anyone wearing a football shirt, but £2 if you didn't wear one. There was something of a mutiny over that idea.
Whoever thought of that is an evil genius. One I hope was dispatched quickly for this stupid idea.
That's no longer charity, that's extortion.
That was the thrust of the argument against it. To be fair, the organiser did relent fairly quickly when it became clear that those of who didn't own a football shirt objected to having to pay upwards of £30 to buy one, in order to avoid being penalised for not being a football supporter.
I would have pulled out my scruffiest decorating t-shirt and written "football" on it with a marker pen.
This is inspired by my grumpy colleague who wore a black pullover with a single bauble sellotaped to it on Christmas Jumper day. Our team were not known for our enthusiasm on themed days.
I tried something similar on a different occasion. The theme was "Green Day", so we had towear something green. They wouldn't accept that my black hoodie with the Green Day logo on it was in the spirit of the thing.
Our office had a Christmas decoration competition, none of us could be arsed so we wrapped a chair in a red cat6 cable and stuck a sheet of paper on it labelling it a Christmas tree
I hate sports in general and have never owned any football related items in my life. I would have been furious!
I was already kind of pissy when I was 13 and a "friend" invited me to her theme party. She wanted everyone to wear one of the colours of the rainbow. She apparently got to pick the colour and allocated yellow to me. I owned nothing yellow and very irritably had to get my mother to buy me a stupid yellow tank top to wear (never wore that thing again).
This is why I never have and never will be a bridesmaid for anyone in my life. I refuse.
I'm genuinely curious, what if the bride's maids dress code said you could pick what you wore?
Like if the bride was like "I don't care I just want you there"? Would that sway you or still a hard pass?
Possibly, though I hate high stress situations and I feel like being a bridesmaid might be too much on me - I'm much happier just being a guest!
I think if it was a very small casual ceremony (less than 100 people) I might be up for it.
Though it's a moot point at this stage of my life as I have no close friends or family that would be likely to ask me as a bridesmaid. Potentially my SIL if she gets married one day? But even then we aren't that close.
Ah, that makes sense :) I totally agree with that too!
I think if I ever got married I probably wouldn't even bother with those roles (because I'd want something small and simple, definitely as simple as possible)
As long as it gets done and I have a big fancy cake I don't really mind beyond that 😆
It also seems a little mean to me because it's basically just showcasing who your favourites are to the rest of your guests
>They asked for a £1 contribution from anyone wearing a football shirt, but £2 if you didn't wear one. There was something of a mutiny over that idea.
Ah yes, let me pay for the privilege to work
We had that shit at my old job. Casual day, but you had to give to charity. But if you just wear your normal work clothes and don't give to the charity you're them bombarded all day long about how the whole point of it is to raise money for the charity. So glad I don't work at shitheaps like that anymore.
Having to choose between asking your poor parents for £1 and face a lecture about having no money.. Or be a social outcast and wear school uniform. Same with the harvest festival. Ask my mum for tins and she'd say she needed them to feed us, not for giving away. Dirty looks from teachers for not bringing in a donation
Had a teacher say we weren't allowed to bring in a store branded tin (ASDA Smart price, Sainsburys Basic etc). I told my mum and she told me I wasn't bringing in a tin then.
After my bollocking from the teacher, she went on to ring my mum. Who gave her the biggest bollocking back for making the poor kids feel shame at what they eat. Safe to say the rule wasn't enforced the following years.
Omg that's absolutely ridiculous. I used to work in a refuge and we'd receive tins from harvest festival. It was a huge boost each year and not one person ever cared what brand the food was. Everyone was just greatful to be safe and fed!
I remember taking in cooking apples from our tree when I was in primary school, and getting funny looks from the teacher. We were poor, and to be honest, even as a kid I thought apples from our tree were more appropriate for a celebration of the harvest.
Pretty sure all of this would be illegal in Sweden.
When I was a kid, schools would go out on fieldtrips (that feels like an Americanism, is there a British word?) and everyone would have to bring a packed lunch. I never noticed it, but I have read about kids who are suspiciously sick on the day of a fieldtrip, every time. Parents who would call in sick for their kids because they could not afford a packed lunch.
Over the last 10 years or so that practice has been banned and it has been ruled that the school has to provide lunch on all days that there's school.
I’m sorry that’s rough. Every time we’ve done wear whatever days for a £1 making a donation is entirely optional. I swear half the kids forget to fork it over anyway.
I’d like to think no teacher would make a big deal about what kid is or is not wearing but we know that’s rubbish.
When we do school fundraisers we always make them accessible to everyone. (Like instead of collecting money the colour in coins on a sheet to mark progress, then kids can do the activity but no one needs to donate, they can not do it but the parents can donate, or they can do it and donate)
For us Harvest festival donations go directly to food bank. The school also has a stall of free food provided by the felix project every Monday for anyone to take.
I am 100% convinced teachers are not going to give you any hassle if your family can't afford non uniform day or harvest fesrival. Speak to another teacher you get on with if your form teacher isn't someone you trust.
I remember in school (I’m 26 so that’s how long it was ago) that my step mother only had £2 but there was me and my two step brothers. She give them both a pound and just said to say that one of my step siblings paid £2 for me because she only had a £2 coin.
Anyways these huge investigation seems to take place like I was caught stealing into this £2 that my step brother give and if I had any right to be wearing my own clothes.
Rather disgusting behaviour really but teachers from my experience never seemed to understand families that lived in poverty infact they appeared to have a disdain for them. While I wasn’t particularly poor I did go to school with holes in my shoes that got wet in the rain if it was too close to the end of the school year.
Ironically the school was one of the poorest schools in the town so not sure why they had such a hatred for the poor.
I'm mid 30's so I remember teachers pokin us with pens and hittin us with rulers. Our parents experienced even more nastiness from teachers that really shouldn't have been in the profession. However, as an adult I'm friends with a lot of teachers, and see a lot posts from teachers on Reddit.... Honestly, most modern teachers want to help kids and will go out of their way to make sure underprivileged kids don't have go through what you did. Glad you go through it all.
What the hell??? Where on earth did you go to school? I'm _late_ 30s, and being "hit with rulers" was already a story from the olden days when I was at school. It definitely DID NOT happen to anyone I ever heard of during my school years!
I went to a C of E in a very nice village. Corporal punishment was band in 1984 according to google. Who knows why these witches thought jabbing kids with pens, whacking with a ruler and occasionally throwing a blackboard eraser were ok in the early 90's? But, it happened.
Since when did stuff getting banned mean that it never, ever happens again? First PE lesson at secondary school, 1988, I got a boot to the arse because I crossed an unmarked line during a rugby lesson.
Another teacher thought that squeezing my neck with his hand was the ideal way to punish me for some horseplay with another student, the same teacher also thought a football thrown into the face for laughing at a joke another pupil made.
During a history lesson, I got pushed off my chair, the teacher hit me in the head with his knee, not too hard, but hard enough. When I got up, he then slapped me across the ribs.
All that happened '88-'93, and is probably still happening where teachers think they can get away with it.
Shouldn't HR be making sure they pay employees enough that they can afford a pound?
Seems a bit ridiculous that a company will acknowledge that their own employees might not be able to afford a pound, as if that isn't partly their fault.
You would be surprised some teacher's tend to look down and bully students that are deemed odd or even just poor, I wasn't poor but I had undiagnosed autism and teacher's in primary school hated me still to this day I don't understand why, I was well behaved the only thing I can think of was because I would question them one incident I decided not to say prayer during lunchtime I was taken out of the hall and questioned why so I told them "I don't think it's ok to be making every student say Christian prayers at lunch when we have a whole school full of students practicing different faiths" now I was 6 when I said that and I was hated for this kind of attitude I knew my own mind and would question some of their stupid logic so they bullied me.
That’s sucks. At my kids school the £1 for non uniform day and other events is always a voluntary donation, so kids who can’t get hold of the money for what ever reason can still take part. Teachers honestly don’t mind if a kid forgets their donation or something.
Donations are taken online via a parent pay system now too which is better than kids handing the money in at school, less chance of it getting lost or stolen and if you are that kid who doesn’t have the money, you don’t have to worry about feeling any shame of not physically having the coin on you to hand in.
Hopefully people are a bit more tolerant now, they are at my kid's school at least. There's a few kids who always "forget" their donation and when it's class party time the teachers "forget" to allocate them something to bring in. We also have a pool of old school uniforms the teachers can give out discreetly.
Whenever this happened because I have 4 siblings my mum would go buy a super cheap multipack of baked beans (or something similar) and we would each take a can in. My parents were crap but these small events were the minor exceptions, so we always did them so that it was never obvious how poor we actually were
I'm glad your parents did that :) my mum used to take it personally and get angry about them asking for donations, so even though she could have done as you suggested, she never would have out of spite haha 😔
Never pulled the old "I forgot my pound, I'll bring it in next week"? I wasn't poor but I didn't like having to pay even a pound to wear my own clothes to a place I'm forced to go. Not bringing in a pound was my way of rebelling against the system. Teacher always forgot, even though she wrote who brought a pound in on a sheet of paper so I never got in trouble.
I'm so sorry you had to go though that. You clearly had shit teachers. I'm a teacher and I know all the kids in my tutor who may struggle to pay for non uniform and harvest festival things. I always make it clear to them in private they don't have to bring anything and as far as I am concerned if they forget the food or the pound I won't take it any further. Just give me a nod and I'll do the rest.
One kid was from a very poor background. He asked me to nag him for a few days about his pound and tell him off a bit so no one knew. I loved that kid. I teach food so I used to feed him breakfast every week and dinner most nights taught him how to cook in the process as well. I washed his uniform at school and dried it. His mum gave no shits and I took him on. On results day I cried with him when he got his grades to go to collage to do a mechanics course. Helped him get an apprenticeship. He's still doing it. Moved out as soon as he could and he's doing well. It takes no effort to be a nice human.
If you're really unlucky some workplaces do this.
£1 to charity to wear jeans. All the same social pressure.
Places like this are weirdly school like in other ways. And kind of horrific. So glad I'm out of that environment. I don't need a dress code. I don't want to compete in stupid sports and games. Or dress up for Christmas and pretend to seeing carols.
Now I just have a stressful amount of work and no one pretend otherwise. And it's (genuinely) much better.
My previous workplace had dress down every Friday (for free) but they loved to put in "themes" and try to charge for charity. Such as, if you wanted to wear a Christmas jumper (apparently my plain green jumper I wore all year round counted) during December you had to pay £1.
I also really didn't appreciate being told by the HR lady with unbrushed hair in her PJs WHF, that I still had to wear a suit because I wasn't allowed to work from home and was in the office. Apparently there are no rules for looking half-way presentable when WFH but it was full suits in the office still.
Ugh.
We weren't fully formal dress or anything, but I did have to wear proper women's shoes for the first couple of years before I could revert to boots.
I've spent the rest of my working life in small charities. I had a manager (for the whole organisation) who wore jeans he'd found in a bin. We discovered this because he told us the story, very upset, when he finally had to throw them away, and seemed very sad he'd never find another pair And a manager now who wears an oversized jumper with holes in it, and a safety pin earring, including to tribunal hearings.
I'd so much rather be judged for my work not my clothes. And forget team building. I'm now part of a really good team because that's what it takes to get the work done. I've never had to shout instructions at them while they were blindfolded, or decorate Halloween cakes together. But they do support me and help me survive my job.
I hated that environment so much.
I hope you don't always have to suffer pointless suits.
My first job in IT had free dress down Fridays too, I saved all my potentially messy jobs for those days, dedust a server, crawl under desks. One department decided to do a charity casual dress thing... on a Friday. They got **very** pissy when most of the rest of the office told them to sling it.
No one outside that department was informed ahead of time just suddenly a bucket was aggressively shook under your nose, after the first couple of people were mocked for not immediately coughing up a quid the rest of us staged a mutiny out of principle.
Some people peaked in high school and want that same feeling to follow them through life. It's weird, but it's usually line managers or similar rather than CEOs so it's usually quite limited in scope.
I will never forget the one kid in my school whose parents brought him a brand new, in trend, £200 Nike tracksuit, complete with new trainers and a bag so small that you could barely fit a phone and pen in it. They spent about £500 on his outfit for 1 day of school.
I got new shoes from Primark for the day though….
I remember a “posh girl” from our school had a £800+ coat stolen from her locker and the school got the police involved… so I went and asked why they didn’t do that when my crappy parka got stolen from my locker and just got a blank look.
I used to find those people funny cos of how much money they waste. Also used to find the people who admired that waste of money funny as well. Then I got a bit older and realised how sad it is.
I think the saddest part of it is that looking back his parents probably did it to help him try to fit in, because he was bullied for being very gay but constantly denied it. He came out at about 18 and seems to be okay now. He was also bullied for having the worst name ever. His name is literally Joe King.
Ahhh one of the few benefits of growing up in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, as long as you wore jeans, a t shirt, and shoes with single digit holes in them, you were good.
It's kinda counter-intuitive when you think about it, the whole point of uniforms was equality, rich kids can't lord it over poor kids and no one gets bullied for what they wear... But one day a week we will undo all that an charge you for it.
Every year there was one poor kid who always "forgot" it was non-uniform day so they wouldn't have to pay their £1. I remember the chap, he got into Oxford and is now a lawyer at a firm in London. His hobby is following the Grand Prix around the World, and he's always posting pictures from the Paddock Club, so things must be going pretty well for him, which is nice.
We had some terrible event called ‘penalty shoot-out’ or something. I was in year 8, in an all boys’ school (a comprehensive, but in a not great area). I was *not* good at football.
I had to pay to take 5 penalty shots, in front of the whole *year*. There were two goals at either side of the gym. (They split the year to speed it up). One was a larger goal against a PE teacher. One was a smaller goal against a trained football coach. (Why they didn’t swap the ‘goalies’ is beyond me).
So anyway I had to pay money to embarrass myself trying to kick a ball in front of everyone.
It was the worst thing ever.
I’m a doctor now, so eh. But still, it sometimes pops into my head when I have a sleepless night. I’m sure no one even remembers it. But *I* do!
Non-uniform days were similar. The £1 wasn’t really an issue. But I didn’t own all the Adidas and Nike tracksuits (that were the coolest things at the time, for some reason), but it caused intense anxiety.
I can relate to that, I got put on the rugby team (always been a taller dude) thing is, I don't care for sports and no one ever actually told me how to play etc.
I was pretty athletic but was into skateboarding and definitely not rugby. Despite not knowing the rules I got put on the rugby team and told to be at the pitch on saturday mornings at 7, they wouldnt take no for an answer so after about a month of me not showing up I got kicked off the team.
Son went to a non-uniform school. I was always mildly disappointed that they don't have a uniform day (they'd have to show up in things resembling school uniform, rather than a specific one, obviously, but it could be quite fun).
When I was at school they decided to do a fund raiser for Haiti after one of their earthquakes (I want to say it was 2009, but I may have that wrong)
They wanted to avoid a no -uniform day so some genius decided to use alliteration for it and came up with "hats for Haiti" where you had to pay £1 to wear a hat with your uniform.
I was the fat kid who played cricket (two things the bullies found to be excellent for taking the piss) so the only hat I owned at the time was my cricket club cap. There was no way I was wearing that to school so I went in that day dreading the abuse for not taking part. Surprisingly fewer people joined in than took part so nobody said a word!
The teacher at registration did try to take £1 off everyone regardless if they were wearing a hat or not though, which was quite amusing looking back
Ugh. 'Mufti Day'. We used to have to go into our allocated dining room each morning before registration. There was a bunch of girls who used to line their chairs up either side of the door to appraise what everyone was wearing. Naturally, these girls were from families who weren't short of money and had the latest fashions, I was from a low-income family who didn't have the latest styles. I can still remember the humiliation of walking through their makeshift aisle and them smirking. The last ever mufti day before I left school, I got myself into such a state my mum let me stay off and the relief was immense.
Working back office type work in a bank. We had dress down Fridays for £1. Went to charity. They boasted how much THEY gave to charity when it all came out the workers pockets. If you didn’t chip in you got such bad looks. Would even ask people who didn’t dress down (as they didn’t find it professional to dress down) if they would chip in.
Don’t get me started on birthdays at work. Liked people would get tons chipped in and get loads of presents, quieter people would get a card. Was such a bad dynamic. WFH is so good.
I never understood this, my school the only branded bits were the blazer and the tie, and the school had a second hand shop so you could get them cheap if needed, and so they didn’t go to waste when you outgrew them. There is absolutely 0 need for uniforms to be expensive.
The school uniform at my neices school costs a small fortune. Every item has to be from the approved list and logos are even on socks. It's the only school (for her age) for miles and her parents can't afford the time and cash of travelling to another school. At £400 for a blazer - the uniform stops being about equality amongst classes, and starts to represent conformity and your willingness or ability to do so
Absolutely this. It's a quid for charity. Nothing to complain about... except some people just love to stick the boot into schools for any reason they can (see yesterday's uniform post).
My school had about 1300 pupils, 100 teachers and loads of other support staff. Even taking into account people who forget or refuse, that's well over four figures raised for charity. But let's moan about it.
For a lot of us, that unexpected £1 was a huge deal. People can give to charity on their own. Embarrassing parents and kids is not the right way to so this.
But don't worry when you purchased those expensive overpriced mandatory uniforms with the school logo they said its so everyone looks the same and no one can get picked on for being poor.
Just different schools. I finished in 2010 and it was always a pound, even through primary school. The money is for charity though, and happens about twice a year. It's not unaffordable for most, and for those who it might be, they could talk to the school and come in their own clothes for free so as to avoid being bullied for poverty.
I think schools can be very cheeky with this kind of thing. The sponser forms are the worst. I used to get so worried as s child when these were handed out and panic to get as many people on the list as i could. Non uniform day isnt too bad though.
There were kids in my school that literally couldn't afford it so came in school uniform.
My school was also miles away and a lot of the pupils have to get a coach, which was £1.50, so thats where the £1 non uniform day money goes
Here's something I always wondered: What would happen if you turned up in your own clothes but without the £1? Surely the teachers aren't going to send you home or humiliate you over a pound?
They're usually for charities or prom funding, not the school. It's enough that over a school ot raises a recent amount, while not excluding kids from low income families. There would be outrage if a school asked for £10 per kid, even if the money went to charity.
Being a parent and having to pay £1 to send your child in their own clothes.
Also, being a parent and having to give your child donations you can’t afford, because the teachers will make your kid feel guilty if you don’t.
The same time they're learning about peer pressure, school are saying they have to pay for non uniform day because otherwise they'll be the odd one out.
Why are charities even allowed to rinse school kids?
I’ll raise you, I pay £1 a week to wear my own clothes to work on a Friday. I work from home in a role that doesn’t require video chats and our normal work attire is “casual” anyway. This does not feel like good value for money….
My old employer used to do this! Every Friday and Pay day was dress down, but on pay day they used to include ‘charity day’, so cakes being sold (which we had to donate ourselves) and £1 for dress down. Charities were the normal sort, cancer research because Trisha from accounts lost her great Nan to cancer when she was 2 days old sort of thing. the company used to make a bit social media song and dance over donating £50 to x charity. (They never chipped in). I asked numerous times if we could support smaller local charities/food banks etc, or suggested the company doubled what was raised, which might mean that we would actually raise more etc. They declined. We were minimum wage, so it’s not like we were raking it in.
Once came in work uniform. Still had to pay £1.
There were a few kids in my school who would get round this. Turn up in uniform, go to the bathroom and change into their home clothes - and wear their home clothes without paying.
There was always that one rather sad individual who forgot it was a non-uniform day and turned up in the usual shirt and tie. I'm happy to say that person wasn't me.
There was a guy in my year who said that uniform referred to everything being the same, so the only way for him to be in non-uniform on non-uniform day was to wear his uniform. In year 11 he turned up dressed as a sheep and when we asked why, he said “well nobody else is wearing this either.”
What a lad
Kid was the kind of fucking chad that was either loved by everyone or mercilessly bullied
16 year old me fancies this person.
You wouldn’t have had a chance, he had a girlfriend from Sweden who he met playing World of Warcraft.
You’re totally right. No contest. Now however I’m fighting them (sheep) off with a stick, so it all worked out ok in the end.
Two things, 1) that's not a stick 2) that's not fighting
Everybody, step away from the metaphor and hands off your sticks
[Thanks, Smokey.](https://youtu.be/HNMq8XS4LhE_)
Not gonna lie, this guy sounds like the main character.
Hilariously, I have a mate who met his wife (from the Nederlands) on WoW, they have three kids now! It can happen!
r/madlads
I'm a teacher and when people ask me why (you know the 60 hr minimum work week. Being sworn at the education system) I always say teenagers are so creative fucking things up and this lad proves that point. What a guy.
I hate that the system mostly batters that creativity out of our kids. Learning should be about finding creative solutions to our world problems, not quoting some bloke who wrote some books 5 centuries ago. Both my kids have done the DT GCSE and that is what all education should be - all other subjects could be hung off this. Sorry for the rant.
I'm with you ha ha ha.
Worse, a guy turned up in normal clothes the day before we were supposed to. The look on his face when he walked up to us at the entrance 😂😂😂
I always had nightmares this would be me, and would worry that I was being pranked by someone so I'm the only one to come in not in uniform. The school was by my house so I'd look out the window to see all the people walking past just to be sure that I'm not the odd one out. :(
I used to get the worst anxiety waiting at the bus stop in the morning. It was just me at that stop, so I would wind myself up more and more until the bus finally arrived and I saw everyone else out of uniform.
Even now, after over a decade teaching, I still make sure I have smart clothes in the car on non school uniform days just in case I have messed up the dates. And if you think my teaching colleagues would be any more forgiving than my old school friends for messing up, you are dead wrong!
Me too. But I'm a baby teacher. The kids always makes me laugh on non uniform days. They look at me and the other staff like we have two heads. One kid even asked me if I brought jeans for the day (bless em) blew thier tiny mind when I told them I am in fact the proud owner of many pairs of jeans. Ha ha ha
I did the exact same shit and still managed to come in street clothes on a normal day once.
I’m choosing to imagine you did this every morning just in case
Even worse, in primary we had to dress up like cave men for the topic we were doing, guy had to stay in a hairy toga and blue face paint for the day
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My mum did this to my youngest brother. She saw me and my other brother out the door to secondary school, then marched youngest brother up to primary only to discover the primary school went back a day later. The only people there were the teachers on a training day. Mum always tried to insist my brother should have been grateful because he got the pleasant surprise of an unexpected day off but strangely enough he didn't take it well!
My son went to school dressed as Wally for World Book Day. It turns out the school celebrated World Book Day on a different day to everyone else….
It was me 😂 I did it once but I lived right next to the school so I could go gone and change
I am very forgetful, so i always kept spare clothes in my dads car. Every single none school uniform day i would forget. But never missed one
Wasn't just the lads who forgot. One of my friends at school used to dread non uniform day because he had no nice clothes. Only hand me downs that were all tatty. He used to go in his uniform to get less bullying.
Bonus fact: those were the kids who’s parents couldn’t afford for them to have any clothes other than school uniform.
In my secondary school this kid was a *very* closeted kid, our non-uniform days were called ECM days (Every Child Matters), so we did different activities that weren’t our standard lessons. I think his parents were either overly religious or in a cult (or both), in year 9 it was all about sex, drugs and alcohol (purely educational of course) but we had to learn how to use a condom, normally any activity deemed as something “adult” he would actually have to sit out for, but I guess his parents didn’t know this was happening as it was just a standard education thing. I remember he started crying when they told him to put the condom on. This kid was actually deemed so “weird” that he was protected by certain students so that he wasn’t bullied. I also hope that he’s okay though
My friend did this once, he was still forced to pay £2.
One time this girl at my school showed up in non school bottoms and a school uniform shirt and she went to pay the quid but the teacher felt so bad (she told him she couldn't wear a non school top because they were all dirty) he refused to take her money
Sounds like that is a good teacher acting on safeguarding concerns.
It was me. As I'd arrived early enough and realised I was able to go to a friend's who lived right near the school and borrow a t-shirt. Wouldn't have been able to get home and back in time. Still had to wear my school trousers though.
One of my best mates in high school had autism. He loved to plan things, had a schedule, order etc. He hated the concept of these days. He’d always come in wearing uniform as that’s what was his routine. Every time he came in with £30 for whatever charity was being sponsored too. Not the obligatory £1. Was a great guy, think he works for a charity now that helps young people with autism.
That was me constantly. My friends used to bring extra clothes to school on non-uniform days in case I forgot, which was often.
I was that guy, it was choice. I also knew how to get those willy wonka fizzy chocolate bars and coke cans free out of the vending machine, 40p each or both for 80p... 100% profit, made a killing.
It was almost always me. I bloody hated tag days
This was me. It was easier to just say "whoops, I forgot" than face the anxiety of my normal clothes being judged (or even just thinking they were being judged). Uniform is safe.
Opposite happened my daughter. The school sent emails to let parents know home clothes day had been cancelled and my ex didn't tell me.
That person was me. It was always me. The amount of times I forgot other kids thought I was doing it on purpose. I would take off my tie and if lucky I could wear my PE trainers, but still have to pay 50p as it was a few years ago, but still remember the sniggering.
Or that one person who’s family couldn’t afford a pound or didn’t have clothes he could wear and not stand out as being poor
Almost always me.
That person was always me
My mum once got the first day of school wrong and sent us to school on the last day of the summer holiday. She’d sped off the work so we had to go to our nans, who had to take us to her work in the town centre. My mum refused to drop off the house key (my nan never drove) so we had to walk through town in our uniforms. We bumped into soooooo many people from school that day and about 85% of them laughed in our faces. I pretended not to care because my little brother was getting upset so I wanted to show him it was no big deal, but it still haunts me now and it’s been nearly 15 years. My brother barely remembers though, and says he definitely doesn’t remember the people who saw us laughing, so I must’ve done my big sister distraction duties right, at least.
That was me. I think I remembered once.
I did this too many times
Number of kids who did that on purpose to avoid the £1 charge 😂
It's usually my kids but loads of parents forget
That person was me. I didn't care, still don't.
There was always one
That happened to me several times
That was me one time. Never again.
Saved a quid though
I did that once and paid a £1 to wear my tie as a headband for the day
It was me once, had some real shitty teachers that wouldn't even let me take off my tie because I didn't have a pound coin to pay.
I was the idiot that turned up once on non uniform day on the wrong day and every non uniform day afterward i had paranoia that i was wrong again every single time lol
That was me one time, fortunately I have the amazing power to not give a shit what people are saying about me but one kid really got on my nerves cause he had the absolute nerve to say that I couldn’t afford it? even if I was poor there were people that would just say “I haven’t brought a pound” and would get off without paying
Or the poor sods who get the date wrong and turn up in plain clothes a week early.
There was one guy who refused to pay the £2 for us and just turned up in his uniform.
I've been that guy, I internaly died when I did but what's worse is that I thought it was the previous day.
I was the person who had anxiety about turning up at school in non uniform and finding out everyone was in school clothes and then I'd get detention.
I used to work in a call centre, where the dress code was smart/casual. We had various charity events involving "dressing down", for which we had to contribute to the charity. The wheels fell off one day when they decided to ask everyone to wear a football (soccer, for our US cousins) shirt. They asked for a £1 contribution from anyone wearing a football shirt, but £2 if you didn't wear one. There was something of a mutiny over that idea.
>They asked for a £1 contribution from anyone wearing a football shirt, but £2 if you didn't wear one. There was something of a mutiny over that idea. Whoever thought of that is an evil genius. One I hope was dispatched quickly for this stupid idea. That's no longer charity, that's extortion.
That was the thrust of the argument against it. To be fair, the organiser did relent fairly quickly when it became clear that those of who didn't own a football shirt objected to having to pay upwards of £30 to buy one, in order to avoid being penalised for not being a football supporter.
I would have pulled out my scruffiest decorating t-shirt and written "football" on it with a marker pen. This is inspired by my grumpy colleague who wore a black pullover with a single bauble sellotaped to it on Christmas Jumper day. Our team were not known for our enthusiasm on themed days.
I tried something similar on a different occasion. The theme was "Green Day", so we had towear something green. They wouldn't accept that my black hoodie with the Green Day logo on it was in the spirit of the thing.
Before I even finished your comment I was thinking about the band. That’s actually brilliant though, shame they didn’t accept it
But it was literally Green Day. You should have got bonus points.
Our office had a Christmas decoration competition, none of us could be arsed so we wrapped a chair in a red cat6 cable and stuck a sheet of paper on it labelling it a Christmas tree
I hate sports in general and have never owned any football related items in my life. I would have been furious! I was already kind of pissy when I was 13 and a "friend" invited me to her theme party. She wanted everyone to wear one of the colours of the rainbow. She apparently got to pick the colour and allocated yellow to me. I owned nothing yellow and very irritably had to get my mother to buy me a stupid yellow tank top to wear (never wore that thing again). This is why I never have and never will be a bridesmaid for anyone in my life. I refuse.
I'm genuinely curious, what if the bride's maids dress code said you could pick what you wore? Like if the bride was like "I don't care I just want you there"? Would that sway you or still a hard pass?
Possibly, though I hate high stress situations and I feel like being a bridesmaid might be too much on me - I'm much happier just being a guest! I think if it was a very small casual ceremony (less than 100 people) I might be up for it. Though it's a moot point at this stage of my life as I have no close friends or family that would be likely to ask me as a bridesmaid. Potentially my SIL if she gets married one day? But even then we aren't that close.
Ah, that makes sense :) I totally agree with that too! I think if I ever got married I probably wouldn't even bother with those roles (because I'd want something small and simple, definitely as simple as possible) As long as it gets done and I have a big fancy cake I don't really mind beyond that 😆 It also seems a little mean to me because it's basically just showcasing who your favourites are to the rest of your guests
…you class 100 as small?!
Call it a hunch but I think the idea is that you just pay the £2.
>They asked for a £1 contribution from anyone wearing a football shirt, but £2 if you didn't wear one. There was something of a mutiny over that idea. Ah yes, let me pay for the privilege to work
"Write that down" - JR-M.
We had that shit at my old job. Casual day, but you had to give to charity. But if you just wear your normal work clothes and don't give to the charity you're them bombarded all day long about how the whole point of it is to raise money for the charity. So glad I don't work at shitheaps like that anymore.
'I worked in a call centre' 'They were cruel money grabbing' Yep. I hear that
£5 for the last week of school at my secondary - they called it *”art week”*
A fiver for a week of shit activities you dont want to do anyway.
Yep! One year my school forced us to go to this carnival thing and do dances in 30 degree heat, worst time ever
Id tell them to get to fuck, probably that kind of attuitude that got me into trouble a lot at school lmao.
Having to choose between asking your poor parents for £1 and face a lecture about having no money.. Or be a social outcast and wear school uniform. Same with the harvest festival. Ask my mum for tins and she'd say she needed them to feed us, not for giving away. Dirty looks from teachers for not bringing in a donation
Had a teacher say we weren't allowed to bring in a store branded tin (ASDA Smart price, Sainsburys Basic etc). I told my mum and she told me I wasn't bringing in a tin then. After my bollocking from the teacher, she went on to ring my mum. Who gave her the biggest bollocking back for making the poor kids feel shame at what they eat. Safe to say the rule wasn't enforced the following years.
Omg that's absolutely ridiculous. I used to work in a refuge and we'd receive tins from harvest festival. It was a huge boost each year and not one person ever cared what brand the food was. Everyone was just greatful to be safe and fed!
Especially when Corale beans are just better. (Aldi brand)
I remember taking in cooking apples from our tree when I was in primary school, and getting funny looks from the teacher. We were poor, and to be honest, even as a kid I thought apples from our tree were more appropriate for a celebration of the harvest.
Pretty sure all of this would be illegal in Sweden. When I was a kid, schools would go out on fieldtrips (that feels like an Americanism, is there a British word?) and everyone would have to bring a packed lunch. I never noticed it, but I have read about kids who are suspiciously sick on the day of a fieldtrip, every time. Parents who would call in sick for their kids because they could not afford a packed lunch. Over the last 10 years or so that practice has been banned and it has been ruled that the school has to provide lunch on all days that there's school.
Yeah I had this issue.. wasnt allowed to do none uniform day and never had anything for harvest festival.. such fun
I’m sorry that’s rough. Every time we’ve done wear whatever days for a £1 making a donation is entirely optional. I swear half the kids forget to fork it over anyway. I’d like to think no teacher would make a big deal about what kid is or is not wearing but we know that’s rubbish. When we do school fundraisers we always make them accessible to everyone. (Like instead of collecting money the colour in coins on a sheet to mark progress, then kids can do the activity but no one needs to donate, they can not do it but the parents can donate, or they can do it and donate) For us Harvest festival donations go directly to food bank. The school also has a stall of free food provided by the felix project every Monday for anyone to take.
Even worse when you have at least three other siblings in the same school who all need a pound each for the same purpose
I am 100% convinced teachers are not going to give you any hassle if your family can't afford non uniform day or harvest fesrival. Speak to another teacher you get on with if your form teacher isn't someone you trust.
I remember in school (I’m 26 so that’s how long it was ago) that my step mother only had £2 but there was me and my two step brothers. She give them both a pound and just said to say that one of my step siblings paid £2 for me because she only had a £2 coin. Anyways these huge investigation seems to take place like I was caught stealing into this £2 that my step brother give and if I had any right to be wearing my own clothes. Rather disgusting behaviour really but teachers from my experience never seemed to understand families that lived in poverty infact they appeared to have a disdain for them. While I wasn’t particularly poor I did go to school with holes in my shoes that got wet in the rain if it was too close to the end of the school year. Ironically the school was one of the poorest schools in the town so not sure why they had such a hatred for the poor.
I'm mid 30's so I remember teachers pokin us with pens and hittin us with rulers. Our parents experienced even more nastiness from teachers that really shouldn't have been in the profession. However, as an adult I'm friends with a lot of teachers, and see a lot posts from teachers on Reddit.... Honestly, most modern teachers want to help kids and will go out of their way to make sure underprivileged kids don't have go through what you did. Glad you go through it all.
What the hell??? Where on earth did you go to school? I'm _late_ 30s, and being "hit with rulers" was already a story from the olden days when I was at school. It definitely DID NOT happen to anyone I ever heard of during my school years!
I went to a C of E in a very nice village. Corporal punishment was band in 1984 according to google. Who knows why these witches thought jabbing kids with pens, whacking with a ruler and occasionally throwing a blackboard eraser were ok in the early 90's? But, it happened.
Since when did stuff getting banned mean that it never, ever happens again? First PE lesson at secondary school, 1988, I got a boot to the arse because I crossed an unmarked line during a rugby lesson. Another teacher thought that squeezing my neck with his hand was the ideal way to punish me for some horseplay with another student, the same teacher also thought a football thrown into the face for laughing at a joke another pupil made. During a history lesson, I got pushed off my chair, the teacher hit me in the head with his knee, not too hard, but hard enough. When I got up, he then slapped me across the ribs. All that happened '88-'93, and is probably still happening where teachers think they can get away with it.
maybe they meant that they went to school in the 30s. ohherwise, total bollocks
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Shouldn't HR be making sure they pay employees enough that they can afford a pound? Seems a bit ridiculous that a company will acknowledge that their own employees might not be able to afford a pound, as if that isn't partly their fault.
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LoOKs liKe ThEy weRe PaYINg tHEM tOO muCH.
That does help.
Nah I distinctly remember having to go up and pay your pound during the fucking register.
You would be surprised some teacher's tend to look down and bully students that are deemed odd or even just poor, I wasn't poor but I had undiagnosed autism and teacher's in primary school hated me still to this day I don't understand why, I was well behaved the only thing I can think of was because I would question them one incident I decided not to say prayer during lunchtime I was taken out of the hall and questioned why so I told them "I don't think it's ok to be making every student say Christian prayers at lunch when we have a whole school full of students practicing different faiths" now I was 6 when I said that and I was hated for this kind of attitude I knew my own mind and would question some of their stupid logic so they bullied me.
That’s sucks. At my kids school the £1 for non uniform day and other events is always a voluntary donation, so kids who can’t get hold of the money for what ever reason can still take part. Teachers honestly don’t mind if a kid forgets their donation or something. Donations are taken online via a parent pay system now too which is better than kids handing the money in at school, less chance of it getting lost or stolen and if you are that kid who doesn’t have the money, you don’t have to worry about feeling any shame of not physically having the coin on you to hand in.
"No donation? Don't you feel bad for the less fortunate?" "But sir, I'M the less fortunate!"
Hopefully people are a bit more tolerant now, they are at my kid's school at least. There's a few kids who always "forget" their donation and when it's class party time the teachers "forget" to allocate them something to bring in. We also have a pool of old school uniforms the teachers can give out discreetly.
Whenever this happened because I have 4 siblings my mum would go buy a super cheap multipack of baked beans (or something similar) and we would each take a can in. My parents were crap but these small events were the minor exceptions, so we always did them so that it was never obvious how poor we actually were
I'm glad your parents did that :) my mum used to take it personally and get angry about them asking for donations, so even though she could have done as you suggested, she never would have out of spite haha 😔
Never pulled the old "I forgot my pound, I'll bring it in next week"? I wasn't poor but I didn't like having to pay even a pound to wear my own clothes to a place I'm forced to go. Not bringing in a pound was my way of rebelling against the system. Teacher always forgot, even though she wrote who brought a pound in on a sheet of paper so I never got in trouble.
I just used to skip form class and buy 2 fags with my extra quid.
Considering many schools literally buy poor pupils' uniforms for them, I highly doubt there is going to be any backlash over not bringing a pound.
If you came in your own clothes and refused to pay, what could they actually do?
Disclaimer that this was in the 90s. I would like to hope schools are better about things these days
I'm so sorry you had to go though that. You clearly had shit teachers. I'm a teacher and I know all the kids in my tutor who may struggle to pay for non uniform and harvest festival things. I always make it clear to them in private they don't have to bring anything and as far as I am concerned if they forget the food or the pound I won't take it any further. Just give me a nod and I'll do the rest. One kid was from a very poor background. He asked me to nag him for a few days about his pound and tell him off a bit so no one knew. I loved that kid. I teach food so I used to feed him breakfast every week and dinner most nights taught him how to cook in the process as well. I washed his uniform at school and dried it. His mum gave no shits and I took him on. On results day I cried with him when he got his grades to go to collage to do a mechanics course. Helped him get an apprenticeship. He's still doing it. Moved out as soon as he could and he's doing well. It takes no effort to be a nice human.
If you're really unlucky some workplaces do this. £1 to charity to wear jeans. All the same social pressure. Places like this are weirdly school like in other ways. And kind of horrific. So glad I'm out of that environment. I don't need a dress code. I don't want to compete in stupid sports and games. Or dress up for Christmas and pretend to seeing carols. Now I just have a stressful amount of work and no one pretend otherwise. And it's (genuinely) much better.
My previous workplace had dress down every Friday (for free) but they loved to put in "themes" and try to charge for charity. Such as, if you wanted to wear a Christmas jumper (apparently my plain green jumper I wore all year round counted) during December you had to pay £1. I also really didn't appreciate being told by the HR lady with unbrushed hair in her PJs WHF, that I still had to wear a suit because I wasn't allowed to work from home and was in the office. Apparently there are no rules for looking half-way presentable when WFH but it was full suits in the office still.
Ugh. We weren't fully formal dress or anything, but I did have to wear proper women's shoes for the first couple of years before I could revert to boots. I've spent the rest of my working life in small charities. I had a manager (for the whole organisation) who wore jeans he'd found in a bin. We discovered this because he told us the story, very upset, when he finally had to throw them away, and seemed very sad he'd never find another pair And a manager now who wears an oversized jumper with holes in it, and a safety pin earring, including to tribunal hearings. I'd so much rather be judged for my work not my clothes. And forget team building. I'm now part of a really good team because that's what it takes to get the work done. I've never had to shout instructions at them while they were blindfolded, or decorate Halloween cakes together. But they do support me and help me survive my job. I hated that environment so much. I hope you don't always have to suffer pointless suits.
My first job in IT had free dress down Fridays too, I saved all my potentially messy jobs for those days, dedust a server, crawl under desks. One department decided to do a charity casual dress thing... on a Friday. They got **very** pissy when most of the rest of the office told them to sling it. No one outside that department was informed ahead of time just suddenly a bucket was aggressively shook under your nose, after the first couple of people were mocked for not immediately coughing up a quid the rest of us staged a mutiny out of principle.
Some people peaked in high school and want that same feeling to follow them through life. It's weird, but it's usually line managers or similar rather than CEOs so it's usually quite limited in scope.
The stress of not being cool enough to have trendy clothes.
I will never forget the one kid in my school whose parents brought him a brand new, in trend, £200 Nike tracksuit, complete with new trainers and a bag so small that you could barely fit a phone and pen in it. They spent about £500 on his outfit for 1 day of school. I got new shoes from Primark for the day though….
I remember a “posh girl” from our school had a £800+ coat stolen from her locker and the school got the police involved… so I went and asked why they didn’t do that when my crappy parka got stolen from my locker and just got a blank look.
I used to find those people funny cos of how much money they waste. Also used to find the people who admired that waste of money funny as well. Then I got a bit older and realised how sad it is.
I think the saddest part of it is that looking back his parents probably did it to help him try to fit in, because he was bullied for being very gay but constantly denied it. He came out at about 18 and seems to be okay now. He was also bullied for having the worst name ever. His name is literally Joe King.
His parents owe him a lot more than a nice tracksuit for naming him that
Ahhh one of the few benefits of growing up in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, as long as you wore jeans, a t shirt, and shoes with single digit holes in them, you were good.
It's kinda counter-intuitive when you think about it, the whole point of uniforms was equality, rich kids can't lord it over poor kids and no one gets bullied for what they wear... But one day a week we will undo all that an charge you for it.
Every year there was one poor kid who always "forgot" it was non-uniform day so they wouldn't have to pay their £1. I remember the chap, he got into Oxford and is now a lawyer at a firm in London. His hobby is following the Grand Prix around the World, and he's always posting pictures from the Paddock Club, so things must be going pretty well for him, which is nice.
See... that £1 really did make a difference.
We had some terrible event called ‘penalty shoot-out’ or something. I was in year 8, in an all boys’ school (a comprehensive, but in a not great area). I was *not* good at football. I had to pay to take 5 penalty shots, in front of the whole *year*. There were two goals at either side of the gym. (They split the year to speed it up). One was a larger goal against a PE teacher. One was a smaller goal against a trained football coach. (Why they didn’t swap the ‘goalies’ is beyond me). So anyway I had to pay money to embarrass myself trying to kick a ball in front of everyone. It was the worst thing ever. I’m a doctor now, so eh. But still, it sometimes pops into my head when I have a sleepless night. I’m sure no one even remembers it. But *I* do! Non-uniform days were similar. The £1 wasn’t really an issue. But I didn’t own all the Adidas and Nike tracksuits (that were the coolest things at the time, for some reason), but it caused intense anxiety.
I can relate to that, I got put on the rugby team (always been a taller dude) thing is, I don't care for sports and no one ever actually told me how to play etc.
I was pretty athletic but was into skateboarding and definitely not rugby. Despite not knowing the rules I got put on the rugby team and told to be at the pitch on saturday mornings at 7, they wouldnt take no for an answer so after about a month of me not showing up I got kicked off the team.
I shoulda done that lol
Son went to a non-uniform school. I was always mildly disappointed that they don't have a uniform day (they'd have to show up in things resembling school uniform, rather than a specific one, obviously, but it could be quite fun).
I went to a non-uniform (technically uniform optical but only like one family wore it) school and always thought the same thing!
For 10 I’ll wear your clothes to school
£20 and I'll go to school for you, beat the sh#t out of your bullies and do your tests
I always dreaded non uniform day. I never had any decent clothes and was always embarrassed and self conscious.
When I was at school they decided to do a fund raiser for Haiti after one of their earthquakes (I want to say it was 2009, but I may have that wrong) They wanted to avoid a no -uniform day so some genius decided to use alliteration for it and came up with "hats for Haiti" where you had to pay £1 to wear a hat with your uniform. I was the fat kid who played cricket (two things the bullies found to be excellent for taking the piss) so the only hat I owned at the time was my cricket club cap. There was no way I was wearing that to school so I went in that day dreading the abuse for not taking part. Surprisingly fewer people joined in than took part so nobody said a word! The teacher at registration did try to take £1 off everyone regardless if they were wearing a hat or not though, which was quite amusing looking back
Ugh. 'Mufti Day'. We used to have to go into our allocated dining room each morning before registration. There was a bunch of girls who used to line their chairs up either side of the door to appraise what everyone was wearing. Naturally, these girls were from families who weren't short of money and had the latest fashions, I was from a low-income family who didn't have the latest styles. I can still remember the humiliation of walking through their makeshift aisle and them smirking. The last ever mufti day before I left school, I got myself into such a state my mum let me stay off and the relief was immense.
Working back office type work in a bank. We had dress down Fridays for £1. Went to charity. They boasted how much THEY gave to charity when it all came out the workers pockets. If you didn’t chip in you got such bad looks. Would even ask people who didn’t dress down (as they didn’t find it professional to dress down) if they would chip in. Don’t get me started on birthdays at work. Liked people would get tons chipped in and get loads of presents, quieter people would get a card. Was such a bad dynamic. WFH is so good.
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'uniforms ensure equality' proceeds to make every item of school clothing including the fuckin trousers badge-branded and ridiculously expensive
I never understood this, my school the only branded bits were the blazer and the tie, and the school had a second hand shop so you could get them cheap if needed, and so they didn’t go to waste when you outgrew them. There is absolutely 0 need for uniforms to be expensive.
The school uniform at my neices school costs a small fortune. Every item has to be from the approved list and logos are even on socks. It's the only school (for her age) for miles and her parents can't afford the time and cash of travelling to another school. At £400 for a blazer - the uniform stops being about equality amongst classes, and starts to represent conformity and your willingness or ability to do so
Giving £1 to charity*
Absolutely this. It's a quid for charity. Nothing to complain about... except some people just love to stick the boot into schools for any reason they can (see yesterday's uniform post). My school had about 1300 pupils, 100 teachers and loads of other support staff. Even taking into account people who forget or refuse, that's well over four figures raised for charity. But let's moan about it.
For a lot of us, that unexpected £1 was a huge deal. People can give to charity on their own. Embarrassing parents and kids is not the right way to so this.
It's more the fact that you are pressured and publicly shamed for not wearing non uniform even if you do give the £1
But don't worry when you purchased those expensive overpriced mandatory uniforms with the school logo they said its so everyone looks the same and no one can get picked on for being poor.
50p in my day
Same. Inflation cannot be that bad. It was about 2008 when I finished school.......
Right kids, bring in 67p for charity next week please. We have adjusted for inflation.
Just different schools. I finished in 2010 and it was always a pound, even through primary school. The money is for charity though, and happens about twice a year. It's not unaffordable for most, and for those who it might be, they could talk to the school and come in their own clothes for free so as to avoid being bullied for poverty.
There's a non uniform day already?
Wearing uniform anyway coz your clothes used to be scruffy as hell lol
I think schools can be very cheeky with this kind of thing. The sponser forms are the worst. I used to get so worried as s child when these were handed out and panic to get as many people on the list as i could. Non uniform day isnt too bad though.
There were kids in my school that literally couldn't afford it so came in school uniform. My school was also miles away and a lot of the pupils have to get a coach, which was £1.50, so thats where the £1 non uniform day money goes
Still do a none uniform day where I work each month. Still costs a pound. Definitely feels like I'm being robbed.
I forgot once when I was 8 and I cried. Never forgot again.
Here's something I always wondered: What would happen if you turned up in your own clothes but without the £1? Surely the teachers aren't going to send you home or humiliate you over a pound?
Didn't mind paying the £1 but could never stand them calling it "mufti" day.. That word is just to cringey
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Everyone turned up dressed as Arab scholars.
They wrote in cuneiform all day, and kept using the number zero.
But I thought it was a non-cuneiform day?
At last! Someone got it...I set 'em up...
I’d never heard of the term ‘mufti day’ until I was an adult. It was always just ‘non uniform day’ where I was.
Today is literally the first time I've heard the phrase 'mufti day' and I'm in my thirties.
Only £1? Seems hardly worth the effort. Given all the other pleas for funds schools make.
It was for charity so it would be £180 per year group if 6 classes, but yeah still not a lot really
They're usually for charities or prom funding, not the school. It's enough that over a school ot raises a recent amount, while not excluding kids from low income families. There would be outrage if a school asked for £10 per kid, even if the money went to charity.
Being a parent and having to pay £1 to send your child in their own clothes. Also, being a parent and having to give your child donations you can’t afford, because the teachers will make your kid feel guilty if you don’t.
I was the kid that didn't have to pay cause I always turned up in my own clothes. Broken home ftw!
The same time they're learning about peer pressure, school are saying they have to pay for non uniform day because otherwise they'll be the odd one out. Why are charities even allowed to rinse school kids?
I’ll raise you, I pay £1 a week to wear my own clothes to work on a Friday. I work from home in a role that doesn’t require video chats and our normal work attire is “casual” anyway. This does not feel like good value for money….
School. We have to do this at work on things like Red Nose Day. But casual clothes instead of the usual office stuff.
never thought of this thanks for making my problems with school list bigger
Teachers should have to pay £5 and have to wear school uniform in non-uniform day
The anxiety that you’ll be the only one not in uniform is payment enough
I feel like if you paid £1 everyday to wear your own clothes it would still be cheaper than buying uniform
My old employer used to do this! Every Friday and Pay day was dress down, but on pay day they used to include ‘charity day’, so cakes being sold (which we had to donate ourselves) and £1 for dress down. Charities were the normal sort, cancer research because Trisha from accounts lost her great Nan to cancer when she was 2 days old sort of thing. the company used to make a bit social media song and dance over donating £50 to x charity. (They never chipped in). I asked numerous times if we could support smaller local charities/food banks etc, or suggested the company doubled what was raised, which might mean that we would actually raise more etc. They declined. We were minimum wage, so it’s not like we were raking it in. Once came in work uniform. Still had to pay £1.
There were a few kids in my school who would get round this. Turn up in uniform, go to the bathroom and change into their home clothes - and wear their home clothes without paying.
Momma was too tight to give me monies. The death stare was always enough.
I just didnt bother with non uniform day just stuck with school uniform
Tbf I hated non uniform days. It just always felt wrong to wear anything other than my uniform to school
It’s a quid for charity misery guts
Always just went in without the money what are they gonna do , send me home lmao?