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My Mum got the uniform list for my new school - and as with most things she took charge. I haven't told you of going for my new uniform yet have I? I meant to - it was in the middle of that strange period when I was moving house and school at the same time. We had to go to the school shop (which was on the school premises not a "recommended" shop that did schoolwear for many schools like my brother went to for his uniform). I was quite in awe. The worst is that my Grandmother nearly came too as she had ventured into London to "help" with the move (and also to try to persaude my Mum yet again to return to Leeds and stop us boys picking up any more "London ways"! With two of us in good schools my Mum was having none of it). Anyway I escaped that as she went off back to Leeds before our appointment at the shop. I will try to fill you in on that as it was quite interesting looking back.
My new school had quite a strict uniform policy when I started (like most grammar schools did). My new items of school uniform were the school blazer, tie and long kneesocks in the school colours. Shorts were not compulsory in the main school but some of those who were moving up from the "prep" department wore them to start with along with those of us who were still had our primary school shorts in reasonable condition to wear out. I recall thge caps and scarves that were worn. Despite the fact that the school was somewhat flexible about the uniform, somehow the issue of sarves seemed to setthem off. Maybe this was because caps (for sporting acheivement) and "college scarves" were a University tradition - that these boys hoped to go on to.
Going to buy my new uniform was a big occaision for both me and my Mum
It was a big thing for me. Getting the uniform sort of sealed the fact that you were actually going to the school in the near future and moving on to secondary school was a major stepfor all boys. Generally this was the case - especially with grammar schools as many who passed the 11+ were split off from their friends who hadn't and went to comprehensives (or secondary moderns before that). Their parents were proud and liked to show off the uniform sometimes around the area. My Mum wasn't like that but my Gran went with my cousin (from Yorkshire who was the same age as me) and his Mum to buy his Grammar school uniform and she made him dress up in it that very day when they got home to show his Dad (my uncle) and the neighbours! But London was different I think - it was more a case of not trying to stand out because (like my Mum) a lot of people had come down there from elsewhere anyway and were still finding their feet. I think my Mum was proud inside though.
At any rate it was an expensive day for her. She had had to buy my older brother's uniform the year before too! Anyway in between leaving primary school and me starting secondary school we moved house so everything was in quite a turmoil. My Mum took some time off of work to set up the new house and my Gran came down from Leeds to help out too - and I have plenty of stories to tell about that too! Anway in the middle of all of this a letter came from my new school giving us a time and date to go to the school shop to buy the uniform. Unlike my brother's grammar school and many others where parents bought the uniform at an approved clothing shop which sold all sorts of clothes as well as school uniforms, my school had it's own "shop" on the premises which just sold items specific to the school.
We had been sent a uniform list earlier soon after I had been accepted at the school but we could not buy the items until we got a date during the Summer holidays to go into the school. Mum had gone through the list - the same as she had over my brother's school uniform list and noted what was essential and what could wait. My list had all of the usual items - "white or grey shirt, grey shorts or long trousers, black shoes" and so on but some had brackets after them - such as "School blazer (to be purchased at the school shop)". Anyway it was these bracketed items that we now had to go and buy.
The worst thing was that Gran was still down in London and she was wanting to go along, but luckily her and Mum had an argument over something and she went back up to Leeds .That may seem selfish but I don't think that I could have survived my Gran coming along to my new school with me the way she was when it came to clothes! She had already persauded Mum to throw out a lot of our oldest playclothes during the move (including my favourite worn down and faded but comfortable and familiar green cord shorts) and what was worse she had promised to buy us new clothes to replace them! So I was already in a bad mood with her before her and Mum fell out over something (curtains I think - or our bedroom arrangements or probably both and a lot of other things too) and she finally retreated back to Leeds to tell my Grandfather how we were all running wild down in London and we should all move up to Leeds where things were a lot more civilised.
Anyway on the appointed day it was just me and Mum who set off for the school. Mum had me dressed up smartly of course but in a way that was accpetable to me too (in as much as dressing up was ever acceptable to me because I never really liked it - especially during the school holidays). It was a good thing that Gran was not there because her idea of me being smartly dressed would have been the check shorts that I hated so much (and that she hadn't thrown out of course) and that would have been the death of me. As it was I wore the same clothes I would wear for Sunday school or going visiting with Mum - my best school shorts, a white shirt and a matching tie and kneesocks with black polished shoes. (I say "matching" tie and socks because as well as our school ties - worn with grey socks with green hoops at primary school - we had other ties which we wore at other times. When we wore these Mum chose socks with matching coloured hoops - just school socks in the colours of other schools really or (to go with a brown tie we had - and I hated) long khaki socks without bands on). Anyway I wore the blue tie I normally used to wear to Sunday school with the socks with blue hoops. I wanted to wear my favourite grey school jumper but Mum said it was too worn and in the end she found a sleeveless navy pullover for me - which was probably my elder brother's.Mum was dressed smartly too of course and I was quite proud to be going to buy the uniform with her on my own - my older brother was left to look after the younger one.
Anyway we got to the school early and it was the first time that I had been into the main school. When I went for the interview and enterance exam it had been held in the prep department which was in a seperate building. The main school doors were shut as it was the holidays but there was a prefect on the gate who directed us down to a side enterance where another showed us where to go. These prefects were probably volunteering to come in and help out and were very nice - but I couldn't help noticing how posh and grown up they were - even though they were in school uniform.
We were early and there were some other boys there with their Mums (and some Dad's too) sitting on the chairs put out outside the "shop" - which was just a large room really. Anyway I eyed up the other boys and couldn't recognise any from the interview. The Mum's smiled at each other. Some had younger brothers and sisters in tow who kept having to be stopped from running around. These would all be boys new to the school like me a boys coming up from the prep school would already have most of the uniform as it was the same for them as for us in the upper school. Anyway as one boy came out loaded with his new uniform another was called in and other boys and their Mums started to arrive too for their appointment.
All of the boys were smartly dressed as I was - some more than others - but none were in their old primary school uniforms that we had worn for the interview so I suppose thye all felt like me that it was a big event taking place. The Mums were smartly dressed too of course some a bit more flamboyantly than others! - I thought my Mum had it just right and I wasn't embarrassed about being with her as some boys said they had been later when I actually started at the school and we discussed matters.
Anyway finally it was our turn and we went in. There was a counter and drawers and things but it wasn't at all like a normal clothes shop just having what was specific to the school. The man running it was the supplier I think. He used to come in and open the "shop" up one lunchtime a week when the school started up - but obviously this kitting out of new boys during the Summer holidays was big businesss for him - but he wasn't too pushy with things. This was just as well because my Mum had made her mind up what I actually needed and what I didn't and she was in no mood to be played about - either by me nor him!
The main item was of course the blazer. There were two types - one in wool (like my primary school blazer) and one in barathea. They both had the school crest already on the left breast - sort of woven into the blazer unlike at my primary school where you bought the badges seperately and Mum sewed them on at home. The barathea one was more expensive but the man said it would last longer. When I tried it on I didn't like it - it didn't feel as comfortable as the wool one. Mum had me try on several for size and I could see myself in the full length mirror he had in there and must admit the barathea blazer looked smarter - but that wasn't my main concern!. Anyway I didn't say anything as I knew Mum was in charge and wouldn't want any arguing so I was relieved when she chose the wool one.
Caps were not compulsory for boys in the upper school but were for the prep school and some upper school boys did wear them when I started. Mum did have me try one on and seemed quite pleased with the look together with the blazer but I didn't like it - I hadn't worn a school cap for years. Anyway they were quite expensive (like all of the garments) and Mum decided against it for the time being.
We bought two ties - which didn't need trying on of course.
As I have said before shorts weren't compulsory in the upper school but I didn't realise that and assumed that they were becuase when I went for interview all the boys that showed us around were wearing them. They were the prep school boys though. Anyway Mum had decided that I had plenty of shorts to wear out I suppose and I didn't mind. When she had taken my older brother for his grammar school uniform the year before it was in a normal school outfitters that sold other clothes and I suppose he asked for long trousers then and got them. He had been wearing long trousers for scouts anyway so maybe that was why he wanted them for secondary school. I was quite happy with that as I inherited all of our school shorts and so didn't need to fight him for the best pair in the mornings any more - and I got a new pair of my own too.
Mum bought half a dozen pairs of socks with the tops in the school colours. Mum had always made sure that we each had six pairs of school socks ready for the week at primary school - a clean pair for each day and a spare pair so she probably thought along the same lines for me now. These socks were also much more expensive than our primary school ones had been which we bought at BHS or some other chain store.
Mum then decided I needed a jumper. There were two types - with and without sleeves and with the school colours around the neck as on the top of the socks. Mum wanted me to try these on so I had to take off the blazer and the jumper I was wearing (which was a sleeveless one which was unforuneate as far as I was concerned). Mum picked the sleeveless one not really because it was cheaper (though it was) but because she though that it looked smarter when I tried it on. I hated sleeveless pullovers as I used to like being able to take my jumper off and tie it round my waist with the sleeves if I got too hot when playing. This was obviously not possible with sleeveless ones. My old primary school jumper had had sleeves which suited me. I know that some Mums preferred sleeveless jumpers as it was often the elbows of jumpers that wore out first. The same was true of knees of trousres which is why some Mums insisted on shorts for play. This was not the case with my Mum - she just thought of how things looked as school uniform and dressing up were concerned although she did take the practical and cost aspect into account when it came to playclothes.
All that was left then was sports and P.E. kit that we had to buy at the shop. For rugby there was a reversible shirt. It was blue with a white band across it on one side and,turned inside out,it was white with a blue band. This double sidedness made it very thick and heavy and it was hard to wash and get dry. When I started playing rugby at the school we played in teams within the school - one side wearing their shirts one way round and one the other. If a team was getting too much on top some boys were swapped over to the other team and reversed their shirts. The socks too were reversible and so two-ply (blue on side which turned over to show white at the top,white the other with blue at the top) too.The shorts were not sold in the shop - black shorts being required. Again many boys had proper rugby shorts which were more like proper shorts with flies and fastenings and so on but some like me just had normal pull up elasticated sports shorts which you could buy anywhere. There was no rule on this but it just divided some of us off. Optional were "ties" which were just strips of cloth to hold the socks up. Mum thought that that was a waste of money as I could just wear my normal elastic garters. We also had to buy a pair of boots of course - again at a sports shop and they were my first pair as at primary school we had played in plimpsoles. Again some boys had proper rugby boots as opposed to football boots. When the school teams played against other schools the shirts and socks were worn with the mainly blue side showing - which was the main school colours. Cricket was not played until the Summer term so Mum left that until then. Again when that came roound some boys had proper cricket "whites" - white long trousers - and boots but as I was never in the cricket team I wore my P.E. shorts with a white shirt and gym shoes and so did a lot of other boys.
Anyway that was sorted out later and I could write seperately about games at secondary school if you want as there are some interesting facts.
The P.E. kit we had to buy was just a white singlet and shorts. These didn't have the school logo on them or anything but they had to be the standard ones bought at the school shop. The shorts were horrible as they had buttons and few boys liked them and the singlet was just like the vests we wore as underwear - except about twice as dear but Mum bought them anyway. We had to have white plimpsoles which we bought seperately - but they had to have laces not elastic like the black plimpsoles at primary school. This was a pain as the laces had to be white too - and white laces cost a lot more than the more common black and brown ones - and there was rarely a spare pair in the house if you broke a pair. P.E. kit inspection was one of the banes of school life - not just for me but many other boys and you didn't only have to have the correct kit but it had to be spotlesssly clean too. Anyway that's something else I can write about seperately too. We also had to buy white ankle socks for P.E. which I hated wearing - especially when we were sent off on a cross-country run along the banks of the thames and they got all muddy and Mum made me wash them as soon as I got home so they would be ready for the next gym lesson.
The only other item I remember having to buy at the school shop that day was a woodwork apron - which was just a standard white apron but I had never worn one before. At primary school we had aprons in the classrooms when we did art - but they were leather and belonged to the school. They must have been there for decades because they were worn out and cracked in places. For secondary school art the teacher just told us to bring in "one of your Dad's old shirts" to wear over our uniforms. Most boys did that and my Mum got one from a friend - it may have been my brother's old scoutmaster who she still saw - so in Art classes there were boys in all sorts of patterned long shirts which looked funny - although of course some boys had proper artist's smocks but even the Art master thought that unecessary for us - although he had one himself.
When we got home we put all of the items away in Mum's room and then went out another day to buy what else I needed to start with from various other "normal" clothes shops. As I say most secondary schools didn't have their own "shops" on the premises but had "authorised retailers" which were just various boyswear/menswear shops for uniforms and sold all of the other items needed to start with which were common to most schools - grey shorts/trousers,white/grey shirts and so on so most boys' (like my brother's) shopping trip for secondary school uniform was done in one place. I don't know why my school worked as it did in this regard. Anyway once we had bought the above items I already had most of the other clothes required. Mum thought about new shoes and even new shorts and shirts as the time drew near for me to start - but in the end we found that I had enough in reasonable condition once washed and ironed. The last thing we did - as was always the case at primary school - was to buy some elastic so Mum could sew new garters. This was available in many shops but Mum went all the way back to the old ladies shop where we used to live - mainly because she liked chatting to them I think and they had been good to us over the years.
I remember well my first day at secondary school and getting ready - mainly because me and Mum clashed yet again because we were both nervous! But this time she was right on the whole. I had wanted to wear my sandals as I always did to start back at primary school but she insisted on black shoes which were the regulations I think as I don't recall boys wearing sandals at secondary school when I started. As with most things the rules were not so rigidly enforced later on - and a German boy did wear sandals I recall. Me and Mum also clashed over me wearing a white shirt to start with - but that was nothing new. Anyway I can write more about my first day and how things changed as I moved on through the school later if you want - but as I say I have written something about that in discussing "trendy fashions".
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