23/08/2026
Dear Parents and Carers,
I’ve seen you in the supermarket putting packs of shirts, pairs of shorts and piles of socks into your trolley. I’m certain you’ve also got jumpers, blazers and PE kit either new from the school shop, passed on from older siblings or second hand via the PTA. So many items on the list, especially for High School. Do they really need it all? Apparently so, although one item above all is absolutely essential and often gets overlooked in the Back to School frenzy.
You know what teachers think is the most important part of school uniform?
Not the precisely specified colour of the trousers.
Not the maximum size of hair adornment.
Not the regulation shoe styles, NO TRAINERS!
No, it is the name!
It doesn’t matter if it is on an expensive embroidered name tape, a stick on label or written on the collar in Sharpie.
However hard adults try to prevent it, children lose things. They put them down and they simply walk away.
Please don’t rely on the children recognising their own things, they won’t, especially if it is brand new and the latest fad because there will be 20 of them in the class.
Please don’t rely on the teachers and TAs to go looking for your lost items, they have so many things to do without having to find time to search for unnamed jumpers.
In case you were not aware,
1) Washing powder doesn't remove blackcurrant or ketchup stains but will render Biro illegible after one wash.
2) Yes, you say the jumper missing is blue and age 8? So are the other 29 jumpers worn in this classroom.
3) It has a frayed (chewed) cuff? I think you will find many, many of them in this class do too.
4) Your child will recognise their own jumper? With the greatest of respect, the fact that we are having this conversation clearly means they can't.
5) Oh no, it's not weird at all. Mrs Smith knows that they can tell a jumper is not theirs simply by the sniffing it.
Look, do yourself and us a favour and use a Sharpie, sew in a name tape or get some of those fancy washable iron on stickers.
Please don’t rely on the sniff test, that’s gross.
To paraphrase Beyoncé. “If you want to keep it then you should have put a name on it.”
Please name it if you want it back.
Thank you,
Mrs Smith.
If you don’t already follow Mrs Smith, please consider doing so. Thank you.
