School Uniform in Russia and England

The history of a School Uniform in Russia and England (in brief). Reading practice: a 5th grade russian pupil`s reading the text to this slide show. ********************************************* THE HISTORY OF SCHOOL UNIFORM IN RUSSIA AND ENGLAND The word “uniform“ means “having the same form“. A school uniform means that every child in the school wears the same clothes. Schools have a strict academic dress-code in many countries. It`s interesting, that school uniform came to Russia from England in 1834. The first uniforms were made for boys and some years later for girls. Boys had special shirts, trousers, black boots and a cap. Girls wore brown dresses and aprons. In Russia, school uniforms were canseled after the revolution in 1917, but were re-introduced in 1948 and looked like the previous school clothes. The style of Soviet school uniform was modernized in 1962, and since then it was changed for several times. Boys generally wore dark blue trousers and jackets, girls — brown dresses with black aprons and black bows (on special occasions, white aprons and bows). All the pupils belonged to the Young Pioneer organization and wore famous red neckties. In 1992 a strict academic dress-code was canceled and pupils were dressed in different clothes and even jeans. In 2013 a Famous Russian designer, Vyacheslav Zaitsev, created a New School Uniform. It has gymslips, skirts, turtlenecks and warm cardigans for girls and trousers and waistcoats, jackets and pullovers for boys. In addition the designer offers to use various accessories — bow ties and neckties. The main colors of the new school collection are grey and dark blue. The models were produced at the «Ufimskiy trikotazh» factory. Today, there is no general standard uniform in Russia; however, some schools may have their own uniform. Now, let`s have a look at English school uniforms which appeared during the rule of King Henry VIII. The uniforms of that time were called “bluecoats“, as they consisted of long trench-coat-style jackets. They were blue because it was the cheapest fabric and showed humility among children. In 1870 the Elementary Education act introduced free primary education for all children. The popularity of uniforms increased. Boys wore short trousers and blazers until the age of 13-14. Girls wore blouses and gymslips. These uniforms continued until the 1950s when after the Butler reforms secondary education was made free and the school leaving age was raised to 15. These reforms encouraged schools to have similar uniform codes for all schools. Nowadays, in most state schools boys wear a white shirt, long grey or black trousers ,jumper or sweater with the school logo, a school tie, black shoes. The color is the choice of schools. Girls can choose trousers or skirts as part of their uniform. Thus, we can see that English uniform has not changed much for ages, but Russian school uniform has had many models since it appeared in our country. That`s all for now, thank you for your attention!