School uniform
2023
A letter sent to parents on 17 April 2023
School Uniform (Years 7-11)
I hope you and your family are safe and well.
As the Summer Term and warmer weather approaches we are looking forward to returning to 'normal' expectations in terms of school uniform. I am sure you will agree that the impression the school gives in the wider community is important.
Wearing the school uniform as it was intended should be second nature but we felt that a few reminders about what will be acceptable, from 'Day 1' of the Summer Term onwards, would not be amiss.
- Shirts need to be long enough to be firmly tucked in and collars large enough for the button to be done up comfortably. Shirts must be white.
- Black trousers must be worn. Jeans, chinos and / or track suits are not acceptable.
- Belts - if worn - should be black.
- Ties need to be properly tied at the neck and be long enough to reach to the waistband.
- Shoes should be black leather in appearance and not trainers or plimsolls. Please be wary of shops stocking shoes in their 'school' section which may not meet our requirements. Shoes which appear to be a hybrid between leather shoes and trainers are not acceptable.
- Socks should be dark grey or black.
- Jewellery, including earrings of any kind, and extreme hairstyles - for example tall spikes, coloured stripes, zigzags, tramlines and so on - are not permitted.
- Blazers muct be worn unless short sleeve order is announced (when the weather allows).
- Coats should only be worn on the way to and from school, and outside during breaks or lunchtimes.
- Plain black, V-neck jumpers (not a sweatshirt and/or crew neck) can be worn, if students still feel cold. Hoodies are not allowed.
During the winter months students have been able to wear coats in corridors, as a result of the low temperatures. This will cease to be the case once the school returns after the Easter break.
We hold a stock of second hand items, including PE kit, in school. These items are available all year round at the main office. There is no charge for these items. It is requested that parents make a donation if they are able to. Parents can donate unwanted items to the shop by bringing them to the main office. The cost of school uniform should not be a barrier to any student attending Boston Grammar School. The school has a hardship fund available to support families with the cost of uniform. Please contact [email address omitted from wiki entry] for more information.
2017
(Taken from the Boston Grammar School website, 28 May 2017)
Key Stage 3-4:
Black school Blazers
Black V neck jumper plain (optional)
Black full length trousers
Black plain socks
Black plain shoes (no trainer or plimsoll styles, please)
White long/short sleeved shirts (with school ties)
House colour ties (boys)
Plain Coat (no logos please)Key Stage 5:
As above, but:
Optional Black Blazer
Black V neck jumper with embroidered school logo
Plain ties (represent sixth form pupils)
Student leadership team to be represented by badges – to be provided by schoolStockists
Some of the above items are available from the school. Alternatively, they can be bought from the following outlets in Boston:
Oldrid & Co Ltd, 11-17 Strait Bargate, Boston
Marks & Spencer, 5 Market Place, Boston
Nationwide School Uniforms - http://www.nationwideschooluniforms.co.uk
1976
Extract from "Notes for parents of new boys" dated 1st July 1976
Clothing: All items to be marked with owners' name (sic).
Uniform is worn at all times to and from school and in school: (shirt sleeve order in school is permitted in heat waves).
Boys wear a coloured shirt for games (according to House).
Fancy shoes, gorgeous waistcoats and coloured socks are not permitted.
1967
According to Andy Pick, by 1967 only first year students wore caps.
1964
'Dared' so Brad went home with Mohican haircut!
Contemporary newspaper report from the Boston Standard, supplied by Stewart Brown
A Boston Grammar School boy collected over £3 from his classmates last week - for having his hair cut 'Mohican Indian Style'.
Richard Bradley (15) described by a fellow Grammar School fifth former as "the sort who'd do anything for a laugh" has his 'Mohican' as the result of a classroom discussion which ended wuth another boy 'daring' him to have this Red Indian style haircut.
Bets piled up, mainly from the fifth-form boys, and it is said that Bradley "Brad" to his school pals stood to collect over £3 for the haircut. But he also collected time off from school. It is understood that the boy is being kept away from school until his hair grows by mutual agreement between his father, Mr G Bradley (produce merchant) of The Grange, Fishtoft, and Grammar School headmaster Mr W Ricketts.
Mr Ricketts declined to comment. "A matter of this nature is entirely between myself, the parents and the boy concerned." he said. "He is staying away from school until his hair grows a little."
A Grammar School fifth-former told the "Standard": "Brad starts GCE exams next week. They can't keep him away for those. He took everybody by surprise when he had it done.
I don't think any of us thought he would go through with it. I heard that his folks are pretty wild about it. I'm not surprised really."
But Boston boys are going to find it difficult to get 'fancy' haircuts in the future.
For the barber who did the 'Mohican' for 'Brad' later told the "Standard", "That was the first Mohican I've ever done and I hope it will be the last in view of the trouble there's been over this. I shall certainly never do another without written consent from the parents."
The barber, Mr G Clark, who manages Mr J Johnson's High Street shop had never even seen a 'Mohican' before.
But Richard didn't tell Mr Clark that another local barber had already refused to do the haircut.
Explanatory note: A 'Mohican' haircut is similar to the style worn by television wrestler Billy Two Rivers. It involves and almost complete shaving of the head with the exception of a ridge of hair down the centre of the scalp.
Throwing caps off the Town Bridge
This photograph was taken on July 24th 1964 and appeared in the Boston Standard - supplied by Stewart Brown
Following in true tradition, Boston Grammar School boys and High School girls fling their books and caps off the Town Bridge as a final farewell to their schooldays.
Those indicated on the photograph are G Robert Walter, Peter Sharman, J Trevor Scott, George Danby, "Nobby" Cartwright, Stewart Brown ("Me").
1963
Boys' dress was out of tune
c1963 the Daily Mirror published this report.
Three senior boys were sent home from a grammar school because they wore "irregular clothes" and made "a conspicuous entrance" at the school's annual concert, their parents were told yesterday.
Clothes worn by the three boys included a checked suit with a black collar, a green jacket with jeans, and a sports jacket with a polo-necked sweater.
Mr William Ricketts, headmaster of the school at Boston, Lincs, wrote to the parents of each boy: "I am taking this action to remind your boy that he comes to this school on our terms and not his."
The boys are sixth-formers Michael Dolby-Phillips, 16, and Jack Morton, 17, and fifth-former Roy Croft, 16.
One of them yesterday: "A school rule says uniforms must be worn at school functions, but a master said this did not apply to the concert."
1961
A letter from the headmaster.
The Grammar School, Boston, Lincs. December, 1961.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have had occasion this term to condemn the mode of dress of a few boys, with particular reference to shoes, trousers and hair styles, and I suspect that many other boys try to persuade their parents by saying that these eccentricities are the fashion and that other parents are allowing it. I am glad to say that very few parents are allowing it and I wish to state my views to strengthen the hand of parents and my own in dealing with excesses.
Shoes with pointed toes are thoroughly bad for growing feet and are entirely unsuitable footwear for boys. Trousers of exaggerated tightness are equally unacceptable: trousers should be grey and not black. Any hairstyle which requires the hair to be long is not only out of place in a school but is unhygienic when boys are playing games, and it is undesirable to use too much hair oil when boys are using agility mattresses in the gymnasium or taking showers. May I add that shoes should preferably be black and pullovers V-necked and grey, though a variation to pastel shades is permissible for boys in the Upper Sixth.
W.J. Ricketts, Headmaster
1959
It seems that braid on blazers was phased out from 1959. Ken Miles-Crust remembers "Alf Britchford being used as a fashion model being paraded around the school with the new design blazer and cap".
On the subject of braided blazers, Kenneth Hardy says: "I can claim to be the last boy at Boston Grammar School to wear a braided blazer! They were phased out gradually, so as your braided one wore out, you replaced it with a plain one. I had already owned and worn out a new plain one, and as September came around, my mother went shopping for a new one. Cash, as usual was scarce. At the shop, my mother bought a new old stock braided blazer, with the idea of removing the braid. I asked my mother to leave it on, I guess it was the rebel in me! By then, no one had gone to school in a braided blazer for about a year. I duly turned up at school in it, and it was never questioned. The downside was I had to be well behaved, as I was very easy to spot."
1958
This photograph shows Ray Millard on his first day at Boston Grammar School in 1958. He joined into form 1A with form tutor "Ted" Cox. Photograph supplied by Ray Millard.
1941
The 1941 issue of The Bostonian acknowledged wartime scarcity by saying "We should be glad if Old Boys, boys who are leaving School and also boys still at School could pass on to others any football or cricket clothes that they themselves have finished with." A similar request was made in the 1942 and 1943 issues of The Bostonian.
Old Bostonian Association Uniform
1938
In 1938 items available were Old Bostonian Association blazers and bedges at 35/-, silk squares at 10/6, and ties at 3/6, in club colours. They would be supplied to Association members only, and could be obtained from the Secretary.
At the 1938 AGM the Secretary reported that he had received many requests from members that the Club blazer should be in Club colours, and not in plain white with blue edging, the design decided on several years before.
After a lengthy discussion, it was decided by vote that the blazer should be in Club colours (royal blue with half-an-inch amber stripes, bordered each side with a three-eighths black stripe). It was agreed, however, that the white blazers should not be discontinued, so that members could have the choice of either design, and so that members already in possession of a white blazer would not feel that they were wearing an unofficial blazer. The badge was also discussed and it was unanimously agreed that the existing design be retained.