The school run is two short journeys about six hours apart, and they rarely get the same weather. A clear October morning can feel like 3°C at the gate at 8.45am and 14°C at 3.15pm, which is how coats end up coming home stuffed into book bags.
Children run where you walk, stand still where you would keep moving, and gain and lose heat faster than you do. Here is how to dress them for both journeys and for the part of the day you never see: playtime.
Why children feel the weather differently
Size accounts for most of it. Heat moves in and out through the skin, and a smaller body has more skin per kilogram: run a typical seven-year-old and a typical adult through a standard body surface area formula and the child has roughly 50% more. So children cool faster standing in a cold wind, and warm up faster in direct sun.
Then there is how they move: sprint ahead, stop dead to inspect a snail, sprint again. At school it is fifteen minutes flat out at break, then standing in a line. Running makes sweat, and a damp layer cools fast once the running stops, so a child who was too hot at 10.40am can be cold at 10.50am in the same clothes.
Children are also unreliable reporters of their own temperature, so check rather than ask. The test the NHS gives for babies is a fair guide for small children too: feel the back of the neck or the tummy, not the hands or feet, which are usually cooler. The often-quoted rule of one more layer than an adult suits a toddler sitting still in a pushchair, not the sibling walking alongside.
Dress for the classroom, then add the weather
Most of the school day is spent in a heated classroom, where the only layer a child can take off is the jumper or cardigan.
The rule: dress for the classroom and put the weather in the coat. Anything that can come off at the door goes on top; only what a child can bear all day goes underneath.
When it is properly cold, add thin layers underneath:
- A long-sleeved thermal vest under the polo shirt: invisible, and thin enough for a warm classroom.
- Tights or thin thermal leggings under a skirt, pinafore or trousers.
- Wool-blend socks, since school shoes offer little insulation.
- Joggers over PE shorts on PE-kit days, if the uniform list allows them.
If your child gets sweaty at break, a synthetic or merino base layer copes far better than cotton, which holds the sweat and stays damp until lunch. Check the uniform list first: schools often specify the colour of tights.
What to wear at each temperature
Go by the feels-like figure for the time you leave, which the Met Office gives hour by hour, not the day's high; our piece on wind chill and feels-like temperature explains why. The bands match the outfit tool on the home page and assume a walk of ten to twenty minutes. If the wait is long or the route exposed, use the next colder row.
| Feels like | Uniform and underneath | Coat and extras |
|---|---|---|
| Below 0°C | Thermal vest, thick tights or thermal leggings, wool-blend socks. | Insulated waterproof coat, hat over the ears, gloves, snood. Boots or wellies with tread if there is frost. |
| 0°C to 5°C | Jumper, plus a thermal vest for children who feel the cold. Tights under skirts. | Winter coat, with hat and gloves worn rather than packed. |
| 5°C to 12°C | Jumper or cardigan, nothing extra underneath. | Waterproof coat. Hat and gloves in a pocket for the wait. |
| 12°C to 18°C | Jumper or cardigan, which may come off by lunchtime. | Light waterproof if showers are forecast. |
| 18°C to 24°C | Summer uniform, no vest. A cardigan for a cool start. | Sun hat and a named water bottle. |
| 24°C and above | Summer uniform, as loose as the school allows. | A hat that shades the neck and ears, and a full water bottle. |
Dress for the morning: the afternoon is usually warmer, and a coat carried home is a smaller problem than a cold child at 8.45am. Sun protection is a separate decision, made on the UV index rather than the temperature.
The coldest part of the run is usually the wait. Children queuing for the doors stand still in the open, and hats and gloves are the first things pulled off on the way, so check they are back on before you leave. At pick-up, it is the parent standing still.
Coats, hats and gloves that stay on
The most useful school coat is waterproof, has an attached hood and can be done up by its owner: a Reception teacher cannot fasten thirty zips before break. A waterproof over the school jumper covers most of the year, and an insulated one earns its place below about 5°C. Our guide to waterproof jackets and coats explains the ratings.
Coats for younger children should not have a drawstring at the hood or neck: the British and European standard for children's clothing rules them out for under-sevens because they can catch on play equipment. Do not add one. A hood also beats an umbrella: on the Beaufort scale, umbrellas become difficult to use at 25mph, and that is for adults.
- Hats: snug, pulled down over the ears, and nothing that ties under the chin.
- Gloves: mittens are warmer and easier for small children to put on alone. Buy two or three identical pairs, so a lost glove does not break a pair, and skip the string through the sleeves, which can snag on a climbing frame.
- Scarves: a snood, a fleece tube that goes over the head, has no loose ends to catch on a slide, which is why some schools ask for one instead.
The clocks go back on 25 October. By December the walk home ends close to sunset in much of the UK, and in the weeks before Christmas much of Scotland walks to school before sunrise. Reflective strips on a coat or book bag show up in headlights where a bright colour does not.
Feet: wellies, school shoes and spare socks
Wet feet spoil a school day because there is nowhere to dry them. On a wet morning, walk in wellies and change into school shoes at the door; plenty of primary schools have a welly rack, or ask for a named pair to stay in school.
Wellies are waterproof but not warm. A standard rubber welly has no insulation, so below about 5°C add a thick sock or a liner, and try the boots on with it. Too much growing room is its own problem: a loose welly comes off in mud.
Recently polished leather shoes cope with wet pavements far better than fabric or mesh, because the wax repels water. From October to March, keep spare socks sealed in a small bag in the book bag; otherwise a puddle at 8.40am means wet feet until 3.15pm.
Wet playtimes
"Wet play", with break indoors, is for genuinely bad weather, and schools draw that line differently; light rain usually means outside as normal. Reception classes tend to use their outdoor area in most weathers. So a child needs a waterproof in school whenever rain is likely at any point, not just on the walk.
If the school asks for waterproof trousers or an all-in-one suit for outdoor learning, keep a named set on the peg. On a snowy day, send two pairs of gloves: knitted ones tend to be wet through by the end of morning break.
Coats off in the car seat
If the school run is by car, UK advice, from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) to Which?, is consistent: thick or padded coats and snowsuits come off before the harness goes on. In a crash the padding compresses, and a harness that felt snug is suddenly loose, on a four-minute drive to school as much as on a motorway.
- Strap your child in wearing their uniform and jumper, or a thin fleece.
- Tighten the harness until you can only just fit two fingers between the shoulder straps and their body.
- Then put the coat on backwards over the straps, arms through the sleeves, or lay the coat or a blanket over the top.
To see why, do the harness up over the coat, lift your child out without loosening it, take the coat off and buckle them back in: the slack is what the coat was hiding. A thick coat also holds the adult belt away from an older child on a booster seat, and can let the lap section ride up onto the stomach.
The summer term
The NHS advises that from March to October, children should cover up, spend time in the shade, particularly from 11am to 3pm, and wear at least SPF 30 on skin that clothing does not cover, such as the face, ears, feet and backs of hands. Lunchtime falls right in that 11am to 3pm window, when the sun is strongest.
- Sun cream at home before school when the UV index is 3 or more, as many schools ask. If yours lets children reapply their own, send a named bottle.
- A hat that shades the face, neck and ears. A wide brim or a legionnaire style with a neck flap does it; a baseball cap does not.
- A named water bottle, since many schools allow only water in class.
- A cardigan for the morning. A May day that reaches 21°C can still feel like 10°C at 8.30am. Name it, because it will come off at lunchtime.
If a younger sibling comes along in a pushchair, do not drape a blanket or muslin over it for shade: the NHS warns this can cause overheating, and suggests a parasol or sunshade instead. For the UV index itself, see our piece on dressing for a British summer.
Label everything
Lost property is a box of identical navy, grey and maroon jumpers, none of them named. Anything unnamed is, for practical purposes, gone.
- Label everything that comes off, both gloves included, and put the coat's label inside the collar, where staff look first.
- Back up iron-on or stick-on labels by writing the name on the care label with a laundry marker.
- Coloured tape on each welly's pull loop helps a four-year-old find their pair in a rack of identical boots.
- On second-hand uniform, cross out the old name properly.
A quick checklist
- The night before: check tomorrow's 8am feels-like figure; below 5°C, lay out a thermal vest and tights.
- At the door: hat and gloves on below 5°C, in a pocket up to 12°C.
- Rain forecast at any point: waterproof coat and wellies, school shoes at school.
- October to March: spare socks in the book bag.
- In the car: coat off, harness tight, coat or blanket on top.
- March to October: sun cream when the UV index is 3 or more, a named hat, a full water bottle.
Check the outfit tool on the home page each morning, with Commuting switched on if you wait at the gate. It works from the feels-like temperature for your postcode, and its Tomorrow section gives the figures for 8am and 2pm, enough to lay clothes out the night before. It dresses an adult, so treat its band as a starting point and adjust as above. For the principles, see the layering guide, the guide to dressing for UK weather and the FAQ.