Today I will attempt to remain calm even though the school holidays are all-but over, and I haven't even started most of the uniform-repair and other jobs that I was supposed to do before they go back. 
Are there more benefits to the uniform than kids not pondering on what to wear way too long in the morning?
While I'm not SleepyDragon I HATE SCHOOL UNIFORMS! Yes, I shouted. They're unbelievably expensive (can only be bought from 1 or 2 shops.) I can dress a person (outer clothes) for $50 a year. That's the price of one uniform skirt. Add the uniform shirt and sweater it's over $200 before you know it. After a few years they're ragged, stained, faded and defeat the "Uniforms mean you can't tell the rich kids from the poor kids" lie. And this is for a public school. Thank heavens only 31 more days of the bitch uniforms and they're history.
I missed seeing Hyke's question earlier, Weakling, so I'm glad you spoke up. The state government gives a $50 per-student per-year allowance to parents which is meant to go toward school expenses (that's enough to buy one-half to two-thirds of a pair of shoes, but let it go). After that, you're on your own. We're lucky in that we've got a choice of three places to buy from, and one of them doesn't gouge as much as the others.
@Callaway: If the piece of clothing isn't embroidered with the school logo or made from a special tartan or something, you can substitute a less-expensive garment from a discount variety store. Schools often run a used-clothing pool, too.
To answer your question, Hyke, uniform is meant to maintain school pride and to promote equality. I agree with Weakling that it fails both in regard to conformity and in leveling of perceived socioeconomic status. This is from an earlier discussion:
I hate the idea of enforcing conformity on kids and teaching them to obey pointless rules of petty tyrants. School uniform rules accomplish nothing other that to brainwash kids into mindless obedience.
Mindless obedience, are you fuckin' kidding me? One of the first things kids do with uniform is to work out exactly how far they can bend the rules, without getting into trouble for it. You can always pick the rugged individualists and the iconoclasts; it's all in the small details.
Most schools, except for maybe the denominational schools like the Catholics or the Church of England, are fairly mellow about the whole thing. The exception is if the uniform supervisor is having a shit day and decides to make an example of some random kid for not having their socks pulled up high enough or some stupid thing like that. But that's all part of the "fun" of going to school — most times the attention you cop from teachers is well-deserved, and other times it isn't.
