The one piece of school kit experts say can make children perform better

Some potentially amazing news after months of homeschooling

school kit
Maria Coole
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published
in Features

Some potentially amazing news after months of homeschooling

After months and MONTHS of homeschooling, it's finally happening. It's BACK-TO-SCHOOL week and no you're not dreaming this. This is not a drill. Parents up and down the land are breathing a HUGE sigh of relief and celebrating with a capital C and plenty of P for Prosecco. But before the little darlings can be delivered safely to the school gates there's the dreaded school kit shopping trip to navigate. No wait, make that shopping TRIPS.

However, seems there's one thing you MUST add to the checklist (school rules permitting, obvs) and that's a bright white shirt. Apparently it's a school kit miracle worker.

How? Why? OK, you can put your hands down now. Well, according to a new revelation, wearing a bright white school shirt may give children a distinct advantage, compared to wearing other colours. And now, quiet at the back, here comes the science bit.

school kit

Top marks for those bright white shirts (Getty Images)

Psychologist Emma Kenny explains why wearing a crisp white shirt can boost performance in the classroom. 'One study found that professional dress increases abstract thinking and gives people a broader perspective,' explains Kenny. 'So a crisp white shirt helps switch on the creativity button, helping to make the wearer more successful in educational, or career endeavours.

'In fact, a crisp, clean uniform can be so influential that scientists found students performed better when wearing a smart white lab coat, than without,' says Kenny. The regular This Morning TV psychologist has teamed up with Dr Beckmann, to spread the word on these findings. 'Simply believing that these kinds of clothes are worn by intelligent people made students score higher on their tests.'

Now where did I put the Glowhite?

 

Maria Coole
Maria Coole

Maria Coole is a contributing editor on Marie Claire.

Hello Marie Claire readers – you have reached your daily destination. I really hope you’re enjoying our reads and I'm very interested to know what you shared, liked and didn’t like (gah, it happens) by emailing me at: maria.coole@freelance.ti-media.com

But if you fancy finding out who you’re venting to then let me tell you I’m the one on the team that remembers the Spice Girls the first time round. I confidently predicted they’d be a one-hit wonder in the pages of Bliss magazine where I was deputy editor through the second half of the 90s. Having soundly killed any career ambitions in music journalism I’ve managed to keep myself in glow-boosting moisturisers and theatre tickets with a centuries-spanning career in journalism.

Yes, predating t’internet, when 'I’ll fax you' was grunted down a phone with a cord attached to it; when Glastonbury was still accessible by casually going under or over a flimsy fence; when gatecrashing a Foo Fighters aftershow party was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and tapping Dave Grohl on the shoulder was... oh sorry I like to ramble.

Originally born and bred in that there Welsh seaside town kindly given a new lease of life by Gavin & Stacey, I started out as a junior writer for the Girl Guides and eventually earned enough Brownie points to move on and have a blast as deputy editor of Bliss, New Woman and editor of People newspaper magazine. I was on the launch team of Look in 2007 - where I stuck around as deputy editor and acting editor for almost ten years - shaping a magazine and website at the forefront of body positivity, mental wellbeing and empowering features. More recently, I’ve been Closer executive editor, assistant editor at the Financial Times’s How To Spend It (yes thanks, no probs with that life skill) and now I’m making my inner fangirl’s dream come true by working on this agenda-setting brand, the one that inspired me to become a journalist when Marie Claire launched back in 1988.

I’m a theatre addict, lover of Marvel franchises, most hard cheeses, all types of trees, half-price Itsu, cats, Dr Who, cherry tomatoes, Curly-Wurly, cats, blueberries, cats, boiled eggs, cats, maxi dresses, cats, Adidas shelltops, cats and their kittens. I’ve never knowingly operated any household white goods and once served Ripples as a main course. And finally, always remember what the late great Nora Ephron said, ‘Everything is copy.’

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