Michael Follett thinks “we should get Bear Grylls to design primary school uniform” (‘He’s having fun!’: why children should be encouraged to play with mud, 11 October). I couldn’t agree more, and am amazed that girls still wear the same design of gingham summer dresses that I wore in the 1960s. In 1988, my daughter started at Dell first school in Lowestoft, a local authority school that was lucky enough to have its own swimming pool. The uniform for both boys and girls was blue polo shirt, sweatshirt and tracksuit trousers. The smallest children could dress themselves in clothes that were also suitable for outdoor play (in the area with old tyres and climbing frames made by the headteacher, a man ahead of his time) – clothes that were cheap, easily available and easily washed. Pam Stone Shotley Gate, Suffolk