I agree. My circumstances were a little different. My family wasn't poor, we were just comparatively less wealthy as a working class family when I was attending an all boys grammar school (on merit) with the sons of mayors and company directors and doctors. My uniforms were fine (I was in the iron-on blazer crest gang) and it was never picked on, although my non-brand shoes were.

Being the only brownish person in a very white middle and upper class grammar school in a very white part of England at the time _was_ something to be picked out on.