School colors

School colors are the colors chosen by a school to represent it on uniforms and other items of identification. Most schools have two colors, which are usually chosen to avoid conflicts with other schools with which the school competes in sports and other activities. The colors are often worn to build esprit de corps among the teachers and pupils.

Usually, one color acts as a primary while the other is a neutral color. For example, The Ohio State University's school colors are scarlet and grey, scarlet being the primary color and grey being the neutral color. Neutral colors are often various shades of black, brown, grey, silver, white, while primary colors tend to be basic shades of other colors such as red, blue, green, etc. The choice of colors usually follows the rule of tincture from heraldry, where a color can only be paired with a metal (typically white for silver and yellow for gold), but exceptions to this rule are known - such as the University of Illinois' orange and blue.

School colours are, at some schools like Broadwater, awards presented for achievement in a subject - See Sporting Colours