School leavers Jumpers - good fundraiser for primary school?

[cabbageandbeans]

Have noticed these on kids at the end of summer term and wondered if anyone had every organised them for their school. Which company, opportunity to raise money etc?

[crazygracieuk]

A parent at school has a printing business so they do it for the leavers at our school. (Our school is small)

[OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos]

Our school includes leavers t shirts in the cost of the price of the residential trip they do towards the end of year six, and the children love them.

I think they are a lovely thing to do, but I can't see them raising a huge amount of money in relation to the time spent organising it.

I use a company called MyWorkwear to order sweatshirts and polo shirts for a charity from, and they give a discount for charities. But there is often an artwork set up cost, and it does take time to sort out the orders. The things I order are not expensive, but unless I charged a price that I would think is too much, I'm not going to make a decent profit. I think it would be a lovely thing for the PTA to provide, just don't expect it to be a big money maker unless your school is full of rich parents that don't mind spending £30 on a school keepsake.

[Scoobyblue]

At our school, one of the parents in the leaving year organises it and the parents just pay for the cost of producing the item. I think it is a bit strange to try and make it into a fundraiser when the kids are literally walking out of the door of the school. They are not that cheap to produce so we try and keep the cost to a minimum so that all children can afford to have one, rather than just those with richer parents.

[mummytime]

At DCs junior school they are a present from the PTA to year 6. At senior school student order them at close to cost price.
If you aim to raise money then you are excluding the poorer kids from having one.

They are partly produced to stop the habit of signing blouses/shirts when leaving.

[lingle]

What's wrong with signing blouses and shirts? That seems much more of a keepsake to me.

I don't like the idea of doing it as a fundraiser. It's taking something the kids would do themselves for free (sign shirts) and commoditising it by selling it back to them - yuck.

But doubtless someone wil explain why signing shirts and blouses is wrong.

[mummytime]

Signing shirts and blouses can get messy, is annoying if it spreads to other years, some parents object because they pass on clothes, it takes time, ends up with some kids being left out, the messages can be bullying etc.

DD1 had her shirt signed at the end of primary and it was okay. DD2 got a special t-shirt at the end of infants, and its nice. DS got a hoodie at the end of year 11, and its one of the rare things he wanted (I don't think he would have wanted his shirt signed, he also didn't go to Pom).

[OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos]

I think it would be a shame if shirt signing were stopped. My ds was the class geek when he was at primary, but he had lots of lovely messages and signatures on his shirt when he left, and was asked to sign plenty of other people's. it's a really nice thing for him to have.

These things just need to be managed right by the school. Children don't need to be left out or bullied, it doesn't matter if it takes time, it's the last day of primary school and they enjoy it! Parents who want to use that one shirt for another child are being killjoys IMO, and if they don't want to let their child take part they can provide them with an autograph book instead.

[roadkillbunny]

Y6 at our school got together themselves and ordered hoodies in school colour with the school logo on like the normal uniform sweatshirts and on the back it had the names of all Y6 (small school so less then 20), they ordered them from our normal uniform supplier who can put school logo on any if their stock be it part of our school uniform or not.
It was nice as the children chose to do it and orgernised it themselves, I see some of them round the village it them from time to time still.
Not sure about it as a fundraiser but in a larger school I could possibly see it working, only problem is the child who can't afford it feeling very left out.

[lljkk]

Signed shirts look so scruffy, I can't imagine they ever get worn again. (Keep in mind I'm a very happily scruffy person, that's how bad I think they look).
I'm not enthused about printed jumpers, but probably better than biro & marker pen shirts.

[exoticfruits]

Of course they don't get worn again! That is the whole point-it is the last day and they won't need them. Wear the oldest, scruffiest one. A complete waste of money to buy something special.

[lljkk]

If it was a nice quality jumper (hoody) then DD would probably wear & rewear it until she outgrew it.

I have younger DC so most school clothes are passed down. Just seems pointless to ruin a perfectly good blouse by writing on it with Biro.

[SandStorm]

My yr10 dd still has her signed shirt screwed up in a ball at the bottom of her wardrobe. I don't think she'd hang on to a sweatshirt in the same way, it just seems a bit impersonal.

[MrsHoarder]

And unlike at the end of senior school they can't wear a primary-sized sweatshirt for very long. Some of my fellow students were still wearing their old school leaving hoody at the end of university (marked out which had gone to posh schools).

An old blouse/shirt (and parents know this is going to happen so can choose the most "worn" one) will be cheaper than a hoody even if its sold at cost price.

I've still got both of mine (primary and secondary).

[lingle]

better to reuse the old now-unnecessary school shirt by drawing on it than to completely waste money and resources having novelty items made.

I mean what 12 year old would be seen dead in their specially-commissioned primary school leavers' sweatshirt?

I can see the argument more for pre-school tea towels. you use the tea towel for year to come and smile when you see your child's effort. They don't become instantly useless.

[mummytime]

Well I see plenty of kids wearing their primary school ones for at least a year after they have left. I do think after Primary a t-shirt at most is enough. After secondary a hoodie (but by then its pretty much chosen by the students themselves). My youngest still wears he infant school t-shirt in year 5, occasionally.

[cece]

In the school I work in it is usually one of the Year 6 parents who organises it. I think they don't make any money on them though.

The Yr6 were allowed to wear them during the summer term instead of their school jumper. I think they looked nice.

My DC school don't do anything like a hoody but they do do the signing shirt thing but thinking about it so does the school I work in! LOL

[SavoyCabbage]

Ours do them at the start of year six so they get to wear them during the last year.

[lljkk]

DD would wear a primary shirt-size for years to come, lol, DC don't grow that fast. I'm sure DD has been in the same blouse size for last 3 years.

[OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos]

It's not ruining a shirt to get it signed! It's turning it into a special momento of primary school that will be kept for years to come. I think it's a lovely thing to do.

[lljkk]

I reckon they usually end up as smelly clutter balled up on the bottom of a drawer for years to come. The sort of thing us mothers toss out discretely about 3 years later.

[exoticfruits]

It is a lot cheaper to use one they are wearing anyway, and have had at least a term's use out, of than buy one especially.

[cabbageandbeans]

Wow, I am amazed at how appalled many of you have been that I might consider it a fundraising opportunity! My children go to a school in a low income area with a large amount of low income families so of course I am not looking for an opportunity to rip people off or deprive the poor little children of a sweatshirt! However, I had just assumed that they were from a company similar to tea-towels which produced them in the same way as all the other many merchandise that you can arrange to do with your school.

It's interesting the strength of feeling that most seem to have about the signing shirts at the end of the year. Clearly some love it, some hate it. It's not something I particularly like the idea of, I think the sweatshirts are much more cool and something that the kids will be more likely to wear.

Well, it is good to know that it is not possible to use it for fundraising but it is something I might look into with the school as a keepsake. Thank-you all for your help.

[OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos]

I don't think people are appalled at the idea Cabbage, at least I wasn't. I just don't think that for the amount of time it will take to sort out the order, it will not raise an amount of money proportionate to the time and effort involved. However if you can link the order to the company that makes the school uniform when the school is doing their own order, so they already have the logo and you won't have to pay extra for postage and packaging, then you might have more luck.

I really wasn't trying to spoil your idea, but I do all the clothes ordering for the charity I work with, and it's just not profitable as a fundraiser. If it was I'd be doing it, but the idea is more to get people wearing our logo rather than raising money.

To give you an example, I sell an adults polo shirt with one small embroidered logo on the front for £10. That gives the charity a donation of just over a pound once the cost of the shirt has been paid for. This is only considered profit if I'm doing a big enough order (ie over £100) that we don't have to pay p&p, and it won't profit at all on the first order with a new company if we have had to pay for the artwork set up. Which is why, if you link it into an order the school has to do anyway, you might make a small profit, but I still think it will be disproportionate to the effort involved. That's fine if you want to do it as a nice thing rather than a fundraiser though.

All the adult sized hoodies I sell are at least £25, without any donation to the charity added, but because we use embroidery, it is more expensive than if we used printing or heat transfers.

[crazymum53]

This was suggested when dd was in Y6 but rejected by the Head for child protection issues.

[lingle]

what child protection issues? An outside company knowing their names, or the risk of coded bullying messages?