To ask the school to buy my children's clothes?

[Ivegotbills]

DS and DD came home from school yesterday with a letter regarding new school uniform. New head is starting in September and he's doing that thing some of them do of making his mark on the school by telling everyone in it what to wear.

They already have a uniform which I have to shell out for every year for the pair of them. Now this bloke is demanding:

• new blazers. Meaning the ones we have and which fit them will be useless.
• logo trousers and skirts from a named supplier.
• branded PE kit from a named supplier. That's right, branded items to run around a field in for an hour a week.

I've worked out that this little lot will cost me £45+£45 for blazers, £63+£63 for trousers and skirts (three of each which I regard as a minimum - currently they're in supermarket clothes which I have five of each of) and £80+£80 PE kits = £401.

WIBU to write to the school requesting they provide these items which they are now stipulating are necessary in order for my children to access their "free" education?

[BackOnceAgainWithABurnerEmail]

State school? Single supplier is against the rules - will find link.

[Jackshouse]

What years will the students be going into?

[SnuggyBuggy]

Could you get some other parents on side?

[BackOnceAgainWithABurnerEmail]

Guidance : www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform

Advice on gov.uk says contact CAB if you’re being made to buy expensive uniform : www.gov.uk/school-uniform

[BringOnTheScience]

There should be a transition period, especially for older pupils.

[outpinked]

Completely unfair. I’m certain you won’t be the only pissed off parent, I would gather support from fellow parents and complain.

[BrillyPribble]

That sounds completely ott. My DDs school had a change of uniform (new head, natch!) but it was a phased changeover so pupils could wear the old uniform or the new one for a year and year 10/11 didn't have to change at all. Plus they ensured that, while they have a specific style, you can buy the uniform in a range of places including a supermarket.
I would canvass opinions of other parents and object as a group strongly.

[Wolfiefan]

It’s April though. So some of what they have may have been grown out of by September? Doesn’t the school say they can wear some old uniform whilst it still fits? (DS’s school changed PE kit but we didn’t have to buy the new style until he outgrew his old one.)

[Jackshouse]

I asked about the year groups because the school I worked in gave parents a year to transition to the new uniform and yr10 and yr11 were exempt from the new uniform.

[Raver84]

That's outrageous I'd contact the school and offer to go halves as you'd be replacing some uniform anyway.

[HeartvsHead]

My school did this but it was only new purchase items that were to be replaced with the logo ones. Students were allowed to wear their existing uniform until outgrown.

Otherwise that is a lot of money to stump up!

[WhatchaMaCalllit]

That's the run of the mill over here in Ireland. A large number of schools have uniforms and some have crests embroidered on to jumpers, sweatshirts, polo shirts, tracksuit bottoms, jackets etc.
Some primary schools even go so far as to add a tiny thin stripe of piping of a contrasting colour along the leg of the tracksuit bottoms so that you can't buy generic navy or grey bottoms, you have to go to the uniform supply shop instead.

Perhaps there might be a way that you could keep the uniform you already have that already fits your child(ren) and when the time comes that they have grown out of them, you will buy the 'new' uniform? Could you approach the new head with that as a suggestion?

[BreconBeBuggered]

I don't think you'd be unreasonable to ask about a transitional period where pupils are allowed to wear the old uniform until they require new items. I think changing to a more expensive uniform is a bloody terrible idea, and the assumption that parents can afford to bin perfectly serviceable items is ludicrous, not to mention bad for the environment.

I know when we were considering changing our school logo, we (the governors) would have provided at least one of each new garment to each child, alongside permission to wear older ones until they were outgrown or worn out, but we weren't talking silly prices.

[user1471426142]

I remember when my school introduced blazers they only started from the new intake so it took a number of years for the uniform to work across the whole school but meant people weren’t forking out for something they’d only wear for a year. That seems far more reasonable.

[MrsWillGardner]

We had this with my sons secondary school. They had a complete new uniform from polo tops to blazer and tie. Only school in the town with this colour blazer too so couldn’t even get a box standard one from say M&S. Be aware though to get your order in sooner rather than later as the uniform shop in our town was inundated with orders they just about coped with and the ran out of badged skirts so some girls had to start the new school year in incomplete uniform as the parents left it till the fortnight before school started to order in.

[PotterHead1985]

Yup. Normal in Ireland. Luckily when I was in Primary it was easily sourced. Few years after I left Primary they brought in branded gym gear. No idea as to cost.

Now Secondary. My school made you buy everything down to culottes (sp?) from a specific shop in a big city 2hrs away by bus. And fuck me sideways it was expensive. My poor mother was a LP on a DSP

[MrsWillGardner]

Just to add, the school wanted all students bar yr11 to wear the new uniform.

[PotterHead1985]

Argh posted too soon cos I dropped my phone on my face!!!

My LP mother was on a DSP (DWP) payment and the uniform cost her several hundred Punts.

I noticed that this year for the first time the local cheap supplier is being allowed supply the uniform - I left 6th form in 2003!!!!

[BlueSkiesLies]

Such bullshit.

Heads need to get of their egotistical bandwagon re new uniforms.

Makes me think your new head will be a useless twat who won't actually get a grip with real issues in the school but merely will do some window dressing.

Write and ask how the new uniform fits in with this guidance:
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/514978/School_Uniform_Guidance.pdf

Especially regarding prohibitive cost, lack of availability in lower cost shops e.g. supermarkets and transition period.

[WhatchaMaCalllit]

Oh, and just in case you think that buying the uniform is expensive, in Ireland we have to buy the school books too....and some secondary schools have started using iPads instead of books so in those schools, parents have to buy (they may be able to pay an annual rental) an iPad before their child starts in the school. They then have to pay a fee to have the text books downloaded to the iPads.

It's money money money over here.

[Pinkmonkeybird]

Not on at all (the school, that is). They need a transition period. Our school introduced a new uniform recently and had a 2 year transition. The upper years didn't have to have the new uniform but Yrs 8 and 9 were given 2 years go change it over.

[dronesdroppingzopiclone]

How do poor people in Ireland afford all this? Between this and being expected to give couples hundreds of euros as wedding gifts, I'm assuming everyone there must be minted.

[brizzlemint]

Clearly this new head has been reading the book 'How to unofficially select the pupils'.

You are not at all unreasonable in asking for a transition period; that is what happened at the local primary and high school when the uniform changed - so much so that even younger siblings were allowed to wear the old uniform when they started if it had been passed down from an older sibling.

[FamilyOfAliens]

You’d definitely not be unreasonable to ask if there’s a transition period for people who can’t afford it all in one go.

But if you want the school to treat your request seriously, I’d suggest a more mature and less confrontational tone than comes across from your OP.

[NameChangeSameRage]

YANBU.
When I was at school, they gave five years warning and changeover. So the Y7s were the only ones wearing it at first, but as items wore out, gradually everything was replaced until everyone was in the new stuff 3/4 years down the line.