To be annoyed at more school requests to buy things?

I cut the feet off some silver/white tights that we had when this request came to us, and put her in a long white T-shirt. It is annoying, OP.

Is there no one in the year above who needed the same items last year? Would make so much sense to pass them down. I imagine a lot of kids will have a white vest and may have a spare.

Yes this is my first thought as it seems very unlikely they would send it out with one weekend's notice! If they have then yes that is unreasonable.

Any white tights lurking in back of drawer?
We used white leggings under summer dresses...as girls mostly cartwheeling everywhere still....

They’re bang out of order asking you for this at this late stage. I mean, it’s not as if they won’t have known kids would need them.
(and I’m a teacher).

Ours just say - school trousers, white top/ black top/black trousers etc. And they have a cast of costumes that get reused each year. For the older classes they've more detailed costumes but they are very clear about not buying anything new and to come to them if you've any issues sourcing things.

In saying that Asda have a two pack of white leggings so maybe you could find someone with dc of similar size and spend 2.50 each

I would take the word support there very lightly. I would hand in white tops tomorrow or Monday and a note saying sorry no white leggings in our house.

This is why I love my kid”s school.

World book day they come in PJs with their fave bedtime story.

Christmas performance this week - everyone just asked to wear uniform with a Christmas jumper instead of school jumper.

More schools should take this approach.

Completely understand! Our school did this too. In the last month there has been pressure (obviously you can say no - but they hype the kids up and try to get the pester power working!) to:

Decorate a cup they hand out, fill it with sweets (at our own cost) for a Christmas school competition

Buy a gingerbread house kit and decorate it so they can pick a winner and display them

Bring a bottle of something to school for the tombola

Come to the Christmas fair, at your own cost of entry, to buy things the school kids make

Our Nativity we were told black t-shirt, black leggings. The Thursday before I got a letter - dated that day - saying sorry, now needs to be jeans and a blue t-shirt. By Monday. Despite the fact I'd already gone out and bought black leggings and a t-shirt - the ones we had didn't fit and my daughter is very girly and doesn't wear black. We also don't have jeans that fit her anymore because she stopped wearing them about a year ago as she finds them uncomfortable. Wish I was exaggerating, but we literally had nothing suitable. More purchasing.

For a background bit part! But the pressure is such that you don't want your child to feel the odd one out!

Yes you can say no to all of this. But it's hard on the kids to then feel left out and not able to contribute when it's hyped up to them!

They need to start sending out a yearly planner guide, perhaps split into 2 lists one at September and one in January so parents can plan better for these things.

Borrow some? Go to the charity shop?

Completely unrelated, but I love your nails OP!

This is a really good idea.

But seriously, I bet it’s the last thing you want to be worrying about in this busy season! Coordinating on the parents WhatsApp group about white tights, who is buying them, what size everyone needs…

I’m a teacher, and a parent, and I hate this too. We specifically avoid asking families to purchase costumes or costume elements for the Christmas concert, and just make do with what we can make at school. This year, we repurposed 16 brown paper shopping bags into Santa hats 😂

The only time we ask parents to make purchases is for the school musical, and only if the student has a main role. We also fundraise for this, so that it won’t cost too much for families.

While it’s ‘only a white shirt’ or ‘only a pair of tights’, or ‘only a black baseball cap’ etc. when you have more than one DC, things can get very stressful and add up quickly.

I actually think the mental load of school is getting a bit ridiculous, and I say this as a teacher at the school who has my finger on the pulse of everything going on.

I suspect it's at least partly to stop parents going out to buy angel costumes. White vest and white leggings is the cheapest possible option. Send her in wearing the closest thing you have eg white shirt or tights.

If you don't, they'll just do the best they can.

Also to add, if buying white tights can you club together with other angels/people needing white as tights usually come in a multi pack of 3 so could easily split the cost

It’s up to you not to participate but I don’t understand why having twins makes a difference.

Do you not wear white t shirts for PE? If so use one of them. If not they are quite cheap to pick up and you could then use in the summer as a tie dye craft activity or using fabric pens to decorate (in fact you could use for any other random school dress up day when you don't have the right thing e.g drawing on a Pudsey bear).

Is there a chance your daughter was given this a while ago and forgot to bring it home, it’s been in her tray or something? I think it’s poor if not, and the school only gave it out today!

Some sheep are black but angels typically are in white outfits (possibly silver).

Few points to consider:

1. See if you can borrow from someone else.
2. Try a charity shop so as to not impact on sustainability.
3. To support sustainability further, please consider donating the items to the school afterwards, if you aren't going to use them. Then they can be reused yearly. There will always be angels and goodness knows the school won't be able to afford costumes.
4. The deadline is Monday so that those who forget still have another chance before the actual performance on Wednesday: they expect some parents to forget/struggle to find something.
5. If we want to have things like Nativities and the experiences they provide parents/children, things like this are sometimes needed.