Uniform prices!

Agreed. We have to get specific blazer, tie and rugby top ( although used for all outdoor PE, not just rugby). 2 different colour shorts and socks for indoor / outdoor PE. Boys wear black trousers but the girls skirts have to be a specific colour that you don’t find on the high street. They can opt for trousers but very few do.
At the new parents evening they said if you got free school meals you could get a contribution of £15 to help. That doesn’t even pay for the blazer!

Living in Scotland, this is all really alien to me. None of the schools - except the fee paying ones - go in for this nonsense.

My two oldest go to a leafy suburban comp. We don't have grammar schools or academies in Scotland either. (Although their school is called X Academy that's just the name, not a status). Anyway. The only items of school uniform which are available are a tie (£5) and a blazer (£32). The rest of the uniform code is black trousers/skirt and white shirt, black jumper. They can wear what they want for PE, the only rules are no offensive logos, no alcohol/cigarette brands, no football strips. DD wears Primark exercise leggings, a t-shirt and an old hoodie when it's cold.

I read stories of parents in England being asked to fork out for all manner of expensive items with horror. It's outrageous.

The school my kids are at does extremely well, glowing inspection reports and regularly in the top 10 in the whole of Scotland for exam results. The kids look smart, presentable and well turned out in their plain black v-neck school jumpers and non-logo PE kit.

Usually the ridiculous uniforms are at academies. DD's school was similar to dementedpixie's. The only compulsory stuff from school was the blazer, tie and PE top. I could buy shirts, skirts/trousers, PE shorts etc from anywhere.

I think our main uniform is OK, a blazer was £32 but it has lasted 3 years so far and DD1's lasted the full 5 years.

PE kit I kind of agree. I think a logoed shirt and then non logo, just colour specific for everything else would be better, especially as my DD doesn't do much sport.

Our school is changing the uniform but has a really long lead time, so that's OK too.

Going back a few years but local secondary I had to buy; crested blazer, jumper, tie, PE t-shirt, crested socks (£5 for socks). I went to the school myself years before and needed; a tie and jumper (they were flexible on the jumper if the right colour) .

Secondary school. Among other issues - boys can wear any black smart trousers ie supermarket school uniform so £5/6/7 a pair. Girls have to wear the skirt or trousers with school logo - prices start at £18 PE kit is £20 an item and ds has worn the rugby top a grand total of 5 times as they only do rugby for half a term

We only need to buy a specific blazer £35, a tie £5 and PE shorts £5 and the rest can be bought from supermarkets.