How much did you spend on school stuff?

About £500.

Blazer
2 skirts
5 blouses
1 sweater
Clark's school shoes
PE shorts
PE polo top
PE socks
PE sweatshirt
PE jogging bottoms
Trainers
Calculator
Pens, pencils etc
Sticky backed plastic
Badge for blazer
Fee for locker
Lunch money for 1 month
School bus for 1 term

My ds sports kit was the thing that cost the most, shorts, socks, tshirt, rugby top, trainers, football boots, joggers and a bag. He has 3 shirts as he doesn't smell at the moment (no deodorant yet) and doesn't wear his jumpers, plus one blazer and 2 pairs of trousers. probably spent £250. His shoes (£40) only lasted one term and he walked holes into them.
There was a school trip in the first term costing £300 ish which was painful, we literally had to start paying for that as soon as he'd returned from his yr 6 residential.

I would ask the school (when you know which one) if they have a used- uniform sale or advertise on your local Facebook page. My GDs school has a sale every half term and people clearly buy uniform that ‘just fits’. Some of the stuff on sale looks unworn. I used to send my son to school with money and tell him to go to the sale and ask the mums there to find him what he needed. After the initial outlay I never bought shirts, jumpers or blazers new.

My kids have one blazer (washed at ever half term), two pairs trousers for the boy but just one skirt for the girls, five pairs socks each, five shirts each. No jumper for boy (they never wear them) a sleeveless one for girl. No coats never seen a sr school kid wear one. Two ties for boy. All machine washable.
Sports kit - one of everything for the girl who is not on any teams, my son played all sports on all teams so has two of everything as otherwise I'd be washing it all every day. In all if bought new £300+ each plus say another £ 25 on pencils, calculators etc. But our uniform is expensive and other than shirts and socks needed to be bought from specific uniform supplier (blazers now £90!!). My daughter is on her third year wearing her skirt and luckily her blazer will see her out (so three years). I think she's on her fourth year for some of her games kit!

I think it depends hugely on how many expensive logoed items you need to buy.

My DC's school uniform is

• shirts from anywhere
• trousers/skirt from anywhere (and actually the ones they wore at primary and still fitted and were ok)
• blazer from anywhere
• tie from school £5
• bog standard black shoes and socks

The PE kit is logoed and therefore comparatively more expensive but you can get away without buying all of it unless you have a very sporty child.

So my uniform cost was much less than some of the figures quoted on here! Certainly under £150.

Same sort of school though:

DD: £30 for a pack of two
DS: M&S pack of 3 £10.

My DC's shirts are white, and I'd be having to wash them with coloureds if they only had 2 shirts. They both have 6 so I wash at the weekend and we have one for emergencies. Even with 6 in rotation, I had to replace DD's after 2 years (she hasn't grown since starting secondary school - so I would suggest not buying a size up if you think this might be the case for your DC!) as they were looking very worn.

... though I can see the attraction of only 2 shirts if you have a DS who grows 3 times in a single year :)

I found at least 4 blouses were needed - may have managed with 2 had I been a sahm. And then we needed short-sleeved ones for the summer term.

Ended up with 5 because another mum and I split a pack of two. I quite liked geting their uniforms ready on a Sunday afternoon.

DS was much easier and cheaper as only the blazer and jersey were unique to school.

The expensive bit was the sports kit!!! Don't raise cricket.

Mine have a fresh shirt for each day so I don't need to wash mid week. Luckily the only compulsory items are blazer (£35ish), tie (£6/7) and PE shorts (£5). All other items are from supermarkets/next, etc

I couldn't get by with only 2 shirts, surely it's a false economy anyway, or at least even?

Less shirts = more washing

Less than £200 on all school uniform, bag, PE kit, trainers, school supplies. I did a lot of bargain hunting and shopping around for bits and pieces buying many things in sales in the year before she started. She already had a few good coats.

I didn't need to replace much in the second year as everything still fit. I did need to buy new shirts, gym t-shirts and a few new pens and a new bag. I replace shoes when she grows out, but I usually have the next size in reserve which I've bought ahead in the sales.

I buy a new school bag every year which usually costs less than £15 and I usually need to replace shoes, trainers and shirts, but most other things last a good 3 years. She takes good care of things and nothing ever wears out.

@lanthanum two shirts? DD needs a fresh one each day, thanks to polycottom in all three layers she stinks when she comes out of school, especially on PE days, no shower on the morning helps.

I have to disinfect with Zoflora every now and then on shirts and jumper to get rid of the build up.

A tip on shirts - if you think two will be enough most of the time, get the third in the next size up - it'll do for emergencies, and you'll need it anyway eventually.

Around £400 I would say
Blazer, jumper and tartan skirt can only come from one supplier, £140 for one set
Shirts have to be open neck but can be sourced anywhere
Backpack
PE Kit, again one supplier, full name embroidered top, skort, cycling short, tracksuit and white trainers plus accessories like mouth guard and shin pads. At least no extra football boots. Another £120.
School shoes, thanks to her feet they are always around £50.
Mandatory stationery like certain calculator, dictionary and thesaurus, maths equipment like pair of compasses, highlighters, certain pens, scissors, glue
Mandatory art kit to be bought from the school. Saying that, I think I would have spent more if I had to source it all myself.
Specific school coat

I also pay more for food. DD has a lunch break of 50 minutes and that means she wouldn’t be able to get good from her locker and return it and also as some downtime. Our school has a cap of £5/day and in general DD uses it. She takes fruit and the odd snack with her though.

I was lucky, my mum paid for the uniform, the PIL the shoes and the backpack was a birthday present. But still, a huge amount of stuff.

On the positive side, hardly any extra money demands like charity days and hardly any trips in KS3.

@namechangenumber2 standard!

Year seven girl: Smiggle pencil case with full set of highlighters, character rubbers and pens in all colours.

Year 11 boy: Chewed up inner bit of a black Bic biro pulled from his inner pocket 😂😂 I'll use this Miss

About £300

It was recommended we buy big at the parents' meeting for children about to start Year 7 ... so yes, it is standard practice.

Great. Did they say buy so big the blazer is down to the child's knuckles? Because that is the big we were discussing, not just a bit bigger, that would be huge.

It's not standard practice to have a child go to school in a blazer that's far too big.

It was recommended we buy big at the parents' meeting for children about to start Year 7 ... so yes, it is standard practice.

ps just in case we are confusing terminology. By knuckles I mean where fingers join the main body of your hand, not the other joints where the fingers themselves bend, which even I would say was probably too long.

zoo It wouldn't necessarily be huge, it depends on the cut of the particular blazer and the shape of the child. Often there is ~2 inches difference in perceived length of sleeve depending on whether an arm is at rest or out-stretched. Of course you don't want you child to look ridiculous, and it has to be practical for working, but neither do you want to fork out for a new blazer 6 months after starting school. You have to get them tried on, and work out what the biggest size is that looks OK.

But what I said still stands for me, Secondary uniform for a new y7 is not the time to go for 'perfect fit' it is the time to go for 'room to grow' as much as possible.

On the roomy side and sleeves down to the knuckles are not the same thing. Yes it may be normal to have a slightly bigger blazer but sleeves to the knuckle isn't just a little bit bigger. It would be huge.

It's not standard practice to have a child go to school in a blazer that's far too big.

It may have worked for you but I wouldn't be going about advising other people do it.