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Original poster

End of school uniform

70 replies

SkintSingleMother · 28/05/2021 17:04

Seeing a lot of posts on my Facebook about the above, most expressing relief. I've got one child exiting compulsory education today and two staying in it and honestly the knowledge that I don't have to buy an extra set of clothes for the one that's no longer in compulsory education has massively reduced my stress levels and given me loads of money to play around with buying him clothes he likes, rather than not being able to do so because I'm coughing up £300+ for uniform.

Anybody else feel the same? It's actually really rather lovely.

OP posts:
Comefromaway · 28/05/2021 22:44

Girls secondary uniforms are often more expensive than bits as for boys you are sometimes allowed to buy generic trousers & shirts.

Whereas for girls it’s regulation skirts and trousers with logo and sometimes a special blouse. (Although at least one local secondary make boys wear navy trousers in a specific shade with school logo from one supplier only)

Ds’s school was probably the cheapest and simplest of all the state schools locally

Badged blazer
Generic white shirt
Generic grey trousers
Optional specific jumper
School tie
Badged PE polo shirt
Badged PE rugby shirt
Specific PE shorts
Optional specific jogging bottoms & hoody

The worst school in the area has expensive kilts for girls and expensive branded everything.

Frogartist · 28/05/2021 23:11

I think it's pants but not 100% sure. There's no other mention of underpants so it's probably that but we might need to check with a Pants Historian to be sure :-)
Grin Any Pants Historians around?

PASStheCAKEandCHOC · 28/05/2021 23:16

Ours is prob that £20 a top. 30 pe top. Needs 2 as does gcse pe. Trousers 25 a pair x 3. . Hoody is 40. Plus the football socks, rugby shirt etc
100 for trainers as they wear air forces not shoes. Well any black trainers but they go with what they all wear.
Football boots.
It all adds up. I think some will get a shock when their dcs get to seniors.

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Checkingout811 · 28/05/2021 23:20

Out of interest, how much is the average uniform?
My 2 eldest are in primary & pre-school with a compulsory uniform and its going to cost me £400 for both including shoes in the summer.
Secondary will be even worse and all 3 will be in school by then.

SushiGo · 28/05/2021 23:21

I am strong believer in ditching uniform. The great equaliser of having all kids dressed the same stopped when that 'the same' started costing so much.

I resent it and would love a normal basic uniform or no uniform.

PE uniforms seem particularly pointless. Plain sports clothes are so cheap to buy, but no. It's at least £100 worth if branded kit that they will definitely lose at some point.

clary · 28/05/2021 23:46

Well maybe I live somewhere odd but round here the uniform for all the secondary schools is basically standard issue supermarket basics plus a blazer, which is about £25-£30 and not an annual purchase.

A couple of secondaries don't even have a blazer. A few have a logo-ed skirt because of all the skirt-belts, but even that is only about £15.

Not a kilt in sight, nor yet logo-ed PE kit. Shoes can be from Asda, football boots can be had for £20 if your child doesn't play out of school (and if they do, you can hardly chalk the expense up to uniform!).

Xmasbaby11 · 28/05/2021 23:53

Sounds so expensive. My dc are in primary and I get most from Sainsburys. We do buy some logo polo shirts but these aren't necessary- these are £12 and good quality. The local high school has blazers but then everything else is generic so again you can buy it from anywhere.

Titsywoo · 29/05/2021 00:06

I'm happy to be saying goodbye to uniform for my eldest DC today. Not really the cost as she has been wearing the same stuff for years (barely grown since y8). It's good for her though - she had a crap time at secondary and it's just casting all that off and moving towards being more of an adult.

I'm going to pack it all up tomorrow and give it to the school for their 2nd hand shop.

Fauvist · 29/05/2021 00:48

DD goes to a private school that has no uniform. I have to buy sports kit but she's been there for three years and it's cost me less than a hundred quid in that time. I'm delighted she doesn't have uniform. It's an expensive waste of time and also a proxy for 'belonging' in schools that aren't good enough to make their children feel like they belong regardless of clothing. Much better to just ditch the whole thing.

If you police children their whole lives like this, you tell them very explicitly that what they look like matters a lot. It really doesn't, and it's not a good idea for anyone to think it does.

omydeirhert · 29/05/2021 01:03

My eldest DD was desperate for a sixth form with uniform but there was none local. As expected there was plenty of judging based on clothes. Uniforms all the way, they’ve always been cheap and generic here— in secondary the children even sewed their own badges on on the first day.

MissKeithsNeice · 29/05/2021 01:18

Do you think there's regional variation here?

I'm in London. Dd(13) and Ds(11) go to different secondaries but both academies.

Ds: total pe kit was £100 before footwear. He wears it three days a week so buying only one set wasn't an option. Then branded blazer, jumper and tie. The rest could obvs be bought from cheaper shops but all added up.

Dd: Official skirt, blazer, jumper and tie. Also compulsory branded pe kit - though she only needed pe kit once a week.

All this seems fairly standard for London secondaries. The schools my dc go to aren't associated with any of the bigger name academies but branding (via uniform) is par for the course.

Ilovemaisie · 29/05/2021 06:31

omydeirhert why was your daughter desperate for a uniform? Surely at 16 she should be old enough to not care what others wear or if people say about what she is wearing. The whole picking on someone because they are wearing the 'wrong' brand or whatever should be something that's way outgrown by 6th form.

TeenMinusTests · 29/05/2021 08:45

I guess once I move DD's school uniform from her small cupboard, she'll have a bit more room for her own clothes.
...
Until we have to put in the college polo tops, work trousers, fleece and overalls that is.

DappledThings · 29/05/2021 08:53

@Ilovemaisie

omydeirhert why was your daughter desperate for a uniform? Surely at 16 she should be old enough to not care what others wear or if people say about what she is wearing. The whole picking on someone because they are wearing the 'wrong' brand or whatever should be something that's way outgrown by 6th form.
I would have loved a uniform at 6th form. Not because I really cared that much about what people thought but because choosing clothes was just another chore. Would much rather a uniform so I just didn't have to think about it.

Still feel the same really. A couple of years ago in our office we all, 5 women in our 40s in reasonably senior public sector positions in, were talking about it and all said it would be so much easier to have a uniform now. Deciding on clothes is just boring!

Ilovemaisie · 29/05/2021 11:16

Dappled choosing clothes for 6th form in my day (and 4th and 5th at my school because we didn't have a uniform) consisted of jeans and a t-shirt or black leggings and t-shirt. Seriously that was pretty much all everyone wore. It probably took me about 30 seconds to choose. Now as an adult my jeans/leggings have been replaced by comfy loungewear style trousers but it's basically the same. Trousers + Top.

DappledThings · 29/05/2021 12:28

@Ilovemaisie

Dappled choosing clothes for 6th form in my day (and 4th and 5th at my school because we didn't have a uniform) consisted of jeans and a t-shirt or black leggings and t-shirt. Seriously that was pretty much all everyone wore. It probably took me about 30 seconds to choose. Now as an adult my jeans/leggings have been replaced by comfy loungewear style trousers but it's basically the same. Trousers + Top.
Oh I make it as simple as possible. Every day is one of 4 dressed, leggings and a jumper. Not a lot of choice but I'd still be happier in a work or school setting with zero choice myself. And definitely would have been at 16. Plus I actually liked the uniform. I liked my blazer, it had so many useful pockets.
Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 29/05/2021 12:31

Our high school have been doing this since the went back. I wish they would make a rule of no branded clothes though. It's costing a fortune, but then their uniform wasn't that expensive to buy.

BigMoveHome · 29/05/2021 12:32

We live in a Country with no uniforms. Kids loved it could wear weather appropriate clothes … shorts in summer - thick ski jackets in winter.

Frogartist · 29/05/2021 18:45

Uniform should be cheap and exactly the same everyone.. It's pointless as a leveller when you can buy branded uniform items! And little details like heartshaped vs plain round buttons on girls' cardigans can make a big difference to little girls!

cooperage · 29/05/2021 19:06

Teens don't always care
Between the ages of about 13 and 16, DD would spend ages in her room every evening trying on different outfits and fretting about what looked and felt 'right'. She had plenty of nice clothes (the cost!) but she'd have been a lot less stressed if she'd had a uniform at that age.

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