Is anyone else’s school attempting to get past new uniform guidance by labelling items “optional”?

[Newschool3]

For example, it is optional for children to wear a pullover in winter, but should they choose to, it needs to have a logo. Some PE items do not have logos, but school specifies specific colours with particular stripes (which I can only find at school supplier shop).

Bloody hell, DD is going to private secondary and her specific uniform skirts were nowhere near that much! The blazer was about £40, everything else can come from high street shops.
PE kit is all branded/logo’d though and while the individual pieces aren’t too expensive there is so much of it it really adds up

Was looking to see there was a thread for this.

Just recieved this, was hoping for some changes but it appears not. Daughter starts in September and what she needs will be six branded items. Seems unfair.

But why just accept it? Why not email and ask for an explanation as to why their policy doesn’t comply with the statutory guidelines?

I think the whole thing is stupid - if they were going to do this, they should have said tie and ONE branded item MAX.

I think I will, looking at the list though it appears they may get away with it with having the option for grey trousers unbranded (although my daughter would prefer a skirt which needs to be branded) and for PE plain joggers, daughter would also prefer shorts especially for the warmer months so would need the branded shorts.

Looks they they have done it possible for minimum 4 items, and others optional, although unfair.

Ties are very old fashioned now. My son’s private school ditched them, along with blazers, years ago.

Of course, these rules don’t apply to independent schools and that’s entirely fair. Ours may have ditched ties but we do have jumpers with crests and lots of branded sports stuff.

I run the second hand uniform service. The suppliers’ quality has gone through the floor in the last couple of years- it’s made it really hard for us to get enough good stock to resell. Assuming that the same crap overpriced Chinese-manufactured branded stuff was being required by state schools, these new rules are very good news because supermarket/high street stuff can be pretty hard-wearing so should have a good second hand life (and great to see the rules requiring proper second hand uniform services to be set up).

Hmm that might fall foul of the guidance as well. I quoted it at the top of the thread and it says that for any optional branded items, a non-branded “version of that item” needs to be available as well. They might argue that the trousers are the non-branded alternative but I don’t think that trousers would meet the definition of a non branded version of that item. But it’s probably not clear cut if they wanted to insist.

I think that part of the guidance (to have a non-branded version of each item) must have been a late addition to the final wording. Our school planned for the changes months ago, but that particular nuance wasn't on our radar then. Parents may need to cut schools a bit of slack while they adapt, rather than immediately rolling up their sleeves for a punch up.

I’m not sure how much slack they need to cut them tbh. Just allow a non branded version of optional items. That doesn’t require any rethinking of a policy, changing the uniform, or choosing which items to make optional etc. They’re already optional, just don’t punish a child for a non-branded version that otherwise meets requirements eg if an optional jumper is blue with a school logo, allow a plain blue one.

If you’ve got optional items in your policy and you don’t allow non branded alternatives, I’d suggest you were maybe trying to get round the policy in the first place (I can’t think why else you’d make it optional and not allow another version) so I wouldn’t be overly sympathetic to complaints that a later policy change is going to take you ages to adapt to.

Besides, I didn’t suggest a punch up. Just an email stating the guidance and asking why the policy doesn’t match it.

For goodness sake just buy the branded items. They look much smarter. Pick them up second hand if needs be.

"If you’ve got optional items in your policy and you don’t allow non branded alternatives, I’d suggest you were maybe trying to get round the policy in the first place (I can’t think why else you’d make it optional and not allow another version)"

Can't you? I can. If schools looked at the rules months ago, and thought their existing optional items were compliant then they didn't "try to get around" anything, they just didn't spot that particular line in the guidance. What you're missing is that Uniform policy is generally set by governing bodies, and reviewed once a year, not made on the fly by headteachers (who don't generally have time to read the small print of every update of every bit of guidance descending daily from the DfE). Once they become aware, they will have conversations, and policies will be updated, but it won't happen overnight.

@whiteskys Once they become aware, they will have conversations, and policies will be updated, but it won't happen overnight.

In which case it's thoroughly kind-spirited of more aware parents to help these schools in their journeys back to alignment with government guidance.

They shouldn't have to!
Should be able to wear a plain black jumper.

If it is communicated discretely in the spirit of kindness then yes, I agree. Those sorts of parents are helpful, and tend to be the ones who end up supporting the school in other ways, like becoming school governors.

If its communicated as a lobbying exercise to show off to other parents about how aware they are and publicly shaming the school then it's eye-rollingly meh.

@whiteskys I'm somewhat surprised that schools don't receive automatic alerts when relevant legislation and guidance is updated - this should not be a hard thing to enable.

I suggest you sign up to the DfE's information feed. There are about 10 items a day. Governing bodies help schools to navigate the guidance, but its more difficult when its drip-fed. The draft legislation was first published months ago, but the guidance is more recent.

@whiteskys Good plan - I doubt it'll take long to rustle up an effective prompt to output a brief summary to enable rapid identification of what needs to be read and who the relevant staff member would be.

Jumpers are truly optional though? Haven’t bought a jumper in years, my son just wears a long sleeved Thermal top underneath his shirt in winter.
logoed stuff for us is jumper (optional), tie, pe top, pe bottoms. Blazer is plain navy. There is also an optional pe longsleeve, long pe bottoms and a raincoat. We have the raincoat and longsleeve, never bothered with jumper and long pe bottoms

@RedStripeLeaf Have you thought about volunteering as a governor? That way you would be able to complement their work and help to fill in any gaps. It would also help you to understand the wider context of why things don't always happen as quickly as you might expect.

@whiteskys Yes, I have. I concluded that between work, parenting and my existing voluntary roles, it's not something I can take on at the moment.

God this is nuts we always just had any black leggings or joggers and and white tshirt

logoed jumper or cardi that only cost 8£ at the uniform shop

any trainers

no different clothes for pe

i couldn’t be dealing with that

I will include this in my email, willing to pay for a suitable skirts and shorts which she wants, just not the prices the school shop has suggested, would be more considerate to offer an alternative outside the 3 branded (not including ties) which seems to benefit boys rather than girls. Many thanks

We have received an email today, stating no changes to school uniform for beginning of September. For a girl wanting to wear a skirt and shorts for PE, there's a minimum of 6 items without alternatives

What has looking smarter at a parents cost, is helpful to education? I am in a position to luckily buy what my daughter wants uniform wise. Other parents are not and were expecting a minimum of three branded items, an extra for a tie. Which I think is totally unfair with new guidance. My list shows branded skirt or loose fitting trousers. A single skirt is £26.50 here, needing to buy more than one. Most girls do not want the unbranded trousers. As someone previously commented, buying second hand is hard with the quality. Surely for parents with more than children should not have to incur these costs for education? I'm happy for my children attend looking "smart" but there is a cost of living crisis. Well done for maybe not being affected

One branded jumper at my children’s school is £17. They also have a separate PE hoody for £22. Two non branded jumpers can be bought for £7 from Asda. One branded polo shirt is £11, I can get 5 for less than that in Asda. The quality is no different, in fact the branded PE shirts from the school supplier were falling apart at the seams within a week last year. I have 2 children in that school. Even in primary school to buy them the full compliment of branded items would add about £250 to my school uniform bill. I’m not sure many people can blithely part with that much money.

And in primary school, while it’s possible to get the items second hand, after a few months of use a polo shirt looks pretty shabby, there’s no way I would buy those second hand.