to think £18 steep for school jumper

[whatkatydidathome]

dd starts middle school in Sept. The uniform is burgandy so easily available from most shops but they insist on particular jumpers with a logo. These are only available from a small local menswear store (with very un child friendly staff). We also have to buy 2 rugby shirts with our childs name printed on them (as well as logo) so second hand not an option - these are £12 each - plus huge assortment of logo-ed track suits etc. Comes to about £400 - and will need to be rebought each year. I complined to council who said that it was nothign to do with them and that it was assumed that parents accepted the uniform cost when they accepted the place. This is not true as we are rural so this is the only school our children can attend. They also said that it was assumed that parents who coul dnot afford the uniform would make different choices about schooling .

My DD is starting a school with a very unusual purple colour theme . . NOWHERE has it, not online or anywhere so buying it from the school cost over £75 for 2 cardigans, a PE kit (has to be school purple) a book bag (has to have school logo) and a checked dress.

Any other colour I could have gone and spent about £5 in Matalan lol :(

Holy crap, my dd starts school in september and i thought £7.50 for a school jumper with logo was expensive!! thank goodness for tesco.

I'm talking about our only local state middle school (9-14) which, like all around here, is run by a board of governors. The local council just say that they have had loads of complaints but can't do anythign as the govenors run the school.

I'm gobsmacked at the cost of the logo items you've mentioned!

DS1 is going into year one of the local primary school, the jumpers are £9.50, book bag and P.E bag £3.00 each, Ski hat (It's v cold here in winter) is £3.50 and the fleece is £14. No items are compulsary, though all the children seem to have the jumpers and cardigans.
There is no P.E kit, just normal clothes.

The local high school sell their badges for jumpers for £2 and blazers for £3.
I think the P.E kit may be more though.

Makes me very glad of where we live!

YANBU. Ours are £12 and I think that's too much.

They also changed the supplier to a shop either a bus and two trains away, or a bus, a ferry and a train away, you can't order online either and to order through school you need a chequebook, and I don't have one.
Luckily my CM got DD's for me and I gave her the cash.

YANBU - that is outrageous!

My friend has a son at a (state) primary and complains about there ridiculous uniform, too. Blue cords from a specific shop for the boys (amongst other things) and tartan skirts for the girls. Very pleased that my son can wear normal gray trousers and white polo tops alongside his reasonably priced logo jumper (£8.50), especially as he has five sets.

I would do what manicmother7777 suggests, even if they have recieved many, many complaints before. I would back it up by listing the uniform costs at other local (state) schools, too.

their of course, oh for an edit option!

Cardigan at my DD's school (to be) is £19.99.

Unbelieveable.

£19.99 for a crappy cardigan for a 4yo that'll probs be lost/ripped/treated like crap makes me angry. When she started nursery at the school I did get her one and it lasted about 2 weeks VERY VERY poor quality!

@ MrsBotty's shopping list: £18 school tie, £165 blazer! How can that be right??

Dd starts secondary school in Sep and her tie is £3 blazer was £28.

Actually I thought her school uniform list was beginning to clock up to be quite a bit, but I realise now we're getting off lightly.

It is a lot for us to find it's true but if I'm honest I can't say anything they've listed for their uniform is unreasonable.

But if OMG I've no idea how we'd manage a £165 blazer etc. Especially with 2 more dc moving up at some point too...There should be some sort of limit to the cost of it really. Younger dc's uniform isn't too bad at £10 a cardigan. £19 mentioned by the op certainly is far too pricey I totally agree.

Wasn't there something in the news a while back about schools only selling their uniform at v expensive little shops thereby giving the monopoly the expensive outlets?

I do prefer a proper uniform though. It does get the whole what to wear to school thing well and truly sorted out. We used to just have 'school colours' at our school and we all looked really messy en masse.

Go look at the Schools Admission Code - google it - I'm pretty certain that it forbids using expensive uniform as a way of discriminating against pupils from poorer backgrounds. Schools and education authorities have to comply with it - make a formal letter of complaint to the Education Authority, the local government ombudsman and your MP.

The blazer is a very special blazer in a distintive colour with a special pocket. One shop and only one shop stock it.

the "ordinary" blazer is a stripey burgundy/navy/white thing which looks awful and the school picked specifically to stop parents going to the shops and buying a black blazer (which 20 years ago was allowed) and sticking a badge on the pocket. Said stripey blazer was the "summer" blazer which used to be worn with a boater.

It is a total rip off.

para 2.14 Schools Admission Code
it is important
that schools? other policies, for example
on school uniform, do not inadvertently
discourage applications from poorer families.
Oversubscription criteria that amount to the
selection of children by schools, by means
that unfairly disadvantage some social groups
compared to others, deny choice to parents
and must be eliminated from the system.

YANBU.

This is just to keep the plebs out, isn't it? NO other reason I can see. It's just another way of controlling intake and reassuring parents that the 'right sort' of children will be attending - ie. those with parents who can afford £400 odd of kit a year.

It's completely indefensible. I can't believe councils tell parents 'If you can't afford the uniform (for a STATE school ffs) then don't apply'.

If we had a national PTA organisation we could have a school uniform strike and send all our kids all over the country in mufti one day to protest against uniform costs. Who is with me?

I can feel a campaign coming on...

Way back in the late 50s, after the 1st year at secondary, my mother bought our blazers from a cheap chain store, unpicked the breast pocket and sewed on the pocket with the logo from our old blazers.

Buy second hand uniform and don't worry about the name on the uniform - sew over the name

Basicly though the school can't make you have he logo unifrom and you can buy plain unifrom and if the school say anything tell them they can't make you purchase unifrom for your dc and tell the school to contact the LA if they have any questions about this

dc do not have to wear unifrm until secondary school and you buy basic stuff in colours and thats that

This thread has been really useful.

Our school has just changed its uniform for no good reason - the parents were consulted but the head lied in the Governors meeting (I am friends with a governor) and said that no parent had complained when talk at the school gates is that lots of us had.

We used to have to buy logo sweatshirts which were perfect for primary and ideal for my dc as they have excema. We now have to buy logo knitted acrylic jumpers which make my kids itch, (and are four quid more each)and regulation PE kit instead of plain t-shirts, and ties for the KS2 children. I have three brand new sweatshirts hanging up which I'd bought too big thinking dd1 would be able to grow into them. And because of the ties dd1 can't wear polo shirts any more, so I've had to buy new shirts for her. So that's a whole new uniform for dd1, new jumpers and PE kit for dd2, and whole new uniform for ds.

I don't know what I am madder about: the fact this is a vanity exercise when parents are being made redundant left right and centre or the fact that the head has lied and lied. The new uniform is more expensive, only available from the school and the cheques all have to be made to the PTA.

Should I make a complaint?

(sorry for hijack OP)

It's bad enough having to buy new uniform

Sorry, don't know where that last line came from. I want an edit button!

you should complain

Thank you...not sure who I should complain to - the head has most of the govenors in his pocket. And unless the governor that I know backs me up I can't prove that he lied in the meeting because I'm not supposed to know he'd claimed there had been no objections.

I thought I was going to be able to handle this but the closer the new term comes the more livid I am. What really worries me is that the head is a liar and a manipulator and this is just the tip of the iceberg. (he's had affairs with staff, with mums, all kinds of stuff.)

BottomBurp - is your one and only supplier Warnocks on the Lisburn Road?

I remember standing as a child there, with my Mum fuming at their disparaging attitude whilst charging a fortune.

spritmum - you should be able to ask for minutes from the Governors' meeting under FOI, which you can do anonymously.

Thanks, YOC, I might do that.

Actually I don't mind asking him directly because I wrote a long letter about the implications of encouraging the pupils to connect self-esteem with their appearance (which was his main justification for the uniform change - the old sweatshirts weren't smart enough for KS2 - although he's now changed teh uniform across the school) and I know that someone else wrote a letter concerned about the environmental impact. I could just ask for reassurance that this had been put to the Governors...

Although we've all bought the blinking thing now, as we were told that no dc would be allowed into school on Sept 2nd without it. But maybe next year things could be fairer.

And get this - someone offered to send the old jumpers to a school in Africa and he's refused because the school logo is on them.