to be quietly horrified at the state of ds's school uniform

[Honeydragon]

but buggered if I'm buying more with only six weeks of term left.

I've just ironed this weeks uniform, and was . It mostly fits just, but not a single shirt doesn't have some kind of stain on and they are now beyond bleaching. The jumpers fit but are becoming an interesting shape from repeated bunging in bags as it's the summer and the elastics going on his trousers and shorts but a belt is doing us proud.

His feet are costing me a fortune at the moment in shoes, without paying out for uniform to last till the summer holidays which he will have outgrown by September- he already needs clothes for the holidays too.

I know this has been done before, but please please tell me I am not the only person sending a raggedy urchin into school until September?

I get parents of expensive private schools and academies not buying new uniforms at this time of year (- esp blazers as who wants to spend £80 for one item to be worn for a month?). If your kid has one of these "exclusive" uniforms - learn from this and buy next years items 3 sizes too big!

For those who can get away with asda or tesco shirts, or other supermarket items - why send your kid to school looking like a tramp? Seriously 3 shirts at less than a fiver won't hurt. Kids wear their uniforms 5 days a week so why let them be open to ridicule and teasing? Buy Primark for your holiday in the Maldives.

Why let the teachers think you don't care - especially when it comes to shoes! Well fitting shoes are a basic childhood necessity like decent food, access to soap and water and a roof over their head. Kids grow and they'll need new shoes again by September. If they need new shoes - suck it up and eat beans on toast for dinner yourself for a fortnight.

I find it odd that I keep meeting Mums whose kids have all the new computer games under the sun, get take aways regularly, have a personal account at waterstones, ballet lessons, yet begrudge spending a tenner on asda's 3 school wear items for the summer term. Darning is a dying art, so is stain removal for laundry, if you really don't have the money learn fast, and go without yourself for shoes. If you do, but would rather spend the same money on expensive icecreams, meals out etc in the summer holidays then sort out your priorities.

(So says the skint single Mum whose own child has attended 3 different institutions this academic, each with a different flipping uniform!).

Because, even though my DDs are at state schools, I can only get their uniforms through the school shops. Nothing can be bought outside of them, with the exception of the black games shorts.

Which I deeply resent.

All the stuff I can get through high street shops - I've gotten larger sizes for next year and letting them ware them now. DS on third pair of shoes this year has cheap supermarket shoes to last till end of year - not something I'd thought i'd do but can't afford better - (been £75 on shoes just for him since September).

All the stuff I can only get through the school - I can only now buy on one day in a few weeks time - and it will go away till next year. School only stuff is odd colour and poor quality and very expensive - and looks really tatty as it shows every mark and marks often do not come out. That I am quite horrified at.

Bochead makes some good points, why begrudge a few pounds on new uniform just because of the month? Children grow and stain things but it would never cross my mind not to buy something new just because its not September.

M&S do uniform very cheaply so new jumpers and shirts can cost less than a takeaway.

School stuff is generally overpriced tat imo, I'm in a similar business and know what they pay.

As for cheap Supermarket clothes and Primark, all well and good but it costs me over £10 to get to Tescos and £15 to get to Primark.

In fairness ds's shoes are smart and fit, but if the school clearly don't care what state they get their uniform in.... and ds does cover up whenever they are allowed to ..... as long as he is clean and correctly dressed I really think they are pushing their luck to complain about ink stains! Not that they have.

i would happily buy ds a new blazer at easter knowing full well that he will need a new one in september. why? because if you work out the cost per wear, its the cheapest thing he has. He wears it from seven in the morning till five or so in the evening, five days a week. I dont want him growing up thinking its okie to be a scruff, and simply coz i think my son is worth the cost of his clothes.

in primary i got aroud the problem of trousers being outgorwn by getting him shorts in the summer. I have bought him short sleeved shirts four weeks before the end of term as i just didnt want him wearing longsleeved shirts in 30 degrees.

buy less of his other clothes, and let him wear cheap crap during the summer when he is at home.

I always would turn a blind eye to uniform rules as the year went on - hell we've been known to resort to jumpers from the lost property box for photo day and pass them along the line of kids waiting to make them look good for the photos.

Also used to try to timetable mucky stuff like art for a Friday so stuff had a weekend to be washed and not a frantic overnight rush.

Mind you I'm from the family who bought my secondary school blazer so large it had 5 inches turned up on the sleves and saw me through the full 5 years of secondary school - which is probably where I get it from.

dd2 uniform is tight and really getting shorter than I like but she has 1/2 a term left before I have to go ut spending about £150 on a new uniform (and I am arguying with dh about if she can have just 1 blazer - she cant keep a cardigan clean for a day how the F does he see me getting the dryclean only blazer clean??? - she is staying in short stuff tough

Certainly you are not alone

DS jumpers fit but are frayed around the cuffs on 2/3.

All T-shirts are stained. I got around this by buying 1 logo-ed t-shirt in yr R big enough to last infants and he wears it special occasions photos/ assemblies etc only.

Trousers fine as are shorts but that is because he outgrew trousers in February (which were 4-5 and he's nearly 7 ) so I got him less trousers and some shorts at the same time.

He will be going as an urchin too as he starts juniors September so I'm not forking out for more infant uniform.

If this helps I have just bought DS a plain zip up hooded jacket (navy same as uniform) from ASDA for £2!! He can wear it as a jacket to school instead of the unravelling jumpers if needs be.

Yes I would buy new uniform this near to term if I they were wearing the same thing in September, but then mine have never outgrown anything that quickly. Especially jumpers & polos, surely you can just buy one size too large?

I dunno if I'm very canny or have no standards, but I've never had DC suddenly outgrowing and needing new expensive clothes. I keep a sharp eye out for future size clothes & pick them up extremely cheap at jumble sales & charity shops & out of ads in the paper (30 items in pristine condition for a tenner kind of thing).

Poncy that I couldn't get round, ds refuses to let me cut his toes off

Footwear excepted.

Do people really have school-age kids that outgrow shoes in less than 6 months? I am 99% sure that's never happened to us.

I don't buy clothes for only a few weeks as I don't see them as disposable items (especially the very cheap, as I have ethical concerns about sweatshops).

Even expensive items can be ripped by active boys. My initial outlay was quite high, but the items are passed down between siblings. The recently patched trousers are in their 4th year of wear. I've the next up size (in better condition) which I hope will fit him in September.

"Do people really have school-age kids that outgrow shoes in less than 6 months? I am 99% sure that's never happened to us."

DCs shoes used to last a year usually, even when they were growing 3 o4 inches in a year. They are teenagers now DS is 6ft and DD about 5'5.
I used to buy school uniform when it was on special offer ie M&S 3 for 2 in june in the next size up. The only thing I miss woolworths for is their sale of school dresses when I could often pick them up for £2.50
Only time DD had a uniform that was in a really bad way was the last few weeks of year 6 and I couldn't get school dresses to fit her. Most of them stopped at the age of 11 or 12 and she was well over 5ft. Her trousers were round her ankles and hems had completely gone.

DS's first day at school he came home with pink on the bottom of his shirt sleeves from over dyed Play Dough, all his long shirts have satins on the cuffs that have resisted Bio Powder, Vanish and all manner of washing. I bought some short sleeve ones a while ago and will only be buying these from now on

His jumpers have faded a lot but as they were £2.50 Sainsburys ones I can forgive them

Now I know why photos are done in the first week

DD is stuck with chewd up sleeves until she otherwise outgrows the cardy (Stingy Mom Alert)

Most school frocks have overlocked hems - just unpick the hem and makes sure the ends are secure. Most drycleaners will know where you can get a new zip put in trousers and skirts, it's a pretty simple job so shouldn't be expensive. Otherwise, zips from the haberdashers are only a couple of quid. Carefully unpick the previous one, pin the new one in the same place, two lines of straight stitch...

My primary uniform was indecent by the time I got to year 6. The rules said only Y7 up (prep school) could wear a skirt. It is not possible to buy a pinafore dress for a person 5' tall with a 34A bust (me at 11) therefore I looked like Lolita and sweated like you wouldn't believe - the only way we could get my pinafore dress to actually go on for the last half term was to take the top off it which meant I had to wear my jumper all the time! I was never so relieved to get into (ugly brown) summer dresses

Yes DS is stuck with chewed sleeves as I keep sewing them up and he chews again.

I do buy a pack of 5 white polos every term as they do get stains on but luckily this year I managed with 4 only being destroyed the 1st term, got 5 more and only 3 got ruined, so he has 3 OK ish ones that will last him.

RE shoes. I have managed 2 school years with only 1 pair each year and this year DS has gone through 2 pairs. Year R he was 9.5 and started year 1 a 10.5. He started year 2 an 11.5. The shoes (yr 2) weren't as protected at the toe as his previous pairs (lesson learnt!) and had been worn out by January. Got him sturdier ones from Clarkes outlet and he measured a 12 in 1 foot. Measured him last week and still 11.5 in 1 foot and 12 in other. I am hoping he grows a whole size by September as don't want to pay for shoes 1/2 a size bigger - as I just know he'll outgrow them. His feet literally seem not to have grown in a year and most of the children in his year are a 13/1 now. I just know karma says all the money I've saved not buying shoes this year will come back 2-fold and bite me on the arse.

BTW ....I must add I am not a total slob ds's shirts I'm on about, 4 were purchased at Easter and were not cheap! Like everyone else on here uniform, even the best quality does not last a year.

I'm lucky if it lasts a week Good thing is it goes from new to crap in a week and then just stays there.