Poverty inquiry finds a growing gulf between richer and poorer children in school.

[Darkesteyes]

Just seen this in my Twitter feed. Sadly after seeing posts from many MNers on here the situation is not surprising to me. I dont have DC myself but know people who do and im always shocked when they tell me the cost of these things.
I thought the whole point of school uniform was so children could be seen as , and treated as equal on a level playing field but those days seem to be far in the past now and long gone. This is certainly rubber stamped when i see parents worrying on here about how they are going to pay for trips. As well as letters sent home asking for money at short notice.
Anyway im sharing this on here because there is a petition within the article that some of you may be interested in. The prices of school uniforms and everything else related to school seems astronomic. Am thats its come to this.

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/31/inequality-schools-children-poverty-commission?CMP=twt_gu

Re the NY/ cheese trip surely hardly anybody would have the money for a trip like that.Pretty sure the vast maj of middle income families couldn't.Surely if you're rich enough to afford a school trip like that you could do it as a family.

I wonder sometimes who these trips are for- the teachers or the kids.

This highlights the madness re the free school meals for everybody policy.They should have upped the threshold for fsm across all key stages and not chucked money away on giving free food to families who don't need it in KS1 whilst older kids go hungry in higher key stages.

It is unfair as you don't always have a choice in which school your child attends.

Certainly our local Secondary has overhauled its uniform style twice in five years .... So no provision for second hand.

It also uses only one supplier. One. And it's bloody expensive. And if you cant get second hand (school won't sell it, so you have to scour local selling sites) you have no alternatives.

So it's not an expected cost at all, or one of those things at all.

Also affordability is subjective. You might be getting cb, but that's not going to help cover uniform if you also have to pay £950 pa for a bus pass too is it?

I understand the importance of why children should have uniform, but not why schools are allowed to set the cost.

In Ireland, parents of primary aged children have to buy uniform, and a list of at least 10 books (cost is usually about 50 euros), plus all pen, pencils, art supplies, exercise books, pe kit, etc. I couldn't believe how much just gets handed to children here for free. People in Ireland do complain about the cost but in general it's accepted as a part of having children.

What's different is that in general (although I think it's changing somewhat now) there are very very few private schools and people just generally send their children to the local school, therefore schools are pretty much the same across the board. In the UK there seems to be a huge social pressure attached to choosing schools that creates the divisive attitude that is the real problem here IMO.

But school clothes / shoes are what child benefit is meant for, isn't it?

I'm not sure it's worse now. Inequality, sure, but not things like shook uniform. 20 years ago you couldn't get the basics for a few pounds in Asda.

'If teachers put as much effort into tackling bullying as they do insisting on the correct uniform or asking for money from parents who cant afford it they could probably make a real difference. '

Can you please not blame individual teachers for having to follow school rules? Force change through parent pressure on the governors and the head, challenge inequalities and you will get support from the majority if not all of the staff.

I don't think those on fsm should be buying school blazers.My dp didn't gave the right school blazer because they couldn't afford it and it was excruciating.He still talks about it now.He had to have this thing handed down with gold buttons,it screamed difference everywhere he went and caused bullying.He's paranoid re our dc having the right kit now.I had a forces childhood so often ended up in schools without the right uniform,it is incredibly hard.I can see it causing truancy which in turn will have an impact on attainment.

The basics of a school uniform and food should come before anything else as regards pp.Is it true that pp can be used to pay for Ipads for teachers of is that an urban myth?

I totally agree with you Darkesteyes on all your posts.

Luckily enough the High School my daughter has selected for her DD only supply the blazer, tie and PE kit, everything else can be sourced in the high street. But still the bill is horrendously high.

She will have a team building residential to pay for within a couple of weeks of starting and a France trip to pay for within a couple of months.

One thing I have noticed in my area is that the Academy school's uniforms (which is normally everything except underwear, socks and shoes) and mandatory equipment are far much more expensive and in a lot of cases can only be bought from the school. I think this is more money grabbing.

For those posters who think people are better off now than they were 10 years ago need to wake up to reality we may have more money coming in than we did then, but the cost of living has soared over the last 4 years so weighing everything up we are definitely not better off.

We live in very mixed neighbourhood. From council houses to Bentley driving. What i can say is that the poor stand on their heads to afford stuff that the rich don't care about. Like the newest iEverything for their kids.