to think school can cock off with their "patented shade of grey" £17 a pop trousers?

[QoFE]

Normal state secondary school, new head so obvs we need a costly uniform change (less than 5 years after the last uniform change) to reflect the new regime

Despite significant parental opposition (I know because I went to the so called "consultation") we now have to stump up for logoed blazers and ties. Expensive but hey ho, suck it up, whatever.

Except an email has just gone out reminding parents that the trousers and skirts HAVE to be one specific and expensive brand and cannot be cheapy or second hand because wait for it....

they are a patented shade of grey looks like tesco grey to me but what do I know

WTF? Is this even legal? The trousers start at £17 a pair FFS and ones to fit a 6th former are nearly £30

My children's primary school had logo sweatshirt, book bag, PE top and a tie. None of it was compulsory though most did the sweatshirt and book bag. Ties were optional because you could wear polo tops as well. Shirt and ties was only for certain events and the school would lend to anyone who didn't have them. PTA ran a second hand uniform shop which did really well and they also put out lost property at the end of the year from which people could make a donation to the PTA. (Although some people would take anything that wasn't named and claim it as their child's .)

Secondary school has logo skirts, trousers, blazer, PE tops, sweatshirts, rugby tops and tie. Other items can be bought anywhere. They also have a thriving second hand shop. Blazers are about £35 but have lasted mine circa 3 years each.

6th form have to be smart - boys in suits, girls...less specific - as they are a business enterprise academy.

There is only one supplier but it's Trutex and the prices aren't that outrageous. My biggest bug bear is the football boots they need (boys - football, rugby, hockey; girls - football, hockey, lacrosse) which are hardly worn before they grow out of them.

All state schools.

Yeah I've pointed that government guidance out and had a reply saying the uniform complies!

The school are insisting that the guidance refers to not specifying a SUPPLIER and that the schools specified trousers can be bought from a range of shops so is fine. They are interpreting "supplier" to mean the actual outlet, rather than the brand. So the trousers have to be X brand but as X brand is sold in lots of online outlets and one physical shop locally it meets the guidance.

They won't expel them but they'll stick them in isolation until someone caves in. And that's got to be seriously harmful for the child. Here, there's a grade-chasing school that does this to the C-or-below grade kids. Suddenly their behaviour is policed to an infinite degree and they isolate them until their behaviour gets worse, or their parents pull them out. Complaints were soaring about the practise, then the head left, so not sure what's happening next.

Exclusionary, elitist bastards.

The DfE need to get on this as there have been more and more threads about schools doing this sort of thing. PP are right, it prices poor kids out of schools, places an unnecessary burden on parents and goes against DfE guidelines. I suspect, however, a difference would only be made if it became part of Ofsted inspection criteria.

My school lists acceptable trouser styles from a variety of shops. Parents complained that none fit their DD so they said 'find ones that do fit, look acceptable and we'll add them to the list'.

Could you start having a look on Ebay for the same brand?

My two youngest DCs have logos on cardies/jumpers and PE tops but everything else is supermarket. My eldest is still wearing the blazer she had in year 7 going into yr11, apparently it's fashionable to push the sleeves up (!!). She has another one I got second hand but chooses not to wear it. She also has logos on her tie, PE top and skort, and a specified leotard for dance but that's it.
My DS2 has to have specific blazer (one shop supplier), specific PE top and shorts, separate rugby top and shorts, specific rugby socks... All of which have to be embroidered with his name ffs. By the special lady who 'does it for the school' and charges exorbitant fees. Thereby ruining any chance of recycling said uniform for either siblings or in a second hand uniform sale. Gives me the absolute rage as a lone parent on benefits. DC3 will need all this next year at a cost of £200+. Fuck knows how I'm going to afford it.

OP it's cheeky fuckery in the extreme. Involve other parents who feel the same. Involve local press. Write to your local education authority and make a fuss. Like the lads who wore skirts to school because they weren't allowed to wear shorts. It's the only way to stamp out such ridiculous wankery!

Its a breach of the guidelines laid out by Ofstead. Just send them in to school with the uniform your family can afford, theres nothing they can do about it.

Right click on the PDF image to read it in your web browser. Page 5, the statutory code states uniform (and trips) must be affordable.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform

Qof FE are they available in supermarkets? The guidance does seem to specify supermarkets. Are they available at competitive prices? That's what the guidelines are about.
Seriously though, do twats like this headteacher not realise that some British families literally do not have enough money to buy food or heat their homes adequately? And then be expected to throw money by paying more than they have to for school clothes?

The PE uniform is the biggest burden because it is all logo'd and you have to buy an outdoor and an indoor version and a dance version - and it is not cheap for any of it.

Rather than blame the schools, blame the parents who flaunt the uniform with skinny trousers, barely there skirts etc. If everyone bought nice sensible trousers they wouldn't have had to enforce a certain type.

£17 is reasonable though, a pair of children's jeans at secondary age wouldn't be much less and School uniform gets worn every day for 39 weeks.

All our local schools have turned to academies and they all have uniquely coloured uniforms which are only available from the school and one shop. So blazer, tie,jumper, pe shirt,pe jumper and skorts and sports socks all of which in our chosen school are purple with gold bands and cannot be purchased anywhere else and a choice between 2 types of skirts and only sold by the school and single uniform supplier. All ££££

Just the one shade of grey?

Rainbow £17 is reasonable to you, maybe. It's unaffordable to other parents.
None of it would be neccesary if there were no uniforms. And it's still extra expenditure, no matter how cheap, because no one wears uniform outside of school, so they still need jeans and other clothes.

I feel the same. Having said that, I found it a nightmare trying to find my dd a decent pair of school trousers that were he right type of fit and not skinny/slim/too casual/etc etc. I now just tend to buy the recommended ones for her.
However, I bought my ds's ones from m&s. They look exactly the same.

I'm shocked that schools in England can get awat with this (assuming you're in England). We're in Scotland and it just doesn't happen

It doea happen in scotland - our school blazers are £85. They are not allowed to wear anything else.

A school near here is having logoed skirts and trousers (also £17 a paair) introduced because there were still some pupils/parents who wore trousers that were too skinny/tight/jeggings and skirts that were too short. If they had all bought the Tesco £4 a pop but compliant with school rules trousers instead of leggings etc they would not now be in this situation seems to be the general view.

blame the parents who flaunt the uniform with skinny trousers, barely there skirts

So ban skinny trousers and have a minimum skirt length? Don't think the immeditate answer to this problem is to choose one particular expensive brand. And OP said prices start at 17 quid, her older DS' s would cost 30. I wouldn't spend that onwork trousers for myself or DH, and you'd need at least 2 pairs at a time, more later in the year in case of damage or growth spurts- that'd be at least 4 pairs, at 120 quid just for trousers. That is completely ridiculous.

So deal with the parents flaunting the rules instead of being bloody lazy and seeing £££'s. £17 for one pair of trousers is utterly ridiculous and to me is the very opposite of reasonable.

I'd probably need around 3 pairs at any one time for my DS, so thats £51? Nah.

Quite a useful tactic might be to find a child who is a non-standard size, and investigate whether the school trousers are made in a size to fit them.

DS is a size that normal school trouser sizes don't fit (BhS extra extra long slim fit trousers with the pull-up elastic even on age 16, thank you ... I bought the final 2 pairs in the country simply to see him through to the end of Y11!). He needed 26" waist 34" inside leg, then 28" waist 36" inside leg. As no even vaguely comparable size is made in the school specified brand, and because that brand is black, I was allowed to simply buy him the aforementioned BhS trousers and send him in for them to be authorised.

However, if the 'patented' type aren't available to fit a particular child [and my guess would be that someone of my DS's build simply wouldn't be accommodated], what is your school going to do? If you can find a suitably bamboo-shaped child to prove your point - very, very short, slight children may also have the same issue, though it is easier to take trousers up than to add to their length! - then the school may have to reconsider.

It doea happen in scotland - our school blazers are £85. They are not allowed to wear anything else.

Yes, but they're not also demanding that your child has trousers, shirts and jumpers with a logo from a certain supplier, unless they're at private school. Just blazer and tie is pretty standard in Scotland but I've never heard of this "compulsory whole branded uniform" approach that many schools south of the border appear to take. Our secondary hasn't had blazers for that long, around 8 years maybe. Part of the reason they went for the polyester ones not wool was the affordability - it was reckoned that at around £30 that's what parents would pay for a school jacket anyway.

I would use the fact they are trumpeting about it being a patented shade of grey to send a formal complaint into the head pointing out that the new uniform requirements don't meet the guidelines as set out by the government (and then copy them out) spelling out exactly how they don't meet them, and asking what they are going to do to change the uniform to ensure it meets the rules, and how they intend to communicate this urgently to all parents to ensure they do not feel conned into buying the incredibly expensive, overpriced 'patented' they may well not be able to afford, particularly if they have more than one child at the school. Remember to emphasise how much you support school uniforms in principle but point out that your local supermarkets and M&S, John Lewis and similar all sell very respectable, almost identical, teflon coated grey trousers in non-patent grey for less than a third of the price of the specified trousers so they can't justify the difference.

I also wouldn't be able to help myself in pointing out the irony that they expect children and parents to follow rules that are in themselves breaking rules... Then I would copy it to the governors, local MP and council education office and local paper and wait for fireworks...

Is there any sort of facebook or twitter etc page for the school or parents? or a local page that many parents are likely to see? I would also copy my letter onto them, and ask other parents that feel similarly to write in too, and to say on facebook/twitter etc that they have done too so that the school can't fob people off that nobody else is complaining.

Good luck!

Ds1's new secondary somehow manages to combine being very strict with uniform and uniform being affordable. The only items you have to buy from the school are the tie: £5, blazer badge: £5, and house badge: £1. All the rest you source from Marks/Tesco/wherever. So it is possible.

A school managed to patent a colour?! Even Cadbury didn't manage to do that!

Brabaria

That's so sensible: A badge instead of a whole jumper or blazer