To refuse to rebuy five years of primary school uniform

[Schooluniform2018]

Our small primary school has always had a uniform. I have had one child pass through the school into high school and therefore have enough shirts, pinafores and logo cardigans to pass down to my youngest two. Currently in years 1 and 3.

Deputy head was recently promoted to head and promised 6 months ago that the uniform was staying the same with a logo change in the cardigans.

Today they have decided that the colour of the uniform has to change. (Not sure if pinafore/trouser colour is changing yet)

So could we buy new pe kits, jumpers/cardigans and maybe pinafores/trousers !

So I have five years of uniform...enough for my youngest two to wear all their school life, in good condition and they want me to spend a lot of money which I simply do not have to replace the uniform.

Oh and they didn't bother to ask parents opinion, just presented it as a done deal.

AIBU to tell the school that my kids will be still wearing their old uniform colours until they graduate to high school in five years time, as I don't have the money to rebuy new stuff :(

I heard that uniform is optional at primary school, so hoping that will work in my favour.

I am so upset. It is a good school with no reason to change the existing nice uniform, the new one is made by the same uniform shop in the same materials just different colour and logo.

^^ You can't dye polyester. Grr.

How would changing schools work for OP? It's all very well in the independent sector, where you can change schools at will (though the reasons for this are very diverse). But in a local school, you surely can't just move your DC because you disagree with the uniform policy? And you surely can't wrench your DC away from their friends because of this?

BananasAreTheSourceOfEvil: I know. Stupid prices. Jolly good blazers, though, which make their way down family and friends (though I agree with you re bananas being evil),

Buy the skirt/pinafore big for your older girl, and take up the hem.

Then, when it's passed down to the next girl, let the seams out.

YANBU. That’s an outrageous decision by the head. Bad for parents’ budgets and wasteful for the environment. Can you complain to the governors?

They could all wear cheap black unisex supermarket trousers, you are choosing something more expensive. 5 shirts a week is NOT necessary. Its almost like you want to have a fight with the school rather than trying to make it work.

It is the vile jumpers which is ridiculously expensive. But lucky I have five mothers now on side and reckon I can pick up a fair few more before the school meeting next week.

@GertieGumboyle they are sincerely disgusting (bananas not blazers)

I have an embroidery machine that if I knew how to use my laptop properly would let me put on the school emblem (my kids are in a state school not private btw).

I personally like school uniforms, but I cant see the issue between wearing a nice pair of trouser/pinafore/skirt and a generic colour jumper. Sure, you could just buy the crest from the school, have the proceeds go to the PTA, sew it on and everyone would be happy.

The head said the governors wanted a full school rollout, as they needed every one to match. So I suggested keeping the current uniform so they would match, lol

@BananasAreTheSourceOfEvil PMSL. Bananas are horrendous, unless you are cadging a semi-freebie in Waitrose cafe, in which case they are great.

Laughing at the effing lab coats you mentioned in your post, though. I have been there. In several spades.

Otherwise, state/private. It matters not.

Spartacus I can read thank you (rude much)..the OP even said the girls could wear black trousers.

Now I have had an even better read...who the hell needs 5 shirts?!

And as for changing schools just to make the point...FFS...honestly..

If this is all this woman has to worry about in her life..I would say life is pretty good. Is it really worth making such a fuss about? Really? I presume if you picked this school in the first place, you're happy to represent it and look smart.

@GertieGumboyle I was in hospital for a long time as a child and every single mea and snack had a fecking banana. Every meal. Not optional, you had to eating fecking banana.

Now I will buy bananas for the kids, but I wont touch them. April Fool's day was fun. Banana based pranks everywhere.

Our lab coats were brown and white check, kilts which were brown, jumpers of brown... all an unflattering hue of poo.

I like uniforms because all kids are the same. Couldnt afford the same as the others so it was nice. Theres no reason that generic cant be adapted.

When my school changed the colour from poo to blue, they gave the parents an option to buy new uniform or to phase it out. This was 16 years ago, though.

Bananas, I think I love you. Our uniform was brown, too. Including the knickers (WTAF?). Think the poo colour was to distract the boys from the school nearby.

I am unspeakably glad that my DC might have £3,000 waistcoats and kilts, but they don't have stupidly expensive pants.

What is it about schools pulling this crap? Given a wide demographic in a school there will be single parents claiming benefits to execs earning six figures. How does a school expect those at the bottom of the ladder to afford a £16+ jumper or two when they change it on a whim - not including any other pieces.

My kids school did this but gave all the parents a set of uniform, polo shirt, jumper, pe jumper and or t shirt and shorts. Skirts and trousers stayed the same. We live in an area with half the catchment in a deprived area and it just wouldn't have changed over if they hadn't done this.

@GertieGumboyle oh the PE knickers! what the actual fuck were they all about?!

I had them from primary through secondary.

In retrospect they were a very effective device!! Who needs a chastity belt when you have woolly knickers!

We used to get called the 'brown cows'. Only in Cornwall.

Is it an academy - they can do as they please.

I should point out that said PE knickers were not the same pair from primary to secondary.

This really annoys me so unenvironmentally friendly.

Children wear their uniform 5 days a week, all day. Realistically, they probably wear their uniform more than they wear any other clothes, and they wear it to play, work, paint etc. I've always bought new stuff for the start of the year because, to be honest, by then I've needed to. Things look tired, a bit tatty and occasionally paint splattered.

I think handing down clothes that are seldom worn is one thing but handing down clothes that are used constantly is quite another.

spam decent quality does last if you are careful.

Plus tbh id rather send my kids in clean clothes that perhaps arent the best than a new jumper that's sponged off with a baby wipe and washed twice a week...

There is no good reason I'm this earth why a person woukd change a uniform to make everything exclusively one supplier and three times the price it needs to be.

And if people would just for once remove the blinkers they have regarding schools being able to do do no wrong and rukes needing to be blindingly followed no question regardless of now unreasonable, they would see what's really going on.

They only do it because they can and because parents allow it to happen.

And that somehow makes it Ok?

She still needs to 're buy everything else.

Right down to a sodding bag.

It's morally wrong what this head is doing. If anyone else besides a school did this to you you'd question It But because it's a school people are mindlessly accepting it.

Well they have managed so far witg no book bag. They are just a medium for advertising anyway.

They are poor quality a pain for little ones to carry and you have to carry everything separately. They are pointless.

And bullying is not limited to bags. Eventually you have to deal with the kids who bully you can't just keep changing things to "remove the opportunity"