to think primary school uniform price is ridiculous?!

[TeaLover2468]

I'm new here but just wanting some perspective.

My dc's school has just updated the uniform policy, I've always thought it was expensive but now its getting a little silly.

Logo school jumpers £17.25 + each
Girls M&S Summer dresses £12+ each
The boys summer shirts £12 + each

On top of that they need

Logo PE tshirt £8.50
Logo PE hoodie £ £13.50
Specific PE Socks £ 5.50

This is without thiings like shoes, shirts, pinafores coats and backpacks, Logo PE bags, Hi-Viz.
Plus an Optional blazer at £30.

Is it unreasonable of me to think spending £200+ on one child a year on primary school uniform is ridiculous?
I always knew secondary schools were expensive but that's over £1300 for 6 years of primary school.
That could buy a car!
AIBU or is it getting a bit silly now?!

Seems expensive compared to my sons.

He has 3 logo jumpers at £10.50 each
Tesco trousers, 2 for £8
Tesco polo neck, 2 for £5
Plain black PE shorts 2 for £5
Plain white t shirt for PE 2 for £5
Tesco School shorts 2 for £5
Plain black pumps £5
Plain Tesco school shoes £15

So what’s that, £53.50. Trousers and t shirts I had to top up once this year.

I've already signed that Blue. I've shared it again.

We are allowed to buy no logo products as long as they are in the correct colour.

Even so, it's not expensive for the logo stuff.

A thick long lasting logo cardigan is around £11.

I don't know about £5 jumpers. The child who sewed them probably sees the school only from outside.
My issue with the uniform is not the price, but this 'little adult' design. Why not something loose and free-fitting? I see very few adult men in creased trousers and ironed shirts climbing trees and chasing each other, so why do we expect the children to do this?

And if you have 2 kids and buy them a spare each, that's £44. I couldn't afford that, and because we're on WTC we don't get FSM, so we do get the school clothing grant, which wouldn't cover that, and I'd only get it for 1 child per year anyway, due to their age gap.

It's not that school uniform prices are ridiculous, it's that your school's uniform policy is ridiculous. They could easily allow generic non logo items from more competitive retailers if they wanted to.

For DD's school...

• Jumper/cardigans from £8.99 - £14.99 but can wear non-logo ones from supermarkets etc (bottle green colour)
• Any white polo shirt
• Any grey skirts/trousers/shorts/pinafores
• Any green checked summer dress (optional)
• Logo fleece (optional)
• Logo coat (optional)
• PE top can be logo or red/green/blue plain t-shirt from anywhere (house colour), price is about £5 - £8.
• Any black or navy tracksuit and shorts
• Logo PE bag £4.50 or any suitable drawstring bag (I made DD's!)
• Book bag is £5.99 or any suitable bag (school do push the book bag though as they store better in the classroom when they're all the same)
• Water bottle £1 and every child gets a free one at the start of the year. These are excellent and I currently have five!!!

We also have a lost property sale at the end of the year for any items not claimed and donated items for outgrown things. I've done well with donated school logo jumpers for my youngest (DS) and because I have an older DD, her girly uniform has been donated too.

@Tunnocks34 that seems reasonable i wouldn't mind that!

Out of curiosity I've looked at other local schools and most offer reasonable prices the most expensive jumper being £15 but most around £12. There are a couple with the same ridiculous prices one of which though is a prep school?!

We don't need any logoed stuff at my kids' school - there's logoed stuff available if you want to go down that route - but most people don't, or they'll get a couple of logoed polo shirts for the summer for the boys if anything.

I've just bought for next year and none of it is logoed apart from some optional school coats I've got out of choice for next year as they're decent and hardwearing (and they were like £17 - for a proper hooded coat)

Works out around £5 a week term time, that's not much at all.

Uniform definitely saves money, cheap casual clothes don't last long and good quality stuff costs more than uniform.

Plus uniform is good to stop children being singled out brand wise etc.

Box sets and popcorn sorry where have you got £5 a term from? There's 6 terms a year

Sorry misread that. £5 a week doesn't sound much but I don't have a spare £5 a week every week and unfortunately I can't buy it in £5 instalments!

I don't spend anything like that on my DD but the school are very good about it- you can buy logo stuff but you don't have to and hardly anyone does. They can wear any shade of blue for dresses from any supermarket, and cardigans/jumpers should be navy blue. They can wear either white or blue polo shirts from anywhere and Pe kit is just shorts and white tshirt

Skirts, trousers, shorts, pinafores can be navy or black.

The only logo item they ask you to get is the book bag but for most children this lasts all 3 years of the infant school.

Uniform at secondary school I agree with, never been so sure about primary level. In any case I disagree with any item that can only be bought from one shop/supplier.

Chidren have always cost money, uniform is a very small part of the cost and hit an unknown. Most schools now have uniforms.

Aaah I see we've hit the point where we're just going to restate one point over and over.

Schools have had uniforms for ages - but schools generally have NOT had £17 cardigans for infant children with logos restricting where you can buy them and incredibly strict rules requiring these cardigans for ages. People's issue with all of this, that gets ignored by those delighting in stirring the pot on these threads, is the ridiculous cost of logoed uniforms from single suppliers, or intentionally picking a really obscure shade of colour for uniforms to the same effect - that IS much more of a recent phenomenon. That, and the massive increase in uniform changes which seem to increasingly lack the changeover "grace" period they did on the rare occasions they happened in the past (we had a few locally change uniform as our LEA merged a lot of infant and junior schools together - but always with at least a full year of both uniforms running concurrently to help parents out).

Repeatedly going on about how kids have always cost money etc etc is just trying to get kicks in on poster's parenting - the goalposts on uniform have been moved RIDICULOUSLY in recent years and, while £5 a week might seem like nothing - when you previously could get a whole school cardigan for that and you're just getting by OK but not comfortably (MN often fails to grasp this demographic), it's a bloody massive increase in costs. Still - never mind that you've got no money to put on the eleccy at the end of the week... your school now has nice shiny new uniforms to put on the website.

Is that state school? I do think that’s expensive and excessive. Why do you need a logo top for PE? It should be standard polo shirt + trousers / skirt + jumper, no logo necessary. School is meant to be free.

I don't buy every year, I get a bit bigger. Plus they get passed down to younger DCs (although a bit faded). I get 1 item of PE kit each (goes straight in the wash) and 2 jumpers 2 skirts 5 shirts (some long sleeve, some short) 5 pairs tights. I don't get the summer dress (it isn't compulsory here) I don't get an optional blazer.

They need shoes, a bag and a coat anyway.

I get M&S shirts (as they are genuinely no iron!) but I still think my totals are less than your totals. maybe kidding myself

school uniform is a rip off and mainly exists to give headteachers an opportunity to how strong they are on discipline. It should be banished into history.

bing Very well said.

I agree op. Totally unnecessary to have all that logo-ed stuff as compulsory. Thankfully we only have to have a logo polo shirt and cardi/jumper. We can buy them where ever we want and use an embroiderer to put the logo on which works out cheap too. The cheapy supermarket clothes have worn well for us, going through multiple children, so definitely no need to spend more.

DDs school tried telling us all that we had to buy direct from school, and near everything had to be logoed. The amount of parents who seemed to think this was a reasonable ask was an eye opener.

Shes in reception, and it was all going to be around 300 quid IIRC. I bought 2 jumpers with logos on for if they go on trips out and that, and the rest I just got in red, as her uniform is mostly red. Saved about 200 quid, and also got a fw spares, which I could not have afforded tbh with paying 30 quid per top and that.

I am sure I recall there was supposed to be some guidance given to schools about this kind of thing, But it seems many do still insist. We live in a fairly deprived area too which makes the prices even more ridiculous. Anyway, half DDs class have just the school colous now, where a lot of the parents were really stressing about how they were going to afford it all. I am sure the teachers hate me now though, as I am viewed as the awkward one who informed a few of the parents what I was doing...and they all seemed to follow suit.

Yes, some of the prices take the piss.

DD's school are also changing the logos for the next school year which is quite annoying! So the shop is selling logo'd uniform half price!

It's all nonsense about it stopping children being singled out as you can clearly see in any class and on the posts here. There's those parents that buy the logo jumper, polos, fleece, coat, bookbag, pe bag, pe shirt and then you have the parent that buys the £2 Sainsbury's sweater and no logo-ed items, so they do effectively stand out. There's the parents that buy clarks or startrite and those that buy asda or sports direct black trainers. Uniform doesn't stop these differences in the slightest. And it's ugly. And why put little kids in vile grey clothes for 7 years. Those tired arguments may have been relevant many years ago but now uniform is available everywhere it's changed that.
£17 for a naff logo jumper is very expensive. It's more than I'd pay.
I pay for good fitted shoes as a priority, then m&s or supermarket trousers or skirts, asda cotton polos (with the odd logo one thrown in, latest school had an offer on 2 sweatshirts and 3 polos) however ds refused to wear the polos and 2 logo jumpers with a cheap back up. I would not spend £5 per week on uniform and I disagree their normal clothes would fall apart as I'm very careful what I buy them.

Ours is sooo cheap by comparison! Nip down to Asda for white shirts (£3.50 for a pack of two I think) trousers £3.50, and the logoed jumper is £7.50. Thank god. Because that kid had grown like a weed, I’ve had to buy the next size up twice.
Oh and black shoes. Pe top just the set colour and blue shorts. So can be done so cheaply- and we’re in London, so I was surprised it was so laid back in terms of ‘this colour polo shirt, this colour trousers or shorts, this colour shoes and if you want the school jumper it’s in this shop but cheap and if not, the set colour plain jumper is fine’

Seems expensive for a UK school, but dirt cheap compared to what my kids had to have for school in NZ. I remember spending $175/£90 on a blazer for DD last year of school . All about perspective.

They should be able to get more than a year's wear out of some of the items though.