To want to challenge the school - uniform affordability

[whyhaveidonethis]

My DS2 is starting secondary school in September at a different school to the one DS1 went to. Today I bought the compulsory items on the uniform list and frankly I am pretty disgusted at the cost and the compulsory items. Not only the blazer but the school jumper, rucksack, toe, PE bag, PE uniform (shorts, tracksuit trousers, T-shirt, and rugby top) have to be embroidered with the school logo along with the grey in every way the same as ASDA own brand school trousers have to be embroidered. WTF? £24.95 a pair for school trousers that would otherwise cost £6 in the supermarket. You can only buy from one supplier and so they have you over a barrel. The PE bag alone cost £12.95. The rucksack £22. It's basically a bloody blue rucksack I could buy for £10 elsewhere. Why the hell does every pupil need to have identical bags? Surely that's a recipe for disaster? They also all have to have the school coat which is embroidered with the logo. I didn't dare ask how much that cost.

I'm hopping mad. How is this in line with Department for Education guidance which states schools should: consider the cost, the available supply sources and year round availability of the proposed uniform to ensure it is providing best value for money for parents....and, ensure that the PE uniform is practical, comfortable and appropriate to the activity involved, and that consideration is given to the cost of compulsory PE clothing.

I am right on my high horse about this. I have a good income but live in a deprived area. How on earth do those on benefits afford this?

WIBU to legally (or otherwise) challenge the uniform policy?

Why am I not surprised this is an academy? Academies seem to spend an awful lot of their time trying to ape private/grammar schools and making a pig’s breakfast of it.

Definitely complain. My DCS are still primary and luckily the only logo item is the sweatshirt. I've picked up most bits second hand in fantastic condition from local selling sites. Is there something similar where you live for future uniform? Only thing I buy new is school shoes and cardigans for my daughter as I couldn't find second hand ones. She is tiny so will get wear out of them.

Most parents don't qualify for help with uniform and it really is unacceptable that everything has to be logo -ed.

Our granddaughter goes to a school with no uniform, at any age. Uniform is by far the cheaper option!

But is it really more expensive tilly uniform is a false ecomy. Maybe on the surface it's cheaper. But you don't get the value for money that you can ensure with regular clothing

YANBU to challenge. How stupid is that.

My ds secondary they have blazers and tie. School jumper is optional. School logo or t shirt.

Rest of PE kit must be navy and trainers worn.
Plain coats and no stipulation on bags but no extreme logos allowed (fair enough!)

They've also just changed from grey to black skirts/trousers and introduced school shorts as an option because pupils said grey was harder to get and had less styles available.

Ds blazer has lasted 3 yrs until he's outgrown it (£26) and his new one is £30 and will last him until he leaves and will get passed onto friends ds 3 years younger after that!
Pe t shirt was £10. May or not need replacing. Tie is £4 for yrs 7-9 and another £4 for the senior one.

Rest of his stuff is supermarket and very affordable.

And apart from year 7s everyone else has a year to switch uniform to black to avoid extra costs when uniform fits.

At Ht near me was arrested and charged with drink driving and coke offenses.

Big city though and not Village. Very mixed socio economic area and all but 1 secondary is an academy.

Wonders if we are neighbours?

I've got the school uniform outfitters in my facebook feed to look out for discounts and this uniform for a state PRIMARY school popped up recently. Uniforms seem to be getting more and more extreme.

Wtf is that. Asda do plain black blazers for like 10/11 quid

Red jumpers are sold in supermarkets. The piping is pure "cleansing"

Giles DD is at a non- uniform school and when terms starts she'll carry on wearing what she's been wearing all the holidays that I would have had to buy her anyway. Mainly stuff from H&M & the supermarket. I think for the average person non-uniform is cheaper and is certainly less hassle (at primary at any rate!) There are no non-uniform secondaries round here so it will be interesting to compare the cost and hassle.

The thing that's bothering me the most is an 11yo 5'5" daughter with size 9 UK feet. I have to buy ladies work trousers which aren't cheap and still not sure about the shoes.

tilly my DD1 goes to a 6th form with no uniform. I haven't had to buy a single new thing for her - she's 17 and has pretty much stopped growing. She lives in supermarket brand clothes and band shirts, with the odd bit of kit from EMP that she saves up for (and which costs nothing like as much as coveted brands). Can't wait for DD2 to get through Yr11 and stop wearing uniform - we are making do with what she has, as it's only 2 full terms and a bit. As a single parent I can tell you non-uniform is definitely cheaper.

Not all teens are brand obsessed - you can do a hell of a lot as parents to teach your children not to be materialistic.

Mine live in supermarket/charity shop clothes during the weekends and holidays - £5 for a couple of pairs of leggings and £12 for 3 t-shirts type arrangements at the moment... not the £15 a logoed sole-supplier cardigan the craphole academy we moved DD1 out from was expecting you to pay for uniform (they'd tried to make everything logoed and parents had basically refused - so was cardigans only really). Has some very very deprived areas in catchment where parents really are struggling to afford to buy the logoed uniforms (every year they put a real squeeze on the new intake that they need the logoed polo shirts etc as well at a tenner a pop) - thankfully at least it's been sufficient years since they last fucked about with the uniform that there's a supply of second hand stuff doing the rounds now to help those struggling out.

Current school just has colours stated for various garments, logoed stuff available if you want it (via the Tesco service or a local company that basically does logos to order) but no pressure at all to wear it and most don't wear much in the way of logoed stuff after Reception (when we're all new and keen). Current school also academically blows most of the opposition out of the water and also does in terms of SEN provision, nurturing and sheer bloody fun in the curriculum too.

The one that pisses me off is our local secondary. Boys can wear any black "school" style trousers... girls... have single supplier logoed skirts - which cost twice the trousers if you're buying them from a supermarket or whatever.

imnotreally
And that's where you start getting the hassle because despite wearing approved trousers because everyone's different heights/weights/shapes etc kids then get accused of wearing skinny trousers or having a skirt that's too short despite it being the same as everyone else's.

Never takes into account that for some it's just not possible to wear "approved items" or that they look different on different people .

Giles the outfitters that did dd's uniform when she was at school had different length skirts. All girls were advised to try them on in the shop and staff said whether the length would be approved at school. What wasn't taken into account though is children can grow very quickly and parents can't afford to replace £26 skirts repeatedly. So the advice was buy it well below the knee. I was so glad when she went to a non uniform 6th form but even there it was more businesswear, no jeans or trainers allowed, no Tshirts, only collared shirts and nothing sleeveless either.

And even when on the surface uniforms appear to be "reasonable" they still get you spending out on their stuff

For Instance pe kit- no one wants to wear the "shadow stripe" shirts kids in reception will wear as they generic so they will want the nore expensive logo shirts or skort.

Pe kit will stipulate a black sweatshirt. Now black grey and navy hoodies are available cheaply in supermarkets and m&s . But of course no hoods allowed so again expensive logo shit purchased.

Base layers - have you tried finding one plain black with no logo on or none.of the piping. Almost impossible. Good job the school sell them.right at three times the price

They purposely make it impossible even though you are allowed to purchase elsewhere

When we were living in the UK DH was equally annoyed with the cost. His solution was genius.

He copied the school logo off the website and took it to a embroidery shop. It cost £20 in set up fees. Then we could buy ASDA clothing and then get the logo put on for £5 an item.