To ask the school to buy my children's clothes?

[Ivegotbills]

DS and DD came home from school yesterday with a letter regarding new school uniform. New head is starting in September and he's doing that thing some of them do of making his mark on the school by telling everyone in it what to wear.

They already have a uniform which I have to shell out for every year for the pair of them. Now this bloke is demanding:

• new blazers. Meaning the ones we have and which fit them will be useless.
• logo trousers and skirts from a named supplier.
• branded PE kit from a named supplier. That's right, branded items to run around a field in for an hour a week.

I've worked out that this little lot will cost me £45+£45 for blazers, £63+£63 for trousers and skirts (three of each which I regard as a minimum - currently they're in supermarket clothes which I have five of each of) and £80+£80 PE kits = £401.

WIBU to write to the school requesting they provide these items which they are now stipulating are necessary in order for my children to access their "free" education?

My school had 5 different sweatshirt colours to choose from. Then they got rid of one of the colours.

It was a massive badge of honour for younger siblings to have the ‘old’ sweatshirt colour long after it wasn’t available to buy!

blue

You illustrated another issue there perfectly.

That even when schools appear to have reasonable guidelines that on the surface look sufficiently sensible, that actually it makes it harder.

For instance I'll give an example or two from my dds school.

Now we were allowed to purchase some items separately . Sports leggings allowed. Great. Black sports leggings. No problem? Aaah but the no logo stuff makes it harder. Cos try going to sports direct and finding a completely plain set of sports leggings without so much as a nike tick.

Plain black base layer. Sensible on the surface. Aaah but most base layers have coloured seam things on them. So no good. That orange seam makes it unsuitable .

Nlt to worry though school uniform supplier sells poor quality stuff at inflated prices to get round this issue

"Yes. I realise you are being sarcastic but as a parent clothing your children is your responsibility. Considering the clothes will be worn for a whole academic year, is it really that expensive? What would it cost you if they weren’t in uniform but were in ‘normal’ clothes in school?"

With normal clothes you could source from Primark, you could use hand-me-downs from siblings and cousins even if they didn't go to the right school, you could use charity shops. Some families are quite simply poor.

Locally, when schools have changed uniform, there has been a two year transitional period.

I had already expressed my concerns to my daughters school regarding th cost of this new skirt which can only be purchased from one supplier. I have now also asked for the reasons for making this change (this should be interesting), why no transition period and whether the boys also have to immediately make changes to their uniforms, at more expense to the parents.

Just to add, this is a new headmaster as well.

I would actually go down the waste route with this, if there's no transitional period.

Their current logoed blazers etc will have no value for charity shops or other schools. The best that could be hoped is they go to fabric recycling.

Most schools are trying to be more eco friendly and scrapping a whole lot of serviceable material goes against this ethos.

It is such a sign of weakness that a new Head feels he has to make his mark by changing the uniform. It smacks all too much of a cat spraying to mark its territory - perhaps suggest that as a cheaper alternative?

Fair point Sarah re small logos and coloured seams/piping.

It is difficult!

Basically I would prefer no uniform.

Normal clothes are much cheaper. I buy them from Sainsbury's. For the DC's current uniform I have to buy logo'd jumpers, PE t-shirts and ties, plus the waste of money of chucking out the old uniform; for DD's secondary school in September I have to buy logo'd jumpers, blazer, PE shirt, skort, socks and school bag. We're on WTC so no school clothing allowance.

Thanks everyone for your input. Seems IANBU! Mostly.

No transition period mentioned in the letter, just details of the clothes required and the supplier.

Agree with loads of the comments. Especially don't see how me spending a third of my monthly take home pay on this is in any way levelling. Kids will be yr 10 and yr 8. The blazer for the yr 10 I would have expected to last till the end of yr 11 as he's already had his massive teen growth spurt so I bought him a big one in September just gone when he reached six foot.

All their other clothes are from Primark and supermarkets - maybe they could have nicer than that if I wasn't spending on uniform on top of normal clothes too?

I don't know that many parents at the school as it's secondary and for complicated reasons not many of their primary friends went there so few parents that I've stayed in touch with from those years.

I'll definitely suggest transitional arrangements but also as a point of general principle I can't see the point of logo trousers, skirts and PE skirts. Can't see the point of blazers either tbh but they're everywhere now and lots of parents seem to think that nasty polyester costing fifty quid is the way to go so that ship has sailed.

*PE kits, not skirts

I should have said my daughters new skirt must have the emblem on it.
Available from just one supplier.
The school have responded saying someone will get back to me after the Easter break.

Google - consultation on changes to school uniform. The DfE guidance makes it clear that schools should be able to demonstrate, just for example, best value for parents. it also strongly recommends that there is consultation on uniform changes. There's a very useful Word document that you could quote from.

When I was at school we had a new uniform. Fee paying school and you were allowed to wear old style until outgrown. If you can’t afford it YANBU to write and say you will buy the new style once old outgrown and if needed before it will have to be provided by the school.

Make your objections known now, or if the holidays, the first day of term, and get others to support you. Perhaps to the school governors too.

Perhaps try to seek where the clothes are made, or if the supplier has children at the school. The former means you could argue that you want ethical purchasing, the latter means a conflict of interest which is a further argument against single sourcing.

Perhaps let your MP know as well- there are local elections in many areas. Or the press if you are comfortable with being named.

My DD’s former school added a blazer and the school paid for all the current pupils to have the blazer.

YANBU. So the school is rebranding and they want the parents to pay for it.

As many have suggested, allowing children to grow out of existing uniform or at the very least a long transition period is the only fair way to do this.

My dd has to have a pe top and hoodie with her initials on the front in big capital letters so we are not able to have hand me downs or give hers away unless we find someone with same initials!

Google - consultation on changes to school uniform. The DfE guidance makes it clear that schools should be able to demonstrate, just for example, best value for parents. it also strongly recommends that there is consultation on uniform changes. There's a very useful Word document that you could quote from.

Again, the DfE does not enforce this guidance and will not support parents who challenge schools over uniform requirements (I've tried it). Recommendations (however "strongly" they are recommended) are routinely ignored by schools, just as they are by the food, drinks and gambling indutries. Unless/until the DfE can be forced to set rules, schools will not take any notice of parents' objections.

My dd has to have a pe top and hoodie with her initials on the front in big capital letters so we are not able to have hand me downs or give hers away unless we find someone with same initials!
This name stuff is another issue agreed. Its criminal that you cant hand down especially when they so expensive

And when they specify a sweatshirt with no hood. Never mind a plain black hoody can cost a fiver in asda try finding a black sweater

This never fails to amaze me. In my school, which I work in, the blazer is mandatory but they're £30 and we have a system where you can buy good second hand for £5 from the school office. There is logo knitwear but any plain can also be worn along with plain trousers/ skirt. The only other mandatory item is the tie at £4 and a sports top for PE in your house colours at £6.

I have no comprehension why schools do this- if you want to stamp your mark stamp it with new activities to benefit the kids- or change the tie, easy, inexpensive and noticeable ( we're in a consultation with pupils about a new tartan tie- I like it!).

My dd has to have a pe top and hoodie with her initials on the front in big capital letters so we are not able to have hand me downs or give hers away unless we find someone with same initials!
I've bought second hand with the full name on the front and just unpicked it. It was still much cheaper to have them embroidered again than to buy new.

Definitely complain and request a transition period.
My dd is about to go into yr11 so last year of uniform but her secondary insist on a different skirt for yr11 so I've got to shell out £110 on a skirt that will only last 1 year! (£38 per skirt, 3 skirts needed). Utterly ridiculous.
Ds1 is due to start secondary soon and this time I will pick a school with a slightly more flexible approach (as in supermarket shirts and trousers acceptable)

Oh kahula same here with the pe tops! Has to have her initials embroidered on. Really really discriminatory to those parents less well off.

Our skirts have to have the school logo on and are £24 each, the boys trousers just have to be plain navy, which aren’t common in supermarkets, so are £17 at the school supplier. Really annoying when I see the price of plain skirts and black or grey trousers in Asda. I think the blazer is about £35 at the moment and I’m not sure about pe kits which are also school logo.