Aibu to think school uniform (Logod) is just ridiculously expensive!

[Abbazed]

For example, average cost of a primary uniform is £160. Local high school cost my friend £300 for one child. My son's grammar school cost me £350. My son's state nursery cost me £50.

It's pricing poorer families out of uniform and into being bullied? How do you keep the costs down?

DS is 15 & will be in Y11 in September, school in their infinite wisdom have decided to change the uniform next year including Y11. It will cost me
2 x sweatshirts £16 each
5 x polo shirts 12 each
3 x trousers £16 each
1 x PE polo shirt £15
1 x Rugby shirt £20
2 x shorts £8 each
1 x PE t shirt £10
2 x Football socks £2.50 each

That's nearly £200 before bag, stationary, shoes, trainers, football boots & a coat for stuff he will only wear until Easter next year, plus because he needs a larger size than is normally stocked, everything has to be ordered specially with a 4 week delivery time. Schools think we can just wave a magic wand & find the money to buy it all, plus he also needs suitable clothing for interviews & work experience & there is a geography field trip at nearly £500 to pay for as well.

Theres always some MN who think you should have planned and saved for 18 years worth of childcare, holiday clubs and school uniforms for each child before TTC . It didn't occur to me before having kids that state schools would insist i had to buy their uniform at a specific shop that is double or more the price of high street equivalents. I stupidly thought a navy uniform could be bought at tesco or harrods or anywhere between depending on budget, and then get a badge or tie from school.

My eldest cost me just short of 500 when she started secondary. This was a state school. They charge £22 for a shirt for girls (pin stripe) and £30 for a skirt (had a very very faint pinstripe) no other shop sold it other than 1 local school supplier. Boys got it very easy as they could wear white shirts and grey trousers.

Exactly! When DS started school, I was a teacher and DH owned two businesses. I thought we were made for life. I didn't plan on becoming disabled and DH certainly didn't plan on having to take a shitty job to become a carer. You just can't plan for some things.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss seems to me that you have taken your name from the land you obviously live in 🤔🙄

My just turned four year old will start reception in primary. It's a state school, but only allows logoed uniform bought from John Lewis. They even stipulate a logoed woolly winter hat (baseball cap for summer). PE kit is similarly logoed, but different (have to buy slightly different logoed socks, etc, in addition to all the other gear), as is the bookbag, scarf, backpack, gloves etc. The cardigans start at £24......

Unbelievable.

My dcs school wear everything logo'd apart from white shirts, socks/tights/shoes and winter coat.

To buy the logo'd uniform in the smallest sizes (some prices increase for the older kids) and just 1 of everything needed costs £127 minimum per child. Children in reception to year 4 are also supposed to wear a hat for girls and a cap for boys which costs £27 each.

So £127 basic logo uniform/p.e kit and only 1 of each item then add on the cost of shoes, a winter coat, generic white shirts and socks/tights and you're around the £200 mark per kid!

Forgot to add on the £27 hats as well so about £227. I do not live in an affluent area either, despite the school previously being a private school they take kids from the local area but kept the private school prices it seems!

PE kit at my school doesn't need to be logoed, so it costs me £5 for 2 sets (thanks you Sainsbury's) the rest Costa me £50-70 including school shoes that last the whole academic year. Money well spent for clothing worn 5 times a week

Yanbu OP it's a fucking racket. Leveller my arse.

@NCforthis19

YANBU my DD starts reception this year and we are looking at more then £40 for the PE kit alone

But yea fuck all these people who don't know exactly how much they're going to spend on uniform for the 20 years it takes to put a few kids through school (encompassing changes in leadership, changes in structural set up eg state to academy etc) and put that exact amount of money, pulled from their arse the moment their first child is born, into a separate bank account, the feckless fools.

I find Asda are good for scuff resistant school schools. They cost between£12-£16 I think 🤔 I know some people who will spend about £40 on a pair of school shoes for their. Dcs

Hiya sorry for delay in replying. Been mega busy with kids. It's a state primary..everything's logod. bookbag, coat, polos, fleece, pe hoodie( we did pe inside in my day) Even a cap and bobble hat!

Shoes were Clarks. They were £30 I hadn't included that In the 50...I believe they support the foot better when growing. in sept he was an 8 then quickly a 9 so back up to clarks. They cost more but last longer. Trousers Mark's and sparks. Spare stuff from aldi. All sewn in name labels and shoes name stickered. He's full time. Lunchbox and h2O bottle

Both the Grammar and the primary have the same supplier! Grammar blazer £37. Grammar tie £9! Daylight robbery... Grammar trousers £25... Grammar coat. Or top 20, rugged top 22 both to have initials on...at X extra for each inital. Shorts £10, trousers £16...shoes x3, Clarks £50... Superdry bag, hype water bottle.

We have retained the 11plus in this area. I'm VERY proud of him for going to Grammar school. He looks v smart.

Id rather have spare school stuff than not have what's needed

@Munchmunch how do less well off parents afford that?

You should check with your PTA. We reclaim items from lost property, wash them and sell them for a couple of £. Proceeds back to PTA. I do a roaring trade selling to new reception parents who buy spares.

Apart from logo sweat or cardi, everything else is optional.

@alwaysreadthelabel it's so much isn't it...£500 for so little!

The pta and head were horrified when I enquired about second hand sales...I'm at as well have sworn!

I may as well have shocked them...

@reasonstobeearful it's a monopoly which grates with me!

@bookmum08 My Grandma passed the eleven plus. My Great Gran saved hard for her uniform at the Girls High school. She then went to Nottingham uni. Her friend also passed she didn't get to go because the uniform cost more. My Gran said they had an expensive green box pleat pe skirt. A green blazer, and had to have hockey sticks. Her dad (Gt Grandad worked at local paper mill and they could afford the expense) That angers, saddens and infuriates me that her friend couldn't have the education she'd earnt.

The bit that really winds me up is alluded to by a poster further up where the girls have to wear plaid pinafores but the lads can wear plain grey supermarket trousers. Even the price difference between jumpers and cardigans (we seem to have it as the norm now that girls wear one and boys the other) mounts up at the pricier end of the spectrum (and the craphole academy I moved my kids out of was £18 a cardigan and desperately trying to enforce £10 logoed polo shirts which the parents were refusing to give into).

We're now at a school where it's basically anything in the specified colour goes - and it's so much less painful. Dreading secondary where we have no choice but the same mega-restrictive academy chain who, again are pulling the micromanaged logo hemmed girls' skirt while boys can buy their trousers from the supermarket routine - oh yeah and heavily limited suppliers as well - there was talk of them issuing uniform violations if you'd bought the blazer at a rival uniform place who were doing them cheaper.

At the moment ours is fairly OK although the juniors have started offering the "option" of logoed uniform and I'm hoping it's not going to become compulsory. I buy a bit each month well in advance as it is - so I'm hoping we don't get a uniform change whacked on us after I've got organised (I have next year's summer dresses bought heavily heavily reduced ready and the like).

my DD school use myclothing.com which seems to be about £9-10 for logoed sweatshirt jumper or cardigan, polo shirts are 5,50 t shirts £5 blazers £20 but only in navy and black, reversible fleece lined shower proof jackets £18 secondary stuff is £1-2 more so why are others charging £16-40 for the same stuff

they do almost everything in black navy royal blue bottle green, burgundy and red and less stuff in jade, emerald purple gold white sky blue

I must admit it was a struggle to buy their uniform and that was with a free blazer each as they moved to this school in October and the school had recently done a uniform change so I was given the old style blazer which the kids can wear until they go back in September. So now I'll need to buy two new style blazers BUT the school has just been taken over by a new trust so I'm waiting to see if there's yet another uniform change which I'm sure was hinted at!
I think a lot of local families rely on passing uniform down through their kids or buying second hand.