To think this is rediculous for school uniform!

[worriedwinfred]

Polo shirts for foundation stage children (all school children but how messy is foundation stage) have to be embroidered and cost £8 each! I was planning on sticking up on ASDA ones at 2 for £3 so as soon as we get a stain or fadeing DS will always look smart. Jumpers and t shirts are £8 each I just think that for a t-shirt is abit much. I will be buying them obviously but it'll be a struggle and I can imagine maybe others won't be able to afford new ones every time there's a stain.

Aibu to think school colours but not embroidered would be a better idea? They also expect £1 a week "voluntary" donation to school funds

"My son's shirts have suncream stains around the collar and pen stains on the front. They are clean though. I can't understand why people won't send a child in wearing a shirt with a stain, no one will judge you, it really doesn't matter, it's literally only an image thing. We are killing are planet and treating the people who make our clothes like shit, surely that is far more important than a few stains."
So if you teach your DC that wearing stained clothes is acceptable then won't they continue to wear stained clothes to work, weddings etc if they are taught it's the norm?

You will find many will judge you for wearing stained clothes. Try going to a job interview with stained clothes. Do you think you'd get the job over a smartly dressed person (all other things being equal)?

My DC willingly go to school wearing the worst of the uniform on offer, now they can choose they usually choose comfort over non stained and a bit faded. I don’t blame them they have to wear it all day. No one seems to care whether things are a bit faded or have pen on? In a perfect world DC could look immaculate at all times but no one does. My DC both frayed their school jumper by chewing on them so I sewed them up

Try not to worry about stains, fit and cost to you is just as important IMO but is true often better quality lasts longer

@jennymanara it’s not social cleansing. The school is saying this is our uniform and this is the cost. If you select this school you already know it will cost you more for the uniform. If you are unwilling to pay this, then you should have selected another school. They would be very few people who truly could not budget to afford a few £8 polo tops for their child starting school.

There is a shop local to me that does embroidered logos for a number of schools in the area.

I think stained clothes are acceptable for playing in. The same way I keep my own stained or badly worn clothes for being just round the house. I don't think they are okay for the wider world though. And in real life I do not see kids with stained clothes unless you are talking about tiny stains that are extremely difficult to see.

Are school uniform grants no longer a thing? I don't think anyone has mentioned them? Most schools also have second hand sales too. I don't think the £1 school contribution is a lot as when I was at school we were asked for the same amount and that was a long time ago. It is still just a contribution though and if you really can't spare it don't pay!

My dd is going to start preschool and whilst you can buy a jumper with a logo it is not compulsory and so I have no intention of doing so. I think when the time comes I would like to buy her better quality trousers as they often get worn at the knees but will see about logo embroidered items. At her school it is not compulsory so may consider a jumper with a logo but polo without.

@ScotsinOz I think you have no idea of poverty in this country.

@Sceptre86 A few places still have school uniform grants, but lots of councils have got rid of them as part of the cuts.

jennymanara, I have no clue about other areas, but at least in my area, they don't really care if they have logo or not in primary.
I have no clue what is school uniform grant is, but were were certainly able to buy few new polo shirt from supermarket, which my dc never complained it didn't have logos. And I believe it was about £3 for 2, which is not that expensive.

Sainsbury’s repel polos are good. However if you can’t use plain ones (we are buying logo next year as looks better in the summer!), I’ve always found vanish gold on whites before they hit the machine removes most things and my son is filthy when he gets home, along with the vanish powder in the drawer. I’ve written things off whilst treating them and been very surprised when they come out. We do have uniform for every day as only do laundry at the weekend - not got time during the week with work etc.

@Idontwanttotalk

This isn’t teaching them to be slobs, and I wouldn’t not hire someone because they had pen on their otherwise clean, nice smelling top

Teaching them to value appearance over everything else isn’t always the way, there can be a middle ground here. Some sun cream (always seem to bloody stain) and pen on a child’s uniform has not led either of mine to become Mrs Twit, both know how to be clean and presentable at a wedding or a job interview but when you are in uniform, they are intended to take the brunt of daily wearing. If you wore your interview outfit 5 days a week for 6 hours playing outside, using pens and paint in it all day it wouldn’t look so smart and presentable would it? 😂

Having worked in a uniformed sector my whole working life, as long as things don’t have holes in, don’t fit and aren’t smelly then some wear and tear is perfectly ok

*fit you

The donation is voluntary meaning, you don’t have to pay.

I’d also contest having to pay for logo polo shirts. They’re mostly under dresses/jumpers anyway so I don’t see why it matters. I didn’t bother buying logo polo’s for my DC because I have three and the logo ones are £5.50 per shirt. I’ve seen a few people with the logo polos on and they’re faded as hell, look awful. I just bought them a pack of 3 for £4 from Sainsbury’s instead and they still look good now.

"They would be very few people who truly could not budget to afford a few They would be very few people who truly could not budget to afford a few £8 polo tops for their child starting school

You are very out of touch. polo tops for their child starting school"

"You are very out of touch."

It is true, because they need to wear it 5 days a week, so they need to get at least 2 or 3 of them, so it can be very expensive. But thing is, it's not really £8 each though. you can always buy cheaper ones, and they last for years, unless the child out grow them.

To the person who said they were shocked that my y6 DD was wearing polos I’d bought her in reception, so was I when I realised. I hadn’t really thought about it, she just wore the uniform as it still fitted and I added a few extra polos from the second hand uniform sale over the years.

It’s not that she’s exceptionally tiny, it’s that I bought them big to start with plus they’re very boxy whatever size you have. In reception she could have worn them as dresses, and now they just about reach the waistband of her skirt, but because she’s quite skinny they’re not too tight.

The point I was making wasn’t that people should expect y6 children to be wearing reception polos, but that the quality of the more expensive ones meant they were still wearable after seven years. If you’re in a position to afford a higher initial outlay it’s cheaper in the long run to get better quality ones, plus as others have said not replacing them too often is better for the planet.

@jennymanara it’s not social cleansing. The school is saying this is our uniform and this is the cost. If you select this school you already know it will cost you more for the uniform. If you are unwilling to pay this, then you should have selected another school

It's exactly social cleansing.

The Free School in my town likes to think it's a private school really. They demand all its school uniform is bought from Marks & Spencers. It costs a lot more than uniform for the other schools and it absolutely is a signal that they don't really want poorer families there.

Buy the cheap white ones and dye them whatever colour is required

The school is saying this is our uniform and this is the cost. If you select this school you already know it will cost you more for the uniform. If you are unwilling to pay this, then you should have selected another school.

At primary level the school has no right to insist on its chosen uniform because legally it’s not compulsory.

A good school will value families more than expensive ‘smart’ uniform. There’s a balance to be struck. Excluding/disadvantaging DC via a ridiculous uniform policy is poor leadership.

Regardless, many people don’t have free choice about schools. If you can’t afford to run a car, your DC need to go to the nearest school. If both parents have to work, you need wraparound care, and so on. Uniform cost is rarely going to be the deciding factor.

Do what Francis said....ask company for an embroidered emblem patch you can transfer to each polo.

My daughters school also has this policy but its not something we've ever stuck to. Her pinafore covers the area where the badge would be anyway.

Why would you buy a new one when there's a stain? £8 for a t-shirt isn't a lot and 2 would easily last all term. I never had more than 2.

Why don't school just stick to white tops is beyond me. Fine, get jumpers of the right colour, but at least let them have white which is so much easier to keep new, at worst you can bleach and leave them in the sun. Coloured tops are a nightmare, you just need to buy so many more!

I wouldn't send a child to school in stained clothing if I'm honest.

Also, schools 100% pull this sort of thing to weed out poorer families