I am going to start a petition to ask the government to legislate on how much branded school uniform costs. I have spent over £100 on branded stuff and I only have one child, and I know that other schools demand even more. If you’ve got several kids you’re looking at several hundred, and that’s before you even factor in all the other stuff you have to buy.
I would like your ideas on what to recommend. For example, a limit on the amount branded school clothes should cost per child, so a limit of £50 for example. At my DS’s school this would buy a blazer, a tie and a rucksack, but schools could choose which branded items they want as long as they remain within the limit.
All this branded PE kit for example. They do PE twice a week. Obviously some kids do more but at the end of the day, while we should be encouraging kids into doing sport and exercise, branded PE kit is not going to encourage them.
The argument that uniform makes all the kids look the same and prevents bullying etc is all well and good until you consider the kids whose parents can’t afford to buy new uniform every time they grow out of it, which with kids is pretty often. Kids who are wearing second hand uniforms, or stuff that’s been handed down from sibling to sibling will stick out if they’re wearing worn out stuff, so it really doesn’t fix the problem of inclusiveness or bullying at all. Also schools tend to have different boys and girls stuff, so if you’ve got a DS you can’t save the blazer until your younger DD starts the same school. I’m not suggesting girls should be forced to wear trousers if they don’t want to, or vice versa, but there has to be a solution that means parents can either reuse items for younger DC or they only have to buy generic versions. Maybe if clothing items are sex specific then they should not be branded.
Also, when they’re adults their employers will supply branded work uniforms. They might buy extra items but their employers will supply at least one set. Obviously schools can’t afford to supply branded uniform but if they couldn’t make parents pay for it then they’d soon do without it. After all, a branded jumper is not going to make your DC learn more, and branded PE shorts are not going to make your DC more interested in sport.
So I would like your suggestions on solutions that you think would work, and that would be workable across the population. At the moment branded school uniform is an absolute racket and schools only demand it because they can, and it’s got to stop.