School uniform costs: un-necessary items

[LLWK]

I was reading the recent news of Mike Amesbury's private members bill, that seeks to reduce the cost of school uniforms. It looks mainly at the "single supplier" issue that drives costs up, sometimes to a ridiculous level. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56376138

I also got to looking at uniforms for some local secondary schools (although my children are still at primary). What struck me was that costs could be reduced by not only increasing suppliers, but by cutting out items that aren't strictly necessary. One local comprehensive requires a branded PE kit (fair enough); but also a dance kit of a different polo shirt, with school and departmental logo; and them for that polo shirt to be worn for drama lessons, with regular uniform trousers or skirts, and the pupils in bare feet. Can dance not just be done in PE kit, and does drama really require a different top and no shoes, socks or tights? Or am I stuck in the past?!

@LLWKsomeone told me it's to stop students buying expensive rucksacks and poorer students not being able to fit in

So they help said poor students by preventing them from being able to use handed down bags and making them pay 30 quid fir a rack sack. When you can pick them up much cheaper.

This helps them how?

@dreamingbohemian

What ticks me off the most is the school dictating what kind of coat you can wear to school!

All the secondaries round us say only plain dark coats can be worn to school.

How is it even legal to enforce what you wear off school grounds?

DS has a mostly dark coat and that will have to be good enough, I'm not shelling out for a new coat when he has a perfectly good one.

And how is a dark coat safe for walking to and from school in the depths of winter!

@Blueskyredcloud Yes that too! The way to school for us is very dark in winter. It's ridiculous.

Honestly school uniform should just be comfortable and practical. None of this expensive crap. It's ridiculous.

If it were up to me it would be;

Plain joggers/knee length shorts
Plain coloured tshirt/polo shirt
Smart plain black shoes or trainers
Plain coloured jumper/cardigan.
Sew/iron on badge for jumper cardigan

Separate set of pe kit consisting of standard tshirt/shorts/sports leggings/socks/trainers all plain colours.

All pe kit needs to be is simple practical and comfortable. Anything else is a money making scheme.

All pe kit needs to be is simple practical and comfortable. Anything else is a money making scheme.

PE teachers told our kids they chose a brand new design of PE kit so they could pick out their pupils at massive sports competitions involving many schools. Not sure how this worked in practice as a couple of other schools round here also picked the same, or very similar design & colours.

The only positive about the change of the kit was that it was phased in with each new year 7 group over a few years, and existing pupils didn't have to have the new kit.

I do think that rugby shirts which get worn for maybe half a term in some schools, & bloody silly PE skirts are unneccessary. They introduced a "skort" skirt/shorts thing when DD was there, but she refused to wear it, & stuck to shorts.

Unisex tracksuits, shorts & polo shirts would be better for practicality.

Who else here had 'PE knickers'? We used to do cross country in them in the local park. Bright purple ones.
They introduced shorts when I was in yr9. We celebrated!

We had pe knickers at primary school while the boys got to wear shorts.

Being large of thigh I hated them and felt very self conscious.

At secondary we wore cycling shorts with a netball skirt thing.

Again for me and my thunder thighs..not a good look.

I don’t see the problem with a simple t-shirt and shorts for PE. Any mainly white socks and non-marking trainers for anything where bare feet aren’t possible.

I thought primary school was bad until I looked at the uniform list for secondary school. My DS needs at least £100 spending on his PE kit alone. It says football and rugby boots which I just can’t quite fathom and I definitely won’t be buying both. All of the PE kit has to have the school logo down to the socks and they need a rugby shirt as well as general PE shirt. Don’t get me started on the price of the blazers...

Our school uniform, just the bate minimum, is over £350 new. But a lot is completely unnecessary. What I resent is tge published list and the list provided by the uniform seller. Its inly when your chikdcs actually at the school that you didcover: no child wears the actual school swimming costume; no boy ever ever wears his school coat/jacket; no one wears the long sleeved jumpers; lab coats are actually provided in class, ditto art smocks; no one wears the shell sports jackets- they wear the hoodie. And so on.
My daughter lives her uniform though. She is starting sixth form next year where there is no uniform and she's dreading it.

@Norwaydidnthappen

I thought primary school was bad until I looked at the uniform list for secondary school. My DS needs at least £100 spending on his PE kit alone. It says football and rugby boots which I just can’t quite fathom and I definitely won’t be buying both. All of the PE kit has to have the school logo down to the socks and they need a rugby shirt as well as general PE shirt. Don’t get me started on the price of the blazers...

The only difference between rugby and football boots is that rugby have metal studs and football plastic, but I’d have thought it’s perfectly possible to play football with rugby studs in. I think a rugby shirt or probably necessary as they’re more robust than regular sports sports, but there’s no reason for them to be expensive. Logo on sports kit seems unnecessary; it’s worn only in school premises so why do they need to identify the school the children belong to?

I was a Covid Test volunteer at school this week. I saw Y9 coming out for PE, they were the last year before compulsory PE kit was introduced. So there was a mix of about 2/3 plain white polo shirt and 1/3 special PE shirt, royal blue and green.

The kids in the white polo shirts looked a mess. Several different styles (though hardly the end of the world) but basically - 50 shades of grey. And lots of poor quality misshapen shirts.

The ones in the school PE tops all looked great! Really smart, totally uniform colour, no fade, no stretching.

I have a Y7 and a Y8, and I’m really glad they brought them in (available from Y8 starting, compulsory for Y7) as god knows I hate washing white! My Y8’s has been used for over a year (I can’t really say 5 teens due to Covid!) and looks the same as my Y7’s brand new one.

I would like to see the school bulk buying and selling without profit (or just enough profit to fund free ones where needed) with a very active second hand sales section.

If you can afford the special PE top (£12) then it’s much better quality and looks great - I do like a school uniform identity, and my kids and their friends do too. Yes, they whinge about not wearing home clothes - but they all say the PE tops are cool.
So my focus would be making that top affordable, not taking it away.

The kids in the white polo shirts looked a mess. Several different styles (though hardly the end of the world) but basically - 50 shades of grey. And lots of poor quality misshapen shirts

Why does that matter though. Its a pe kit. No ones there to see it and they probably look a hot sweaty mess at the end if the lesson anyway.

The appearance of kids , in private grounds, in an hours pe lesson , should be of no consequence really. Certainly no reason to bring in some expensive pe top when you cab get 2 polo shirts for 3 quid in asda. After all these tops aren't some amazing magic material that never gets yellow armpit stains or smells. In fact parents are probably more inclined to replace a 3 quid polo shirt and have back ups. Branded stuff parents can't afford afford replace so often and u have to wait weeks fir the order too.

A more logical solution if the white was so bad would be to ask then to get red or blue ones instead. They are also available in supermarkets akd are the same price as the white ones

Dds school changed from a comprehensive to an academy a few years ago. Jesus fuck, the drama about uniform has been ridiculous.

Shoes have to be a certain style and absolutely plain black, no embellishments whatsoever. A tiny little bit of silver or even black bow means they aren't suitable. Patent is not suitable. Suede or anything other than leather/pleather is not suitable. Even the stamped holes on black brogues wasn't suitable. Do you know how difficult it is to find an absolutely plain black leather shoe? That is flat and practical enough for school and not £70?

School skirts now have to be from the supplier at £18 per fucking skirt. £18! She could wear trousers but refuses.

Hair bobbles have to be black. School bag all black, again no embellishments or brands. Tights a certain denier. They even specified that bras should not be visible through school shirts. Dd wouldn't let me email and tell them what I thought about that little gem.

The uniform is checked as they file in, something like 200 students in isolation for the first few days, some parents were even in the evening news. This is an urban school in a very poor area with a mix of demographics attending. All it did was highlight the difference between parents who could afford the ridiculous rules and those who couldn't.

Cricket kit's a killer: trousers, shirt, Jersey, spikes, helmet, pads, bat, bag. Not surprising it's rarely played now in state schools.

DSprimary school has a logo jumper. That’s it. Supermarket white polo shirts and grey trousers. Supermarket white t shirt and black shorts for PE.

Outstanding school.

The local comp has branded v neck jumper. No blazer. White shirt, grey trousers or skirt. You need a black or blue coat/jacket, no big logos. Any backpack.

Again outstanding over subscribed school with top 5 best GCSE results for state schools in the county.

Not sure why some schools insist on so much branded expensive uniform.

I hated my school but I think one thing that they got 'right' was in what is now year 7 you sewed your own PE bag. There was a contribution for materials.

The next thing we sewed was a skirt and it could be a school skirt or a PE skirt.

I think the school should provide the initial uniform with a legally set price, the school should be able to claim from government for children on FSM and parents on benefits.

If the school could only charge say £150 (from parents or government) for secondary the uniforms would soon become affordable.

@sashh The next thing we sewed was a skirt and it could be a school skirt or a PE skirt.

Getting a PE skirt to wear would have been good motivation to be quick with your sewing!

@LLWK

Yes it' odd how PE skirts have gone out of fashion.

I should probably say that it was a girls' school.

And how is a dark coat safe for walking to and from school in the depths of winter!

Yeah, living near a secondary school where kids often walk out in front of you, one piece of uniform i’d support is a high vis jacket, or at least armbands!

I remember the pain of buying the school's own PE kit on the same day as a bunch of other specialist gear for one of her GCSE subjects. Imagine the resentment at taking the PE stuff, unworn, to the charity shop at the end of Y11, having discovered it had been fine to do PE in Tesco shorts and white T shirt.

[quote sashh]@LLWK

Yes it' odd how PE skirts have gone out of fashion.

I should probably say that it was a girls' school.[/quote]
It seems "skorts" are the preferred item now.

Logo PE kit in high schools is such a waste. I could have bought tbe same items in asda for a 3rd of the price. Unless your child is on a team competing against other schools then surely they don't need logo everything for a PE kit.

@CecilyP

And how is a dark coat safe for walking to and from school in the depths of winter!

Yeah, living near a secondary school where kids often walk out in front of you, one piece of uniform i’d support is a high vis jacket, or at least armbands!

My children were given school loged high vis jackets once. They were never used... They couldn't wear school uniform on trips, they didn't need them at school, they didn't them on the school bus...

Imho branded pe kit should only be If you are playing a sport for the school. Dd needed new pe leggings but they werent in stock by the time September rolled round.
So I sent her in plain black leggings (with a note explaining that the ONLY shop you can buy them from hasnt recieved the stock yet)
They still kicked off about it but I went down and kicked off more and they eventually relented and agreed dd could do pe in plain black leggings but not to make a habit of it.
I do wonder what magical powers that schools name written down the side of them has over her pe performance.