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?!

I hope it goes through. If they are insisting on uniform they need to stick to the basics with have items in certain colours that can be bought cheaply. Cut out all the extra rules about coats, socks and hair styles and colours.

I really cannot understand why schools invent extra rules for the sake of it, thereby spending time on policing it and taking away focus on education.

my kids school pe kit was ridiculous
white shorts polo socks and dunlop green flash for indoor pe plus
black rugby shorts school rugby socks and 2 rugby shirts (1 home and away) jogging bottoms and football shirt plus rugby and football boots

When I asked why they needed 2 rugby shirts especially as they werent in the school team I was told it was so they could split the class into teams for the pe lessons.
what the hell is wrong with wearing a coloured sash or tabard to differentiate teams, the bloody shirts were 27 quid each.

the blazer was 45 quid and this was 20 years ago. I used to remove the pocket with the embroidered logo pn and sew it on to a generic blazer of the same colour from John lewis

I just can't believe the hair one and why parents haven't protested. At least they can take uniform off but why should they need to have a regulated haircut that affects out of school time also? It's school, not the army.

Rule that needs to be tied back for pe and some science classes for health and safety for boys and girls. Job done.

@reesewithoutaspoon

my kids school pe kit was ridiculous white shorts polo socks and dunlop green flash for indoor pe plus black rugby shorts school rugby socks and 2 rugby shirts (1 home and away) jogging bottoms and football shirt plus rugby and football boots

When I asked why they needed 2 rugby shirts especially as they werent in the school team I was told it was so they could split the class into teams for the pe lessons.
what the hell is wrong with wearing a coloured sash or tabard to differentiate teams, the bloody shirts were 27 quid each.

My school had reversible sports shirts including rugby ones - one side had a stripe the other didn't so teams could be split that way so we only needed one of everything.

There is definitely some crap thinking going on around uniforms.

@reesewithoutaspoon When I asked why they needed 2 rugby shirts especially as they werent in the school team I was told it was so they could split the class into teams for the pe lessons. what the hell is wrong with wearing a coloured sash or tabard to differentiate teams, the bloody shirts were 27 quid each.

My school had reversible rugby shirts. Blue with a wide red band on one side, plain blue on the other. Two teams sorted.

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

I swear they create problems so they can flog you the over proved solution. Even when appearing to be reasonable amd allowing alternate sources they aren't.

For instance base layers. Must be plain black. All the cheap supermarket ones have coloured piping. It goes under the clothes. Most thats gonna be visible is part of the arms. Not to worry school.shop sells them....

No hoodies. They survived all primary school with a hood on their tracksuit top suddenly that 6 pound plain black.or navy hoody in tesco you usually buy is no good.that 1 hour twice a week , be anarchy if they had a hooded tracksuit top

School supplier to the rescue

School jumpers. Despite everywhere from asda tbrough to John Lewis selling a range of red, blue ( navy and royal) green, purple, black, grey crew neck amd v neck jumpers that would be perfect for under the blazer or instead of, even if no logo is permitted you can garuntee it will be some bizarre hybrid shade of grey/black that you cant get anywhere besides....any guesses where ????

And sports leggings must be plain black with no logos. Better sharpie out that Nike tick. Because they make damn sure that the entire range of easily amd cheaply available sports direct leggings will somehow be unsuitable. And regular plain black leggings sold everywhere well...seems the shine and the spandex must have magic powers because they aren't allowed either. See through dance tights at 16 quid a pop from from school shop it is then...

And its hardly a choice of pleated school skirt if the pleats now have exact measurements. Who knew 5mm could render a sainsbury skirt so useless...not to worry if the one branch if next that sells the only acceptable high street skirt is rammed with every school girl in the town and out if stock they will happily sell you a skirt with added delivery fees on top. Problem solved.

@Iwantacookie

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.

Agreed its nuts. DD has to have PE kit with school name on - just why? She doesn't play for the school.

DD's school uniform widely available from supermarkets;
White shirt
Black trousers (can't be tight fitting)

DD's school uniform with Logo only available from 1 expensive supplier;
Blazer
Jumper
Kilt skirt
Tie
PE polo shirt
PE long-sleeved top
PE socks
PE skin top (this is literally worn under another top so why does it need a logo?!)
PE tracksuit top
PE tracksuit bottoms
PE Shorts or skort
PE Joggers or leggings (again don't understand the need for these as well as the tracksuit)

I hate how expensive school uniforms are and the silly rules that come with it! As PP mentioned things like no hoodies allowed...but you can wear a coat/rain mac that has a hood!. DD's school have a different tie for each year and they can't easily be handed down to siblings because of how they pass the different colours on, so the current year 11's tie will become the new year's 7's. They also have different colours on the logo depending on your school house, again unless siblings end up in the same house you can't hand it down...oh and the school decided to change the uniform just over a year ago. You'd think it would be something vastly different but it wasn't, they just changed the piping colour on the main uniform and the side panel colour on the PE kit.

@reesewithoutaspoon

the blazer was 45 quid and this was 20 years ago. I used to remove the pocket with the embroidered logo pn and sew it on to a generic blazer of the same colour from John lewis

My blazer was £65 35 years ago - you didn't have to wear it - but you hadhave it - my form teacher insisted on seeing it - so I borrowed a friend's - they had their suspicions so asked to see the name tag - I knew they would and had sewed a name tag on it and passed the inspection! So what benefit did that serve? They were happy with bullshit facade - mind you that is what uniform is bullshit - teaching can be absolutely crap but as long as the externals look good and uniform is smart - people can be fooled into believing the standards extend to teaching too!

I had PE knickers and pleated skirt for PE in the early 90s! Eugh, we hated them! The boys could wear shorts. A girl wore shorts once and her parents were contacted to make sure she wore a skirt the following week!

DD can now wear shorts or the tracksuit bottoms, both far more comfortable and practical.

@ArtemisiaGentle "gym knickers" Hateful things, but at least they were cheap!

Here is something to make you ponder.

When I went to secondary school I was at the RC school and out uniform was navy. But the other comps in the town all had the same uniform, it was grey with a horrible nylon shirt in green stripes (for girls, I know boys had grey but not sure of shirt colour).

At 14 some would leave (the other comps not the RC schools) to go the the grammar school or the high school - just to confuse people grammar was the boys grammar and the high school was the girls grammar.
so did need uniform then.

If uniform is about people being equal (which we know it is not) then having the same uniform across different schools achieves that better than every school having its own uniform.

Although if you are going to have a uniform I do like Christ's hospital.

If School uniform making students equal through uniform was important then it would be a measured objective by Ofsted because it looks like the vanity of headteachers cannot be trusted to meet this requirement voluntarily.

The fixation with uniform in UK schools is bizarre. And the guff about it not disadvantaging poorer kids? It's guff. Back in the middle ages when i went to (private, boarding) school we rented the uniform from the school. If you were an odd size, or got lucky you might be the first person to have one particular item. It worked well though.

But we still knew who all the rich kids were. They were collected by the chauffer in the bentley. Or whatever.

All it would take would be for schools to only use standard colours and allow supply of sew on logos. Most supermarket/chain suppliers do the standard colours

Definitely agree parents are held over a barrel by vain heads. Dc previous primary school the uniform was changed mid way through year 1 and of course parents were expected to go out any buy new kit.

KS1 wore branded polo shirts, everyone else wore white shirts, ties and grey trousers /dresses. For summer it was polo shirts for all the boys and some sporty girls and summer dresses for the rest. I never quite understood why bother with all this faffing with shirts vs polos. But she was adamant that she wanted the kids to wear ties.

DS got a bursary and scholarship to private school. I had not realised that their uniform and equipment demands would be so expensive.....Hockey stick, rugby head protector, gloves for rugby, branded socks at £6 per pair....and a different outfit for every sports they played: athletics was completely different kit to football for example. Different boots required for football, rugby and hockey, Astro trainers required as well as standard trainers. Cricket whites including jumper. Showerproof branded tracksuit plus branded mid layer. Three pairs of different sports shorts for the boys. They introduced new items adhoc eg suddenly introduced another sports top which was £46....And it looked terrible and the black on it looked all looked brown in the summer.

And it turned out that the expensive mandatory sports school branded bag was never used...because it couldn't fit all the items in it. But by that time I had written his name in it so it couldn't be returned. All the kids (age 7-13) had wheelie bags like at the airport...and not the small ones either.

It was an absolute joke. I added it all up to being over £800. Tried to pressurise them to downsize their sports kit but their Head of Sport was known for being a cow, and one with some sort of hold over the Head as well: she did whatever she wanted and so carried on introducing new kit every year and shouting at the kids for wearing the wrong design....eg it had a full length zip from. 2019 rather than the 2020 version with a half zip. I called her on it once in a meeting in front of the Head but she flat out denied telling the kids off for this.

I am so glad to be out of there and now have two kids at schools where the uniform is normal.

YY let’s not even get into private schools. School tunic for a 6yr old at £48, blazer at £85. Silly felt or straw hat that is only worn for 10 minutes each morning or afternoon from car to classroom and back again. I have told dc that they absolutely must not grow a single flipping inch between now and the winter term.

Who else here had 'PE knickers'?
Me. Maroon ones, for saving our modesty under the netball skirt.

On a slightly different note, I found Scout & Guide uniforms a nightmare. We got some second hand bits. But the new things we needed to buy - the unit leaders would say, "You only need a polo shirt, they all wear jeans or tracksuit bottoms, don't waste your money on anything else." Then you'd go to the uniform supplier & they'd say, "Oh, but they all wear the cargo pants / baseball cap / raincoat, your child will be the only one who doesn't."

I had a stand-off down the Scout hut more than once over uniform the volunteers wanted to flog me "Oh, but they look so smart in the full kit!" Yes, until they fall in the mud or get covered in icing sugar.

@TheOrchidKiller as a Scout leader I agree with you. Only uniform we ask for is shirt for scouts and jumpers for Beavers and Cubs. And advise buying big to last the whole time.
Scouting should be affordable for all.

My DD's old primary had a weird uniform supply system. The school is in a deprived area, 85% of kids on free school dinners majority of whom live within 0.3 miles of the school yet the only supplier of their uniform is a shop 3 miles away with no direct public transport. If you don't have a car you need to catch two buses with a 45 min wait between buses. Alternatively, you can have the goods delivered for the same cost as a branded jumper. No second hand sales at the school. The ridiculous thing is that there is a rival school uniform shop in the next village along 1 mile away which would be a lot more convenient

@TheOrchidKiller Who else here had 'PE knickers'? Me. Maroon ones, for saving our modesty under the netball skirt.

Awful though they were, they served a purpose. At the school I was talking about earlier in the thread, the girls wear skorts for PE, for the same reason. But then in drama lessons, they have to wear their regular, above the knee skirt but take their tights off - so exposing their pants every time they sit on the floor etc..

[quote Aroundtheworldin80moves]@TheOrchidKiller as a Scout leader I agree with you. Only uniform we ask for is shirt for scouts and jumpers for Beavers and Cubs. And advise buying big to last the whole time.
Scouting should be affordable for all.[/quote]
Out of school activities are another interesting area. DS1 plays tennis at a large and successful club, but it's very relaxed. For the minis, as long as they have trainers, they can wear what they like. It goes against the stereotype of tennis clubs being snooty - but a friend's DS plays football, and their "training kit" requirements are crazy.

I had a stand-off down the Scout hut more than once over uniform the volunteers wanted to flog me "Oh, but they look so smart in the full kit!" Yes, until they fall in the mud or get covered in icing sugar. Some people really have a thing for uniform the problem is to ensure that it is uniform they have to force everyone else takes part. Dressing kids as mini working adults was weird enough but now the adults no longer wear the crap we ask the kids to wear - the kids at our school have a higher standard of workwear than the teachers...I do not understand the point of it.