£25 for a PE top! AIBU to think this is OUTRAGEOUS?

[PokerFaceGrace]

State secondary school in a deprived town with a majority of social housing.

Apparently previously the PE top was an £8 polo top with logo but they’ve done away with this for the new Yr7’s who have to buy the new £25 jazzed up version. In addition to track suit, rugby top and socks so looking at close to £100 just for PE kit not including trainers and you just know that half of it is going to get lost stolen within the first few weeks.

AIBU to think this is an utter piss take, and be ‘that’ parent and complain, before DC has even started there?

We bought dd a rugby top. Never been worn.
Also bought football boots. They've been worn once in 3 years.

Not much change from £75 for the rugby and PE tops (both compulsory), that is before you get any shorts/ socks/ mouth guard etc. and don't get me started on the (dry clean only) blazer. State school. Fortunately have sourced some secondhand.

DD starting secondary, initial order of bare minimum uniform items from only supplier comes to £501. (Some sports items still to be add to that total, and I think we'll also need more blouses.)

Blazer £80
Skirts £26 each
Blouses £13 each
House colour T-shirt £21
Girls fit polo £29
Skort £31
Sweater £32
etc.

It is private school, so wasn't expecting cheap, but still amazed at how it adds up.

Someone else said it upthread but I just can't believe what nonsense English (and Welsh?) have to put up with.

My kids are at one of the best performing state schools in Scotland. They need a tie (£5) and a blazer (£32). Everything else is black and white. Buy it anywhere. There are no branded sweaters, or PE tops, or shorts, or socks - they simply don't exist.

For PE there are some very easy to adhere to rules. Dark bottoms, light tops. Dress for the weather - shorts in summer, leggings/joggers in winter. Light coloured top/t-shirt. No offensive slogans. No alcohol/cigarette branding. Hoodie if you want it for winter, again, lighter in colour and no offensive slogans or symbols.

If your child plays for a school team, then the SCHOOL holds the kit. In a selection of sizes. So your child wears the kit for the hockey match or football match, then you return it to school at the end of term. PTA will fund new kit as and when.

All this nonsense about £25 PE kits and branded socks is just LUNACY.

Same at DD's school she started secondary last year and her uniform inc shoes came to £600 + she's hardly had any wear out of it due to covid anc she's grown
Loads so new needed for yr 8. School also insist on initials and logos embroidered on so difficult to get second hand

I thought there was a new law to prevent schools doing this?

www.gov.uk/government/news/new-law-to-make-school-uniform-costs-affordable-for-all

VariantL1130 also gives good advice

We had to buy all that for September last year. Then school announced Pe kit all day on dance, drama and Pe days. My childs rota means he doesn’t have to wear the stupidly expensive blazer. Can’t pass it on to his siblings because they have boys and girls blazers. We go though a pair of Pe trousers every approx 3/4 weeks and that’s after patching up as the knees go thought on the first wear basically.

My daughters’ secondary school is an academy so I don’t know if the rules apply

Our blazers weren’t too expensive £35.00 and neither of mine grew very fast. DD2 had the same blazer all the way through. They were good quality and could go in the tumble dryer. Girls had to have blazers with striped lining though as they kept rolling their sleeves up and that was obviously the end of the world. The blazers with the stripey lining were £5 more expensive than the ones with plain lining.

We could buy plain black trousers wherever we wanted but school specified the width of the legs. They also had to be the same width at the knee as they were at the ankle. Slightly tapered trousers or anything vaguely fashionable was also the end of the world. It was impossible to find trousers that fit with their exacting requirements, helpfully though, school had a supplier that sold trousers at the exact width required - at £25 a pair.

We were very kindly given 1 free tie, however, girls had to wear open necked shirts - which couldn’t be worn with a tie.

When they went back after lockdown in March I kept getting angry messages from school as DD’s plain, black skort for PE wasn’t the school logoed one and she wouldn’t be allowed to take part in lessons if I didn’t buy her a proper one. I refused - she was year 11 and was leaving in 2 months so (I bought her a cheapo job from Sports Direct) and they weren’t even doing physical sports in their PE lessons anyway (still had to wear their full games kit on days they had PE lessons)

It’s shit that kitting out girls costs more than kitting out boys.

It’s horrendous. For my son I had to have a house rugby too and then school one @ £35 each. Shorts, socks, tracksuit. Polo shirt and swim shorts (both logo’d). Indoor trainers, outdoor trainers. Rugby boots. Shinguards, mouth guards, head guard (that he never wore). Then full set of cricket whites, bat, helmet, pads. Bags.

Daughters similar although one only has skort, too and hoodie and plain leggings. Other has that lot plus tracksuit and gym shorts. Is never ending.

Bloody ridiculous. Have the school attempted to justify it?

I don't know How much we paid for DS1 rugby shirt, he was over 6 foot tall, a number 8 if you know rugby. I'm still wearing his shirt around the house. My children never had expensive uniforms. One year the head tried to stop girls wearing a fashionable pair of right trousers. They carried on wearing them en masse. They're not as tight as they were then but some girls are wearing leggings.

@FairAdmissions

I thought there was a new law to prevent schools doing this?

www.gov.uk/government/news/new-law-to-make-school-uniform-costs-affordable-for-all

VariantL1130 also gives good advice

Wow!! I had not heard of this law!!! This is really good news though I'm confused why school haven't told us this.

Contact the school. Even if the proposal is not yet law, they would not wish to fall foul of it. One consequence of this could be children being withdrawn from PE for spurious reasons to avoid this expense.

Let your MP know as well.

Alloalloallo

If it costs more to kit out girls than boys, then it also falls foul of equalities legislation.

The current guidance

Don't know if they plan to update it before it becomes statutory in autumn.

I would write to the school and ask if they can demonstrate how they took the guidance into consideration, bearing in mind this will be a statutory requirement from Autumn 2021. For example, can they detail the steps they took to come up with their current uniform policy, reasons for rejecting non-branded alternatives and perhaps provide minutes if the meetings where this was discussed?

If it costs more to kit out children of a particular gender, remind them of the equalities act.

I think that schools should not be allowed to insist on branded and logoed uniform and PE kit, only from named suppliers. It puts the price sky high and is very unfair on parents, especially those on low incomes.

Secondary schools are by far the worst offenders with this, although primary schools may be getting in on the act now.

All of the secondary schools my three DDs went to did this. It was hugely expensive. It is one of the things that turns me against school uniform, which I used to be very much in favour of.

We had this with ds' school a few years ago too. In the beginning it was fine to have polo shirts or t-shirts from a supermarket and PE shorts.

But then they decided to have a school PE kit. I was really cross at the time as it was much more expensive.

But. It was great. It looked good, washed and wore well and lasted for Y9-Y11 so I only had to buy it once. So the supermarket versions might be a false economy and definitely don't look good.

I agree generally that state school uniform should be logo-free and easy to buy - there was another thread on this earlier this week. But I did like ds' PE kit.

If it costs more to kit out girls than boys, then it also falls foul of equalities legislation

or vice versa - in ds' school, boys had to wear ties but girls didn't.

I bought the whole lot for my DS who started in September, rugby top, shorts, indoor kit, outdoor kit, white soled trainers for the sports hall, socks, gum shield.
He's only worn the trainers as no getting changed for PE.

Ds is starting secondary school - they provide all pupils with their first full uniform and PE kit and then the prices to replace things as needed are very reasonable.

Uniform prices can be crazy. DD’s pe shirt, which incidentally is hideous, cost nearly £30. They could easily do pe in a plain white polo shirt from Asda that’s a couple of quid. Even worse, DD’s school is “ rebranding” so she needs new stuff for year 8!

Yep, when my eldest started sch 17 yrs ago , it cost about £150 to kit him out just for primary. When he went to secondary it initially cost £400 to kit him out. My youngest started secondary 3 yrs ago and it cost £450! He too has now grown out of it all so we he needs another full re kit out this summer , to get him through Yrs 10 & 11. If that is not bad enough, when he starts sixth form i will have pay another £600 per yr , for the sch bus pass. Had to do same for my eldest. Free sch travel not applicable for 6th form. Paid £1200 for my eldest for 2 yrs and will do same again ....assuming it has not gone up by then. Live in a village and i work full time so no other way to get to sch apart from county sch bus.Add in all the childcare over the yrs for them both too when they were young, it is knocking on the door of £100k , over the 21 yrs i have had kids so far. Putting both my boys in childcare for 3 yrs each (2-5yrs ) old cost me £64k in itself. And no help as i apparently earned too much! Electronics, trainers, driving lessons, pocket money. Kids are not cheap!!!

Last year DS went into Year 10 and they have different colour tops to years 7-9. I had to pay £17 for each logoed polo shirt for secondary school and he needed 5. They are good quality though and still look like new. Logoed sweatshirt from uniform shop cost £38 each and had to.have different colour one for sports.

If kids all wore black shorts or jogging bottoms and plain white T-shirts life would be so much cheaper. At a time when schools know some kids have food shortages and have to use food banks it is disgusting.

When I was a kid we just used a coloured band to show which team we were in.

The law only says schools have to 'consider' cost. That's still pretty much toothless. Until we get a law that says schools must have a uniform that is available from high street retailers and that they must provide sew-on/iron on logos at cost prices, this will continue. Uniform is big business.