School blazer - £90?!

[Livvielo]

Posting for traffic really… DD 11 starts secondary school in September, and we are just purchasing her uniform… £90 for a blazer?! Is that the norm?! That’s without the school skirt, PE kit and various other bits that have to be purchased from the school. How many blazers do you buy? This is just a catholic comprehensive girls school, although it is regarded as extremely good.
But £90 for a blazer?? Is that not a bit OTT?

It's a nightmare. I'd highly recommend Treads shoes before they start requesting the super expensive ones. Treads guarantee a year's wear or they replace them.

Ours cost about £30 and we buy one

It’s a horrid uniform as well. Think yellow and brown and blue… all on one blazer confused Specific shirt as well- yellow striped and very distinctive. No chance of a supermarket copy. Arghhh

Sorry I was trying to quote that. I was going to say it sounds like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat!

£26 for blazer at my sons new school. Although tbh I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more for better quality, as the cut is not very good. DS thinks it doesn’t fit (the shoulders are massive) but I think that’s because the only times he has ever worn similar have been fitted suits for weddings.

My DDs uniform is similar, also Catholic state, although the blazer is £40 it costs around £400 to fully kit out. DD1 only went though two blazers in her time there so overall not too bad.

I work in a nearby, also Catholic state, and blazers are similar to yours. It's an extortionate amount of money.

Second hand shop people! Good grief! Our school blazer is more than £90, don’t know the exact price because I got one in great condition second hand for £20. It would have cost more than £400 to buy the uniform my one child (not including shirts and trousers from the high street) if I’d got everything new. I got it ALL for less than £100 in the second hand shop!

I meant it would cost more than £400 to buy the uniform for one child. I have more than one child so most uniform is passed on.

Private school - good quality uniform in the main that is fine second hand for my first child and fine to be passed down for my second.

Is there a Facebook group for the school where you can buy a second hand one?

Hand wash only school uniform is utterly absurd.

That's outrageous!

I teach in a state secondary and our blazers are £25-£40 depending on size. Shirts are all white so can be bought anywhere as can trousers/skirts.

Same with my son's primary. No blazer. Logo sweatshirt is optional so I buy one generally (£10.99) for photo day haha! I use plain supermarket versions most days as do most other parents. Same with polo shirts (and we can have red yay!) And trousers. PE kit is simple -black shorts and plain white tshirt.

I don't understand why schools insist on these elaborate and extremely expensive uniforms. It's madness!

In my experience of state and primary schools, there has always been a second hand shop run by school, a second hand system run by the PTA or an active second hand group on the school parents Facebook page. I buy new shirts and trousers and shoes. That’s about it.

Dd's blazer is £50. Skirts £30. Jumpers £30. School backpack £30* PE kit consisting of a top, trackies and hoodie, £70.

*Spoiler alert: her last backpack lasted 4 months before it got a hole in it. No, we are not allowed to buy one from Sports Direct.

All the above must be bought from one shop. We can buy the blouses off Amazon but you only save £2. This is a state secondary. The headteacher can spot fakes at 100 paces, and detention is given until the "official" uniform is purchased.

I shit you not.

We had a similar issue at DD’s school (I had to read all your posts on the thread @Livvielo to check it wasn’t the same school!) I bought just one, with room for growth, and it lasted the whole time she was there. Whereas I had to replace my son’s cheaper one a couple of times.

Try looking for a swap or secondhand page. I worked in a school uniform shop before starting uni so the cost didnt surprise me when I had children. But it is annoying.

However, what surprises me every single year as a high school teacher is the amount of uniform items that gets lost in school that is not ever labelled. Why do people spend a small fortune on uniform, complain about the cost, then not label up every item with their child’s name?!???! We have a housekeeper who, when she finds lost uniform, returns it to the child in their classroom if it is labelled.

And over the past twenty years this has got worse, with fewer parents labelling uniform.

Is it in Brentwood by any chance? Very distinctive if it is...sorry not rtwt

I bought a blazer two sizes up for my son and did a running stitch to tack up the sleeves. All year 7's have uniform that is too big, it's tradition . Managed 2 academic years wear out of his blazer and sold on for £20 at the end.

@Livvielo I went to that school and my blazer was so big in year 7 that it lasted to year 11. Sympathies as there is no alternative as so distinctive.

DS’s first blazer was about £30, last one was £40ish inc VAT but the VAT on school uniform is a rant for a different thread. Shirts, trousers, PE kit (except house coloured top) were all items that could be bought anywhere.

Their are laws now (or soon will be) to prevent these stupid costs of uniform as clearly they set up selection by wealth, preventing less well off families attending.

This year one of our churches in town has set up a swap shop idea. People take in old uniform and collect what they need next. No-one is stopped from taking if they haven’t given though. There are limits to what you can take: one blazer, two skirts/ trousers/ dresses, 3 shirts, 1 PE kit etc. Worked brilliantly as all the local schools were represented so families moving schools didn’t necessarily have to spend a fortune. All wonderfully set up as a shopping type experience rather than a scrum, clothes sorted and hung up etc. It was extremely popular.

Does the school run a bring & buy sale? Or a parents page where you can sell clean, good condition used uniform? Might be worth setting something up if they don’t do that already.

@balloonsintrees

Is it in Brentwood by any chance? Very distinctive if it is...sorry not rtwt

I bought a blazer two sizes up for my son and did a running stitch to tack up the sleeves. All year 7's have uniform that is too big, it's tradition . Managed 2 academic years wear out of his blazer and sold on for £20 at the end.

If it's not, that Brentwood school have the same uniform, DDs friend has just left and she despised the uniform. DD2s best friend is starting there in September too and also can't stand it

I don't understand why schools insist on these elaborate and extremely expensive uniforms. It's madness!

I think we can all work out why!

Haha @balloonsintrees I recognised it straight away! Surely there can’t be 2 schools out there with those same horrible colours? BK where my children go isn’t much better though.

YANBU OP. My mum went there in the 60s and it was similar then, my poor granny and grandad had to scrape the money together somehow. Mum always had hand-me-downs or not quite right bits and she hated it.

£86 here for my daughters. Forced to buy through Stevenson's who run the business like it's 1956 but must be making a tidy profit.

What's with all the handwash only!? I don't even own any clothes for myself that are handwash only.

I don't understand why schools insist on these elaborate and extremely expensive uniforms. It's madness!
Think about it.

Ours was also £94 but luckily we picked up a secondhand one in almost new condition for £10. We're now passing that one to someone else and have been given a fourth hand one as we're sizing up. Lots of the kids in our schools are wearing blazers that are threadbare in places but if the school want us to smarten up, they'll need to do something about the cost of new blazers. If we can't buy in the secondhand uniform sale, I'm guilty of buying two sizes up and taking up hems if needed then letting them down. Everything else, we buy from the supermarket.

@JulesCobb we label everything prominently but on the few occasions items have been left in the playground/classroom, these items have never found their way back or to the lost and found bin :-(