£420 a year on school uniform?

[weareallout]

Just heard that i£420 is average on the news. Our high is no where near.
£40 blazer / lasts more than 1 year
£5 tie
£10-20 jumper
£10 PE top of £5 non logo
Any black shorts and trainers.
Black trousers and white shirts

When I read school uniform threads, am always relieved DC’s went to a non uniform school. Just wore the same clothes as they would do at weekends and holidays.

It's about £400 per child at the beginning of the year if they need a new blazer, a bit less than £300 if not. But shoes, trousers, shirts, tights, rugby socks all have to be replaced at least once during the school year. This is purely for the compulsory uniform, I've not included football/rugby boots and trainers in this as they use them outside school as well.
As they are in secondary school, it's harder to get second hand uniform as kids wear it into the ground before they grow out of it.

we moved to forrin a few years ago and no uniform is a lot less stressful both for us parents and the dc.

school has only two clothing rules: torso must be covered and no large letters/branding/slogans on clothes or bags.

secondary school is still expensive due to the additional things they need. like computer, multiple pairs of shoes, school trips, bus pass etc.

I originally posted on this in July when it went out and having just done the uniform shop today this post sprang back into my mind!

My son is going into year 10 this year, I’ve just had to purchase:

Pack of 5 shirts - £18.50
4 Pairs of trousers - £28.00
A new blazer - £50.25
New socks - £11.50
New school shoes - 127.20

Thats £235.45

He still needs:
2 jumpers - £17
P.E base layers for winter - £10.00
Which will take the total to: £262.45

Whilst not technically uniform I’ve also had to purchase the following mandatory items due to my son having lost, broken, used them up:

A new scientific calculator - £11.00
A protractor / ruler / compass set - £5.00
A pack of pens - £2.50
A pack of pencils - £1.00

Totalling £281.95 to make him ready for going back to school in September.

I suspect before the year is out I’ll have had to purchase a few extra ties at £6 each as these get lost a lot, which would round up to about £300 over the year.

This is the first year he hasn’t needed a new school bag or water bottle at the start of the year which is around another £30.00 and may still be needed at a later date.

We have managed to avoid having to buy new P.E Trainers, P.E Shorts & P.E Top so far but if he needs them further into the school year could be another £70-80.

That is a definite spend of £300 this school year with a potential spend of up to £410.00 over the course of the whole year.

So yeah I think £420 sounds about right for the average secondary school child. As I said previously I’m north west with an average uniform, for those further south or from fancier schools where uniform is even more stringent I imagine it could cost quite a bit more.

I guess if no uniform he'd need several sets clothes anyway but the PE kits cost lots