£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

We were lucky though with D's uniform it was only the blazer and tie and PE kit that hadcto.be bought from.a certain shop ,trousers ,shirts etc could be bought from the supermarket
Some of the local.academy schools have everything logoed,and cost s a fortune .

It would cost that to set them up if you choose to buy all new at the start of year 7, but then you typically only need two or three sizes in five years, not five.

We bought with growing room, though I was helped by slow growers. DD1 had the same blazer for 5 years. DD2 had 2 in total.

At primary and spend nowhere near that. £100 per child probably (branded PE jumper (£15), branded school jumper x 2 (£36), the rest from super markets.
If you add school shoes which we normally need two pairs of during the year, that probably bumps it up to £200.

I wish it was that! Private school Yr 7 was that just for the sports kit and then £400 more on uniform. Can only get from 1 stockist and the blazer is wool so that's nearly £100.
DD started in clothes 2 sizes too big to try and eek them out.

It’s a big outlay at the beginning, but dd is going into Y11 and I have only bought 2 “sets” of uniform since Y7.
DC2 is now wearing the outgrown set.

I have had to buy school shoes yearly, but PE trainers have lasted 2 years+.

I actually bought a lot second hand, but if I had bought it all new it would have been:

2 PE kits £130 each =£260
2 blazers £65 each =£130
2 jumpers £15 each =£30
6 packs school shirts £15 each =£90
4 school skirts £15 each =60
4 school trousers £14 each = £56
2 packs socks £5 each =£10
5 school shoes £40 each =£200
5 packs tights £6 each =£30

£866 across 5 years or £433 for each complete set.

Rougly £173 per year if it lasts and you can buy with growing room.

My eldest starts secondary this year and the school have a scheme where all parents get their first blazer/tie/pe top/shorts free. I still spent £45 quid in the shop when I picked them up on a gum shield, outdoor pe top, socks and pe bag! Ill probably pay another 200 out on shirts/trousers/school shoes/football boots/bag and stationary.

Luckily my middle one is sorted until he leaves secondary in school jumpers, ill probably just spend £100 replacing shoes/trousers/shirts and pe kit.

My youngest is slow growing, like her brothers were until 8ish so she'll be ok again this year with just a new pair of shoes.

Expensive!

I think it is expensive. Our schools don’t even demand fancy stuff but kids grow and are hard on clothes. Shoes are a challenge. Indoor shoes, indoor gym shoes, outdoor running shoes, school shoes, wellies and football boots. Going up a size can easily cost £££. I try and keep costs down by buying next size up football boots on vinted. Also by buying indoor gym shoes and asking children to use them for indoors too. Buying trainers in black as school shoes/ outdoor running shoes. Even at that it costs £100 or so a size

Do you struggle to size on vinted with football boots? My son tends to need a few sizes up with them so I need him to try them on! Would love to save some money on them as they cost me the most!

Easily 420 average.

Dd1

Logo blazer every year so far (out grows it) £50
Logod shirt x4 £28
Logod trousers X2 £36
Logo jumper X1 £20
School shoes X1 £50
P.E shorts £9
P.E jersey £15
P.E t-shirt £10
P.E socks £8
Coat £30
Bag (needs replacing every year so far) £15
Trainers for P.E £40
Stationary £15

Total £320 ish, just for starting. Not including new shirts/shoes throughout year. Normal school up North. If your kids grow fast, you have to replace each year.

Fascinating

My dd ( now uni) managed with 3 school skirts and 2 blazers in total over her secondary years

Take off at home
Spot clean if needed

PE kit and shoes was expensive though and she was sporty so every team

I think it depends on how generic the school's uniform is. My DCs' school has a very simple uniform - plain white shirts, dark blue blazers, dark blue skirts or grey trousers. One of the local schools has purple and white striped shirts, purple blazers and grey skirts and trousers. The latter is clearly going to be much more expensive.

Ds is going into yesr 9 in September. I replaced his trousers last month so they will be fine same with school shoes. All he will need for September is a couple of new shirts.

his blazer is the same one from the start of year 7 and still fits fine.

his school is also very sensible in keeping costs down and ensuring second hand is available.

How long were the skirts to start with if they were still decent by the end?

My girls might have got away with it waist wise if they started with them a bit big or adjusted in, but not length wise.

I don’t think I spent that much but here goes:
hoodie £40
2 sweatshirts £60
3 polo shirts £70
black leggings £50 (they do wear out and need replacing)
trainers £120 this year
didn’t buy a coat so they squeezed into last year’s but definitely need one for September £70 (possibly more if they have a branded version)
bag £20
= £430
wow surprised at that.

Thats not counting underwear socks etc as they would need those anyway. No PE kit required as they wear trainers every day and play sports in their regular uniform. Stationery costs minimal and not required.

My dc is tall with big feet and fast growing! I am sure they are muckier than the average kid too so most of the uniform is washed every day.

Almost all our uniform has to come from a school supplier. I just did a virtual shop as if I was starting from scratch and everything came to about £360. (Included 2 jumpers, 2 pairs of trousers and 4 shirts) but that didn't include shoes, so with school shoes, trainers and football boots that would easily exceed that.

Blazers are around £40, but a nearby (state) schools blazers are over £100 each!! Pe tshirts for my DC are £24, pe socks (which forever get lost!) are £8/pair. My DDs skirts were around £26 each, the other schools skirts are £40 each!

DD had 2 blazers and 4 school skirts that lasted 5 years, and iirc 2 sets of pe kit, some of which I bought second hand. although her shirts were replaced every term at one stage. A pair of shoes would generally last a year, so I don't think I'd have spent anything like that much.

DS has had a growth spurt this year so has necessitated buying new school shoes, trousers, trainers etc (blazer and shirts will be ok until the end of term but hes had for 2 years anyway.

I guess there are all sorts of factors- the cost of the uniform in the first place, how much wear and tear it gets (DS has 2 pe kits because he does lots of lunch time clubs, or after school matches for the school, DD did the PE lessons and nothing else so 1 was sufficient) and how quickly your kids grow. My DC are pretty small so we rarely needed to replace uniform more than yearly or 2 yearly. (Apart from shoes)

See if the school has a second hand uniform shop. My ds secondary was logo everything, apart from trousers. I used to deck him out each year for about a tenner from the second hand shop all though.

My dds primary isn’t logo, but I still use the second hand shop. Just got 4 tesco school cardigans for 50p each, two blue gingham dresses for 10p each.

Luckily, they’ve never given a monkeys about brands so are happy with supermarket school shoes and trainers.

I went to a private school. The uniform was horrendously expensive, and horrendously bizarre.

The school used to hold a second hand uniform sale every year. The first year I was at the school my mother went in trepidation expecting to be the only parent there trying to snap up a deal. The queue went out of the front gate of the school and down the street. Everyone sold the grown out of uniforms on to the smaller children. I think after the first year the only time I got something new was a Winter coat when I had been there about 7 years.

It was the same with textbooks too. We bought them from the school at the start of the year and sold them back at the end. If we had looked after the books we got most of the money back, if we had wrecked or lost them, then our parents got nothing. I think I had a sixth hand history book for about 20p.

Do schools not do second hand uniform sales any more?

All schools in Scotland are being strongly encouraged by the Scottish Government to poverty proof their school uniforms.

That means phasing out unnecessary logos and ensuring all uniform can be bought in supermarkets.

A lot of secondary demand branded trousers and skirts.
no plain jumpers so can’t be purchased at the supermarket.

It’s all down to deals with uniform suppliers.

Apparently a stop is being put to it in September but I doubt it.

Ridiculous. Why is it even legal and not challenged in court? Isn't education supposed to be FREE in state schools?

Some of your uniform costs are horrendous!

Youngest dc is at primary and will need some unform topped up (he doesn't need a whole new set every August):

Trainers £40 max but £30 would be better
Shorts x 3 from Next £27 or less if I can get some 2nd hand
Zippy hoodie thing should still fit but if not it's £7 in asda

All his polo shirts were bought in April so are still fine. Non logo and 2 for £9 on ebay £36 total

Teenager is at a non uniform high school, thank god, so no extra costs there.

Branded uniforms are ridiculous anyway. No child will get a better education wearing a £36 jumper with a logo verses a £5 one from Asda.

I went to a grammar school where the only place you could buy uniform was from one department store in a specific town. Even the shirts were an odd colour with a funny collar so there was no getting away from it, the skirts had a funny pleat that you couldn’t have replicated anywhere else.

Unfortunately, I had a parent who wasn’t well off, but could have afforded a new skirt or shirt in the 6 years I was there but didn’t. I left at 16 wearing the same skirt (just one), shirt and blazer I started in at 11. I used to boil to death in the summer as I had to sew a panel of pillowcase down the back of my shirt so it would fit (I am very large chested), so had to wear the blazer at all times to cover the back. The blazer obviously didn’t do up after a couple of years, so I spent my school days horrendously uncomfortable! He wouldn’t buy the books I needed either, so I either went without and was in trouble constantly, or I used to steal them.

Thats why I hate branded uniforms. There are children who’s parents either can’t or won’t spend the money and the children suffer and end up getting bullied.

We're at a private school with nothing that you can dupe from the supermarket, and yes, if you go to the school uniform shop with the list & buy everything new then you will spend that, or more. But there are always second hand uniform sales - I had to kit both my girls out from scratch for this September for various reasons, and I hit up the second hand sale and got almost everything for both girls for £130, which was great.

I'll still need to get them the polo shirt (new, because the 2nd hand ones were v faded) x 2, 1 PE storm jacket thing and shoes, that's all, so probably another £200.

I think if you're precious about 2nd hand uniform, you'll spend quite a lot over your school career, but if you're pretty flexible, you can keep it down much lower.