£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

not to mention the laptop computer that they need.

She was under the height limit for ditching the car seat when she started comp though, so she’s only just over 5ft now - the current trousers replacement rate makes up for still being in her reception uniform until the end of year 2! 🤣

@greenacrylicpaint what do state schools do about laptops? DDs private school you can hire a new device for a small set amount per term for 9 terms and then trade in for a new one. The device new would cost over 1K and we couldn't stretch to it (it is mandatory for all lessons) so how could parents who are on a very tight budget manage?

if you child is still in primary try to set money aside for the big kit out starting secondary.
uniform is only a part of what they need.

They don't have laptops generally. Everything is on paper. Some schools give Y7s Chromebooks they keep until Y11 but this is becoming more and more rare.

often they offer a rental scheme.

we had the choice of buying or renting (3 years for 100€ deposit and 30€ a month).

My son has spent a LOT less on clothes since he left school and went to college, then uni. And his secondary had by far the cheapest uniform in the area.

He went shopping last week. 3 pairs of jeans, 4 t shirts and a pair of shorts from Primark and even his nike jogging bottoms from Sports Direct cost a lot less than his school uniform.

That can’t be enough clothes for a full year though like uniform is?

@Foxesandsquirrels thank you, yes I was wondering with the current immemse squeeze on budgets how state schools manage this. So again then this is a serious disadvantage? I can't get my head around the fact that state primary schools teach coding and there is a lot of interaction with I.T but then at secondary they revert to paper!

OK thank you so same as DDs school then

Interesting! PE kits & branded items are much of the costs..
My DD has only had one blazer which still fits in third year high albeit a bit washed out. Most of the rest is non logo stuff. Tbh I don't count trainers as they have them anyway.
I'd say even with lots shirts / trousers they are multipack & cheap. School skirts defo lasting 3 years as she's grown up not out.

Just interested as I don't have kids. They spend a lot of time I their school uniform, so how does the annual cost of a uniform compare to how much you'd have to spend on clothes if there was a no uniform policy in schools?

They have computers in IT lessons. I'm not sure lack of laptop in lessons is that much of a disadvantage to be honest. I'm not sure I'd want DD in front of a laptop all day. I'm quite glad they have exercise books still.

I think it would be less enraging to people if the obligatory expensive stuff was all good quality and lasted. Lots of it isn’t.

Our local Facebook page is always full of complaints about the quality of the uniform at the other high school. The bags in particular seem to only last a year max despite being £65

Some schools near us have lovely fancy PE kits & skorts etc all branded.
But if your DC isn't representing school etc outside of PE lessons I don't see why anything other than cheap black shorts needed

I spend more than that with 3 DC.

We've just bought DD's for September in the sale at Sainsbury's and it was close to £100. Still need to buy 2 cardigans (£35 for those) and shoes (£40).

DS1 will be wearing his current blazer that is slightly too short and very manky already, because I absolutely refuse to spend £50 on a new one for year 11. It'll cost me £150 easily in shirts, trousers and jumpers for him. And new ties because they always go missing.

No idea how much DS2 will cost because we don't even know where he's going due to LA fuck ups.

There is an option of branded Item at dds school.

They are just tesco jumpers and polo shirts with the logo embroidered on. The tesco label is still in there.

So the polo shirts you can pick up for less than a tenner for a three pack in tesco now cost you £16 for one. This is one of the huge online school uniform companies.

So it’s not about quality.

Blazer is £40 - bought big in year 7 so DS has got 2 years out of his
Pack of shirts £15
Pack of trousers £15
pack of socks £5
School shoes £50
PE kit (all has to have logo) £30
Tie was £6.50 but obviously lasts the 5 years if they don’t lose it
Backpack big enough for all his stuff £40
Then PE trainers and football boots I got on Vinted this year so £30 for both

call it £230. Have 3 DC in secondary and then 1 DC starting primary, his uniform is around £150. You do the maths.

For me it wouldn’t be much different as thankfully mine go to schools with sensibly priced uniforms. Might save a bit on shoes but that’s about it.

The other school people would save a fair bit - £45 trousers, £25 shirts and a ridiculously expensive (and convoluted) PE uniform could be sourced much cheaper with equal or better quality. If they could wear a coat rather than the £90 blazer then that would be a big saving as those that wear coats (I know lots of teens don’t) need one anyway as well as the blazer.

That’s just cheeky.

But exactly what I mean. If for £16 you got a much better quality product it would at least take the sting out a bit.

If it’s a basic supermarket polo shirt then it should be basic supermarket prices.

Laptops not necessary at my kids school.

It depends on the family. You can see on this thread, some parents are buying 6 blouses and 4 skirts. They will probably spend a lot on clothes outside of school too. I know that I'd be spending a hell of a lot of money on non uniform for my DD if she didn't have uniform. The poorest kids are always the most effected by no uniform.
The £400 average isn't every year either and I don't think it should be including things like school bag, socks etc as those are essentials, uniform or not.
There was a brief period where the new free schools that had aspirations to be mock independent schools, were giving parents insane uniform expectations. Think grey socks with a red stripe, wool blazers, extensive PE kit for the 2hrs of PE a week etc. Detentions and internal suspensions for not complying.
There was a thread recently about acceptable school shoes. There definitely are very unreasonable schools that force you to pay ££££ for crappy polyester. The law changing did help. There is definitely a lot more of a secondhand uniform culture in state schools now, which didn't exist outside of leafy areas before.

However, I do think there is a culture of moaning in the UK and there are lots of people that will moan, even if uniform became completely free. 'Its not free I paid for it with my taxes it's not good enough' etc. They will be happy to pay for lots of other things though! Realistically, kids, esp secondary school kids, don't really change the most expensive parts of their kit (think blazer etc) more than twice in their 5 years of senior school. I genuinely think uniform is so freeing for kids, when not done in the military style some schools do operate. I don't think internal suspensions or detentions for uniform infractions should be a thing.

DS is only just starting infants but I can see how it would for secondary.
I went to a standard comp and we had to have
a blazer,
cardigans/jumpers ,
shirts and tie,
tights,
summer blouses with logo for summer,
bag and coat plain black,
school shoes,
plain black trainers for PE
PE polo, t-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and sweatshirt, netball/hockey skirt, pe knickers, long socks for hockey
Plus pens, pencil case, calculator, wrapping for text books.
Lunch box water bottle

I can see how that would come to £400 these days. Especially if you have a child in adult sized footwear, a girl that grows and her skirts are no longer 'to the knee' etc.

I probably bumped up the average in my day with the amount of school ties I got through. Where did they go????

I agree with this. It's quite sad. My DDs school bag is amazing. £35 and has a proper back with these spongey pokey bits and shoulder pads. It's huge and fits everything in it. If she wasn't forced to get it she'd be wearing something flimsy bag that would hurt her shoulders. It's lasted 4 years, albeit 2 of those were lockdowns. There's absolutely no way I'd have been able to get her to wear such a sensible bag if it wasn't compulsory.

DC only at primary so far, but I try and buy everything second hand - spend no more than £20/child/year. Much better for the environment too.