To think this is mad for primary school uniform?

[AndyandTerrysMum]

My sisters 3 kids go to an ordinary state primary school in an ex mining town- not a lot of money floating about.

The school changed its uniform last year from branded jumper/cardi and tie

to different branded jumper/cardi, branded pe top, branded tie and branded book bag.

Tie is £5 ish, but all other items are £14 ish each.

Its all shit quality, so last years is in holes now, and one child has to have all in a new colour anyway- so handing down isn’t possible. (Plus mix of girls and boys- boy won’t wear girls old skirts!)

It just seems like madness to me and got me thinking;

If a child is sent in the right colour and type of jumper or top for example, but a plain supermarket one, can primary schools isolate them/send them home like a high school would?

I found a market stall that sold school uniform that you could have a logo embroidered on for half the price & got everything that needed it done there. Saved a fortune because ds went through one white polo a day & the only white wash I did was for his tops. I only bought one sweatshirt because he refused to wear them, I did the same for secondary as well.

You need to complain - it's not allowed anymore! Our school has branded if they want it but most don't and as a teacher I tell the parents not to buy it! Grey trouser/skirtd, navy jumpers and blue polo shirts. Pe kit is now a plain white t shirt and black shorts.

Our primary aren't bothered aslong as in the correct colour can even choose to wear a polo tee or shirt with tie aslong as wearing shoes not trainers it's fine.

Good grief, this has brought back some memories.
Then you’ve got school photos, Christmas cards/tea towels, class photos.
‘Optional’ payments were brought in at ours and chased vociferously.
What are ‘ground costs’?

They tried to enforce a "voluntary donation" at ds primary, it wasn't going to the school, but to the Catholic Church, I just told them we weren't Catholic & that I wasn't donating, every time I got another demand, they got the same answer. It was £30 a year at a time I was trying to manage as a single parent to feed & clothe me & ds on £50 a week.

My dd school uniform is any white or blue polo shirt, any grey or black skirt/ shorts/ trousers/ leggings or joggers, black shoes ( trainers fine in summer term) and any blue jumper/ cardigan.
Any book bag your child likes as they really encourage reading
PE kit is any t shirt and shorts/ joggers.
They are a lovely school as well.

My mum refused to send me (and my brothers) in uniform at all. Just sent us in our normal everyday clothes and our primary school just accepted it.

I agree- the response about the new embroidered pe tops was that it is a necessary safeguarding measure because it means that when children play matches against other schools they are identifiable.

Our PTA and an outside sponsor donated a school footy strip for the team to wear when playing against other schools.

As for the separate Y6 uniform; only the prefects wore a different colour sweatshirt to everyone else.This made them easily identifiable to the rest of the school and they were presented with these,paid for by the school,during the end-of-year awards ceremony the preceding July.

During my long teaching career,I saw so many changes in school uniform in primary.It used to be quite sufficient to identify a school locally by its tie worn with a jumper in the school colour.Then polo shirts and sweatshirts came in and the whole 'branding' malarkey started;first of all with transfer logos and then the 'posh' embroidered logos took over-and costs started to go up and up.Add fleeces,raincoats,sunhats and bookbags to that and it really does add up.

I don’t think I properly rearranged my face into something polite particularly quickly!

Cut it out from the existing items that need to be replaced and then use it as a badge on plain items.

My Ds's school is really good as long as things are the right colour nothing needs to be branded.
No tie or anything eirther just a white polo shirt, grey trousers and green jumper. Branded stuff is available but not compulsory and we have pre-loved uniform sales every term.
We have a new headmaster starting this year and really hope he doesn't change the uniform!

I think the branded sweatshirts are nice, but they should ensure good quality. Everything else including pe tops seems unnecessary.
if requiring a branded bag they should make sure it’s good quality and will last.
I don’t think the prices are that bad though, they probably aren’t different from when I was at primary school 30 years ago.

I wish people wouldn’t take the line “if you choose a school you sign up for its uniform policies, so suck it up.”

First: for many people choice is a myth. There was 1 school our kids would have got into. Fortunately it is good and we were happy with it, but if we didn’t like it, that would be tough. The out of catchment schools would not have accepted us on the grounds that we preferred its uniform policies!

Second, just because you make a choice doesn’t mean you have no right to raise questions or make polite criticisms of how things are done. I chose my workplace - that doesn’t mean I don’t raise it when I see things that could be done differently or better, or if policies and practices are unfair.

I think it’s awful. One logo’d sweatshirt of good quality I can accept as reasonable, with everything else done by simple colour. £84 per child for poor quality is shocking :(

DS has just left a state primary here in Scotland where the most they have uniform-wise is a navy sweatshirt with logo which costs £14. All grey/navy supermarket uniform is fine and the gingham dresses. His sweatshirts pass down to DD. He's off to private school where I've managed to source everything branded second hand to last next 2 years for a couple of hundred quid. They can wear any trousers or shirts. Reading posts like this on here it seems like state schools in England dress like private schools in Scotland. State schools up here are very casual.

Surely if you add up the pay per wear it's actually good value. Nothing gets worn as much as school uniform.
Spend lots of money buying Christmas outfits/ Christmas pyjamas etc..worn once maybe. I couldn't resent spending money on some clothes they are literally going to wear day in, day out.

@Solent123 Our primary school got a new logo (with the new head) but due to it being an extremely deprived area you only get the new logo as items are replaced, there was no expectation to buy new items immediately. Due to hand me downs there is a 50:50 split now between old and new. And another new head starts in a couple of weeks 😫