To think school uniform is too expensive?

[Loveheart1133]

Secondary school is going to cost in excess of £200.

That’s just for one child. That’s for 2 sweatshirts, 1 full PE kit, tie, 2 x trousers, 5 x shirts, shoes, stationery.

The £200 is not including school bag, coat, trainers for PE.

I know that the government were supposed to be making new rules about limiting the number of branded items. But as far as I can tell the school require logo jumpers, PE kits which consists of shorts, top, socks, and tracksuit. Plus Summer polo top.

I’m lucky in that I do have the money, but I can imagine for some families especially with 2 or more children it’s completely unaffordable.

Items get lost despite being labelled never to be seen again.

I know people will say they get a lot of use out of them etc etc but honestly I begrudge paying all that money for polyester clothing to dress my child like a mini adult going to work in a bank.

Isn’t it about time that uniform has an overhaul and was actually comfortable and affordable.

They also said our skirts had to touch the floor when we kneeled down and that length of skirt looks awful on most women - so I'm not 100% convinced about their sartorial advice.

Indeed, I agree. I am from a country where there is no school uniform. Kids are from the same catchment area so all are more or less from a similar background. My dc goes to a private school- even there the uniform is as plain and simple as can be. Only the top must have the school logo (short or long sleeved tshirt) and plain tracksuit. All cotton for comfort. Same uniform from reception to last school year. The older kids can wear jeans. Most shop at H+M, bershka and the sort, nothing designer

I hated pe because we had communal showers. I hated communal changing rooms.
Running around in freezing weather was no issue in comparison.
We also had to have a towel as part of our pe kit. God knows what they smelled like by half term.

Yes it’s crippling at secondary level in particular. I had three in secondary up until this year, eldest is now going to college thank god. Uniform costs were approx £800 each year. Decent shoes in adult sizes obviously cost minimum £60 so that was £180 blown straight away. £40 per blazer, only got 1 each because I’m not a millionaire. PE kit had to all be logo so that was £50 per child. Then the generic shirts, trousers, socks, bag if they needed a new one, stationary. Nightmare.

I also think "designer" is used loosely (and a bit sniffly) on here. I've just bought my DS a Puma bag from Sports Direct which was £14 and his PE trainers were £12 from the Converse outlet. Nike is available cheap at Sports Direct. You'd think this was Armani the way people go on.

Yeah I think people say "designer" when they mean "brand name". Adidas trainers are cheaper than dress shoes.

Quite. The plain black leather Adidas Tensaur shoes I got DS last year lasted far longer than the Clarks we tried the year before, by a whole term. And they were £30 cheaper.

I know some schools get sniffy about what is and is not a trainer but for the vast majority of primaries these are fine. My point is more that it is not morally superior (and often no cheaper) to buy them from supermarkets.

I don't class the likes of Addidas and Nike as Designer. Branded yes but no different than when I bought ds trainers from Clarks or dd shoes from Start Rite or Geox,

Both of y kids had incredibly awkward feet. Ds was very narrow and dd was very wied with a high instep. Finding shoes that fitted, were good quality so would last AND adhered to uniform policies was always a challenege.

As an adult ds lives in converse. Even when he has to wear smart black shoes (he is a musician) he wears black leather converse. Dd find that flat shoes don't offer her much support and many styles are not deep enough for her instep.

You had three kids but no hand me downs?
Kids should not need full new sets every single year.

Shoes are a bugger i grant you but no way in hell do you need to spend so much on the rest every single year.

The thing with blazers - especially ones that are branded so you can't buy generic - is they are often massive on a typical size Year 7.
You don't get to hand them down because the blazer will literally last them the whole 5 years.
They never get out grown.
Also with skirts - if it's one of those stupid kilt style things (again so you can't buy generic) on Year 7 girls they are often far too long and you can get 5 years wear out of that too 😁

I used to really resent spending so much on secondary school uniform, especially the sports kit that half of never got used. The shin pads that were ‘essential’ for year 7 upwards are still in the plastic wrapper unopened and they lasted two DCs. Football boots which were never worn etc. I bought the plain black sports leggings from the uniform shop, only for branded ones to become compulsory the next term. We also had sports hoodies, quarter zips, branded tracksuit bottoms etc which didn’t get used enough to justify the price.

No hand me downs because my eldest is a boy so boys trousers, shirts and blazers are all different anyway. The blazers are totally worn out after a year because I only bought one each. The shirts and trousers also look a bit battered after a year. So yeah, they get new every year because I don’t want them going to school looking like screbs.

I didn’t find this because my DC are all giants and they grow so much each year. I buy them oversized but by the end of the school year they’re getting short on the arms. They also wear out on the elbows for some reason?

I assume you mean high arches. I agree, cheap shoes are often no good. I went to the dr a few years ago and got a lecture about my "inappropriate" footwear, especially as I have high arches. I did point out it's all I could afford. I have found that decent insoles can make cheaper shoes wearable.

I totally sympathise with the narrow feet challenge - dd also had flat feel and ds had a high instep. Dd ended up in the same pair of Mary Jane’s the whole way through school from a brand called Petasil, no choice and we were lucky to find them - we had to travel 100 miles to a specialist independent shoe shop to get her fitted. Had the school allowed for trainers or boots, things would have been much easier. Dd was fortunate- we had the means to find formal shoes that fitted her - had we been less well off she’d have been wearing ill fitting shoes for 14 years! Employers wouldn’t get away with the shit that the schools insist on.

I have high arches and a wide toe area but narrow heel so shoes have always been a nightmare for me but then the safety shoe people came to work with a foot scanner and found the perfect work shoes for me. Been amazing to wear shoes that are actually right for my feet for the first time in my life.

yes, Dd also has the narrow heel as well.

she is a dancer too so we were lucky that very experienced shoe fitters and teachers helped us know what to look for.

I also have wide toes and a narrow heel. Getting shoes is interesting to say the least!

Well my kids primary is mega cheap

£10 school jumper. £4 for a second hand one from pta sale.

white polos from supermarket. shoes and grey trousers from Vinted. Black joggers for PE from supermarket and white plain t shirt black supermarket trainers. Done ta dah! All less than £50 total

Every message I read, the more anti-uniform I become.

I just don’t get the obsession with smart shoes at high schools. Black trainers are fine

So if your kids uniform is cheap, there can’t possibly be an issue for anyone else in the country?

And secondary uniform is a whole different ball game than primary

I didn’t comment on anything else so not sure where you made that assumption from :) re read my comment

What do kids that don't wear uniform to school wear?

On forest school day, kids at our local primary always turned up in joules or boden. Surely, that was more expensive than uniform. Surely, that drew the distinction between haves and have nots.

The school uniforms generally came from supermarkets, or marks and spencers. Green sweatshirt, £4, was acceptable. One with a school logo was slightly more. Most kids has both.