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.

I’ve just got load Tesco shirts and trousers. Much cheaper than normal clothes would be for a teen

As far as I am aware kids aren't looked down here.

Everyone would be buying daytime clothes and probably spending more. Uniform gets a lot of wear! If dc are going to do sport, they need the kit! Of course they need trainers and football boots. Everyone has paid for uniform for decades and it’s just what you know you have to do.

To put £200 into context - I went to a grammar school in 1966. My uniform was £60. Special coat, tie, pinafore dress, sports kit etc. That was nearly 3 times my dad’s weekly wage. £200 is not even 1 weeks wage for most.

Plus everyone has dc who grow! They grow out of everything you buy. I’d actually rather pay more and have decent quality - not polyester shite.

But none of that is compulsory though, that's the parents choice to get those things the school don't and can't mandate it.

A lot of the schools themselves don't like the current trends for kilts and frilly pinafores, they are trying to encourage plainer more affordable uniforms, as it's not practical, but there is a certain group of parents who are buying it (i.e. the tiktokers). Ironically in the more affluent areas you'll see less of the fancy uniform and more of the plain supermarket stuff.

It's significantly cheaper to kit your child (especially teens) out in generic uniform than it is to buy the same amount of casual/everyday clothes. Uniform is hard-wearing too, unlike other stuff teens might choose.

Are you sure your school is specifying branded items for all 5 items of PE kit, OP, because that seems excessive?
I probably spent about that amount for year 7, but then only replaced items when outgrown, not necessarily each year. PE kit can usually be made to last longer, as can blazers / jumpers / sweatshirts by buying slightly large. Shoes would maybe last only 2 terms but since they wear them every weekday during term time, they’ve had good use out of them.

Are you putting your hand up to tackle every delinquent in our society? Or just making yourself feel good for making a completely sanctimonious comment?

Secondary school uniform is ridiculously expensive. Would be far easier, to follow on from a typical primary. Comfy fleece or sweatshirt with a logo, everything else from the supermarket.

I don’t like blazers and ties, completely and utterly old fashioned and stifling.

One school near us did that after they became part of an academy trust. It was a junior school so literally years 3,4,5 and 6 so they rolled it out gradually and said last September all new year 3’s would have to be in the new academy logo stuff then they’d move up and within 4 years they would all be in it.
Even doing that, lots of people complained because they had older siblings and wanted to use hand me downs!

At primary school it is much easier to buy generic non- branded uniform at the supermarkets. I do for DD2.

secondary school is far more problematical to buy generic stuff either because of the 'optional ' pieces being compulsory or because of some of the kids themselves only wanting logo or branded stuff because they are trying to fit in amongst their peers.

Don't know about anywhere else, but at DD1's secondary school they are all wearing either check skirts from the uniform shop ( not really optional cos it has to be that skirt if they want to wear a skirt) with black tights/ black Nike leggings underneath with white Nike crew socks, a Nike navy sweatshirt and many have the long champ totes as their school bag of choice. Most of them also wear branded PE kit / trainers too.

The school do not enforce the no brands uniform rule here, and until they do it will continue to create uniform/ inequalities and exclusion between the have/ have not within the school cohort.

My children go to schools with no uniforms and there's none of that. In primary school its pretty much all joggers/leggings with t-shirts and hoodies, in upper school they throw in jeans and vest tops into the mix but no one cares about the brands or how much they cost, my teenager does her shopping in charity shops and my wardrobe. I've seen the kids, they mostly look quite scruffy, no way you could tell the rich from the poor.

What really bothers me is that you’re paying a lot for poor quality plastic! Everything is 100% polyester. The colours runs with sweat or rain.
In the heatwave the kids were allowed to wear their PE kits. Great and sensible you might think. Not when it’s black, shiny plastic .

Too late to edit, 70 odd pounds just for the blazer and skirt(in the smaller sizes).

School uniforms cost hundreds of dollars for two kids. there are summer, winter, sports summer, sports winter uniforms. Then there’s hundreds more on formal and sports shoes. My kids have loads of lovely clothes. I would rather they get more wear out of their chosen clothes than spending extra money on uniforms.

Yes, it was easier and cheeper to buy uniforms for a week in England than buying clothes for a week in Scotland. Even if you go Primark/H&M it adds up.

I did at one point in my life have an interest in doing work with young people which might have included working with "delinquents".
Obviously peoples life plans don't always happen for various reasons.
If I could then maybe I would do something but at the moment I can't.

The HT at DDs school did research a few years ago and found that pupils on FSM were a lot more likely to be absent on an non uniform day. So got rid of them completely.

We're really lucky that our ex MP Ruth George runs a secondhand uniform shop, badged items are £1 everything else 50p. She spends hours washing and drying the clothes and organising the event. I got DD fully kitted out for £20!!!

Good for you. But surely you aren’t so wrapped up in your own little bubble that you can’t see how this isn’t possible for some families? You know, those who make choices between heating and food in the winter. Or that parents have to make sacrifices to buy these things for children’s a pp said above? Some children won’t get a holiday. It isn’t all buying fancy designer clothes and expensive phones.

I think 200 for clothes a child will wear 2/3 of the year is a bargain. Yea it’s a big jump when changing schools but the rest of the time I just buy when needed not all at once.
lots of my kids stuff (the unbranded bits) comes off Vinted. My son’s blazer is £36 which I thought was decent value.

You’ll get many people who don’t work with children or vulnerable famines tell you that parents need to learn to budget, and save etc. But I work in schools with families who are deprived and yes, for them uniform is expensive, and no they simply can’t just budget for it, especially where they have multiple children, or things need to be replaced.

My son’s uniform was £250 again without shoes. This could have been cheaper but his school is quite sly in that they say ‘PE shorts do not need to be branded’ but all the pupils want the branded ones or ‘no need to buy the outdoor PE kit’ but again, that leaves children doing PE in shorts and t shirt in winter if you don’t buy the (branded) jacket and joggers. So the pressure is there regardless. As with you, money isn’t an issue for us so we were able to buy it but not everyone would.

Our school has only 2 branded items, a tie and a blazer. Everything else is non branded. PE kit is a white and black pair of shorts. We are stricter with uniform to reduce pressure, so bags need to be a black rucksack - lots of our kids just get an Asda basic.

Back in my day the poor kids, still looked poor. No one was fooled. For the teachers who were that way inclined it gave them another stick to bash kids (usually the poor ones) over the head with.

I wish I could believe it was for the benefit of all kids but that's not what I observed in my time at school as a parent, a parent volunteer and a pupil.

It’s extortionate. When I bought my eldest’s secondary school uniform, it cost me almost £300 without the shoes/trainers etc. I’ve just bought my youngest son’s (different school) and got lots from the second hand uniform sale. He doesn’t need branded trousers or shirts.
New, I bought a blazer (£55) one PE shirt (£25), 1 pair of football socks (£9) and a tie (£7). £96 from the school uniform shop. Add on school shoes (£50), trainers (£55), football boots (£30), shin pads and mouth guard (£20), school bag (£30). I bought him 4 pairs of black trousers from Asda (£25) and some plain white shirts from M&S. He needed black and white socks too (Primark). From the second hand uniform sale I bought him a PE top, rugby top, 2 pairs of PE shorts, PE socks, PE mid layer, PE fleece, PE joggers for about £20. I’d have got a blazer too if there had been one in his size. I’ve been getting bits over the past couple of months and I can afford it, but it does make a big dent. Especially when you add into it a PGL trip, technology and other money school are asking for before they start.
Second hand uniform is the way to go.

Our uniform skort was $300 thats nzd
Our shirts $45 each
Polar fleece top...shitty polyester $90
Shoes $160 +
$45 p.e top
40 pe shorts
$130 blazer

Now thats a chealer uniform.compared to some.
I think uniforms are outdated i hate!!! Ties on females it cpuld at least be a bow
Mini bankers as a description is funny as!

It's cost upwards of £300 for dds uniform. I'm glad they've bought in the badge restrictions but it's still a crazy amount. 3 badged jumpers, 2 ties, 4 Asda trousers, 6 Asda shirts (we barely own anything white), black leggings and black shorts for pe, a badged pe hoody, football socks, badged pe top, black school trainers, white school trainers, pens pencils etc. I haven't bought a coat or bag yet.

Just to double check... the skort was over twice the price of a blazer, for one? (Which ive just put through currency connversion as £130?) Is it made of hand spun unicorn wool or similar?