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.

But everyone has to buy clothes! There’s a lot of over buying too! 6 shirts? My DDs had 3. Washing done mid week. 2 ties? Why? 3 jumpers? Why? They can only wear one at a time. Parents definitely over buy. 4 pairs of trousers? Just ridiculous. 2 is plenty. Teach dc to respect clothes and it’s much cheaper.

Agree OP. And you haven’t even mentioned the £50 blazer of the most disgusting quality that cooks the poor kids!

The point is that school apparently are only meant to insist on 3 branded items. You have listed at least 5 there so either they aren't compulsary or they are breaking the rules

Uniforms in any situation make dressing easier, no having to choose.

The logo issue is an issue and I think just on Jumpers and polo shirts is plenty, PE kit not needed.

if kids are playing up in the street you can see what school they go to, my mate reported terrible behaviour on a bus to a secondary school once.

People are a bit obsessed with multiple items and a clean set every day. Spot cleaning is the way with clothing.

Why on earth 3 jumpers. I didn't bother buying any for my kids ( inherited a virtually unworn one) and that was never worn by either of them. It' was seriously uncool to wear jumpers ) and only ever happened before Xmas by new year 7s. No one else would be seen dead in them

2 kids at same school 12 years apart

I also used the second hand uniform shop, everything was a quid.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the uniform fit DS1. I admit he’s a strange shape but he’s got a 27 inch waist and a 33 inch inner leg. The uniform trousers simply aren’t long enough. So no, he wouldn’t blooming be wearing those if we had any choice. And ‘it lasts years’ no, not if your teen grows from 5 foot 4 to 6 foot in the space of two years it doesn’t. And four shoes sizes. Argh!

I’ve bought my GS a full primary uniform no where near this price. Primary is the cheapest uniform to buy and needs topping up throughout the year when things get lost.

YANBU, studies on the effects of school uniform have found no clear benefits. There are many countries where school uniform is not required. It’s completely unnecessary in my opinion.

The price of secondary school uniform is ridiculous with all the school brand items they need.
Ours require;
Blazer
Tie
Jumper
Pe top
Pe shorts
Polo t shirts - summer only

Then there is all the different footwear required and if they are in a sports club for the school the extra kit required.

Was never able to get 2nd hand as there was only small sizes available never the bigger sizes for the broader/taller kids.

Because I wanted 3 jumpers so I don't have to stress about making sure they're all washed and dried constantly. I have tons of washing as I have more than just a preteen. Besides I'm not sure £17 less is going to make that much difference to the massive bill.

Edited to add, I appreciate that your kids didn't wear theirs but they have to wear their jumpers at dds school, no exceptions.

It depends, at Dds school they have a branded pe hoody, it's not compulsory but if you don't buy one they have to do PE outside in winter without a jumper. Same goes for the jogging bottoms, they're branded, not compulsory, but if you don't buy them they're outside in all weathers in a skort or shorts.

Yep I recognise this little get around. The outside PE wear easily added £100 to the bill. I think it's quite disgusting the way some schools behave when it comes to uniform. Totally immoral and these are the people we trust to teach our kids. Moving schools wouldn't have solved our problem either - all the local schools had a consortium and agreed their uniform rules as a collective - so much for choice.

We were never able to get second hand because the quality was so shit for the over priced rubbish. The skirts would go all bobbly, as would the jumpers. And no one bought a new blazer unless it was in ribbons.

The tracksuit probably isn’t compulsory but if you don’t buy it then they have to do PE outside in shorts and t-shirt. So you kind of do have to buy it.

What possible excuse is there for charging £28.99 for a polyester sweatshirt?

In the 80s all of these logo items weren’t such a thing. Schools had uniforms but it was just generic items.

I’m not saying I’m against uniform I don’t really care either way. But it doesn’t need to be so expensive. Also blazers and ties are outdated and completely pointless.

We had a spare tie because of the impact of it going missing in the morning, it would have been an automatic detention to go into school late or without the tie. Any idea how distressing it is for some kids to go into school knowing they have to face a disciplinary - the distress is real especially for kids who like to follow the rules - refusing to go to school becomes a thing. There shouldn't be this much emotion attached to a tie but there was.

Ours seems to get round the 3 items by calling other items 'optional' eg a jumper, a PE hoody, PE trousers. But the 'option' is branded item or nothing, not branded item or plain one. So unless you want them to freeze in winter in a thin shirt and blazer, and shorts and t-shirt for PE you have to buy more branded stuff.

The school my son is going to have said they've relaxed the rules on what they can wear in line with the government guidance.

I went through what they need and how much you can source for cheaper. I actually coated it up.

I think it would save us a whole £7. Seven pounds. It's a farce. It will otherwise cost over £200. And no 1300 kids can not all just get second hand blazers for Year 7! Someone has to pay full wack. These companies have a captive market and price gouge as there aren't alternative places to buy from and that's the thing that pisses me off. Personally I'm not going to chase the second hand uniform because I know plenty of other people really need to.

I do wish that school would just go to a plain coloured hoodie and generic polo shirt with a glue on badge if they were desperate so NO ONE ends up getting rinsed.

Yes it’s crazy.

I remember my eldest in bits in the morning because he’d misplaced his tie. Automatic detention.

It’s a pointless piece of fabric that goes round your neck and serves no purpose.

A uniform of skirt/trousers, polo top, round neck sweatshirt would be perfectly sufficient and still smart.

Kids wear clothes. And they grow, so they need new clothes (often).

By wearing uniform, you are buying clothes they will wear 5 days a week for 6-8 hours a day, which is durable, and can be worn on repeat. If they were in a non-uniform situation, they could not get away with wearing the same thing every day, fashions would change, clothes would wear off... Uniforms are AMAZING.

I spent over £400 getting my 2 dc kitted out for secondary for this year, that includes shoes. One is already there but has grown so needed new everything pretty much including blazer, other one is just starting so also needed new everything. I sized up slightly, so I’m hoping most stuff lasts them at least 2 school years, pe kit longer I hope. It is expensive though and I resent paying a premium for pointless garments such as blazers and ties. Especially when the quality isn’t much to shout about.

Their school has quietly changed their uniform guidelines to line up with the new rules. The two biggest changes are that the pe jumper can now be a plain sweatshirt and the v-neck jumper that’s part of their normal uniform can now also be plain rather than branded. The branded versions are available but optional now. I think they intentionally haven’t announced the change and are banking on parents not realising and buying branded anyway but I’m always thorough checking the uniform requirements. Whilst the rules are a step in the right direction I still think things could be stricter and uniform in general overhauled because why do we need to send children to school in full blazer and tie get up?

My dc’s schools branded items now include: blazer, tie, pe top. Fine, but school skirts still have to be bought from specific suppliers even though they’re plain and identical ones can be bought from the supermarket for half the price. So they are technically on the branded list too, but only for girls as boys don’t wear them. They can wear trousers instead so can’t really complain but it’s annoying. They are still technically following the guidance, but their uniform could still be more cost effective than it is. More to be done I think. Ban blazers I say.

Being able to afford them is not necessarily a factor.

A colleague of mine whose dd or DiL (can’t remember) was endlessly borrowing money for essential bills, also had a 3 year old dd.

Colleague, granny of 3 yo, was shopping with her when she saw a pink sparkly jumper she thought any little 3 yo Gdd would love.

So asked the Gdd whether she’d like Granny to buy it for her.

The 3 yo turned her nose up. ‘I only wear designer.’
THREE!!!

This is how they are doing it. One local schools also have long sleeved PE tops/hoodies. They are optional but if you want to be warm when doing PE outside in winter youhave to wear that version or just the short sleeved polo shirt.

But that uniform could be so much simpler. It could be a sweatshirt and jeans/jogger.
I think the shoe requirement is being overlooked here too. Formal black shoes -
No kid wanted to wear school shoes outside of school.

And it's the poor kids who are outside doing PE without the optional items - how can schools be this dense, do they just lack emotional intelligence or do they really not give a shit.