Pissed off at £33.84 for a regulation school skirt!!

[FeckedOffWithBeingRippedOff]

Just got round to ordering DD's uniform for secondary school and cannot believe the price of the regulation skirt . It's a fecking kilt fgs and the state school is in the South of England (nowhere near Scotland) in a town made up of majority council housing!! It is not a school with a good reputation either, just the school closest to our house so DD can walk there and back independently.

This particular skirt is the only one that can be worn (cannot wear a cheaper plain skirt) and can only be bought in one shop. They can wear trousers but they would not look very nice with the blazer.

Am outraged at the prices (£9.50 for a PE top, £10.75 for a PE skirt, £30 for a tracksuit compulsory for winter), I expected the £30 for a blazer but did not expect the skirt to cost more than that!! I am up to £150 already and that's just PE kit (minus trainers),1 blazer,1 jumper and 1 skirt and none of that can be bought cheaper in Tescos! I had wanted to get two skirts so she could have one clean and one in the wash but looks like she will have to wear the same one all week (will have to get some Fabreze)!

I know this has been in the news recently and so it bloody should be IMO!! Grrrr!

Oh well, perhaps they just want to encourage only people with quite high incomes to apply for places at the school.

I never really appreciated how much school uniform was for my parents until I started having to buy dd's state primary uniform.
I feel sorry for my parents now forking out for my private school uniform now.
We did then have the option of a proper kilt or kilted skirt although now they have changed it to the kilted skirt only.
When I was in JL buying dd's logo stuff the other week there was someone in front of me kiting out their dd for the senior school and ds for the juniour school where I went and it was hundreds and that is without the PE kit that comes from another store entirely.

Oh and I got the grant last year as a lone parent was £50 but being lowered to half from this year.
And as for cheap uniform and child labour when you are skint it's what you can afford unfortunately. I don;t think you have to be on low income to think that £34 for a school skirt is ridiculous.

I burnt fag holes in my blazer and it took me 8 months to pay my Mum back so it taught me a valuable lesson in the end!

Logo'd/specialist uniform prices are ridiculous.

My DS is about to start at secondary. The school is far from being anything special, has a lot of children from poor/low income families - yet the basic uniform cost is well over £150 - and whilst it doesn't include a kilt it does include logo jumper £20-odd, rugby shirt similar price, even a logo'd PE shirt is £15.

This stuff would all be vastly cheaper if I could buy the plain coloured items.

and slightly off topic, on rereading the uniform list today I have now realised I have to buy 3 new pairs of footwear as well, because in addition to school shoes (which I would be buying anyway) DS has to have black football boots and black trainers. DS already has boots (plays for local team at weekend) but they are yellow. He also has several pairs of white trainers. I now have to buy new boots & trainers, which he will only wear for school. Thats another £50 gone. Sigh.

Is it good quality? I have just bought dd2's skirt (nasty horrible material) and trousers (even nastier, and a new style this year, even worse than last year's). Every Sunday evening when I am checking uniforms are ready I resent the cost for the quality...about three times the cost of Mand S for inferior goods. My kids are at a local comprehensive (in Ireland so laws on uniform having to be available don't apply).

We are suposed to have 'no logo' shoes. Even Clarks 'Bootleg' now have a little logo label!

I hate it when they start insisting on one colour of sock in a primary school. And dont get me started on hairstyles/colour.

A good, basic, simple uniform - yes. Prententious fussiness - feck off.

I think it's outrageous. You should be asking the head (and the Governing Body if you get nowhere with the head) why they are disregarding DCSF advice see this link

You can easily get away with one skirt for secondary school. I only ever had one and I never had a problem. Also, is a kilt actually washable or do you have to dry clean? Anyway, you don't even need to wash it every week, I can't see how it gets dirty - waist band will be over a blouse, the rest over tights?

We went into the shop to check the uniform out earlier this week and the material felt like polyester. Did not check the label but will be interested to see if it says 'Made in China'!! Have ordered all the uniform online though as will get a small discount taking it down from £36.00 to £33.84 so don't have it to hand yet.

I have two DSs still in primary school and it is the same with jumpers - the school logo ones are £9.50 each and after about 3 washes look like crap whereas the cheapie ones I got from Matalan (about £3.00 each) stayed looking good for much longer but at least there is the option of buying them (although I don't really like to but they lose them so often). I also find (especially at primary school) that the school logo stuff goes missing much more frequently with younger children as it is all exactly the same - £15.00 school fleeces all named - have lost 3 in the last two years, one after a week. Never got them back either .

My secondary school had a kilt as uniform too, no alternative cheaper version, £40 if I remember correctly. My poor mother was even more horrified at the regulation raincoat thing we had to have which was £80 And this was quite a few years back, god only knows what the uniform costs now.

Stleger - yes, our shoes are meant to have no logos as well- and no 'patterns' . have taken that to mean coloured patterns as opposed to any stitching, seams etc.

SGM - the whole PE kit has logos - shorts, tracksuit, rugby shirt, PE shirt. The only thing thats plain is the blue football socks.

We also have lots of rules on hairstyles - no patterns shaved into hair, no 'extreme' styles, no bleached/dyed hair, although somewhat strangely boys are allowed to wear a stud earring in each ear

Crokky - don't need to wash it every week - you hav'nt met my daughter!! My kids have to go to school in completely fresh uniform every day and even though she's the oldest she is the messiest, in fact they're all filthy (I blame that on DH's genes)!

This thread has reminded me of my dads face when he had to fork out for my sister's lacross stick .

I bloody hate the hair thingy. I can understand no jewellery because of theft, safety. But how dare they dictate how someone styles their hair.

Ask the governors how they achieved Best Value on this and if they don't come up with sth reasonable, complain to the LEA

FeckedOffWithBeingRippedOff wouldn't be a certain Crawley school would it!!??

We have no extreme short hair or patterns for boys, but they can have long hair tied back and beards (which look odd with uniform, but some sixthe years do it for the craic!) BUT early last year we had a week of sock examination and sock detention which seemed to only apply to girls - and to police it girls had to raise their nasty flared polyester slacks. Because the turned over at the top super minis are worn with black tights!

bluejellybean - No quite a bit further anticlockwise outside the M25.

Am rather (dis)heartened to see that this is happening elsewhere though! It looks like people are just gritting their teeth and paying it then. I probably would'nt be so bothered if the school was worth paying that for or if my DD was the sort to look after her things and it lasted her through to Yr11. Hey thats a thought, I could change my order to a get a slightly bigger size and get some safety pins to hold it together until she grows into by Yr11, would probably be in rags by then but hey ho, or could get a longer one (they come in different lengths) and cut the frayed bits of each year until it turns into a mini skirt!

I think that is outrageous,tbh.When I opened the thread I thought it was oing to be an independent school uniform,but given the demographics you have described it seems crazy.

Or that the school is somehow going to turn out better students because they fleeced their parents who then have to work harder to pay for the fecking uniform leaving them little time to spend with their kids - oh god feeling a little OTT tonight!

No LightningBolt - this is a town with over 6000 people on the waiting list for social housing! The school was slated by OFSTED a few years ago because of class disruption but is apparently getting better under new leadership (but the uniform was the same then). I think I will call the LEA next week and query this, not that I am a troublemaker of course!!

Isent it against the law for schools to do this, its absolutely disgusting. The prices that you state sound like the prices that parents would pay for a private school clothing.