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!

I would be very tempted to send her in a plain skirt too, but then she might get picked on as she would stand out. If my dd was quite strong minded and agreed with me i would def send her in plain skirt. I wouldn't do that to a more timid dd though.

It is possible to find any nicer trousers? Personally i thinks girls look very smart in trousers and blazers, and she would be warmer in the winter.

Definately go into school and speak to Head. You can't be the only one, maybe you could speak to other mums, get more support - Head might listen if more mums make enough noise.

At ds secondary they only need sweatshirt with logo, the rest from Asda/Tesco, and black socks. Only plain black belt, only 1 pair earrings, no more than 1cm hoop. Watch allowed but no other jewellery. They are very strict on uniform, but most respect it cos it's an acceptable uniform (ie not unnecessarily expensive, basic but smart).
Tell the Head this is what you and x number of mums would prefer. Good luck.

I honestly think that is insane.

You aren't a DM journalist winding us up are you?lol

That is divisive and unfair,having such a mad uniform policy.I know nostate school round here that doesn't have a uniform that could not be purchased cheaply in any main supermarket.Surely the school will know the social demographics of its main feeder schools and so on?

I think that lobbying the LEA is not a bad idea.

I payed £21.00 for a rugby shirt, £19.00 for a school jumper and £8.50 for a P.E shirt...at the school uniform shop in St Albans for school then trainers, football boots and a couple of pair of track suit bottoms £36.00 from sports and socca.With sport and socca I dont mind as much bizzarly...however...what peeves me off is my son is in adult size now and he will grow out of them soon...shoes, def. Costs a fortune!!!...Here comes Christmas, new lot of clothes again...really expensive. Havent even started with the bag, etc. Nightmare, wish we could just buy the school badge and iron them onto the tops which would be cheaper on the tops. My son is in secondary school and I am just relieved I don't have to buy a blazer and trousers....how that is afforded is byond me for many parents. I do buy clothes for him a size up but shoes...grrrrr. Not schools fault, I think totally, but why is it you can only buy uniform from one place?? It really is expensive.

This is an excerpt from the 'Information for parents' booklet given out by the school and I am even more fecked off now as I see that they are also saying that blouses and trousers can also only be bought at their outfitters! The cheapest trousers were £18 each, blouses £16 for 2 (even M&S do 2 for £10 that I did not buy today as thought they were too expensive and would only get pen stains in within days!)

'In order to ensure consistency in uniform, you will see that all items marked below can only be purchased from our official outfitters: @!$£££. You cannot buy blazers, trousers (boys and girls), blouses and kilts from any other outfitter as these will not conform to agreed design specifications.'

You know what? They can feck right off!

One of our local Grammar schools blazers is £75...

Local state PRIMARY school, apparently unique, V neck jumper, obligatory, dull blue, with small logo - ?40. Blue/white candy stripe shirt ?18. Daren't even look at the PE kit! Only one stockist/supplier. Have not been able to find anything else 'near enough' on the net. Cosy, evil, set-up between school, shop and supplier.Very but cornered.

IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern you could have gone to the same school as mine. If it was the mixed school, boys and girls you could have been at school with my son.

In Aberdeen? Yes it was the mixed one was a boys school until just before I started.
Oooh want to know who your ds was was now

He was a swimmer, also played in the school hockey team. Initials MB.

£52.95 for dd's kilt and £95 for the blazer

my dc at independent school and school uniform is quite nice - the older one wears a nice kilt in the schools own tarten and it is £34;99, pe logoed polo shirts £9;99 , school coats £19:99, dd2 tarten pinafore was £29:99 - i kinda of expected it to be more for "poncey prep school" so go with it but am really shocked at the situation where by state schools are basically forming a monoply wiht the supplier/shop by claiming to have specific/unique uniform. agree with others i htought that was illegal.

deste I think I do know who your sone is but I think he was the year above me at school,
WOW small world, it's strange when you made the post about the kilts I did think ooog that sounds like mine hundreds of schools out there that probably fit the bill too.

Small world indeed.

Makes me feel I need to behave now though as someone out there could know me

There was summat in The Guardian about this in the past week www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/aug/16/school-uniforms-sports-kit-instruments You could contact your LEA if it is a state school. Do you know any other parents who would rally together to protest. Mostly I feel sorry for pre-teens and teenage girls forced to wear kilts

I was thinking the same myself.

lol atr Famish thinking it is not expensive compared to normal clothes...depends where you buy your clothes, surely and all that....I would not spend that much on a skirt on myself....never mind on a childs skirt...

oh...I hate schooluniform sooooooo much....

Well I would have absolutely no idea who you were if you jumped out in front of me so misbehave away.
And I have nobody to clipe to as I dn't see anyone from school much anymore if ever,

I can see why it seems like alot of money when compared to the cheap stuff that you buy in the supermarkets, however it will be interesting to see what the quality is like. If it is better quality for the money and you consider the actual amount of wearage that it will get it may not be so bad in the long term. My school skirt (100 years ago) must have cost my parents a fortune from harrods - but it had to last me for years!

I appreciate that you may not buy a skirt yourself for £30 but neither would you probably only have one that you wore day in day out.

I am sure the cheaper stuff on balance wears out quicker - that's why retailers are constantly trying to impress with rubbish about reinforced seams, and teflon coating and guarantees that the stuff will last more than a month!

At least this is what I say to myself when forced to buy uniform from school shop while everyone else is bragging about £3 pairs of shorts from Asda....

But how can a skirt or a pair of trosers last for years when kids grow so quick? One growth spurt and it might not last a year.

Problem is if you don't buy the regulation skirt and send your DD in a plain one then she will stick out like a sore thumb and the other kids will notice.

Well, got the skirt - it is 70% polyester and 30% viscose and is quite thin. I would think the pleats will lose their sharpness after a few washes and as their are so many of them, it will be a right PITA to iron! Definately does not look worth £34.00 to me. I have contacted my LEA and have been passed from pillar to post with no one able to investigate this. Told 'the schools are responsible for their own uniform regulations and I should contact the school directly'.

Obviously I don't want to do that as I don't want my DD to be at a disadvantage because her mum is a complaining old bag! TBH I cannot believe that other parents have not kicked up a stink about this, I can't believe that I am the only parent to be miffed at being relieved of so much money unneccesarily IMO to be put into the school coffers when I thought I was already paying for her education through my taxes - silly me!

IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern I was going to tell you to just carry on and ignore me. If you dont keep in touch with school friends you obviously were not invited to "the" wedding. Neither were mine by the way.

Nope I do know which one you mean though.
Take it that it was a big turn out then from school?? What no OK magazine???
The very very few FP's I ever do see once in a blue moon if I bump into them in town are probably the ones that were never popular enough for the in crowd I apparently wasn't posh enough not sad I wasn't popular enough just sad that there were attitudes out there like that TBH.
I'm not bothered if I'm honest if anyone knows who I am anyway am not that much of a renegade I need to hide bit dim at times but that's about it.