Cost of school uniform

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

Was thinking about this further today following on from a radio phone in discussion.

Think that some schools are doing very well commission wise out of the sales of same!!.

At one of the local Junior schools the school tracksuit for PE costs £24 and PE socks were £5 a pair. Both items although optional thankfully have been listed on the uniform list.

Parents cannot use plain polo shirts as children are now expected to wear blue short sleeve cotton shirts. The maroon coloured jumper cannot be bought from the supermarket as it has a lego sewn into the jumper.

Was wondering what you all thought about the cost of uniform particularly if it has to be purchased from one supplier (as has been the case in DS's infants school with polo shirts, PE tshirt, tracksuit and jumper). They now charge £3 for a book bag with school logo on it (these compulsory items were previously free).

I agree the costs are high, but I hope it all goes to continueing giving our kids a better education. I also think low income families should get a generous discount, if they dont already.

If you think that's bad, lots of the sought-after state secondaries in London have uniforms that are considerably more elaborate than most private schools and are obtainable only from John Lewis or similar.

By the time you've bought two kilts, a couple of jumpers, several shirts, a blazer, regulation winter coat, official scarf plus umpteen different varieties of PE kit (tracksuit, polo top, regulation PE socks, PE skirt, leotard, cycling shorts) you won't see any change from £500. And the summer uniform is different again.

At our school some items can be bought anywhere (skirts, trousers, shirts etc) but polo shirts and sweatshirts are supposed to be the logo-ed ones. They are not too expensive (but are more expensive than plain ones from Tesco, etc) but the quality is not great (and I think this is one aspect the government is looking into). As ds managed to ruin his logo-ed polo shirts in the first week of school (unwashable felt-tip pens at school ) and school does not get them to wear suitable cover-ups for art, I think I will just buy plain ones next term and see if I get away with it.

The school has introduced optional things like fleeces too - they kids do look a lot smarter when they all wear them but they are not very practical for most of the year - too hot for summer, not waterproof for winter.

will confess to only buying logo'd items from the school (normally jumper) and getting plain right-colour everything else elsewhere even if it's not 'standard' pattern - will anyone care or indeed notice if the PE shorts are from Tesco not Trutex?

I had a uniform similar to the one frogs described and remember the abominable amount it cost my parents. There was a thriving second hand market though, and this is def worth investigating. In fact in my day it was deemed very cool to have a washed-out pinkish skirt etc rather than obviously-new maroon...

2 weeks until the end of term. i have a message in sons homework diary phrassed thus

" any chance of ds attending school in black shoes?"

"when i have the financial means to buy them. most certainly" i replies underneath

at the mo he is wear ingblack trainiers - now i like unifrom it is overprices but i think the principle is essentially wonderful.

but i am not buying new shoes for a teenage boy 2 weeks before the end of term.

in 8 weeks the chances of him needing another size or two up - is high. it would be such a waste - i dont have money to waste like that

I am a bit disappointed in the school uniform tbh. I am now spending more on DS's clothes, not less. He prefers to wear logo-ed polo shirts and they are about £6 each. The cheapy Asda ones I bought for winter for him to wear under his sweatshirt all went out of shape. As did the Asda sweatshirt I bought as a spare. The school sweatshirts faded and bobbled - supplier has since been changed. For summer I bought him red/navy poloshirts because I thought they would last better but he has got felt tip on most of them. The Asda trousers both split in the groin. The Adams trousers seem OK.

Have you treid M&S Bozza? They have come down in price a lot recently - I got 3 pairs of trousers this week for £8 (age 6). (A 3 for 2 offer). They are Teflon coated and the same ones as I had this year which have worn quite well.

Maybe will cloudberries. That is the other thing that is annoying me. All the stuff in the shops already. And when I want to buy it - nearer to the time when DS is ready to go back to school it will be all sold out.

At DS2's school only the sweatshirt and/or fleece have to be the proper school ones with logo - everything else can be bought cheaply. The one thing I was glad I spent money on were expensive school trousers for DS1 (at secondary school). They look like new every time they are washed and ironed, unlike the cheap ones I've previously bought that look like rags by the end of a couple of weeks.

The Office of Fair Trading is doing a study into school uniform and designated retailers/schools acting as sole suppliers.
DS's secondary school recently changed its uniform (2nd time in two years). Apart from trousers, everything else has to be bought from school shop. When the school shop opened one evening to sell the new uniform for next year, several parents were abusive towards the admin staff selling the uniform and some parents stole items of uniform! This is in a predominantly middle class area - not Tony Blair's "bog standard" comprehensive, supposedly amongst the top 3% comprehensives in the country (or so it boasts).
I would add that DS's uniform has cost more than his elder brother's, who went to an independent school where the PTA ran a second hand clothes shop.

I've just made the decision not to buy the £8 polo shirts from the school and to buy the two for £2.50 ones from ASDA. I feel liberated now I have stopped agonising on whether I am a bad mother for doing this!! He'll have the logo on the sweatshirt which, in winter, will cover the polo shirt anyway so what's the point. He's 4 FGS, they will be ruined in a fortnight's worth of painting at school anyway and they're not actually compulsory.

I find flet tips/ white board pens far more detrimental to clothes than paints. I did plain polo shirts under sweatshirts but then bought logoed ones for the summer. They are all wrecked by pens so this autumn it will be wrecked polo shirts under sweatshirts. Have ordered two new sweatshirts for September.

I think it's OK as long as the badged items are kept to a minimum and not compulsory.
Actually £10 for a school jumper is OK - they do look smart. At our infant and junior school you can wear plain polos and grey trousers etc and they are available pretty cheap.
£24 for school tracksuit is a bit bonkers tho.
Bozza I second M&S. DS1 (the messiest child alive, apparently) has got dinner or who knows what on all his polos, whiteboard pen (grr like others) on his school jumper, but his trousers and shorts have not gone at the knees tho everyone told me they would, so I'm quite pleased with those. Have always bought from M&S.

Our school charges £20 for a black sweatshirt with school logo. An enterprising local market stall holder does the same thing, but 50/50 cotton/poly for £10. He now produces logo sweatshirts for every school in the county and has parents queuing down the street. Last year he branched out into doing the logo polo shirts, PE kits and bags... everything at least half the price of the official school shops. He has had to double the size of his market stall.

my ds starts reception in september and we went to get his uniform the other day,JohnLewis is the only shop that stocks his school jumper, got 2 jumpers and a tie for £37
worked out the cost of whole uniform and its £80 withot socks underwear and coat, imo this is disgusting.We havent gone overboard

3

There is a roaring trade in second hand uniform round here. Last year it cost me £30 for a sweatshirt and a cardigan for my 4yr old from the school shop. This year I will be paying half as much by buying from a parent we know who has a child in the year above. I refuse to buy the logo polo shirts and pe kit.

Those are outrageous prices for sweatshirts, DD's bf famiy own the biggest schoolwear shop in Herts, all the schoolwear has logos, but sweatshirts are around £10 for primary age, and only a bit more for secondary sizes.

I am sure they would be happy to supply your school, they do a lot of London independent schools, mail order and soon on line ordering.

DS's sweatshirts are £7 which I think is reasonable. The poloshirts are £6.20 which I think is expensive.

DS1 & 2's secondary polo shirts are £11.50 each

my friend has a little girl of 4 who will be starting reception in september.her school bag(compulsory) costs £26!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm reviving this thread as I am digging my heels in about having to fork out for uniform and school supplies.

I thought there were quite strong 'guidelines' from the Government about how much parents have to pay; I'm already paying for education through my taxes. Does anybody know the truth?

Anyway, ds started a State Middle School last September (we are one of the few regions in the country which still hangs on to it - another long tale......). I was sent a list of stuff he would need at the end of the Summer Term. I must admit that I was very apprehensive about the whole thing and believed the school when it presented me with this list. As well as an overpriced logo'd sweatshirt, I also bought pencils, pens, pencil case and calculator. In addition, I had to buy a whole new PE kit. I refused to buy the special red poly-cotton polo shirt at £6 a go, but did buy a rugby shirt, new trainers, football shirt and red football socks all through the school shop. It wasn't until I'd actually got the items that I realised I could have bought the majority from Woollies or Matalan at a fraction of the cost. I bought 3 red 100% cotton polo shirts for £4.50.

Then, dd has just started Year 2 at a new Primary school. Again, I've bought the logo'd sweatshirt but chose to use the white polo shirts that every other primary school in the region uses (at about £3 for 5). I'm now getting messages, via my 6 year old, from the Head, saying that I have to buy the poly-cotton logo'd polo shirts. I've not done it so far - largely because I object to being bullied via dd!

Anyway, I thought there was guidance from the Office of Fair Trading about what pressure can be put on Parents but I can't find it. I thought schools were supposed to offer parents alternative sources.

Any thoughts?

thanks

Maybe when my boy starts school I will see if he can get a friend a year or so older, which might mean hand-me-downs - and might be easier than scouting around the second hand shops. Or does school uniform get so wrecked that it's not worth it?

DD is starting in nursery on Wednesday and had to be kitted out in full school uniform. I don't have aproblem with this but it is only 5 months until the end of term and she may be offered a primary place elsewhere. I was worried about not buying the logo'd tops and jumpers but DH and I went to Asda and bought 3 skirts, 4 tops and 3 pairs of tights for under £20. Would have cost me double that had we bought through the school. The only thing we will buy through there is the sweatshirt (£11) and she will only be having one of those.

Would not mind paying a little extra for uniform if it would last long enough, at DS's school sweatshirt/jumper with logo fades after a couple of washes and the book bags got holes quite quickly so not even a chance of buying second hand.

Haven't read the whole post, but why can't we have a general "school" uniform for all children, and just sew on the lego logo for the particular school.
I think in some cases it puts poorer people off applying for particular schools, which suits them just fine.