School Uniform

[Ponderon]

I have signed a petition on 38 degrees to protest at the price and the fact that you can only buy it at one outlet. Also as the schools own the copyright to the badges it is down to them as to whether you can buy just the badge. They are making a lot of money, the profit is grossly unfair I think

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/school-uniform

Many schools are now enforcing school uniform policies that force parents to buy from a single supplier. The result of this is that the cost of a complete school uniforms is now approaching £300 per pupil at many schools.

DfES guidelines state that "No school uniform should be so expensive as to leave pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to, or attend, a school of their choice, due to the cost of the uniform"

On top of that, the CMA has written an open letter to schools warning that their policies may in fact be in breach of competition law.

In November 2015, the then chancellor George Osborne promised to make government guidance on school uniform legally binding, giving parents the power to challenge extortionate uniform requirements, however nothing has been done by the government in the interim.

Yesterday, we were featured on Stray FM with the goal of getting a broad range of support up and down the country so that we can force politicians into resolving the crisis that extortionate uniform costs are placing many parents into.

Please sign our petition on 38 degrees and help us achieve this goal for parents up and down the country.

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/school-uniform

Schools are facing massive funding shortfalls - how else should they raise money to spend on books for your children?

My child is very well educated and well above than others even though she has autism/aspergers, because she goes places sees things in real life not just out of books or internet!
have you seen the difference in prices in school uniforms @CarrieBlue??

Have you seen how small schools’ budgets are? Maybe I should have mentioned exercise books, printing, electricity, heating, furniture rather than books as you seem to think that they are unimportant for children in lessons.

Carrie how do you know schools are getting a financial reward from uniform sales?

Maybe not all are, but some do.

Well they should make it clear either way. I don't think our catchment secondary school do and the uniform costs are eye watering.
And if there's no financial benefit to the school, why make it so costly?

" They are making a lot of money"

But are they?

I used to be on the finance committee of a secondary school, and I can assure you that they weren't making any profit out of sales of school blazers, ties and PE kits.

Fortunately everything else could be sourced elsewhere so uniform costs at that school were minimal.

totally agree Grocklebocs there is loop holes in everything and they are gaining a huge amount - bit further digging and I can show you CarrieBlue
but for one child nearing £300 for one term its a joke think of the people who have more than one child at the school etc,

I don't think state school are to make a profit from selling school uniforms.

that should say - I don't think state schools are allowed to make a profit from selling school uniforms !

It's hard to say what percentage of schools are affected however many of the schools around the area I live use school-shop.co.uk as their only supplier. The cost I have come to includes 2 pairs of trousers (with logo), 5 shirts, blazer, tie and 2x PE kits (after all, it might not be possible to wash / dry overnight). It adds up to around £270 per pupil but that doesn't account for children growing and needing bigger trousers etc.

As far as blazers go, I don't think there are many objections to £20-30 - the objection is skirts, trousers, PE kits and everything else which must have the school logo and be in exactly the right shade of colour.

This does my head in. It shouldn't be allowed to happen. I shall be signing.

My children are at three different schools (2 different secondary's and 1 primary) so it's three lots of uniform including three lots of the obligatory tie and blazer, every part of the school uniform has a school logo on it including the trousers. DS grew out of his trousers 6 weeks before the end of term, I didn't want to pay the £30 for new school trousers when I knew from past experience he would probably grow over the summer as well so bought him some cheap supermarket ones that were exactly the same as the ones with a school logo on the waistband. It was noticed when he took his blazer off in a science lesson and he was given detention for having incorrect uniform. He was told he would be getting detention until he was in the correct uniform. I got in touch with the school and explained my reasoning but was met with a brick wall policy is policy approach. So we shelled out for the trousers and when he went back to school in September he had to have new everything as he'd grown out of it again. It's £50 to get the complete PE kit. My DS is year 11 and will be going to college once he finishes school in July. I have paid £895 on uniform since September and that doesn't include school shoes, trainers for PE and studded shoes for football etc.

I've just joined the PTA in two of the schools and have put forward the idea of second hand uniform sales from donated uniform once a month with the proceeds going to help raise funds for school projects.