School supplier won't have our order ready for a month!

[Idonthaveenoughtime]

I have just been contacted by my child's school's official suppliers of their branded uniforms. They say they have a huge backlog of orders as a lot of 'late orders' have come in. I put in my order around the 16th of august because we simply didn't have the money before then! As there was a whole month until the school start I would have thought that more than sufficient time given that other businesses (like tesco) can supply their school branded products much faster. We've been told that we aren't likely to receive the uniform until the last week of september!
What on earth am I meant to do? We have no cardigans, jumpers, pe bag or book bag for the first couple of weeks.
I don't think it's reasonable to be expected to pay for extras when I have already paid for a grossly expensive school uniform that the school could allow parents to source more cheaply from tesco/asda etc. The school does not even offer a second hand uniform shop, I'm going to assume this is due to it being in affluent area as I can't think otherwise why they wouldn't unless there is no customer base for it. I was of the opinion that most people were penny pinched at the moment though. School uniform is fairly cheap but it could be cheaper...
I'm of course worried that the school are just going to think I'm a lazy and negligent mother for not being ready for the start of term and that we will be labelled from day one, grrrrr.
Are the logo items compulsory or just good form? Does anybody send their children into school in generic green/blue/red cardigans and jumpers from tesco? What about a plain and generic bookbag? (selling for £1.25 on ebay!) Considering it's only for the first few weeks do you think this is acceptable?

A lot of our reception DCs, girls in particular, wear generic cardigans, as the logo'd ones are huge. The sweatshirt material cardigans just don't fit nicely.

DD had a logo'd jumper and an ASDA plain cardigan. Lots if people had some unlogo'd spares in the first few years when they grow quickly and get dinner and paint all over themselves.

If the supplier has coked up, you won't be the only one.

Book bags are a sodding nuisance, both DDs swapped to rucksacks with more space and external drink bottle pockets.

I would send them in the closest you can get to the uniform (definitely the same colour and try to get the same style jumper and cardigans if possible). In most schools the logo PE bag is optional so just pick up a cheap one for now and try to get a book bag that's the same colour as the school one if you can.

Just tell the teacher on the first day what the uniform shop has said and that you are waiting for your order to arrive so have got as close to the uniform as possible for until then, as its due to 'a lot of late orders' I doubt your child will be the only one from their school who is having this problem.

I don't buy the logo'd stuff, just buy the right colours from the supermarket and you'll be fine. I'd also get a generic book bag and PE bag. No one will notice, honest! I am a teacher and I really do not look at childrens uniforms and make a judgement as long as children are clean and have the basics then that's fine!

At my children's school they are allowed to wear a plain cardi/jumper or the logo'ed ones, I think most schools are the same but it's probably worth checking with them first. It's not your fault if the uniform won't be ready in time so the school shouldn't be funny about it. Last year when my DC started reception we had a similar problem and the logo stuff wasn't available til end of September - they just wore plain uniform til then.

Uniform isn't compulsory at primary school so it can't be enforced. Your child will therefore be absolutely fine in plain supermarket versions of the uniform. You will probably find tha a lot of the children wear plain ones or a mixture of logo and plain as the logo ones are so much more expensive.

If it is compulsory perhaps it's worth emailing the school to ask their advice?

I had this a couple of years ago for a DC in High School - had put the order in in July, and by early September the shop had "a backlog of orders" - as though they didn't know the intake for the year and so couldn't possibly have predicted numbers. I may have shouted a bit and they conjured one up as if by magic.

School uniform shops make me crazy. They can be as crap as they like and charge what they like because they nearly always have a monopoly on the clothes - you're forced to accept customer service you wouldn't begin to accept normally.

But yes - a primary school can't enforce uniform and the school won't judge you at all; just explain and get the colours as close as you can.