school uniform from one shop only, can the school enforce this really?

[mummag]

My Child's school has been having a crackdown on uniform. They've now decided that skirts and trousers can only be bought from one place. The cost will be a lot more than Asda! Just feel its quite wrong actually and wondered if they can really do this. Interested in peoples thoughts.

"You pick a school"

In the state sector, parents can express a preference for a school but cannot pick one. Depending on where you live, it can be as few as 2/3 (London, 2017, 68%) who are allocated their first choice. Some may not be allocated a school from their preference list at all.

Also, when expressing preferences, families need to be realistic about their chances of securing admission, so things like distance will be important factors. Agreeing with uniform policy (and anything else to do with the ethos) is important - and it's definitively worth putting the school you love as first place, even if it's a long shot - but given the way admissions work it would be imprudent to use all slots on the form in that way.

Our local academy are vvv strict on uniform and specify the barcodes of the only acceptable clothes that can be bought; parents have a choice of Asda, Tesco, m and s or Sainsbury's. That's how it should be done IMO.

meditrina As I'e said to someone else i AGREE the OP has the right to be annoyed and raise it.

What I'm not ok with is school has a uniform that says its not a fashion statement, no very tight skinny trousers, trainers, short skirts and then parents deciding to willfully ignore it any buy said items when there are many options of perfectly appropriate attire on the high street.

starting to feel like my reply to 2 specific thing are going to be repeatedly quoted despite me actually agreeing with the OP on her issue. Oh well here comes the pitchforks

Yes that seems fine, specify what your uniform policy is and what you want them.to wear, but not from just one supplier which is clearly anti competition and could be about making money. Luckily my DC school just says black trousers so we can get them from anywhere and people can choose styles that suit. I haven't seen any kids pushing the boundaries though, but if a school has, specifying styles available from more than one shop/supplier as here seems a better way to handle it.

even down to a bloody white pe shirt

That's ridiculous! Someone is getting very rich from this.
My school our ties, blazer, jumper and skirt come from a set supplier but any jumper in the set colour is ok. Trousers, shirts, pe kit etc are all wherever the parents like. They have the option of school sports kit (which quite a few kids like especially if they do lots of clubs/teams).

DS2 goes to high school in September - I've just totalled up the uniform cost for the standard uniform, PE kit and shoes but no coat and it's over £400

Oddly it is schools that specify an exact make/style skirt that often have children wearing the shortest skirts. The girls at my son's school wear very very short skirts & I'm not happy with the length of my daughter's skirt at her school.

This seems to be partly because the skirts are so expensive they are not replaced after a growth spurt & partly because they only come in certain lengths which don't cater for slimmer girls.

My dd isn't stick thin but in order to get an acceptable length I had to go up two waist sizes. She hates this as the waist feels bunched up.

This "single supplier" and logo clothing isn't a "thing" in Scotland except at fee paying schools. My kids secondary has a no skinny trousers, no jeans, sensible skirts, smart shoes rule and this is enforced. Parents are on board with it too. School requires parents to buy a blazer (£30) and tie (£5). Everything else is black or white and can be bought anywhere.

Do agree that parents in other parts of the uk should be making more of a fuss about unnecessary and expensive uniform rules.

My kids secondary has a no skinny trousers, no jeans, sensible skirts, smart shoes rule and this is enforced
Most schools near me are like that and I'm in England. It's common sense really.

I think some academy chains are moving towards single suppliers though so there's their 'brand' across the chain.

I think some academy chains are moving towards single suppliers though so there's their 'brand' across the chain.

I'd agree somewhat with this. The schools that have the more defined uniform lists locally tend to be schools that are part of a group or MAT. The stand alone academies/ maintained schools have some specific uniform -blazers, ties etc but trousers,shirts etc can be got anywhere.

There was a bit of a fuss in my part of the world recently when two schools merged and some bright spark had the idea of letting the kids decide on the uniform colours. Had they asked the parents they would have gone for some combination of navy/black/grey with blue/red/green which is widely available. Kids who don't think of their parents' shopping budget went for black trousers/skirts, lilac shirts, purple jumper/cardi, purple blazer and a purple/yellow striped tie. Parents up in arms because you can't easily find purple shirts and cardis in the high street.

I meant the schools local to me.

Goodness purple shirts. I thought it bad enough that my sister had to wear green and they were hard enough to get hold of and that is with at least 2 schools in the area having them.

Yes they can. I think that many children look an absolute mess going to school in cheap ill fitting clothes. I am delighted that some schools are having a firm crack down. Be gone with short skirts, tight trousers, ridiculously tied ties and bring back regulation length skirts and even dare I say it a COAT!!
Rant over!!

We have one supplier. It's so expensive! The school keep adding to the uniform too. We already had regulation logo skirt ( 5cm above the knee.. logo on waistband must be visible) logo blazer/tie, PE top and tracksuit.. and now they've bought in PE leggings and shorts with logo. PE shorts / leggings were one of the few things you could buy from a supermarket.
It's £28 for a skirt that I swear fits no one properly. The waistbands are too big to get the required length and the material is heavy and a sod to wash and iron .
The supplier doesn't care.. it has monopoly in the town and can bang them out at £28 a piece no problem.

There's one school local to me who have a single supplier for everything including trousers and skirts. The trousers have the school name emblazoned across the backside in bright yellow thread looks awful

I think it's mad to insist on a single supplier for basics such as skirt/trousers/shirts. Insist on a basic style, fair enough, that makes sense from a neatness and suitability point of view.

DSs basic items come from Primark/M&S and they're at a private school so the idea of there being some kind of "snobbery value" of having a single supplier seems odd.

The trousers have the school name emblazoned across the backside in bright yellow thread

Please tell me the school is the Arthur Robinson School of Excellence. Or ARSE for short.

On that logic, let's just be lax on uniform completelh. Boys can wear black trackies and black trainers. Let's say it's fine to turn up in masses of makeup, hoodies in school colours etc.

Sounds like an FE college or a university.

Soupdragon sadly not

Yes it is wrong and is bad practice.

Nobody (ie the governors whose job it is) seems to hold schools to account for it though.

As for following rules blindly, that's like saying a business can change the terms on which they supply goods to you and you just have to accept it. No, you don't. If the terms are unfair, they break consumer law. Schools should not change uniform rules for existing pupils. And uniforms should be affordable.

Dd's school has a regulation style skirt, but it isn't an expensive one that's unique to the school, it's just a plain Banner brand style as per photo costing £13.99. I don't consider that a huge amount for the amount of wear it gets. Dd's were still going strong after 18 months and I only replaced them then as they got too short and then passed them on to the school supply. It's the only style allowed, (comes in different lengths) but I prefer that to how they did it at my high school where you could wear any navy skirt. Inevitably there would be a new style of skirt that was in fashion each year. Fine for people like me whose parents could afford it, but people who were at my school have said in their 40s on Facebook how bad they felt never having the right style of skirt and having hand me downs. In dd's school hand me downs wouldn't be a problem as the skirts last well and would be the same style as everyone else. It would work out more expensive to buy a new fashion of skirt each year than the regulation style.

Sorry 12.99 not 13.99