School uniforms sky high prices

[YouRat]

My ds goes to secondary school and will be in years 9 starting this September. They have New uniform too so will have to buy everything from scratch. I called today to ask the prices and it all came to around £200. . How is this possible. We live modest and this is going to be a real struggle. I have 3 other dc. Does this sound right ?
It's a blazer, shirt , tie, jumper, trousers PE top , track bottoms, socks and PE jumper.

Chinny reckon

I appreciate that for some people kitting out for school is a real strain but more generally, if there wasn't a uniform, such that one had to buy more home clothes, wouldn't quite a few of the home shirts end up costing £10? And then there would be all the "but paul has an avengers shirt" or "the other girls say my clothes are too uncool" and all the pressure and cost do that sort of thing? And would many girls be happy to spend the year wearing the same 5 shirts and 2 skirts, or would they need more?

Clearly schools need to make sensitive decisions about what they specify, but I suspect that uniform is probably a cheaper way to dress most children than home clothes, albeit of course not all.

Purchase coming all at once can be a bit of a mare though.

Michaela it is a parent's responsibility to teach a child from a very young age what it means to be able to afford things, I come from a country where there is no uniform -the Netherlands - and they seem to manage quite well. We were not rich growing up and yes, we did make do with a limited number of choices. My parents taught us to deal with peer pressure. Our school dealt with any hint of bullying - very effectively too.

Between those two things, you really don't need uniform if you get it right. I would have no problems with a simple dress code, but I do object to schools coining it by demanding single supplier logo'd everything. That should be made illegal.

I'm lucky, DD's school is sensible about uniform - only blazer, tie and PE kit are compulsory and are kept cheap, and 6th form is non-uniform. A lot of UK families are not so lucky.

Our children go to a very good secondary school, they however have an expensive uniform list. I'd think in total of trainers and football boots my sons cost over £300, my daughter starts this year, and I'm buying as required is not all PE uniform is required all the time, in year 7 they cycle through all sports to let them try them. The only thing they wear clean every day is shirts / blouses so I buy 5, and 3 trousers, 2 jumpers / cardigans.

I went uniform shopping yesterday - a blazer, 2 jumpers, tie, pe top , pe jumper, non-logo'd shorts and a craft apron came to 2p short of £100. Thankfully they can wear generic black trousers, shirts and pe joggers so I have ordered them from Sainsburys with the 25% off, but that is probably another £50 (I have ordered multiple sizes and styles so will be able to send some back)

That school is one with the least regulation items in the area. However the one school that has everything logo'd has very reasonable uniform prices but this is probably because it is a very large MAT and can have economies of scale when it comes to uniform.