How much did you spend on school stuff?

[NarwhalsNarwhals]

When your child started secondary how much roughly did you spend getting DC uniform and PE kit?

And how much on any other bits they'll need?

I don't know where DD will be going yet so can't check exact prices but money is always really tight so I plan to start putting something aside each month now so I know that I have enough. Second hand uniform may not be an option as 1 of her choices is a completely new school opening this year.

All schools here wear blazers, logo skirts/tartan kilts, logo jumpers, ties and logo indoor and outdoor pe kits, so I'm guessing it'll be expensive.

Including books, sports clothes (x2 different sets) we spent around £300.
This didn’t including a school uniform as they don’t have one

Can't remember exactly but it was about £150/200, that was everything, blazer, new clarks shoes, logo PE kit, rugby/football boots, new PE bag, new school bag, calculator pears etc.
I saved a bit every month for a year so I had most covered in savings x

Buy as big as you can.
e.g. blazer cuffs can easily be down to the knuckles,
PE kit can be baggy as long as it doesn't look ridiculous.
Many kids don't wear jumpers so you could avoid buying one.

Label anything you will care about if it gets lost.

@TeenPlusTwenties I did wonder about the jumper, also judging by the kids on the bus I get to work most kids don't wear coats over their blazers either do they? And yup. will label everything.

@Gorbie, I had planned to start saving ages ago but DD's birthday and Christmas got in the way!

@Espoleta eek, did you have to buy many books? I hadn't even thought about that, I assumed they just borrowed them from school.

We didn't have to buy books

Buy as big as you can.
e.g. blazer cuffs can easily be down to the knuckles,
PE kit can be baggy as long as it doesn't look ridiculous. PE kit can be baggy as long as it doesn't look ridiculous.

Why?

Why on earth would you deliberately make your DC wear a blazer sizes too big

I used Tesco embroidery, now 'my clothing' and it starts at £19 for an embroidered blazer. M&S for shirts as they were better then the supermarkets but everything else came from Tesco/ASDA/Sainsbury's

I've had three children go through two different secondary schools now. I couldn't do much in the way of hand-me-downs because each time they had changed the uniform enough to need to buy new again.

I'd say I had to spend on average just short of £300 on everything necessary.

We have sometimes had to buy some books because school funding has been cut to the bone and they can't afford to buy new or to replace. They will tell you as they go along if they want you to contribute to subject materials like that though, so wait until you see if/what is required.

My youngest DD is doing A Levels this year and has wanted us to buy some of the text books for her because a) school has too few copies and they are falling apart anyway, and b) she likes to have her own book to refer to as necessary and make notes in. Which is fair enough.

Make sure everything is named clearly and in several places. Really impress on your DC the importance of looking after their things. I work in a secondary school and am horrified by how careless most of the students are with their things. Make it clear that replacing lost or forgotten items will come out of pocket money, to incentivise taking care and not loaning things, etc.

Equipment and uniform are expensive, you don't want to have to buy them twice.

I would buy only one skirt, esp if logoed (= more expensive). My dd has one skirt, if desperate I could wash and dry it midweek but in fact I rarely did.

Similarly one blazer, wash at weekend if needed. Don't bother with jumper if wearing blazer. One PE kit only.

stationery doesn't need to be expensive. Get a decent backpack, we gave had success with Nike ones for about £20, ds2 has made one last two years.

Shoes for PE can be cheap if child not sporty, eg studs for hockey or football may be needed but £20 pair is fine.

If I were you I would price up the uniform at your most likely school to see how much. I am often surprised at how many items ppl on MN say they get, by the time they are teens they are usually a bit cleaner.

yy to telling your dd to take care of her stuff. I used to be amazed when I worked in school at the stuff in lost property - Nike footy boots, Adidas hoodies etc.

Never bought books for any of mine until ks4 revision guides. Might need MFL dictionary, wil need maths calculator but get that from school as usually cheaper.

Our state school tartan skirts start about £26, jumpers £15ish, logo'd polos £8-9.

Individual items are pricey and I've not seen much second hand, but you don't need loads. We have 2 skirts but we could manage with 1, they rarely get dirty. PE kit has added up as they have PE jumpers and proper sports leggings, trainers, football sock, shin pads, occasionally football boots and mouth guards. For football boots most parents of girls just borrow, or buy basic astro boots from Decathlon for about £6-7.

I used to be amazed when I worked in school at the stuff in lost property Definitely, I work at a primary and our lost property box is always full, and that's with parents there to check it.

Why on earth would you deliberately make your DC wear a blazer sizes too big

OP says she's going to a school with specified logoed items and is clearly not flush with cash. That means items like blazers and PE kits are likely to be expensive so she doesn't want to be replacing them every year, or worse, more than once a year. It's quite normal for secondary school starters to have slightly too big uniform (clearly not to the point that it's ridiculous).

(That said my DD hasn't grown since the start of Year 7, but she quite likes her slightly oversized blazer as it gives her more space to put things in the pockets).

I'd agree with one blazer and one skirt/trousers and one PE kit. Regarding the PE kit, when you know what school she's going to, have a chat with a parent of an older child and see what PE items are actually needed. e.g. at DC's school you can get away without football boots unless you're on teams, virtually no girls wear PE shorts (leggings all year round), and likewise virtually no boys wear the rugby shirt, so you can avoid buying them.

Blazer
Jumpers 2
Skirts 2
Striped blouses 4
Tights 10
Sports shorts
Sports polo
Sports hoody
Sports socks
Trainers
School shoes
Bag
Black coat

Just over £500 in 2009 (don't know why I remember it so vividly) and yes it was a state school. One tiny tragedy was that dd never grew into the one size up I bought (she stayed a tiny 5'3") but she left the school at the end of yr 8 because under a new head it tanked. So spent another £500 or £600 on uniform.

OP says she's going to a school with specified logoed items and is clearly not flush with cash.

I'm sorry but that is no reason to send a child to school in a blazer so big the cuffs reach their knuckles. It would be huge in body and length on the child as well.

I understand that some schools are more costly, but sending your child out looking like a sack of spuds will only ever be detrimental to their school experience.

About £320 for DC1.
Down to about £190 for DC2.
DC3 maybe £30 (!!)

2 x logo skirt
2 x logo jumper
1 x tie
1 x pe top
1 x pe jumper
1 x pe shorts
1 x pe socks
That was from the uniform shop and was £150 with 10% discount for buying before end July
Then from other shops
4 x blouses (for skirts, had to be a specific design, £12 for 2)
3 x shirts (for trousers, never worn)
1 x trousers (never worn)
Trainers
Shoes
Walking boots for forest school
Waterproof trousers for forest school
PE leggings
Reckon that was another £150

Another £60 on rucksack and stationery (including scientific calculator, art book and art pencils)

£30 on required school books - i didn't bother with the optional ones

All clothing was bought up one size to make sure it lasted at least y7. There's quite an active second hand marketplace on our local facebook, so I'm hoping to buy nearly new pe kit for future years.

Uniform was about £125 inc shoes. We were lucky that DS went to a school that didn't have a blazer and the boys were allowed to wear black trousers from anywhere.

Stationery/school bag - probably about £40? He started with all the best pens etc, now in yr 11 and he's got a broken ruler, a grubby multi coloured pen and a chewed pencil to his name

It's perfectly standard for new y7s to have blazers on the roomy side.
Especially if you know your child hasn't had their growth spurt yet.
You don't have to, but if you are worried about cost / waste then buying something a bit on the big size in perfectly standard practice. My DDs did not look like 'sacks of potatoes' when they started, but neither did I have to fork out for a new blazer every year.

OP re coats. Kids that take a bus a more likely to go without coats than kids who walk. Round here the kids that walk tend to be reasonably sensible, the girls especially use umbrellas. You do often see 'drowned rats' though, usually if it was fine in the morning, but raining at home time.

On the roomy side and sleeves down to the knuckles are not the same thing. Yes it may be normal to have a slightly bigger blazer but sleeves to the knuckle isn't just a little bit bigger. It would be huge.

It's not standard practice to have a child go to school in a blazer that's far too big.

It may have worked for you but I wouldn't be going about advising other people do it.

zoo It wouldn't necessarily be huge, it depends on the cut of the particular blazer and the shape of the child. Often there is ~2 inches difference in perceived length of sleeve depending on whether an arm is at rest or out-stretched. Of course you don't want you child to look ridiculous, and it has to be practical for working, but neither do you want to fork out for a new blazer 6 months after starting school. You have to get them tried on, and work out what the biggest size is that looks OK.

But what I said still stands for me, Secondary uniform for a new y7 is not the time to go for 'perfect fit' it is the time to go for 'room to grow' as much as possible.

ps just in case we are confusing terminology. By knuckles I mean where fingers join the main body of your hand, not the other joints where the fingers themselves bend, which even I would say was probably too long.

It's not standard practice to have a child go to school in a blazer that's far too big.

It was recommended we buy big at the parents' meeting for children about to start Year 7 ... so yes, it is standard practice.

It was recommended we buy big at the parents' meeting for children about to start Year 7 ... so yes, it is standard practice.

Great. Did they say buy so big the blazer is down to the child's knuckles? Because that is the big we were discussing, not just a bit bigger, that would be huge.

Thanks all, I'm quite relieved 1 or 2 skirts is considered enough, she's got 5 for primary but they are the cheap Asda ones, no way could I have saved enough to do 5 for secondary!

I'll get roomy but not so big it looks silly.