Would you pay £100+ for a school uniform?

[BatShite]

The question sounds ridiculous, but DSD is apparently meant to buy everything from one very expensive shop. Logos on most, but even stuff like trousers or skirts, the skirt she needs (if wanting a skirt) is 27 quid alone. Even poloshirts have to be from that one shop, and are 13 quid each (same ones you get from tesco for 2 quid by the looks of it too..)This sounds totally insane to me?

In contrast, DD and DS..we got their uniforms yesterday, and its come to round about a fiver per set.

DSD 'normal' uniform is about a hundred, and 'PE uniform' is 50 also, hell they even are trying to say she needs a certain pair of socks for PE?!

Not sure what to do here as this would leave us hugely short. Technically we can 'afford it' but..it would cause issues for a while. School is in an area where a fair few kids from very poor backgrounds live too..so I hate to think what those parents are thinking right now.

I am considering just the logo blazer, the tie from the overpriced shop, then just normal black trousers and stuff. Even doing it that way would be 50 quid, but I can stretch to that. Playing for a PE uniform though...seems ridiculous.

Not sure what my options are so basically just wondering if I am being unreasonable or not tbh. Am I just being stingy?! The gulf between DS/DDs fiver uniform, and 150 quid is just so much..

£50 for pe kit for secondary seems about right. My kids uniform was blazer (can sew on the badge) tie then rest generic, still came to £150 - think about how much you would pay if they wore their own clothes at such a brand conscious age

Depends how much you buy doesnt it?

I mean is 100 quid fir one if everything? If so that's surely pretty impractical so you would be surely talking double that? And even then you still have shoes and trainers possubly a new bag ir art folder etc it usually ends up being far far far more.

think about how much you would pay if they wore their own clothes at such a brand conscious age

Hit it lucky with DSD for that, so far at least. She much prefers just being given a bit of cash and she gets a load of new stuff from primark, rather than wanting expensive stuff. Prety much lives in the 2 quid tops and leggings..seems to be the 'trend' with her mates. They get cheap clothes as they prefer keeping money to buy tickets to go places and that, good logic to me as that was definitely me at her age!

Her brother is horrific for brands, has been for years.

We are expecting it soon though!

Yeah the hundred is for one of each. Its 120 if we get the skirt instead of the trousers, which she would prefer.

So yeah, we like to have at least 2. Usually 2 with maybe another spare in a couple of things just incase (one year her jumper went missing 3 times )

Either way though, it does seem to be on the lower side. Was just gouging other prices tbh as it seemed so..much. Especially as its just jumped in price by 50 quid since January as new logo!

How much do you think someone got paid for making the uniform if you only paid £6.25 for a set?

Just because others say its cheap mer than theirs doesnt make it cheap though.

27 quid fir a skirt is outrageous. ( I have to pay 18.50 which is a rip off too. Could get three fir that at tesco)

13 pounds for a polo is expensive when even in m&s 3 shirts costs 15 quid.

We are far to accepting of being ripped off with uniform based on other people having to pay more outrageous prices than someone else.

When our school changed the uniform, y7 had to buy the new style and the others were allowed a school year of wearing the old style before being forced to change for the new style. Yanbu to be pissed off that you are being forced to buy new for a y11 who won't even be at school for the whole school year.

You're very lucky that it's £100 ish to buy everything new. I spent £300+ when my kids started secondary (including shoes as no Velcro allowed) and even luckier that the 2 primary kids cost you £6.25.

My ds is 14 and going through a growth spurt so I've had to replace the uniform that I bought in late Feb and I suspect that there's a few more leaps like that to come.

Yeah I do think my main problem is having to replace the ones she has only worn a handful of times, because the school decided to change every part of the uniform..plus it being y11 so not even a full year. The plan was that hopefully she stopped growing quite so quickly and the stuff from January lasted right through. Rebuying as she had grown though is one of those things..noones fault.

How much do you think someone got paid for making the uniform if you only paid £6.25 for a set?

Not much. Take that up with tesco though tbh.
I expect whoever made the tesco stuff did not get paid much. Thats hardly my issue though tbh. Also if tesco use sweatshops or whatever, then a whole load of parents support them too!

Also, have not included shoes and that of course. Luckily DSDs shoes are still classed as ok, was half expecting them to change the compulasry black shoes for grey or something too! And little ones can just use normal trainers for PE. And had smart black shoes anyway which they use for school.

Anyway thanks for the replies. You are of course correct Roswel ad it doesnt make it better just because others get ripped off more. But it has made me feel quite lucky in comparison! I am sre I remember when I was at school (so..20 years back now!) my mum saying there was a rule where schools were not meant to tie anyone to one shop, or make uniforms extortionate. I guess that..disappeared. Have never thought about it too much until now as we could afford it fairly easily before this covid stuff but icome is shockingly low at the min and debt levels are high too!

I've just spent £93 for blazer, jumper, PE shorts, polo top, rugby top all with logo

Then shoes, trousers, shirts, trainers for PE, school bag, calculator (£10!) so all in all about £180?
The tie is £8, but we already had one.

They changed the PE kit last year but the year 11's could wear the old one.

I thought that was pricey but I see some are spending twice that!

I always think uniform is cheap compared to having to buy lots of non uniform stuff / I know they have it anyway but they'd def need more jeans/ joggers / tops etc if they weren't in uniform and teenager clothes are often expensive!

Rebranding at short notice and expecting year 11s to replace everything is shocking. A friend’s kids go to a private secondary where most (but not all) of the parents are minted. They gave them a full year’s notice of the uniform change and exempted year 11, so year 7 started wearing the new kit in 2018, years 7-10 wore it in 2019 and years 7-11 wore it in 2020. Because they recognised that even in a private school the parents didn’t have money to burn.

Everything has to have logo for my son altho shirts an pants I get from anywhere. Blazer pe top an matching short hoodie an yes socks all need to b bought from one shop socks alone are £9 so yep prob comes to 100+

Check with the school governors as to their school uniform policy. Uniform should not be costing 000’s. It has to be available and accessible to everyone and to be bought easily ie supermarkets and the not only in specific uniform shops. Logo style uniform should br avoided buying schools unless it just a badge which can be sewn on.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-49591950

Are you sure that she's not allowed to wear the old one? It's not usual for a school to rebrand all year groups in one go. It's always been slowly phased out in the schools I've worked in. I did work in one academy where they changed the blazer and bought every pupil the new one. Such a waste of money!

Yes I would and have done!
State grammar cost around £300 + to kit them out with everything including school shoes, trainers etc
State comp cost around £200 incl shoes etc
Quite usual for everything including pe kit to be monogrammed .

Yes I would and have done. Actually £100 is cheap round here!
Spent £300+ for local grammar including shoes eyyc and £200 + for local comp. Its usual for everything including pe kit to be monogrammed

Yep it's true, although usually if they change the uniform they say you can wear either during a crossover period ( usually 1-2 years)
My ds is about to go into year 9, state school and cost about 250 for uniform and 150 for pe kit ( with football and rugby boots), I'm just glad his trainers still fitted!

@seven201

Are you sure that she's not allowed to wear the old one? It's not usual for a school to rebrand all year groups in one go. It's always been slowly phased out in the schools I've worked in. I did work in one academy where they changed the blazer and bought every pupil the new one. Such a waste of money!

I've been through 2 uniform changes, one primary and one secondary and in both cases it was an all at once change, no option to have a changeover period,

Maybe it's regional thing, I know other schools round me have done the same.

Very common for the uniform to be so expensive - cost over £300 when mine started secondary. Speak to the school as they might have second hand uniform available for a small cost. Or post on local forums

I think a lot of expense is incurred when starting year 7 because it takes a while to work out what fits your own DC and what doesn't and where to get it. Once you know that, for example, M&S regular blazers fit best then there is no need to waste money on other types. Same with trousers, shirts etc.
Wait till they are in sixth form and their school decides business wear is what a 16-year-old needs: suits will make uniform look very easy and cheap. (Please, schools, bring back the days of wearing your own clothes as a sixth form privilege)

When our school changed uniform, they had few years of grace period. So they didn't have to buy all the new uniform straight away for existing children. Don't they do something like that?

If I could buy the dds’ uniform for £100 each I’d be delighted. The blazers are about £85 each for a start. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a single secondary school near me where you could buy the uniform for less than £100.

Ours was a lot more than that but none of it is optional even the ridiculously expensive PE base layer and socks. They will be given detention or sent home if they don’t have the specified items so I would check policy before not getting the specified items.

It's really shit, OP.

But until this useless government BANS state schools from single-source suppliers, it will continue. Right now, they just 'advise' schools not to do it this way.

So they all take the piss with grossly overpriced school clothing, generally logoed, right down to PE tops, shorts and socks. Grossly unfair to families trying to stick to budgets when you could get plain tops, shorts and socks for a fraction of the price.

It costs us £££s for secondary school uniforms, and I've got 3 in secondary now. It is irrelevant that you or we can 'technically' afford it ... because it means we are doing so at the expense of things we would rather spend our money on.