The cost of School Uniforms

I was surprised to see gillybob posting this. Then I looked at the date ....

I do not agree with unnecessary expensive uniforms for the sake of status

However, I think you are being unreasonable.
The price of those uniforms cannot be a secret and the public is well aware of the gauging.
If so signing your kid up to attend that school is part of the price you pay.
Uniform + school is a packaged deal. Take it or leave it.

I suspect some schools in affluent areas manage to make a point of getting their children more 'posh" and expensive uniforms etc.
Which most of the others cannot afford. This is a local primary school.

I am right with Gillybob with regard to school uniform.

There is one near us that has a school who goes for making their school uniform fancy, with better with more top quality fabrics . Which is just not fair.
Posh embroidery adds to the costs. On
Keep the uniform really simple itself.

I recall many years ago when my eldest was at an all girl's school. She'd been there a year and the school introduced ghastly scratchy jumpers with the name of the school embroidered on it.

I had just purchased a jumper from Tammy Girl. It was the right colour ... bottle green ... and I was told that she could continue to wear it until she grew out of it.

Thanks to my lack of good washing schools the jumper appeared to grow and grow and she was able to wear it until she left.

It was a tad 'well worn' but we were very pleased that we didn't have to go down the scratchy jumper route.

I agree with most posters above. There should be a generic uniform in the school colour, navy, green, blue, brown, whatever, with just a sew-on badge for the jumpers and a tie for the boys.
Where I live they have scrapped ties for girls and they wear their blouses open-necked, and I think it looks better. The same with sports gear, lots of schools have generic tracksuits and sports shirts with just a sew-on badge. Much fairer on everyone I think.
Yes, agree about name tapes too, even home made ones if the professionally made ones are too expensive.

I’m always amazed at how parents moan about the price of a uniform but then don’t bother to sew name tapes in!
School lost property bins are full of unmarked clothes.

There is a quiet large group in our area that organise uniform swaps.
They set up in a school hall at the end of school year and people can bring uniform from any local school and swap for larger sizes or senior for primary.
Great idea.

It’s also not easy david if you have a tall child or any other slight ‘difference’
I have just started a link with a local community group to pass on bags of generic school clothes from the charity shop I volunteer in as we get way more than we can sell although we sell them at 50p a shot They are often brand new with labels still on so a terrible waste
To me life is about links and need more now than ever

My youngest daughter has 4 at school 2 primary 2 secondary, for her, no problem with clothes, happy to swap with other parents at little cost, shoes are an issue, you can’t really swap and sports kit.

I am a great believer in school uniform but it ALL schools should have one where it can be bought anywhere apart from the tie and a badge that can be sewn on. Blazers should be washable. PE kits should be plain. The school could keep a set with logos to lend out for matches.
My pet hate is piped blazers - why?

There was an interesting post a long while ago now who struggled to buy school uniform and because of that those children could not go to grammar school
This is nothing new, my Dad 90 years ago could not go to grammar school as his mum couldn’t buy the uniform needed and that was a very long time before logos

My grandsons primary school has a very basic school uniform. It is in a very working class area.
My friends grand children have obviously quite posh uniform which is where they live.
I guess this school is already in an afluent Cheshire school .
I really wonder how much they pay for their childrens uniform, compared with my grandsons.
I do agree with school unifom but it should be really be very basic and as inexpensive as possible.
There was an interesting post a long while ago now who struggled to buy school uniform and because of that those children could not get to a grammar school education.
Why grammar schools is/or are still very divisive.

When their "policy" is to force parents to go to one expensive shop for uniform instead of buying generic clothes of the right colour from a more modest shop - and then the school takes a cut from that expensive shop's profit from selling those expensive uniforms - it starts to appear that their real motive is not equality among the children, but the inflation of their own profitability. That is wrong!

If schools had no policy then parents may be cajoled to buy things in fashion by their children which can change from week to week. DGS1 infant school just merged with primary school and changed colours - voted by parents. Don't have to get the logo uniform but blue was colour voted in (red before) and available in most supermarkets. DC primary school was purple and quite common in Scotland.

The cost of school uniforms last year drove many (working) families to use the food bank for the first time as they couldn't afford to clothe their children for the new term AND buy food. This year the Foodbank is piloting a School Uniform Bank and it looks as if it's going to be quite successful; local charity shops are handing over donated uniforms as are ex-pupils. Local businesses and individuals are giving cash.

The “or maybe” fits the bill crystaltips . Daren’t say any more.

My boy is going to the one that's closest, for practical reasons, and also because we're in the catchment area, and you have to have very good reason to go elsewhere.

Presumably parents are aware of the uniform code before they accept a place at a particular school. Maybe one of the reasons for the school being sought after is that they are hot on discipline and appearance. Its swings and roundabouts. If the school gain some extra funding this way maybe it’s a reflection of the cuts that been made to schools and this is one way they can actually pay the staff. Or maybe it’s an overblown academy which is paying huge salaries to its senior management and has to maintain that. An example of Tory policies that don’t actually benefit the children.

My GCs Academy school in a very nice area runs second hand uniform sales which are very popular and used by most of the parents. As the items are donated the school has a good income from this. Perhaps you could suggest to the PTA that they start one gillybob after all if the uniform is so expensive it should be good quality and should wear well.

I have noticed that, what shall I say, better-off parents are quite happy to rummage.

Someone I know who was very well off bought DD's old uniform from a school sale

My grandsons school made such a song and dance about the secondhand uniform, put it on a table outside where reception is, kept sending texts, emails and so on.

I would have been embarrassed rummaging through it.

That can't be the reason here, as we have Hobson's choice.

This is a subtle way of making a school selective, by putting parents off from applying because of the high costs involved.

Of course it is eazybee . It’s a very hard school to get into as it is, as they operate a policy of taking all children direct from selective primaries (which just happen to be situated in very expensive villages) leaving few or no places for local children. My DGD was originally given a place at a school many miles away from home (despite this school, being on the doorstep) but we went to appeal and won, so I suppose we should have known what we were letting ourselves in for, cost wise.

These rules sound exactly the same as my grammar school in the 1950s, but the uniform lasted for years. I am a strong believer in school uniform, but it is the wearing of it which is important, not the cost. Is there a parents association which can investigate the high cost, and where the profit is going?
This is a subtle way of making a school selective, by putting parents off from applying because of the high costs involved. Your daughter and son in law must raise concerns with the school, the Governors, and their local MP.

On the last day of term the HT put out a rack of lost property which no-one had reclaimed. For a small school it was quite extensive.
If not claimed she said it would be washed and kept in school for emergencies. I was surprised that parents had not chased up any of it.