School uniform - shall I be bloody minded?

hm71_2

I personally would find a local embroidery/printer and get them done myself- they can usually work off a scan of an existing badge and then buy the stuff from Asda. I usually pay about £2.50 per item so given that trousers are about £6 in asda, they also have the differing waist/leg measurements cost you about £8.50 a pair. we were a little naughty and a few of us parents got together and got bulk price.

Poppy9

The logo on the school trousers & PE skort is different to the logo on sweatshirt. They've copyrighted the logo on the trousers so they cannot be copied (and all local suppliers of uniform are aware of this). It's embroidered into the main part of the trousers so I can't cut it off and sew it on as you would notice it as they do a close inspection!

ailuro2

Bring it up at the next PTA or with parents at the gate/school events, any chance you get to speak to other parents, and organise a petition to get them organised.

Of course you can send DD to school in her old trousers, even if they are short they will have the right logo on them. Give her a note explaining why she is wearing last year's clothes.

This is not your fault, it is the school's!!:mad:

ifonlyitwaseasier

i'd send her in plain trs and armed with a letter should she be inspected. sthg along the lines of
"whilst i try to follow the school rules with regards to my daughters uniform, it has been impossible to get the correct sizes or indeed even into the shop, especially with the restricted opening hours. when the sizes are available i will of course be happy to send my daughter into school in the correct uniform, until then i have had to find an alternative as her old trs are now too small."

and if the teachers have an issue with it then request a meeting with the head and state you are extremely disappointed with their lack of flexibility with regards their shops lack of product.

or something along those lines....

btw hi cloe!!!!!!!

looby-loo_2

I would cut and sew the old one on especially as she is growing so fast.

Squiggly_Diddly

I would be tempted to add into the letter that by checking the uniform that closely, you consider it to be a form of assault on your DD....

I have recently become a parent governor at my DD's secondary school & am about to try & raise the issue of uniform too, as the year 10/11's change top/jumper & again it is only available from one supplier.. I think it is ridiculous. I have no problem whatsoever with having a uniform code - what I do object to is schools forcing parents to pay extortionate amounts of money for what is often poor quality clothing, simply because it has a logo embroidered onto it. I would be quite happy to stitch a badge onto a top instead.

Stand your ground with the school though - if they cannot have the stock available and provide decent access to the shop, then they will need to accept that not everyone will be able to obtain all the uniform by the first day of term.

Incisor

Cloe wrote: »

Im Poppy9s DD:D ...

And we're watching the clicks on the Thanks button ...

Janepig

ts_aly2000 wrote: »

£11-18 a pair!! Christ what is it, a private school with horsies?

Uniform checks? Not swastikas by any chance are they?

I am frankly amazed that you are all being manipulated and controlled like this, and put up with it. Are they your children? Or are they really somebody else's that you're expected to pay for?

Really, this is ridiculous. Logo on the jumper/blazer, that's it.

It's a popular school in the area (oversubscribed Poppy?) and I think that they know that they've got parents over a barrel. Obviously parents are keen for their children to go there as it's repudedly a good school, and if they do send their children there then they've got to go along with this uniform ridiculousness. I'm all for school uniform - it makes my life alot easier with DD, but we've just got badged polo and sweatshirts, the only stipulation with trousers/skirts/pinafores is that they're black.

What I think Cloe's school are doing (and other schools that have this policy) is a form of selection - by pricing the uniform out of the reach of low income parents, they're selecting children from better off families, who by virtue of that are likely going to perform better at school. It's disgraceful and I thought this government were going to put a stop to it.

Jxx

slummymummyof3

What happens about the families who are struggling to afford uniform at your school? Sounds like you are all being held to ransom! Do they have a second hand uniform sale shop? I didn't think schools were allowed to be the only supplier that you could get the uniform from.

Poppy9

You're right about the school Jane. It is over subscribed and popular but it's my catchment area school and it's a state school so the uniform shouldn't be over onerous.

DD went to a RC primary school which had compulsory uniform (if I remember rightly state primary schools cannot have compulsory uniform only church/independent schools). However it was sensible in being just logo'd sweatshirt with the optional logo polo shirt (plain white was acceptable) in infants and blue shirt/blouse tie in juniors along with grey trousers. PTA shop sold second hand uniform for £1 per item via honesty box so people had privacy (if they couldn't afford £1 they were welcome to take it for nothing).

Secondary school doesn't have a PTA (think they have something posher with a handful of parents:p ) No way am I joining after doing 7 years hard slog at primary school:D

The new uniform policy was introduced a couple of years before DD attended. My sister's children were there at the time and she said there was a lot of parental opposition but as with secondary schools there is no school gate committee (the children all walk alone) and they don't have many parents meeting and if the one I went to about the change of school hours was any gauge, they don't listen anyway. Re the change of school hours they organised 1 meeting which was the only way according to the letter from head of PTA you could comment on policy (no letters, emails or phone calls). Didn't hear one parent speak for change in hours and I don't recall all the governors attending (I think it was just Head and HOG). They changed school hours!

If I didn't send my DD to this school I would have to ask for a preferred placement to a non catchment area school (travel at my expense) or send her to the RC comp which is across the other side of the town.

The school is back for some pupils before DD goes so I will ring and try to speak to Head (or head of year) about the uniform and I will follow up with a letter on the general issue of availabilty etc.

I'm not going to buy a pair of black trousers specially for a few days/weeks so she will wear what we have. Some girls were cutting out part of the old school trousers and sewing onto Top Shop trousers as the school trousers are classing as "minging" (have to say not the most flattering and not all girls can wear the same style).