Parents complaining about school unform costs

divadee

everything for little miss divadees new secondary school has to be bought from one sole supplier. i have just spent £220 before shoes and trainers.

skirts are £17.50 each and the blouses which are white with a blue strip were £17.50 each.

I bought

3 x shirts
2 x skirts
1 x blazer
1 x blazer badge (free)
1 x jumper
1 x pe kit shirt
1 x pe shorts
1 x craft apron

that is the minimum i can get away with (she is very messy lol). you have no choice for girls but to buy the skirts from the shop as they are navy blue with a very fine pinstrip on them and they are mandatory.

if you have a boy its a hell of a lot cheaper, they wear plain white shirts and grey trousers from anywhere.

when they changed the girls uniform a few years ago everyone kicked off about the cost of girls stuff, but they went ahead anyway.

i just hope the government hurry up and pull there finger out to stop the anti-competition that you can only buy from one shop.

before_hollywood

schools do expect parents to buy too many things, when i was there a blazer was £40 and that was in the early 90s

didnt much care for wearing my old trainers for p.e though as they were always a size too small

Katie-Kat-Kins

The school my nephew goes to will sell on second hand stuff to new starters before the begining of term. School uniform is rarely worn out before it is outgrown so this works well.

I do think though that when setting school uniforms the emphasis should be on practicality. Sweatshirts, polos and trousers, with an option of shorts for summer for boys and a dress or skirt for girls. Separate sew on badges could be supplied, should only cost a few pounds. Blazers, shirts and ties are impractical and unnecessary.

There should be no need for pe kit or other sundries to be branded as long as they are colour coded. Black grey navy and white can easily be bought from any store.

The biggest con is craft/cooking aprons, no need for the "special" ones they try to make you buy, just buy the kid an apron, or better still term one of their first year at secondary school get them all to make one. My mum did this, they had to make aprons before they were allowed to do cooking or craft then they used them for the next five years. I used that apron that she made when I started secondary school. The skills they learn doing this mean that they can sew their own school logo badge on their uniform. Important skills learnt. Same with PE bags, we made bags like that for brownies aged seven they could do the same at school, we learned how to sew our own badges on at brownies too.......

fiscalfreckles

It can be quite reasonable to kit out your children for school when you are able to use the supermarkets or the likes of BHS/M&S, but I have rarely been able to do this.

The junior school wore bottle green, which isn't stocked everywhere - skirts particularly were really diffficult to find and never part of the supermarket ranges.

Now both of mine are at secondary school and kilts, sweatshirts and blazers, not to mention numerous logo games items, HAVE to be purchased directly via the school, at premium prices. Unless I buy second hand or hand items down, there is no possibility of any bargains. And that rarely happens; the stuff is so pricey (eg £30 for a kilt) that most kids wear them out! the only saving I can make really is on blouses.

The games kit irks the most, they play so many different sports and have to have the right kit for each, some of which is only worn for a week or two. Yet they get detentions if they don't turn up with it. At least the regular stuff is worn every day.

galvanizersbaby

At the primary school my children attend they wear the old style itchy acrylic jumpers which you buy from a specialist stockist and cost around 25 pounds each - I do find these type don't seem to wear out too often (I guess due to what they are made of and also my kids don't like wearing them so they tend to be removed at the earliest availability )
They look pretty much as new so only need to replace when they grow out of them I guess.

There is a tie and PE shirt but these are available from the school for a few pounds.

All the rest of the uniform I bulk buy from M&S - it's really only their Clarkes shoes that are the expensive items.

I like that they have a uniform for school - I wouldn't want them wearing out their nice clothes.

I tend to think that the parents complaining about the cost are the ones who have no choice but to buy through a designated supplier as everything seems ro be at least 3-4 times the cost in these cases.

Katie-Kat-Kins

before_hollywood wrote: »

schools do expect parents to buy too many things, when i was there a blazer was £40 and that was in the early 90s

didnt much care for wearing my old trainers for p.e though as they were always a size too small

I used to have pumps from primark for £3 for pe, lots of kids, especially the ones that loved sports or were on teams had branded trainers, but no name primark pumps didn't leave me mentally scarred, in fact a friend and I used to make a joke about it. My mum wasn't prepare to spend big money on kit for something I hated and would give up as soon as possible. Don't blame her, would have been a waste.

Sometimes it is character building for a child not to have the same as all their friends they can't go through life expecting to be able to have the same as everyone, and if they do they will get into trouble. DFW is full of people who have run up frightening levels of debt keeping up with the jones' at some point in your life you have to learn to be realistic and to live within your means and prioritise. School isn't too early.

galvanizersbaby

KatP wrote: »

The school my nephew goes to will sell on second hand stuff to new starters before the begining of term. School uniform is rarely worn out before it is outgrown so this works well.

I do think though that when setting school uniforms the emphasis should be on practicality. Sweatshirts, polos and trousers, with an option of shorts for summer for boys and a dress or skirt for girls. Separate sew on badges could be supplied, should only cost a few pounds. Blazers, shirts and ties are impractical and unnecessary.

There should be no need for pe kit or other sundries to be branded as long as they are colour coded. Black grey navy and white can easily be bought from any store.

The biggest con is craft/cooking aprons, no need for the "special" ones they try to make you buy, just buy the kid an apron, or better still term one of their first year at secondary school get them all to make one. My mum did this, they had to make aprons before they were allowed to do cooking or craft then they used them for the next five years. I used that apron that she made when I started secondary school. The skills they learn doing this mean that they can sew their own school logo badge on their uniform. Important skills learnt. Same with PE bags, we made bags like that for brownies aged seven they could do the same at school, we learned how to sew our own badges on at brownies too.......[/QUOTE]

I remember sewing my badges on my brownie uniform KatP

I am trying to teach DS (nearly seven) to sew his Beaver badges on to his top (he picked up 8 new badges at the end of term)
After hours of pinning, sewing his sleeve to the top and lots of huffing and puffing we managed to get them on in the right places - however when he went to try the top on to admire our joint efforts we realised that it is getting really tight and he's in to the next size up! :eek:
Now have the job of transferring his 13 badges to the new jumper! :mad:

galvanizersbaby

KatP wrote: »

I used to have pumps from primark for £3 for pe, lots of kids, especially the ones that loved sports or were on teams had branded trainers, but no name primark pumps didn't leave me mentally scarred, in fact a friend and I used to make a joke about it. My mum wasn't prepare to spend big money on kit for something I hated and would give up as soon as possible. Don't blame her, would have been a waste.

Sometimes it is character building for a child not to have the same as all their friends they can't go through life expecting to be able to have the same as everyone, and if they do they will get into trouble. DFW is full of people who have run up frightening levels of debt keeping up with the jones' at some point in your life you have to learn to be realistic and to live within your means and prioritise. School isn't too early.

Strangely enough at my childrens school they are not allowed to wear pumps or plimsoles for PE - something to do with H&S apparently?!
It has to be trainers but at their age they aren't really label conscious so it hasn't been an issue just yet - having said that there appears to be a frightening amount of cheap sports shops popping up in my area so I don't suppose it will be too much of an issue

sammyw

At my daughter's senior school they have to wear blazer, tie, blouse, skirt or trousers.
The blazer can be bought anywhere as long as it is navy - and then you have to buy the badge and tie from the school stockist. The skirt has to be bought from the school stockist as it is royal blue - nowhere else sells them - and it's £23!!! Trousers have to be black and can be bought anywhere.
The thing that annoys me the most is the pe kit extras they insist you buy - and then get left in the drawer at home because no one wears them! My daughter had to have a skort and hockey socks with the school name on - specialist stockist and lots of money! - and she never wore them!

Also annoying is the size range of cheaper clothes - they don't fit my kids at all!! Where can you find school trousers for a 6 foot+ teen without paying adult prices??

shellsuit

£400 i've shelled out for uniforms for my 2.

Daughters blouses were £10 for 2, whereas sons were 5 for £10 and they were from M&S!

DD's skirts were £15 each.

Tank tops and jumpers are £12 each.

School PE stuff, shorts, socks, polo top, rugby top, footy top, sweatshirt, then they have a tracksuit too.....bog off no way!

Oh and this year, they have to have 'school' bags, as in a bag set out by the school which is to be embroidered. They are bloody crap and won't last 10 minutes so I'm not happy about those at all!

Each year has a colour, so year 7 green, yr 8 blue, year 9 red and so on, but that colour goes with them right through their 5 years at school, so you can't pass on stuff to a younger child because their colour will be different ~ what a pain and a waste that is!

They can't have pumps either, it's got to be trainers, so there's trainers each and footy boots for son. Daughter is meant to have footy boots but they can go jump if they think i'm buying her some to do footy for one term ~ it's madness!

I can't get any of theirs in a Supermarket, i wish i could!

The only thing that annoys me, is that there is set stuff they need and you can only buy it in one place, so you can't shop around and get it cheaper elsewhere.

Luckily we live opposite the school so they don't need school coats.