Schools charging & people on benefits!

rolleypolleypud

My eldest son is in year 4 at primary school and to be honest I have never been hit with really big fees for school trips. We always get a letter around 8 weeks before which ask's for a voluntry contribution of £4 for example. I have never had to pay more than £10 for a trip.

My son also has to have a school uniform but we don't have to buy this from a certain shop as long as they have black/grey trousers, red, white or blue polo shirts, black shoes and a red sweatshirt which can either be plain red or we can choose if we want to buy one from the school office with the school badge on. These are £8 each.
I buy my sons trousers from asda along with his polo shirts and I choose to buy a school sweatshirt. The most expensive part of my sons uniform is his clarks school shoes but again this is my choice to get them from there I could if I wanted pick a pair up again from one of the supermarkets for under £10.

I had no idea schools could dictate where you can and carn't buy your kids school uniforms from. This is a little harsh to me.

I am very lucky in the fact that I can put my childrens child benefit away each month and use it purely for school costs, football kit, ballet ect I do understand that other's have to use that money to feed there kids etc but why should parents be entitled to even more money to pay for these things? We are very lucky in this country that we are provided with extra allowences like child benefit, tax credits and working credit that I think are already fairly decent amounts we surely can't expect the tax payer to compleatly support our children can we?

I know I may get linched for saying this and I'm certainly not taring everybody with the same brush and I understand that people who are disabled themselves or are caring for a son/daugther who may have special needs can not foresee and illness/disability coming in the future or if you are laid off from work in these hard times you should of course be allowed help. But people know how expensive having children is we hear about it all the time in newspapers and mags saying it costs around £150,000 to bring a child up from birth to 18. If people can't afford to have 2,3,4 kids then they shouldn't. If they want there child to have all the very best and not miss out just have one child and focus on that one or expect to have to say no sometimes what the things they want are not affordable.
There are sadly far too many people who have kid after kid because it gives them a free roof over there head with all bills paid and enough of an income to buy there booze, fags designers clothes or whatever giving money out left right and centre only encourages this more. We need to start rewarding people by going to work and maybe topping up their income to help with costs rather than paying them to be a baby machine because more kids equals more money.

Like I said I do not think this of all people who are claiming benefits but sadly for a very large number this is indeed the case.

shegirl

I'll probably get moaned at here but still!

I really really don't get why people have to moan about the price of school uniform!

It's not a sudden thing,we all know our kids go to school and we have a full year to save for next years uniform if needs be.If something needs replacing so be it.

Furthermore,most kids tend to have less 'normal clothes' when they are at school as they don't wear them as much.

kingfisherblue

rolleypolleypud (love the name!), I see your point and can agree with it to a certain extent. For myself, I had children with my then husband, and we were both working. We could afford them. I didn't realise, though, that after sixteen years of marriage, he would up and leave to start a new family elsewhere. Even then, i fully expected him to pay maintenance, but despite our many (mainly happy) years together, maybe I didn't know him at all, as I had to chase him through the CSA for four years to get him to pay towards our kids.

In addition, and I realise that you acknowledge this in your post, one of my sons was born with severe disabilities. He needs a high level of care, both day and night. We managed financially when we were married, but now I have no option but to claim benefits.

To answer shegirl's point, I'm not moaning about school uniform (and I don't think your post was aimed directly at me). I do think it is wrong, though, to charge considerably more for items such as sweatshirts. My youngest son's school charges £12.50 for a sweatshirt and £8.50 for a polo shirt. Incidentally, I do as you suggested, and save all year round, not just for uniform, but for Christmas, birthdays, the school residential, etc. I might not have much, but I'm fortunate that I have no debt (apart from my mortgage!)

shellsuit

shegirl wrote: »

I'll probably get moaned at here but still!

I really really don't get why people have to moan about the price of school uniform!

It's not a sudden thing,we all know our kids go to school and we have a full year to save for next years uniform if needs be.If something needs replacing so be it.

Furthermore,most kids tend to have less 'normal clothes' when they are at school as they don't wear them as much.

It's not moaning about the price, it's about some schools having a uniform that can be bought at Asda for example, and another school having a uniform that can only be bought at one place and which is 3 times as expensive as the other and the quality is naff.

Both state schools ~ so why the huge difference?

1more?

sorry to the people who thought i was saying people on benefits are smokers and drinkers what i was saying was at our school it usually is those people who complain the most, it was not ment to be a dig at anyone on benefits

my school has a uniform supplier, the school supplys the same for the same cost, we can go to asda, tesco ect and also a local independant shop sells uniform with the badge for a £1 or £2 cheaper per item, i go to the local independant shop to get badged uniform cheaper no body minds

my dd goes to the comprehensive school and items must be badged but the local shop also sells these cheaper but still £15 per jumper but i dont mind as she wears them 5 days a week 40wks a year

i would suggest that if you see the cost of uniform as over the top you write to your schools governing body asking why there is only one supplier and if its possible for you or them to source a cheaper supplier

with school trips my dd has had letters for overseas trips that she hasnt gone on but has had the choice, she could go but would have to give up her pocket money ect but i must say the school has given months or even over a years notice

retro_bluebell

kingfisherblue wrote: »

retro_bluebell wrote: »

Anyway, I digress. I rang Consumer Direct, who told me that
A) Schools should always give at least two suppliers of uniform (the school itself can be one), so that there is not a monopoly. This is for items that have been made for the school (such as embroidered sweatshirts). Generic items should be acceptable from anywhere, if in the correct style and colour. So if girls have to wear bottle green box pleated skirts, available in shop A, but you manage to find exactly the same style and colour in shop B, the school should not object. On the other hand, it is unlikely in my example that you would find more than one skirt of the type in my town!
ConsumerDirect also said that if the prospectus does not state that the polo shirts etc has to have the emblem, the school cannot insist on it.

Hope this helps.

thats really interesting thanks you so much, they most definately do not do this at my eldest school, my younger son is due to start there in September so I may have to have a word when the order forms go out.

Thanks again

Mupette

bugbabe1970 wrote: »

I am really sorry of I am misunderstanding you, but is this a wind up??
If you coiudnt afford for your son to take part in the French exchange then you could have said no!!

My DH and I both work full time and earn a decent wage but we couldn't afford to pay for son to go on his schools foreign holiday this years as we have 2 other children to take into consideration. We explained why and he accepted it, even though a lot of his friends were going.

School uniforms aren't that expensive any more and most of the basics can be bought in Tesco, cheap as chips.

A nutritious packed lunch can cost less than £2 a day!

So what are you all saying? you cant afford to send your kids to school? amazing!

No it's not a bloody wind up.
Why should my son go without on the exchange trip to help with his studies just because my body no longer works, making it impossible for me to work.

I said yes to this trip last year when i was still working, it was unfortunate that i had to give up work, I've paid every single penny of the trip, i have spent a small fortune out of my own money on taking both boys on trips we normally would not of gone one. I went without to pay for things, all i was asking for was help with the exchange student's bus fair and school dinners. Son get free school dinners, well he would wouldn't seeing as i sponge off the state.

I can not buy my son's uniform at Tesco/Asda/ school unitform shop, it wouldn't have the logo on. As i stated in my earlier post i can only buy from one department store.

I have one son you have three children so i can see why one you would have to say no to one, as you would now have to say no to the others.

But would you mind not talking down to me, i am not a piece of !!!!!! on your shoe, we are both the same rank my dear, we are both human.

Fang_3

Mupette wrote: »

No it's not a bloody wind up.
Why should my son go without on the exchange trip to help with his studies just because my body no longer works, making it impossible for me to work.

I said yes to this trip last year when i was still working, it was unfortunate that i had to give up work, I've paid every single penny of the trip, i have spent a small fortune out of my own money on taking both boys on trips we normally would not of gone one. I went without to pay for things, all i was asking for was help with the exchange student's bus fair and school dinners. Son get free school dinners, well he would wouldn't seeing as i sponge off the state.

I can not buy my son's uniform at Tesco/Asda/ school unitform shop, it wouldn't have the logo on. As i stated in my earlier post i can only buy from one department store.

I have one son you have three children so i can see why one you would have to say no to one, as you would now have to say no to the others.

But would you mind not talking down to me, i am not a piece of !!!!!! on your shoe, we are both the same rank my dear, we are both human.

I don't mean to be rude, but life's not fair. There are thousands of children in this country who can't afford to go on School trips despite their parents being able to work and earn a wage. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't your son go to live with a host family for a while? Didn't you save money on food and travel expenses while he was there? Didn't he too benefit from the experiences that you all did when you had another child in your home? It may not be the nicest thing I've said, but life isn't fair as you clearly know, but it's not fair for most people, and so if you could afford to send your son, then you should have budgeted for all of the spend. Otherwise it wouldn't be fair on those parents who had to let their children down because they couldn't afford any of the trip.

LondonDiva

how many of the people who are unhappy with the school's uniform or trip policy actively participate in the PTA / vote for school govenors?

SingleSue

I am a member of their parents focus group and our vote was sought before the uniform was brought in. We voted the more formal uniform in over the over casual one but with the proviso it was made affordable to every parent (with examples of prices expected to make it affordable and possible tweaks to make it more affordable if the items they wanted made it too expensive).

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way despite the promises....kids look very smart though!