School to become an academy - unfair uniform pricing

OLDBILL_2

Hi everyone! :beer:

I was just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat. Our schools are set to be merged into an academy to provide for 4-19yr olds. Part of their policy is to have a uniform (even for little ones) which is fine. What has upset ALOT of parents is that there are such strict rules to adhere to in order for your child to comply with the uniform policy.

We are not allowed to shop in Asda / Tesco or M&S or anywhere other than the schoolwear shop. The prices quoted for the uniform are:

1 x blazer, 3 x trousers, 1 x pe kit polo, 1 x pe kit shorts) from the uniform supplier this cost is £122.89 :eek:

If we could shop elsewhere and add the logo to a blazer, we could purchase alternative similar styled items for £30.50 from an alternative leading high street supplier.

Has any other academy tried to impose similar ridiculous prices for uniform and removed parental choice?

What did you do?

Also, we have only just been made aware of this and the children are expected to be wearing this from September - which gives us no time at all to take any action, change things or be consulted in anyway.

They are trying to argue that we get a grant for parts of the uniform but that is only for pupils between certain ages and only comes to £60 - nowhere near what the full uniform costs. Plus when you factor in that most children will require more than one set of the uniform... this is getting really expensive!! :mad:

What are your money saving expert views on this?
How can we fight it?

kingfisherblue

I may be wrong, but I thought that there had to be at least two suppliers of the unifrom, so that there is not an unfair monopoly. I had a similar problem a few years ago with primary school uniform, and I rang Trading Standards. They put me through to somewhere else (possibly Consumer Direct?) and they confirmed that there had to be at least two suppliers of uniform. I don't know if it has changed since though.

19lottie82

I don't have any kids BUT if I were in your situation I'd just buy the stuff from the high street and if they send your kid home, go to the local papers!

I can understand having to have the proper blazer maybe, bu tas for the rest of it, that is just ridiculous!

mazza111

Go take a look at them in the uniform shop. Is it only the badges that distinguish them from the other supermarket ones? When we had this at our schools. We got away with trousers and polo shirts from Asda/Tesco. What they said was, as long as school badge was visible. So we bought 2 polo shirts, just for the summer days, rest of the year, they wore cheap ones. Pretty sure they wouldn't notice similar as long as it had the school badges on. Obviously get it as close as you can, but I think this will only happen for a year or 2 as I can't see many parents being able to stick to it, especially with kiddies growing so fast. We got away with buying 1/2 school logo sweatshirts, cheap polo shirts, and 1/2 school logo polo shirts, but usually they lasted a couple of years, so could buy one the following year if u know wot i mean

meer53

My daughter is currently at a school (middle school) which has recently become an Academy. She's leaving there in July (a year early) to go to a local High School (mainly because of the change to Academy status, don't get me started on that one, a whole new story !)

Anyway, at her new school, she has to wear a blazer, with school badge, jumper with school badge and either, plain white shirt with school tie or school shirt with school badge. I think they've offered a good option really, if you want to buy plain white shirts, then school tie is needed, if you don't want to wear the tie, then you have to fork out for the badged shirts. So at least we have a cheaper option.

PE uniform a bit more of a problem, polo shirts in a lovely shade of fuschia pink with school badge !! Can't think of any supermarket that sells fuschia pink polo shirts !

A decision on the Academy school uniform hasn't been made yet, glad she won't be there when they do, i have a feeling it will be similar to the OP's problem !

ToNik

Our local has changed to an academy, we even have to have the school logo on the trousers/skirts which is so ridiculous. 1 blazer 1 shirt, 1 tie, 1 skirt + PE kit = £235 and thats with having 2 suppliers to choose from.

Seriously considering home schooling.

dizziblonde

Wish my school had had fuschia pink polo shirts! Was always in bitter jealousy of the school near us that had these dead funky sky blue socks as part of their uniform while we had cruddy navy and boring white socks.

Our blazers always cost a bomb when I was at school because we had braid around the edges of them - think I got through my entire secondary time with one blazer... arms down to past my knees when bought at the start of school, arms decidedly on the short side when I finished!

I'd reckon enforcing of stuff like particularly the trousers will last 1 week at maximum and if it's the winter and jumpers are going to stay on anyway, no one's going to notice things like non-logoed poloshirts anyway... but it's probably worth putting some pressure on in terms of it being a brand new uniform so no chances for things like the PTA to run a second-hand shop and bring the costs down, and the fact they're not doing a transitional period - the schools I've known to do uniform changes (round here it's usually due to infants and juniors merging to form primaries with new names more than academization) have had a transition period where either uniform's acceptable to give things a chance to get worn out and outgrown by natural causes.

Local paper might be interested if you're prepared to go that route? Local councillor might be able to apply a bit of pressure for them to relax it for things like shirts and trousers and knock it down to the blazer/jumper and possibly tie level.

jackieb

ToNik wrote: »

Our local has changed to an academy, we even have to have the school logo on the trousers/skirts which is so ridiculous. 1 blazer 1 shirt, 1 tie, 1 skirt + PE kit = £235 and thats with having 2 suppliers to choose from.

Seriously considering home schooling.

That's really expensive!

pinkclouds

mazza111 wrote: »

Go take a look at them in the uniform shop. Is it only the badges that distinguish them from the other supermarket ones?

^This.

My daughter has a very full uniform list - summer and winter. However, anything that isn't logo'd or patterned can be bought elsewhere. Like... the school uniform shop even stock socks!

I think it's important to support uniform policies. The kids look smart, it creates a good impression of the school when the kids go on school trips, it saves having to decide what to dress them in (or them deciding if they are older), it saves wear-and-tear on "home" clothes, it fosters a sense of school unity and there's no playground banter over who's got the nicest shoes/dress/top.

I'd expect the uniform to last all year, hopefully 2 years. If you can get away with buying slightly larger sizes, you might even be able to stretch that! Plus, if you have another child, then you can hand down anything suitable (the whole lot if it's, say, two girls or part of it e.g. blazer). I think it's actually more MSE than buying a ton of regular clothes because you end up buying more of them because so-and-so has that dress/shoes or I "need" a new whatever.

Once the new uniform is established, you should get on to the PTA to organise a second-hand "shop". Most schools do that. Very helpful to people arriving mid-year or kids going through growth-spurts, etc.

WestonDave

If you are going to fight it, you will firstly need to get together as parents to present a broad united front (ones and twos will be ignored if its only a few as the assumption will be that most people aren't bothered or support it).

Secondly think carefully about what you want to propose instead. The point is to create a situation where everyone looks the same - so if you don't want to buy expensive logo trousers etc, you need to be proposing an alternative which is as tightly limited - so black trousers - not black but charcoal grey is OK, and actually if I buy mid grey you'll let me off won't you because I can't afford to go back and get the proper ones now, sort of thing. That is exactly what they are trying to get away with - a sort of uniform where actually everyone is dressed in different shades of grey etc. Its noticeable for example in my sons school (which isn't strict) that the official logo polo shirts are a golden bright yellow, whereas in most cases the generic supermarket ones are a pastel yellow.

Somethings I think are fair enough - if you have a school PE/Games top then it can be used in interschool competitions etc, so its not unreasonable to have a defined official version there - and it might save you money in the long term if you don't have to buy one later on top of the cheap one! I know when I went to secondary school 30 years ago, we had to have a specific rugby top that was reversible - plain on one side, similar colour with a red hoop on the other - which enabled the teachers to set up team games with plain against hoops. (I seem to recall my first one was from the second hand uniform stall and lasted me years because my dear mother bought one 3 sizes too big!)

Mrs_Arcanum

The School Governors are the ones who set unrealistically priced uniform policy. Usually something they can afford and which can be used as leverage to prevent less well off families sending children to the school. An appalling abuse of power.

Uniforms are a good idea where they are practical and affordable. When they place unreasonable limits on generic items which do not need branding they should be fought all the way.

DD wore the same polo shirts for 5 years and only got new sweatshirts because they shrank. Did go through several pairs of generic black trousers & PE shorts.

Ironically the last school trip DS went on they were not in uniform.