School Uniform assistance

lil_me

Durham council parents can apply twice, it is £25 when they are in primary and £25 in secondary towards school shoes/coat, depending on income etc.

Ross01

The critera depends completely on which council you live in. Some councils will pay the award, some will not. I notice the criteria for Redbridge was quoted in a previous post. Well I live in Redbridge and a little publicised fact is that the Tory administration that run Redbridge have agreed to phase out any school uniform grant - so this will now be the last year that you can receive anything. This yet again was not publicised unless you wish to read the councils full budget report.

kurjam

my daughter started infants and i got most of her uniform of ebay !!
chewap prices and lots of it next, adams etc...
prices are rediculas and they grow out of it to quick

V_Chic_Chick

My primary school uniform (nearly) always came from charity shops. The trick is to go and shop in the really posh areas - you can find designer labels and whatnot in there too. Unfortunately my secondary school demanded it all had to come from John Lewis

marlo_2

If you are based in the Sandwell area, you can get uniform grants for primary and secondary schools.


http://www.laws.sandwell.gov.uk/ccm/content/education-and-childrens-services/parents-folder/school-clothing-application.en;jsessionid=aj_oAoj9_U54

www.firstchoiceuniforms.co.uk

bobblebot

I have 4 kids all starting new schools this year, three at senior and 1 in primary. On IS and not much help from father, also pregnant and had to go BR and losing house so extremely stressed both emotionally and financially. But thanks guys, didn't know how I was gonn afford 4 new uniforms but bcos of you found out we had a local police aided fund. Older two couldn;t claim as only goes upto first year of senior, but I applied and volunteers were so nice and within a week had a letter stating I had been granted £160 for them. Went to local school uniform shop and got 2 pairs of named school shoes, one with pe bag, 4 shirts, 2 complete pe kits and school socks. 2 pair of boys pants, blazer, 2 ties, rugby shirt, pe pumps...fantatsic, only thing I dodn't get was daughters school logo pe top and jumper aargh which they dont sell as school has deal with local place on industrial estate who does them, go that annoys me and 2 school coats-but can get them cheap from asda. What a relief!
Fingers crossed ex may cough up a bit towards other two as its going to cost another £250 at least to kit older 2 out yikes!!

fed.up_2-2

I remember when i was at school. i rarely got a new uniform, actually i only remember getting one once every year. My mum wuld get a book of vouchers that she could use to buy our uniforms.

Now im a parent on benefits i wish we could get those same vouchers. Uniforms cost a fortune, the school my kids go to demands that the kids wear the jumpers or cardigans, PE shirts etc with the school logo on so they cost a fortune.

kurjam

the senior school my son goes to had round neck sweatshirts last year, but they changed them again for this new year to vneck knitted jumpers, and are only allowed to be brought from school £16 each... must have logos and no uniform shop will embroider them so we have to go to school...
it so annoying !!!!

debby

You also really cant beat asda and tesco for their school uniform prices!

LJG7777

Hi, I know this thread is quite old but I work for a school uniform supplier and have come across this during my research to provide information for parents about the uniform grants available in their areas. I would just like to make a few points from a suppliers perspective as we are constantly seen as the bad guys:

Firstly, when you buy school uniform directly from schools, and it is expensive, this isn't because their supplier is expensive. This is often so that they can make funds which go back into the school to fund other things. When a school charges £16 for a knitted jumper this is 'their' price to 'you' not the suppliers price. Do a quick search for school uniform suppliers and you will see that none of them charge these prices. Things like this need to be taken up with your school.

Secondly, many schools insist on wanting 'awkward' uniform. By this I mean bespoke items that they have designed themselves. In addition to this they don't want to take a bulk delivery (to reduce everyones costs). Because of this the cost is actually high for the supplier so this cost will 'always' be high to the parent. My suggestion - talk your school out of this at all costs! lol

Thirdly, school uniform has been proven to improve concentration and results when it has been implemented.

Fourthly, school uniform can be expensive for a parent when the time comes around but if your school uniform costs around £150 for the year this is only roughly 77p/school day (195 school days in a year). How much would it cost to kit a child out in the latest designer labels so that they compete in the 'one-up-manship' games that would ensue in a school without uniform? A child would not want to be seen in the same clothes more than once/twice a week if they were to wear their own clothes as they would be bullied and rediculed by their piers. This could end up costing parents £150 a month let alone a year! School uniform masks families that may not have as much money and helps to show everyone as being equal - it should be here to stay no matter what.

And finally we come down to supermarket uniform. Yes it's cheap, yes it's made in sweatshops in India/China (probably), yes they are selling it at a loss to get you through the door to sell other cheap items to you. However, the more and more we demand something for nothing the more and more smaller businesses are going to go bust. Does it matter if your school uniform is now £3 for a whole outfit if both you and your partner are unemployed because the supermarkets are starting to take over every sector available and have put 'you' out of work? I'm sure you would care then. We as a nation need to realise that we can't have things for free (or virtually nothing) because someone somewhere is suffering - if we continue this trends, one day this person will be YOU.