Where do you buy school uniform?

frogga

Sharon you've hit the nail on the head ~ the school is very middle class and most others can afford it no problem. I wish I could get all of their stuff from Matalan et al but it is not allowed. Worked out the cost of essential PE kit alone and it comes to £95. Brilliant :eek: !

Sarahsaver

Put forward the idea of a swap shop as primarily a 'recycling/reducing your carbon footprint' The drive your kids to school in a 4 wheel drive will lap it up LOl;)

TNG

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I've been shocked by a thread elsewhere on MSE what state secondary schools expect parents to but by way of uniform and equipment. This parent was saying that the bare minimum was £140 :eek: :eek: She needed 4 *bottoms* for PE and 4 pairs of PE footwear :eek: :eek:

I was under the impression that the Government had, in the last year, outlawed schools requiring parents to buy all the kit from the named uniform supplier, and expected everything (apart, perhaps, from some items of PE kit, and ties) to be available on the high street and in supermarkets.

Our school uniform is available at the uniform shop, but most items are also available elsewhere. I had to buy PE vest, rugby top, PE socks, technology apron and tie (about £35) from the uniform shop, but everything else was from M&S (about £35, so not the cheapest, but IME lasts best and washes well).

What's everyone else's experience?

Penny. x

Hello Lady P :kisses3:

I think it will be M&S for us this year. Tie, badge and pe kit might last us another year (can only get these from the school). Everything else tends not to last too well, so I think we may have to pay more than 1.50 for a shirt :rolleyes: :rotfl:

luxor4t

I am just so grateful that only my youngest is still in uniform. It was crippling to buy!
Ten years ago I had to buy secondary uniform for the first time:
* In the Primary school we organised a 'swap shop' for the (non-compulsory) sweat and polo shirts, the PTA made a little on each sale. The best selling items were always the secondary uniforms.
* I haunted the local charity shops
* also I was lucky in the local paper free ads, but sent my mum so nobody could recognise my son... this was at my son's request.

I had come home in tears from the 'new school' meeting, with a list like he was going to Eton, not the local comp. The £60 I had saved up did not even cover 2 sweatshirt and two polo shirts as both had badges embroidered on them.
I got wise once we knew the way things worked at the school,but it was hard and unnecessarily expensive.

natzini

When I was at Secondary school our uniform was very expensive, and I've been told it still is.

The school uniform was blazer, blouse, v necked jumper and kilt. Everything bar the kilt Mum got in M&S in the end, the quality and price were so much better than the recommended shop. The kilt was quite good though as it lasted me all the way through years 7-11 as it had buckles to adjust (and we moved the inside button too, although i was v. small waisted so it wasn't much).

The PE kit on the other hand was ridiculous! Cost Mum a bomb, barely used any of it. Mum refused to buy hockey boots-most of us wore our trainers in hockey anyway! Urgh, and the PE knickers.... don't get me started! Other girls used to steal from PE kits too... I had a fair few trackie tops and bottoms (unbranded BHS etc ones) stolen for some reason!!

Luckily, the school had a nearly new shop, so that was good for a lot of people, although most of the parents who sent their girls to our school prob would've been able to afford private fees, so the uniform was nothing to them.

welshflipper

i found everything expensive first off but you want your child to look the same as friends after his first year at comp i bought trousers that look exactly the same as the schools from tesco for£5 instead of £18 from school, they have not said anything,with the polo shirts they can only wear them summer term 2 months at most at £13 each this year i cut off the badge and sew it on to tesco plain polo,have not said anything,what i would do is buy the basic one of each and try to match them at a shop,a lot of kids today dont wear jumpers after a couple of weeks they wear tracksuit type jackets and take off in class

Lucie_2

natzini wrote: »

Urgh, and the PE knickers....

LOL, this time last week we were having a good giggle at my niece modelling her new navy blue gym knickers, mmmm atttractive!
My sister spent £250 in the school shop, including over £80 on a frankly cheap & nasty looking blazer.

My school had a thriving second hand uniform shop, which is a great idea that more schools should implement.

LJM

i get the main of my girls from adams as they are i find the best fit for my girls,i get bits from matalan and there school jumpers and cardigans plus book bags from the school

Janepig

I've said it before and I'll say it again, as much as I agree with the use of school uniform, this expensive nonsense of only being allowed to buy from the school has got to stop. I mean Luxor, how can two sweatshirts and two polo shirts cost over £60 even with a badge? There's afew places locally that do embroidered polo/sweatshirts/fleeces for all the different schools and it's about £7 for a polo shirt and £10 for a sweatshirt. Mil bought a fleece jacket for DD last year with the school logo on it and I think she paid about £14.

I bought two black cardigans and two white (plain) polo shirts from Woolies yesterday for the grand sum of £6 (3 for 2 offer). And as good a reputation as M&S have, the hem came down on the school trousers I bought DD last year after not much wear.

The thing is, schools that impose this sort of uniform policy are really selecting pupils from more affluent homes by the back door and it's really not on. I'd be furious if I was told the only black trousers I could get for DD were from the school - I mean school trousers are school trousers, the same everywhere and I'd seriously object to paying the sort of prices schools are charging.

Anyway, my other annoying problem with buying uniform is that as I'm trying to buy black things (skirt/trousers/pinafore) all the shops seem to have grey/navy. Do people who have to buy grey or navy find that all the shops they go in only stock black???? Or is it just me??:rolleyes:

Jxx

*Louise*

My son is still at primary - I bought 5 navy, embroidered sweaters from the school (£7.50each)

Took advantage of M&S 3 for 2 offer, and have 4 pairs of trousers and 6 white Polo shirts. If I need any more schoolwear throughout the year, I will just buy from Asda.

Just need to buy shoes ad a schoolbag now...