School Uniform grrrrrr

merlinormartin

I dread having children and having to buy school uniforms! my sister and i both attended a "all girls" catholic high school the uniform was very expensive. The blazer had to be 100% wool with school badge costing over £70! then we needed a blouse with a funny collar so had to shop at either M&S or john lewis.. special skirt with "kilt effect" £20+ .. thats before buying the 3 different "branded" PE kits, yes 3! and special compulsory school bag! ..... If i was you i would be speaking with the school head about the "quality" of the trousers, and explain to him the reason why your son has "un branded" ones.

Retired_I.F.A.

School uniform was is and always will be a joke.

Queuing to enter the hall for a C.S.E. exam I remember being sent home to change my socks as they were dark blue not regulation grey or black 35 years ago, I told the deputy head my mums washing machine had broken so he said wash some by hand. I went back in the afternoon of the following day and the same teacher stopped me and asked why I was coming to school at 2:30pm?

"Not my fault mine Fuhrer" i said "these !!!!!!s took some drying."

countrygal

You could write to the Head Teacher and cc it to the Governors explaining that you are concerned about the quality of the trousers, and that until an alternative supplier is offered your child will be wearing the ones you have bought.
Explain that you are in favour of a uniform but it has to be hard wearing.

haylibo

6. School uniform and other items that must be purchased in accordance with school rules can be expensive, particularly for low income and large families. In deciding the design of its school uniform, DCSF expects the school governing body to give high priority to cost considerations. No school uniform should be so expensive as to leave pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to, or attend a school of their choice, due to the cost of the uniform. 7. Schools or retailers that have exclusive contracts with suppliers may in principle be subject to enforcement action under Chapter I of the Competition Act 1998, on the grounds that these exclusive agreements may restrict competition between retailers to supply uniform.
8. Local authorities have a discretionary power to provide school clothing grants or to help with the cost of school clothing in cases of financial hardship.3
9. The School Admissions Code places a statutory duty on all governing bodies to ensure that their policies and practices do not disadvantage any children.
Paragraphs 1.68, 1.80 and 1.81 state that:

• governing bodies must ensure that their other policies and practices do not disadvantage certain social groups or discourage some groups of parents from seeking a place at the school for their child. Local authorities must work with governing bodies (where the governing body is not also the admission authority) to ensure that admission arrangements which appear fair, are not then undermined by other school policies, such as a requirement for expensive school uniform or sportswear, unless arrangements are put in place to ensure that parents on low incomes can afford them;
• governing bodies should help limit the expense of uniforms so that parents on low incomes do not feel that the prospective cost of the uniform means that they cannot apply for their preferred school. Governing bodies should ensure that the uniform chosen is widely available in high street shops and other retail outlets, and internet suppliers rather than from an expensive sole supplier;
• schools can use their own purchasing power to buy in bulk and pass on savings to parents. Governing bodies should not seek to operate as sole suppliers in order to raise additional funds through the sale of new school uniforms; and that
• all schools which have a uniform policy should have arrangements in place to ensure that no family feels unable to apply for admission on account of high uniform costs. This applies equally to sports kits and any other specialist equipment outlined in the policy. Schemes for remission of cost should cover children eligible for free school meals, and children whose parents are entitled to the maximum level of working tax credit. Schemes should be administered discreetly so that no parent is embarrassed to ask for help. These schemes should be widely publicised and clearly explained in admissions, or other literature provided by the school.

I'm sure schools have been successfully challenged on this but can't find cases on the net.

msmicawber

I suspect the trouble is that parents select schools on academic grounds, then don't price up the uniform until their child has a place, by which stage uniform costs clearly haven't affected your choice of school. The schemes to help low income families are good, but many of us don't qualify while still struggling to find the money for the uniform. This gets worse when kids lose or get their kit stolen, or when you have more than one child and cannot always pass uniform down to the younger one.

belfastgirl23

Clevergirlie I think it's worth talking to your DS's friends parents and seeing if other people also have this problem (which they probably do). I'd write a polite letter to the school letting them know that you have had problems with the trousers this year (although they were fine last year) and that for the remainder of the year your DS will be wearing alternative trousers. I'd also state that you will buy the proper trousers next year providing quality issues have been addressed. I'd also cc the letter to the school trouser supplier. I would also encourage all of the other parents to do similar. Hopefully you will get a response. I'd also give your DS a copy of the letter to carry with him with a PS referring them to you if they want to discuss things further. The school needs to know about the problem which means that you need to make sure that it is being brought to their attention!

Good luck with it.

haylibo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6958858.stm

heather38

i can see things havn't changed since i left school!
the high school i went to only had one supplier as well and that was 16 years ago!
we had a uniform specially designed for the school and it was navy blue, so no buying else where for my mum.
we had 2 PE kits (indoor and outdoor),HE apron, woodwork apron, skirt,
blazer, shirt and jumper. plus official school knickers!! ( mainly used to hold up your tights as they were awful) oh and school socks and tights as well which had the school colours on them.
16 years ago it cost £300 for the uniform so i dread what it costs now!

good on you for sticking to your guns!

Reggie_Rebel

Once parents were given the choice in selecting schools this was always going to happen.

Schools that have a strict 'one stop' uniform policy aren't allowed to select academically so what they are doing is selecting econmically by trying to price people at the bottom of the financial scale and statiscally most likely to have children at the bottom of the academic scale out of the market

Teacher2301

MonkeySaving? wrote: »

Funny stuff, i would expect a school child to wear full uniform if they were doing a full days work, i.e 8 till 5. Our school teacher tells ours not to wear pink boots to school yet she can't even give correct homework and tells children that the word "Untrade" is a real word :rolleyes:
When they can teach properly, THEN they get what they want...

I'm sure many agree with you - yes there are some sub-standard teachers who do not teach but what values do parents give their children when children see their parents questioning the authority of a school? This type of parenting (and I do not for one minute assume you do Monkey Saving do this), dare I say this is why we have such a 'yob-culture' within the UK - young people are ruling the streets and classrooms - yet who has to 'teach them' the rights and wrongs of society - yep - us teachers. How much support do we have? Virtually none and weekly we have more government initiatives to fulfil. Many teachers to the profession are young and inexperienced and what they have to deal with everyday can make your hair stand on end. Give credit where credit is due. Parents have to start taking responsibility for the up-bringing of their children and to teach them right and wrong and if that means supporting the authorities, then so be it. I see it day-in, day-out how parents come into schools, shouting off about their rights, which some parents are in their right to do so but the consequence of these actions impact on their children and make society that little bit worse for the rest of us. I know this is off the point and I'm sure many will ridicule me for my thoughts but these are my observations and having been teaching for 10 years, I've seen how the labour government has affected schools - we've never had so much money thrown at us but we've had so much else to do. Apologies to OP this is off-topic but I feel a teachers' view to balance the argument.