‘We’ve no way to buy cheaper uniforms’: Parents facing price hikes ahead of new school term

30 comments
  1. I’ve been to loads of meetings about uniforms. Parents councils as a general rule don’t want generic uniforms and as a rule usually push the costs higher than the school envisaged.
    People give out about the cost of uniforms but don’t bother to attend meetings that determine the uniforms.

  2. Change the overpriced jumpers for pull over hoodies, the kids would prefer it and there far cheaper . The jumpers with the embroidered logo are the biggest cost.

  3. One of the private schools did a sports jumper and jeans 20 years ago. Although they charge 8k a year they had the most user friendly approach.

    Hope we can move away from uniforms entirely, most of Europe doesn’t and had no issues.

  4. Should have a country wide uniform if they must.

    Make more sense for handing down and buying cheaply.

  5. My daughter goes to secondary this year, with all compulsory branded uniform (including coat!) and book rental fees it’s almost €700, not including her runners. It’s a bloody scam.

  6. same thing every year regarding school costs, if you don’t have the money there is a uniform allowance to pay for it.

    Also people need to consider false economies when buying cheap uniforms instead of the high quality one, they will end up buying more of the supermarket version then if they had bought the official one which will last the year.

  7. Is there not enough uniforms in circulation to stop buying new ones altogether and for the past pupils ones to be repurposed? Or is this new uniform some sort of high tech yolk that’s absolutely essential to suit todays world or something?

  8. I’m not incapable. It’s just bullshit. Reiterate your bullshit. Go ahead. Substantiate it while you’re down there.

  9. So we have a friend whose child started a new school a few years back. It was a brand new school and the child was starting in first year.

    Before the school opened, the board of directors asked parents to give their opinion on uniforms and the response was overwhelmingly against. So, for school decided no uniforms.

    That didn’t stop several uniform suppliers from hounding the school demanding they implement a uniform policy. They were pretty hardcore in their arguments saying stuff like without a uniform the students will misbehave and other crazy stuff. It got to the point where the chairman of the board of directors had to tell them to back off and that the school didn’t owe them a living.

  10. My primary school headmaster brought in new uniforms in 99/00 to replace the shirt and ties. It was essentially a generic navy tracksuit (£10) with a polo t-shirt (£3).

    He did it to cut expenses for parents, but he sold it to us by saying the Olympics were coming up and he wanted to promote athletics. Those uniforms are still in use today except they’ve added a crest.

    He was a great man.

  11. Whatever about the uniforms, I’ve always wondered why the Dept. or even a group of like minded teachers never set about creating “open source/royalty free” pdf textbooks that could be distributed for free as PDF or indeed printed in bulk at low cost.

  12. People like to argue that if there are no uniforms, kids will be bullied for not having nice clothes. But a recent study came out showing there “school uniforms were not linked to any differences in bullying or social anxiety in the children” ([source](https://news.osu.edu/school-uniforms-dont-improve-child-behavior-study-finds/)) and but students who wore uniforms felt *lower* levels of community and belonging.

    So it’s a lot of money for no benefit. Girls uniforms can be especially expensive because schools just love having their own tartan skirts, whereas trousers can be plain and generic

  13. Oh yay… September Uniform Debate Society… #3425. It’s called SUDS because it rinse and repeat… Every single Summer

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