Parent welcomes government move

PARENT Rhiannon Thomas from Cardiff, who launched a school uniform donation service in September, welcomed the move.

She said some maintained high school blazers cost £75 and some parents fork out as much as £60 for logo school sports kit, among other items.

Her scheme Cardiff and Vale and Barry Uniform donation has prompted thousands of donations of second hand uniform which she and volunteers deliver. It has grown so much in three months that 15 Cardiff hwbs have now agreed to take donations which are then collected by Rhiannon and her volunteers and delivered to people who can request specific items for specific schools via its Facebook site.

“I thought things would slow down after the start of term but we are inundated with messages and we’ve had between 400 and 500 items donated to Cardiff hwbs which we are collecting.

“It’s uniform with logo that people want most, not for any particular school but for all schools. Most requests are for high school uniform.

“School uniform is ridiculously expensive and why does everything have to have a logo on it? My son is at high school and has to wear a blazer and jumper with a logo, but when he has the blazer on you can’t see the jumper logo so what’s the point?

“I do think uniform is a good idea because it puts people in the mindset to work. But it doesn’t need to cost that much.”