MODERN FAMILY
AFTER the Christmas spending splurge, preparing your children for the new academic year is probably one of the costliest times of the year.
While having school uniforms is a good way of promoting equality within schools, kitting children out at this time of year can put immense financial pressure on families and schools need to be more aware and more flexible.
Having to get specific uniform with the school logo on it, getting the right sort of school bag big enough to carry all the stationery, books and PE kit and equipment you have had to pay for... it adds up very quickly.
And that is before you get their shoes, which has raised problems in our house this week.
Son junior announced the type of shoe he wanted this year and we were glad he had made his mind up – until we checked the price.
His shoe of choice was an eye-watering £85, and despite exhaustive searches and attempts to try out promotional codes we couldn’t find it cheaper than that.
After a heated debate, spending that amount of money on a pair of shoes for a child whose feet are still growing (rapidly), it was agreed on both sides that it was just too much.
So we ordered a pair that were from the same brand but were £30. They turned up two days later and to our surprise are almost identical to the pair that he coveted.
They are made of the same material, have the same depth of sole, and, apart from a small silver bar at the front of the laces, we could find very little difference.
In fact, from what we can make out, the extra £55 was to pay for the fiddly little badge that some schools in parts of the UK have ordered pupils to remove in recent years.
A recent survey looking at the cost of school uniforms showed that on average parents overspend on school uniforms by £170 per child each year but we could collectively save as much as £1.3bn per year if faced with reasonable school uniform costs.
The Children’s Society said parents said that this overspend is leading to children going to school in ill-fitting school uniform, being sent home from school or to families cutting back on food or other essentials to be able to afford the uniform.
The charity called for the Government to explore capping the cost of school uniforms to ensure that parents are not paying unreasonable costs.
Wales’ Education Minister Kirsty Williams has said that children will be expected to wear their uniform when they go back to school this week because “where at all possible, as much normality should be resumed”.
She did point out, though, that there is financial help available for parents struggling to afford uniforms and other items.
With the added pressure that the coronavirus pandemic has exerted on many households, it is only right that there is help out there for families. Frankly, the more the better because with the big school return proving an emotional rollercoaster for many families, the last thing we need is to be worrying over finding the money for branded rugby socks.