Huge gap in school uniform costs

Institutions should not be ‘‘profiteering’’ from dressing students. Nicole Lawton and Karoline Tuckey report.

School uniforms in New Zealand’s largest cities cost up to six times as much as in rural areas, a Sunday Star-Times survey has found.

The cost of dressing students at state and integrated schools varied wildly between the regions, with parents on the East Coast paying an average of $40, and those in Taranaki shelling out around $113.

But in Wellington, the average school uniform costs $240.

Those figures were dwarfed by the costliest uniforms at private schools. Parents at King’s College in Auckland fork out $2149 for the bare minimum, not including school bag, sports bag, leather shoes, sandals, swimsuits or trainers.

The female student’s outfit

Schools are underfunded. . and need to get money from somewhere.

includes two summer skirts at $111 a pop, two winter skirts at $135, a $200 college tracksuit and an eyewatering $302 blazer.

Next up was Auckland’s St Cuthberts, where the uniform list averages at $1974 for the full year.

A full new uniform at Christ’s College in Christchurch would set parents back about $1760. That included a suit and blazer but not the required black leather shoes . and sports shoes.

A similar price is found at Chilton Saint James School, a private girls’ school in Lower Hutt. A full new uniform for a senior school student costs between $1700 and $1800.

Simon Saxton, who has children at secondary school in Hamilton, said he felt uniforms ‘‘were something schools don’t need to be profiteering on’’.

‘‘But it’s clear revenue-gathering when you’re forced to buy a shirt for $60 from the school shop when you can get essentially the same thing from K-Mart for $20,’’ he said.

Mandatory uniforms could be a means of saving parents money.

‘‘We made uniforms compulsory at Pukekawa (a rural primary school in Franklin, Waikato) to put a stop to one-upmanship between kids, who were pressuring their parents to buy designer gear,’’ he said.

‘‘We got a good bulk deal from a clothing supplier and I reckon it worked out cheaper for everyone.’’

Some survey respondents said uniforms were essential in eliminating bullying and creating a school culture, but others said they put pressure on struggling families.

Labour Party education spokesman Chris Hipkins said uniform requirements were up to boards of trustees and there were ways to limit costs.

‘‘Schools are underfunded, though, and need to get money from somewhere,’’ he added.

Meanwhile, cash-strapped parents aren’t the only anxious ones at this time of year.

School holidays and the start of term are the busiest times for the What’s Up service which offers phone and online counselling for teens and primary school children, team leader Lesley Butler says.

‘‘We take 300 to 400 more calls in school holidays per week. After Christmas they are thinking about what it’s going to be like when they get back to school.

‘‘Kids start to get quite anxious, some kids are self-harming, some kids are really quite scared to be going back to school.’’

Common fears include not having friends, bullying, and whether the teacher will be kind.

Senior clinical psychologist Dr Kirsty Ross says most children go through a short adjustment period at the start of the year, but soon settle in, she says.

‘‘They can forget that they did enjoy school, and that they did make friends last year.’’

Chris Hipkins