A high price for uniformity
has arrived and with it comes that back-to-school feeling – even when you’re a grown up.
Whether you used an ancient ink pen or a top-of-the-range computer for your lessons, you never quite forget the thrill of a new pencil case, the anticipation of seeing who you’re sitting next to in maths and the dreaded trail around town shopping for new uniform.
That’s if you could afford it, of course. Back in the day, lots of my fellow pupils had mums and dads who went to ‘the warehouse’. I never knew if there really was a big hangar somewhere full of pleated skirts, T-bar shoes and faded white lab coats but I understood what the phrase meant.
‘The warehouse’ was for families who couldn’t afford to hike off to the big shops for the kids’ winter coats and PE pumps and instead went somewhere that accepted what was in those days called ‘a grant’ – a system whereby the local authority helped less well off parents stand the cost of a new school year.
There was no shame in it. Lots of people were in the same boat – this was the early 1980s after all, with many areas ravaged by unemployment.
But you might have hoped that, all these years on, things had changed when it came to affording schoolwear.
Sadly, not so much. According to The Children’s Society, the average cost of a uniform is now £315 per primary school pupil and £337 per secondary pupil.
That’s just for starters. Kids seldom see out an entire 12 months without needing a new pair of shoes or jumper and what if you have three kids? Or four?
On the face of it, then, a new law aimed at making school uniforms cheaper seems like a good idea. The plan is to make schools place affordability at the centre of uni-SEPTEMBER form policy, limiting expensive logos and allowing parents to buy more items from supermarkets and shops other than preferred – and expensive – suppliers.
In Wales, guidance on cost has already been issued – although guidance doesn’t necessarily mean compliance of course.
Dispiritingly, the new law will not come into force in time for the start of the new term.
Surely mums and dads need all the help they can get in this, of all years, when Covid has ravaged many families’ finances?
Of course many parents have taken matters into their own hands, organising swap shops and ‘new to you’ stalls
But here’s a different idea – why not have a complete overhaul of the whole concept of school uniform? Just as grown-ups have had to change our office ‘uniform’ thinking thanks to working from home, why can’t our kids dress differently?
I get the arguments around a uniform policy – that it reduces bullying, it makes everyone equal – and I’m not advocating abandoning it totally but surely there has to be a middle ground?
Do kids really need school logos on everything? Different kit for different games? Rigid rules in terms of skirt style?
All children want to belong, to look like they’re part of a tribe, but this debate feels like it’s been going on for decades.