Does the expense get better or worse?

[southbucks3]

It does..but I have told him it does not...hence the wink! He will suss me out sooner or later, hopefully by that time he will realise colour copies cost a lot of money!

[hermanmunster]

Phew - 'ere ooop north while the blazers for DS were about £70 they could be bought for £30 and a badge stuck on..

the voluntary sub for boys was £15 a year (zero at the girls' school)

the girls got netbooks @ £13/month

the boys are not that techy...

trips - plenty of notice for trips given and option to pay for more expensive ones in installments - most expensive we did was battlefields by coach.

views nice.

plenty of pie shops for lunch.

[southbucks3]

plenty of pie shops for lunch.

My ds2 would be in heaven!

[hermanmunster]

plenty of pie shops for lunch.

My ds2 would be in heaven!

They certainly do good business (years 12&13 only at lunchtime)

[kittymum]

plenty of pie shops for lunch.

Ooooh as someone from oop north who us now in the Home Counties it's been ages since I've had a good pie!

[southbucks3]

Perhaps the year 12/13 could set up an order/ delivery service to the other kids at school, 20% charge on top of the cost of the pie.

There is a pie company down here, that makes and delivers individual pies for parties. How cool is that! Beats quiche and things on sticks!

Ds1 reminded me of another cost today...if you forget your lab coat and glasses you have to hire one for a quid. Fortunately as he has lent his several times to bail others out, I would hope he is in favour credit! Same principle applies to pe kit and headphones (buy robust ones btw)

[FluffyCat]

Feeling lucky and guilty in equal measure here and hoping no one from my sons' schools read this thread.
Locker is free and they use a combination so no padlock either.
No iPads or similar needed. It would have come to a standoff if they had made us buy any kind of Windows device.
No compulsory trips.
All items of uniform available on the high street except blazer (washable), tie and rugby shirt (ditto!) which come from the school. I think they were about £40 and my Y10 DS still has the one he had in Y8. Rest of PE kit comes from M&S or Next or similar.

We get asked for a DT materials 'voluntary' contribution of £12 a year, plus the odd fiver for visiting theatre companies or trips to religious buildings on coaches, and that is it.

Surprising that there is so much variation, but I suppose there is variation in every aspect of our country's education 'system' so maybe I shouldn't be surprised at all.

Sounds like DD1's school (pretty sure we're in the same county). DD2 will start another grammar in the county in September where already the uniform cost appears to be higher with lots of embroidered compulsory games kit and non-high street school blouses and jumpers. Suspect her kit will cost me IRO £200 whereas DD1's came in at well under £100 (helped by finding blazer in the sale at M&S for £9).

[southbucks3]

(helped by finding blazer in the sale at M&S for £9).

How jammy is that.

[FluffyCat]

So jammy that I bought 3 sizes I'm hoping they will see her through til Y11!

[Okanagan]

where as footy boots can be kept a bit cleaner if they want, so they have pretty colours!

I must point that out to ds1, who is of the "wear the mud" persuasion, unless it isn't him who has to clean his boots. His bright yellow (his choice) boots are more like deep mustard at the moment - you can at least still just about tell they're not intentionally mud coloured.