Uniform costs

[Mittleme]

Kenyan Girl
[quote][/quote]

[I am a real advocate of proper dentist fitted gum shields - for rugby and especially for hockey (which is the sport where you are most likely to lose teeth). The average cost of around £35/40 is a drop in the ocean compared with dental bills. I am really interested that Jane Eyre says her son doesn't wear his. Shocked, actually, as in both our school and club, no gum shield means NO playing. It's a basic piece of safety equipment.]



thanks for this . just reading dd's handbook and yes they have arranged dentist to come to their school to have this fitted for them . I just bought the gum shields for £25 from dd's school uniform seller but I prefer the dentist fitted one not sure if I can return this
we have purchased on Saturday dd's uniforms(skirts/blouses/sportswear/shinpads/Apron/Scienceoverall
and spent in total £392.
infact had to reduce the blouses to 4
like I said the school skirt cost £32.95 which I must admit is very good quality that should last for years and we could only afford 2.
and by the way we did not purchase items like TracksuitTop which by itself cost £34 and Thank God it was Optional on the school list.as I saw no real need to buy it but purchased Tracksuit Trousers
We still have trainers/coat/schoolshoes/bag/ to purchase to complete our estimated budget .
our over £500 does not include any residential trip/bus passes/lunch etc. strictly UNIFORMS/ equipment such as mathset/calculator.

Please for parents spending £200.of course if you are given a choice to purchase from M $ S. then of course you wont be spending as much as some that don't have that choice.
.

[doodles]

At my own (independent) school, the style of some items had changed shortly before I joined, although the old style remained acceptable. Those of us who had started in new things could hardly wait to grow out of our senior school skirt, or school coat, or suit, in order to be able to purchase a new 'old' one from the second hand shop .

My school uniform was a truly truly hideous combination of a Harris tweed skirt with matching overcoat and viyella blouses, in a brown with Wedgwood blue colour palette. It could only be purchased from Harrods until I was too old to care, and had separate winter and summer headware that made all but the most tall and willowy look stunted and dwarfish.

[BucksBornNBred]

Reading all these posts and seeing all the items mentioned has made me realise that my estimate of £200-300 for a humble grammar school was totally inadequate; I think we are nearer to the £500 than we dared to calculate

[Optimist]

Bought uniform and sports kits and felt shafted by sports kit costs.

DS1 will start BV in Y9, and DS2 will start BV in Y7. Spent £280 at Clive Marks for 2 Blazers, 4 sweaters, 2 ties, 4 packs of 2 shirts and 3 pairs of trousers. Not bad for two children. Unfortunately, Clive Mark at Sutton Coldfield has the worst telephone service; no one answers at any time of day - and I have tried everyday since Saturday. I told them so, they responded with some flannel about Internet and phone lines being crossed. They reluctantly gave me a second non advertised number. But customer service in shop is great, staff are friendly and competent.

Maud Sports for sports kit. I found it after a long, long trawl - long after I uncovered the whereabouts of Lord Lucan and long after I entered and left Narnia.....lol. Unfortunately, the costs were ridiculous....£41.66 for a rugger jersey, £15.99 for shorts. For two rugger jerseys, 4 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of gym tops and two pairs of socks I paid £204. At those prices the staff need to wear a black eye mask, and black/white striped jersey with black arrows on it. My point, surely the school could have sourced suppliers where parents would not have been fleeced.

[kenyancowgirl]

To be honest, despite my boys playing a lot, I have only ever bought them one top/shorts/socks It does mean keeping on top of washing - I picked up some scruffy spares in the second hand sale for emergencies and that saved a fortune.

M

[ToadMum]

At my own (independent) school, the style of some items had changed shortly before I joined, although the old style remained acceptable. Those of us who had started in new things could hardly wait to grow out of our senior school skirt, or school coat, or suit, in order to be able to purchase a new 'old' one from the second hand shop .

My school uniform was a truly truly hideous combination of a Harris tweed skirt with matching overcoat and viyella blouses, in a brown with Wedgwood blue colour palette. It could only be purchased from Harrods until I was too old to care, and had separate winter and summer headware that made all but the most tall and willowy look stunted and dwarfish.

One little indie not far from us here (which went bust and closed suddenly a couple of years ago ) had a similar colour scheme, but to be fair, did manage to make it look quite attractive, with plaid rather than tweed skirts.

We wore a dark navy pinafore in what is now years 7 and 8, then a navy tweed skirt. Proper summer dresses (one of the few items of which I preferred the new version) and in the winter, different stuff to change into in the evening, something else which had changed (trousers!) but which was soon abandoned for the previous version (a rather nice shift dress, choice of colours, both this and the awful crimplene-y trews to be worn with a choice of polonecks). Apart from new blouses and a couple of summer dresses, I don't think I actually had any 'new' replacement items during my seven years at the school. I'm sure that there were girls (/ parents) for whom second hand was completely unthinkable, but, no doubt to my own parents' relief, I wasn't one of them.

My maternal grandmother used to do the same 'sale trail' as Laurie Lee's mum; I always claim that's where mum and I got the 'rummage' habit from . None of our DC gets the chance to turn their nose up at other people's cast-offs, at least in principle.

[southbucks3]

I got some good stuff for DD's (all girl) prep school which was in great condition, however having helped with the secondhand stuff at DS's GS, I can confirm that there was not much in good condition at all.

I've had exactly the same experience! I got excellent quality second hand uniform from the school shop at ds's prep. Now I would be too embarrassed to send the majority of their current uniform to the school shop, they just seem to wear it harder or is that they're not growing out of it so quickly.

We are really lucky as have two friends who provide excellent hand me downs, one of whom's son assumed role of super cool sixth former, so my son was actually more excited about adopting his blazers and kit than getting a new one! I have to say we pass on to friends first, second hand shop last, so do lots of people, so I suspect that's where most of the better stuff ends up.

I really miss woolies ladybird uniform primary school days, they were great quality and cheap, hey ho.

[um]

My school uniform consisted of a pink and white striped blouse, royal blue blazer with a pink flower on, grey skirt and royal blue tights.
I am not making that up ...it was not a school in Birmingham.
The grey skirt had to be pleated and below the knee...I do remember my mum buying me one from Bainbridges (northern equivalent of John Lewis) that practically skimmed my ankles, to hide the hideous tights.
I've checked their website and the uniform is still pink and blue, but they've changed it quite a bit, and it is navy blue, not royal blue, now.