Jayne Dowle: School uniform shopping is now such a tall order

I'M a bad mother. My children go back to school next week and I haven't bought a thing yet. It's the same every year. I hate giving over even a few hours of their precious summer holiday to 'school uniform shopping'.
School uniform shopping can be a nightmare for parents.School uniform shopping can be a nightmare for parents.
School uniform shopping can be a nightmare for parents.

I know women who dust it all off as soon as their children break up in July. My two are 11 and 14, but since they started school, I’ve never been able to manage this.

It’s not just the thought of spending money on clothes
only to hang them up in the wardrobe for the best part of two months.

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It’s also the fact that my two have a tendency to grow as
fast as tomato plants under the summer sun, so anything bought in July will be useless by September.

And, to be honest, I refuse to succumb to the “Back to School” campaigns run by every supermarket from June onwards. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to think there is a season for everything. And early summer is for holidays and seaside and playing in the garden, not persuading two reluctant children to sit in a shoe shop trying on black brogues.

That’s why the beginning of September always finds me in a tailspin. And now I see a survey from American Express which says that heading back to school will cost the average family with two children £332. Who has this kind of money spare at the end of the six-week holidays?

Well, I have to admit that my school uniform denial has taught me to find ways around this exorbitant outlay. I know there are some things which cannot be avoided; Jack’s secondary school blazer, for example, and Lizzie’s cardigans with the requisite logos. We’re lucky in that both schools use a local supplier, and this helps to keep the cost reasonable. Even the blazer only costs a little over £20.

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However, I’ve heard of schools where the blazer itself can cost upwards of £100, and this is in the state sector. How can this be justified? Especially if it is available only from the school, or a school-approved supplier. I’ll leave you to work out the possible profit margins on this kind of transaction.

What can parents do though? At some schools, including my son’s academy, the rules on uniform are so strict that we can’t afford to commit even one tiny misdemeanour or our children will be sent home in shame.

Although my inner teenager still wants to rebel against the rules on haircuts and piercings, I can see the point. A school which looks smart thinks smart and acts smart. It gives a good impression overall, and also helps to promote a culture of equality. If every child, regardless of social background or family income is in uniform, it helps to reduce the judgements which can be so cruel.

We’ve got to play the game, but this doesn’t mean we have to hand over the equivalent of the monthly food bill just to prepare our children to return to the classroom. And this is where a bit of parent power comes into its own. The most important lesson, for both parents and children, is to avoid peer pressure.

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I’ve simply stopped talking to the parents who like to brag that “they’ve bought everything new” for September. Instead, I look at what we’ve got and work out what needs to be actually replaced, rather than falling for the pressure to replace every single shirt. If it fits, and is washed, ironed and hung up, I’d say that it is perfectly acceptable.

Indeed, now that Jack is almost six feet tall, school shirts no longer fit him. I’ve found that plain white men’s work shirts from the supermarket or Primark do the job, and last much longer.

Ditto trousers and skirts. I’ll give credit to Lizzie’s school for having a fairly relaxed attitude towards the bottom half of the ensemble. Indeed, for weeks in the summer term, Lizzie went to school in plain black leggings because every time we went to the supermarket to buy her some new school trousers there appeared to be a national shortage. I know I could buy them online, but the sizing with school uniform items always seem to be slightly off and
I don’t want the further hassle
of having to send everything back.

It’s all very well the retailers filling the aisles with school uniforms in the summer, but what about the rest of the year? The section shrinks to a few rails and there never seems to be the requisite combination of size and colour of the particular item you’re looking for. Can
I just point out that children don’t only grow at one time of year? Shirts can also get trashed and ripped at any given moment – especially where my son is concerned.

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I’d like less of the pressure to stock up before the start of
term, and more choice year-round please. And then there might be hope for parents like me who now have to go out
and hunt down the last remaining pair of school trousers to fit an almost-six-foot 14-year-old.

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