I Had Or Have To Wear A School Uniform

@MickB72 School uniforms do not stop bullying, at best they just change who the bullies are.

What would you call shunning a child; excluding him/her for group activities; preventing him/her from associating with friend; making it difficult for him/her to learns? That's what schools do to children whose parents are too impoverished to pay out exorbitant amounts (£400 - £500 is quite common) for the school uniform.

@Sharon Agreed that school uniforms cost far too much. My daughter's uniform for junior school (she starts in September, where's that time gone?) has just set me back well over £200! And that's just the local primary school, not some exclusive private school! There are many parents around here who can't afford that sort of money!!

Re bullying, there was still bullying, but none due to what we were wearing.

@MickB72 So, in your case, the uniform just changed the basis of bullying, it didn't stop it. Nowadays, uniforms give teachers an opportunity to bully children over what they're wearing.

Did you have to buy the uniform from the school or its "official suppliers"? £200 sounds a bit on the low side even for a primary school.

@Sharon Quite probably, but teachers being irritating about uniform isn't something I've ever seen for myself, so I can't really comment on that.

Cheap? That was an entire bank holiday pay gone on a uniform she'll have grown out of inside the year! We can buy direct from the school, and given the catchment area, if it was any more expensive, they'd have to do away with it - because I'd estimate a good 75% of parents struggle to afford it! It's really annoying because you can get the same gear from Asda, but it doesn't have the badge on - and neither me nor the ex-missus can sew!!

@MickB72 You're lucky if the school allows you to sew badges on to clothes bought from the supermarket. I don't think many schools allow that.

I didn't say "cheap", but it's less than the cost of some primary school uniforms. The schools don't care how much of a struggle it is for parents. If you have to go hungry, tough! What the school dictates takes precedence over everything else and there are too many, rich, "old school" authoritarians willing to support them. :(

@Sharon To be fair, I don't think they'd have a leg to stand on if they twisted anyway. As long as it's the same uniform, then tough! But again, what you're saying isn't something I've ever heard up in these parts. Maybe teaching staff in the north east realise times are tough and not everyone has a Jeremy Corbyn money tree in their back gardens.

@MickB72 Some schools can be reasonable, it's just difficult to find them, certainly in my area. The problem is schools have the upper hand. They're supposed to be a public service, like libraries and refuse collection, but they want to chose who they provide services too like private companies can. Parents don't really have a choice, they're forced to go along with whatever the school dictates, however unreasonable.

I think the right-wing authoritarians are more likely to support school uniforms than left-wingers like Jeremy Corbyn.

@Sharon That's very true. My only observation is don't put Dianne Abbott in charge of pricing anything up!! 🤣🤣🤣

@MickB72 A mate said it cost him about £300 to equip his son for primary school. Almost everything had to be bought from the school's appointed supplier. He reckons it will cost at least twice that amount when his son starts secondary school. What happened to the idea of free education?

That's the sort of figure I've heard for primary schools' uniforms. £600 for secondary school doesn't surprise me. The schools have latched on to a very productive cash-cow and they're milking it all they can. The only way this will stop is for schools to be banned from imposing uniforms or, at the very least, being banned from appointing "official suppliers". Alternatively, if they really believe thay can't do their jobs unless their students are wearing a uniform, let them pay for it out of school funds. The cost could be covered by reducing the teachers' salaries to reflect their level of (in)competence.