Open Menu
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
lotide
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
Login

Parents in England skipping meals to afford school uniforms, survey finds

⁨69⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨thehatfox@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨unitedkingdom@feddit.uk⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/aug/19/parents-skipping-meals-to-afford-school-uniforms-survey-england

source

Comments

Sort:hotnewtop
  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If you ask me, there should be a government-mandated spec of uniform, in a range of, say, 5 colours.

    Schools can choose what colour they want to use.

    All uniforms will be made to the same spec, purchasable basically anywhere (i.e. not just from the school itself), and can be mass produced by anybody.

    Prices would drop like a stone.

    source
    • teft@piefed.social ⁨13⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      Yes, but then how can people in the supply chain grift?

      source
    • tankplanker@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The issue is the branded tat that schools insist upon such as blazers, jumpers, skirts, etc. Its almost always overpriced compared to the basics from Asda and Tesco.

      Ban the branded shit and you fix at least half the problem.

      source
    • tazeycrazy@feddit.uk ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Its probably more a case that each school needs to work out what is reasonable to get on a budget. I’ve heard alot of schools are dropping the PE kit or its just a t-shirt for sports events. My school had a football and a rugby top. But the football top was only for the team and was kept by the school.

      source
  • CritFail@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If schools want to be precious about logos, they should just be forced to offer iron-on patches.

    source
  • ook@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Branded school uniforms, how did it even get this far. Fuck, I need to stop reading anything online for the rest of today at least… and its only morning here.

    source
    • darko8472@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It’s been this way for decades. I had logo’d uniform when I was in junior school in the 80s. My brother had the same in the 70s, and it’s existed long before then. If anything schools are somewhat more flexible now than they used to be, my daughter starts school for the first time next week, and her school just needs the right colours, logos are not mandatory. I’ve heard of other schools just wanting the top most layer (jumper, blazer, whatever) having the logo.

      source
      • supamanc@lemmy.world ⁨30⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Also, if you are poor, your kids are going to get more shit for having off brand or unfasionable clothes than if everyone is wearing the same.

        source
  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Mandatory school advertising on your children. And people say advertising in the US is out of control…

    source
  • waz@feddit.uk ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    All clothes cost money, and if you wear your street clothes to school they wear out quicker and get replaced more often. So the focus should be cost of uniform, not whether to uniform or not.

    source
    • Mertn33@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Fzuk wearing a tie to school

      source
  • oeuf@slrpnk.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    When I was at school we had one logo patch that got transferred to new blazers as we outgrew them and two ties - one for the first 4 years and another one just for year 11. That worked out at about £5/year, for ‘branded’ items. And there was even a monopoly on these patches and ties, which was the haberdashery on the high street.

    […] more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms.

    [‘The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone’](en.wikipedia.org/…/The_Spirit_Level_(Wilkinson_an… shows that in unequal societies people will priorities things which communicate social status over basic needs.

    source