Parents in England skipping meals to afford school uniforms, survey finds
Parents in England skipping meals to afford school uniforms, survey finds
www.theguardian.com
Parents in England skipping meals to afford school uniforms, survey finds
12 comments
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. Branded logo items are mentioned in the article, and this is the way to break school uniform suppliers’ monopoly and cost control. Uniform only needs to be guidelines and type of clothes. Only a tie needs to be a certain design to be that schools’ ID. And those you can hand down through generations.
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If they're mandatory they should be provided free of charge.
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Mandatory school advertising on your children. And people say advertising in the US is out of control...
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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' shows that in unequal societies people will priorities things which communicate social status over basic needs.
12 comments
If schools want to be precious about logos, they should just be forced to offer iron-on patches.
My school did that, but it didn't make much difference to the affordability if we're looking at the impact on the kinds of families who regularly have to skip meals