The school uniform is changing. There have been rumours circulating in the playground for a while, which have now been verified by a letter home: after lengthy consultation over arrangements, it is happening. 

From this September, the ‘Uniform Expectations’ list tells me that all school jumpers are to be v-necked and have a logo. The PE t-shirt must be navy blue, instead of the previous gold.

The logo is the same logo it has always been; the school is not rebranding or changing its name. The (primary-aged) children do not look scruffy and the school is a well-regarded, Ofsted-excelling establishment. 

But the uniform is changing anyway, for a reason not clarified in the letter. 

I suspect it may be to do with someone somewhere asserting their authority.

Costly process

“Buying logo jumpers is going to be really expensive! We’ve got round-necked jumpers for younger siblings to grow into,” we parents have cried. 

“That’s OK, we’ll sell you the badges for £1. You can buy your reasonably priced, v-necked, non-logo jumpers from the supermarket, and you can sew them on yourself,” the school responds.

“With what time?” we reply, “and isn’t that going to look awful and last about three washes?”

“It costs about £3 to buy a jumper from the supermarket. And we’ll even sew the badges on for you, at a mere £2 per item. It’s basically going to be really cheap and easy, honest,” they reply. “And, while you’re at it, could you please stop sending your daughter to school in leggings, which are no longer acceptable. She must wear tights.”

Acceptable changes

We hear a lot from frustrated teachers, fed up of having policy changes inflicted upon them from the government. They are fed up of syllabus changes coming late in the day, of the endless testing of our children, of the occasional absence of clarity from the government regarding the education system. 

We share their frustration. I appreciate my children’s brilliant teachers so much.

But to the school management I have a message: please, leave the uniform alone. 

According to the school cuts website, my children’s school stands to lose £348 in funding per child by 2019. We need to be in it together to fight back against those cuts. But with many families affected by changes to the welfare system, even a relatively small cost being passed onto parents in the form of new uniform seems like too much to me. And it suggests schools do not understand our predicament, which makes us less likely to understand theirs. 

Fiona Hughes is a freelance writer based in the south-west of England.

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