Families are paying a high price for school uniforms | Schools

Your report on dad and mom skipping meals to cowl uniform prices struck a well-recognized chord (Mother and father in England skipping meals to afford faculty uniforms, survey finds, 19 August). In my 20 years of working within the third sector, I helped run faculty uniform reuse schemes that made an actual distinction to struggling households.However too typically these efforts had been undermined by colleges themselves. Minor tweaks to logos, ties or blazers – launched yearly or two – meant completely good clothes might now not be reused. It’s a observe that advantages suppliers, not kids, and it leaves dad and mom paying the worth.If uniforms are supposed to degree the taking part in area, colleges should cease treating them as branding workout routines. Consistency, not fixed change, is what households want.Antony David DaviesShrewsbury, Shropshire The sentiment expressed by Lucy Pasha-Robinson is one that’s not often heard in these conformist days, however one I agree with (College uniforms had been meant to be the good leveller – how does a £400 invoice do this?, 21 August). College uniform was not common after I was a baby nor when my kids went to high school. As a brand new trainer in Sheffield within the early Eighties, the kids didn’t put on uniforms. Now that it’s so costly it appears very unfair.One other downside with uniforms is problem figuring out the homeowners. There was all the time confusion over which piece of uniform belonged to which little one – names typically by no means having been placed on or being washed out. Think about having to search out the suitable piece of uniform for the suitable little one after a PE lesson with three- and four-year-olds.I’m happy to listen to that my granddaughter is to begin at a faculty with no uniform.Cath WhittinghamBrigg, Lincolnshire Maybe the reply to spiralling uniform prices, till such time that it’s regulated, is for folks to protest by shopping for another uniform for his or her kids – very similar to the “clothes for boys” protests that pop up perennially in sizzling climate.If each father or mother had been to take part on this, the college might hardly exclude all the kids! Plus it might train kids a priceless lesson within the energy of collective, peaceable protest.William BartramHampton, London Have an opinion on something you’ve learn within the Guardian right this moment? Please e-mail us your letter and it will likely be thought of for publication in our letters part.