Not having any children, I had no idea this was still going on.
When I went to secondary school, the school (as did all the schools in the town) had an arrangement with a local clothes shop who had the sole rights to sell the school’s uniform (blazers, ties, gym kit etc). Even at the age of 11, I knew that this arrangement involved an illegal kick-back to the school for giving them the exclusive rights (otherwise why not allow any shop to sell the stuff).
Indeed, manyalynne. I guess if it wasn’t a problem, as some seem to think it isn’t, there would be no reason for the government to attempt to remedy it. Hey ho.
AuntPG \\ Vulcan £100 for a blazer really is taking the Mick (by the school).//
I agree but what really annoyed the parents was changing the blazer. The Girls school had a green line running through the coat and the boys had red and blue. The new coat had all three thus rendering all previous blazers redundant. Nothing could be passed on to new pupils.
That’s what my parents did, my gabardine mac, bought when I was 11 and started in the 1st year at grammar school, I was still wearing when I left all those years later.
By then the belt had been discarded, hood went the same way, the hem taken up (by me) about four inches, and worn buttoned up to the neck. A totally different garment and rather trendy (or so me and my similarly attired friends thought).