‘Specialised uniforms can defeat the aim of dress codes’

EXPENSIVE specialised uniforms can defeat the aim of dress codes designed to put all pupils on the same level at school, a parents’ leader claims.

The restrictive choices for parents on what brands and crests they need to have on their children’s uniforms and school sportswear is becoming more of a difficulty, according to National Parents Council-Primary (NPC-P) chief executive Áine Lynch.

As the St Vincent de Paul and children’s welfare organisation Barnardos warned this week that rising costs are creating huge financial pressures for families, she said schools must consult more with parents about their uniforms as well as the cost implications of changing school booklists regularly.

“There can be a big difference in price between a very specialised uniform from a specialist shop and buying generic items from a department store that crests can be sewn onto,” Ms Lynch said.

While she does not insist the Department of Education needs to take a lead, she said school boards need to be reminded what their uniform policies are about in the first place.

“People often argue that there needs to be a uniform to make all children equal within the school and so there is no pressure about labels. But if you then make it very specialised or elitist, that can become an issue that puts a different pressure on parents.”

Ms Lynch said parents get regular requests during the school year for fundraising or outings, but the costs are all very heavily weighted at the start of the year in autumn, particularly in homes with two or more children.

“Some schools take a decision, for example, not to change the textbooks every time there’s an updated edition. Instead, they might review their booklist for each class group every five years and that makes it easier to run things like book rental schemes, or it means families can sell their books on again at the end of the year,” she said.

Eileen Flynn, general secretary of the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA), representing more than 90% of school boards, said these are issues for every school to decide but agreed that parents should always be consulted.

“Schools should certainly look at what they are doing about uniforms to reflect the reality for parents in the current economic climate and where there’s a repercussion on how they spend their money. There may be peripheral elements to a uniform that might not be as important, such as having a particular brand or buying from a particular shop,” she said.

“Any textbook is only as good as the teacher using it in class and we always encourage schools to use the money available to them for book rental schemes and consider things like waiting until an entire series of books is published before putting it on the list for all classes so pupils can follow the same course from infants to sixth class and be able to buy them secondhand from older children,” she said.