To put the cost of school uniforms into perspective I asked Richard Binns, chief executive of Postie, what the price difference is between branded and unbranded uniforms of a similar quality. He said a $500 branded uniform would cost about $130 if you bought a similar quality unbranded uniform from his stores. The difference is accounted for by the small production run for individual schools and cost of the school logo. That's a lot of money for parents to cough up.
Postie used to stock branded school uniforms, but sold that business to the Warehouse. It now sells generic uniforms that some schools allow their students to wear. Most don't. Kmart and the Warehouse also sell unbranded uniforms.
In the UK it's common for schools to choose a generic design. Parents can buy that uniform from Tesco, ASDA or Sainsbury supermarkets. The schools have embroidered badges that can be ironed on to uniforms.
Warehouse chief executive and former high-school board member Mark Powell says parents could save a lot of money if school boards approved at least some generic uniform items. They could go for a monogrammed blazer, perhaps, but generic shorts, shirts and skirts.
My daughter has changed school twice in two years and, determined not to shell out much on her uniforms, I turned to the website Neighbourly where I found most of what we needed. The rest came from Trade Me and the local supermarket noticeboard. I got a bit obsessive this year about trying to find ways to cut the uniform cost as a matter or principle.
I even considered ordering a 6.15 ($12.50) generic school skirt from George in the UK, or 12 ($24.45) for Marks & Spencer-quality rather than spend $65 on an almost identical and possibly lower-quality Takapuna Grammar School skirt. Searching internet forums this week I found New Zealand parents who did just that.
I don't buy the argument that school uniforms need to be good quality. Kids are growing and most clothing is outgrown before it's worn out. Balmoral School shorts, for example, cost $34 a pair from the Warehouse, whereas WZ and Basics brand shorts are $8 a pair.
The Warehouse has only recently taken over the branded clothing and Powell says his company is looking at ways of getting prices down.
The quality argument for uniforms only works if you have two children of the same gender and shape going through the same school at suitably spaced intervals and if the school doesn't change its uniform in the meantime.
A friend has a son starting at Rangitoto College this year and is shelling out a king's ransom to get him ready. Even the brand of shoes the boy had to buy was spelled out in the school uniform policy. The minimum price from the school's supplier was $130.
As my friend said: "Okay, the school has amazing facilities. But we now know why: just buying the shoes is tied in with a corporate sponsor."
Last year I bought a pair of boys Grosby shoes from Number One Shoes, which were made of leather, were flexible and fitted well. Grosby is an 80-year-old Australian company that is linked with Clarks shoes. After four terms of my son's wear they still have plenty of life left and are very comfortable according to the wearer. The same shoes are on sale this weekend at Number One Shoes for $39.99. This year I was relieved that neither Takapuna Grammar nor Belmont Intermediate demanded that I buy stationery from a certain supplier so that they could get a kick-back on sales.
We emptied our desks of stationery, put it all on the dining table and picked out what could be reused from previous years. That includes visual diaries and other higher-priced items that only had two or three pages used last year. I was also careful to ensure that items duplicated for different subjects weren't bought twice.
We then popped into Warehouse Stationery to pick up the rest of what was needed. Our schools get a small commission from Warehouse Stationery that can be spent in-store. A couple of years ago a teacher emailed me to say that she wouldn't let her class use Impact brand books from Warehouse Stationery because they were poor quality. I've since paid attention to our Impact books and can't agree with her.
One year I had to buy all our school stationery from an Australian-owned stationery company that would repatriate the profits offshore. I was especially annoyed that year because there was a compulsory delivery charge, which I wouldn't have had to pay had I been able to buy my stationery when I was passing a stationer's.
Rather than buy the school-prescribed box of stationery, surely it's better to buy just the items you're lacking. It's a waste of the world's resources to buy things you already have.
Some schools get snarky if you don't follow the rules. Last year my daughter started racking up detentions because I didn't get around to buying one of her work books through the school's online system. As soon as I discovered what had been happening I bought the book. I raised an eyebrow, however, at the decile-10 school's approach. No book equalled detention.
In my case it was just busy working mother syndrome behind the problem. I'm sure there were other parents at the school whose daughters got detentions because they simply couldn't afford the $29 workbook. Ironically the book came home at the end of the year totally unused.
Just because a child lives in a decile-10 area doesn't mean his or her parents have decile-10 incomes. Children in cash-strapped families suffer more in high-decile schools than lower ones.
My gripe about school donations is on behalf of parents who, unlike me, can't pay in one go at the start of the year. Why should someone who can't afford a lump sum pay more than I do?
If I was in that situation I would stop the direct debit when the payment hit the discounted amount. Donations, after all, are voluntary and those who struggle to pay them shouldn't be penalised.
