Warning about 'buy now, pay later' schemes for school uniform in North Yorkshire
It's feared the cost of school uniform is hitting families in York and North Yorkshire.
Last updated 1st Sep 2021
We're hearing about efforts to help families struggling with the cost of school uniform in York and North Yorkshire.
It follows warnings about the costs of buy now, pay later schemes.
Haxby and Wigginton Methodist Church set up a uniform bank this Summer as an alternative to help struggling families.
It means people can exchange clothes that aren't needed anymore and swap them for bigger sizes - free of charge.
Family worker Lorraine Jones says they wanted to help: "We're going to do this again next year hopefully, and we had drop-off days in July where people can bring any uniform that isn't needed.
"We would then begin the big task of sorting it all into age ranges, before having a pickup day for people free of charge. It's a service to the community, and not a fundraiser - plus it saves things going into landfill and helps the environment.
"It was prompted last year and we were thinking that we wanted to do something during Covid. Some families were struggling, but there was also this prompt to be more eco-friendly. It's an excuse to get the community together, as well.
"It was too late last Summer before schools started back, so we picked it up again this year and we're really pleased with the response".
Lorraine says money has been tighter for a lot of people, and more awareness is needed of how expensive clothes can be: "my daughter's just about to start high school and needs all the blazers and the PE kit that she might hardly wear.
"It ends up really adding up - you can easily end up spending between £200 and £300 all at once. It's a big outlay, plus children can have growth spurts at inconvenient times!
"My friends and I often swap things between each other, which is really helpful. Let's do this on a bigger scale, because I'm sure there are families out there that don't have access to people out there in that next age group up.
"Uniform is really expensive, and trying to keep up with that is really hard for families - especially this year.
"I think we'll do this again next year, and we'd love to make it a big community event. We're going to work with other people in the community as well to help".
Sarah Kaye is from Thirsk and is a mum of two - her eldest child Gracie is starting school this time: "We've just gone through the whole buying of the uniform phase, and there were a few emotions: it's a proud moment and really exciting, but it's also an absolute shocker in terms of how much things cost.
"The branded things for school are especially expensive, so if we worked out that if you were to buy everything from the school in terms of the shirts/skirts/dresses, it would've cost (plus spares) well over £200.
"I'm a working mum, so I do want to make sure I get spares if they're needed. We didn't want to go down the buy now, pay later route. We thought about putting it all on a credit card, but didn't want to do that either.
"We decided to shop around at high streets, and the supermarkets have really good value uniforms for boys and girls in all colours.
"I bought this back at the end of July when all the age ranges were still in stock. My advice would be to really look at your options in terms of whether you really need everything from the school catalogue.
"It's a huge cost; even with our shopping around it's still a lot to go out of the monthly budget. I'd suggest putting aside a bit of money each month to prepare.
"I'm really pleased with our decision that we didn't get into debt by buying everything on the school list, but it's really sad that people are getting into debt in this way.
"It's tragic that people have to get into debt. We had to shop around for school shoes as well, and at one store they were nearly £50. A four/five year old could grow out of them in a couple of months.
"My best advice is to shop around and get it cheaper".