Why should 6-year-olds be expected to wear the clothes of adults? Why should parents be forced to fork out hundreds of pounds on uniforms that their children will just grow out of in a couple of months?

If schools want the children to wear a uniform to ‘represent the school’ then it should be cheap and affordable. Parents should be allowed to buy unbranded smart trousers for their children rather than the ridiculously overpriced logoed ones. What is the point in spending 5 times the money on clothing that has the smallest logo on them just to say that it makes the children look like a ‘community’.

Schools consistently use the excuse that keeping uniforms ensures that children made vulnerable to poverty do not gain a bad experience of school due to lack of money or get bullied for not having what other children might deem as unfashionable clothing. So therefore, by keeping uniforms in schools it guarantees everyone to have a base level of similarity.

However, by continuing to have uniform be unaffordable, schools go against this ideology if parents can’t afford to buy replacement uniform when their children inevitably outgrow it.

Also, uniform takes away the child’s blossoming identity and forces them to repress their individuality by having to conform to the indistinguishability of uniforms in school. Children have no ability to express themselves at the crucial ages where finding themselves is very important. Studies have also shown that children who have had to repress their identity from a young age have an increased likelihood of developing poor mental health and having an identity crisis later in life.

It’s just not worth it.