Focus group summary
Agree / disagree statements
2 . School uniform should be free - young people told us :
The overall answer was yes . Students said that companies won ' t make any pro t ( some people could lose their livelihood ) and some people cannot afford any school uniform . Others stated that some schools don ' t have school uniform at all which they believed , got rid of the problem altogether .
A few students believed that some parts of uniform should be paid for by parents / students like shirts and trousers as they understand that the government / schools can ’ t afford to give our free uniforms .
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" If everyone is being forced to wear it , at least make it free ." " Not everyone can afford it — perhaps make it cheaper or free for certain less privileged groups " " Uniform is overpriced for what it really is ." " It ’ s a huge waste of money for it to then not t — if you aren ’ t going to make it cheaper at least make uniform more variant in sizes . ( From personal experience , I had the smallest size skirt and it was still too big , and alterations take extra time and money we don ’ t have .)" " Don ’ t bother making it free , just change it to non-uniform because it ’ s more comfortable than uniform ." " Students are too worried about conforming to rules that schools make far too strict , more time is spent worrying about that than learning ." " Again , the rules are too fussy , the point is lost ." " Some students have sensory issues , making uniform dif cult to wear . Staff are not accommodating , having sensory overload because you must tuck your shirt in or having to have the top button up making it tight around your neck is seen as misbehaving — the root cause is not addressed ." " In some ways , it does prepare for employment , so you should expect to wear it . School isn ’ t exactly a “ trial run .” You ’ d have to pay for clothes in general for work and such , so really , this isn ’ t much different ." Someone suggested making non uniform acceptable for certain students , but it was then ruled out because other students would get upset about the divide ." " Yes , especially as uniform is ridiculous amount of money and many students can ’ t even afford lunches every day . "
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