Extortionate Uniform Prices at Ealing Public Schools

Julie Agha

Public schools in Ealing are using inflated prices to sell their school uniforms, one can only assume to make a profit off their students, with zero regard to those under financial stresses. Ealing Community Independents are proposing innovative policies that will combat this problem for Ealing residents: 

A support scheme for years 7-11

that caps branded items, provides automatic grants and requires schools to offer affordable and non branded uniform options for their students. 

 

Craig Smith, leader of Ealing Community Independents, said: “No child in Ealing should feel excluded, shamed or be disciplined because their family cannot afford a blazer or PE kit. Our proposal for a universal Years 7-11 uniform grant and strict limits on branded items will cut costs for thousands of parents while defending the principle of a common, affordable school uniform for every child in our borough.” 

In April of this year, the two-child policy will finally be abolished by the current labour government. This comes after much resistance from the party. As a result, child poverty rates shoulddecrease slightly in the coming year, according to Trust for London. A child in poverty is defined as one who lives in a household where the income is below 60% of the median, after all necessities have been paid for. According to the After Housing Costs (AHC) child poverty metric, in 2023/24, one in three kids in Ealing were living in poverty, this is 5% above the London average.  

Change has obviously been long overdue, but the consequences of the heartless two-child policy are difficult to ignore, and the labour government should not be congratulated for finally conceding. According to the Resolution Foundation in 2026 death rates will exceed birth rates. This means that child poverty rates falling is likely a direct result of a decrease in births in the UK, making it a drawback of the two-child policy as opposed to a benefit of its abolition. 

 

The current government has failed immensely in taking action to prevent the cost-of-living crisis. Public satisfaction with government policies is at a record low since Yougov tracking began in 2022. 85% of Britons have agreed that the government is handling the cost of living badly. While most want to avoid a reform government, the crisis has reached a point where there is no clear distinction between a labour and a conservative government. The public blame the crisis equally on both parties.   

All the while public schools in Ealing are extorting parents through the costs of their compulsory school uniforms. This is not exclusive to academies like Ark Acton, which is the most expensive of the Ealing schools; but also includes local authority schools like Greenford High School, where the compulsory school uniform costs a parent a mind blowing £202. Labour’s current Ealing Council has no interest in addressing this clear problem. In a cost-of-living crisis especially, families should not have to turn a blind eye to what is essentially a daylight robbery, to ensure their children are educated. Public education, by definition, must be accessible to all children, regardless of their financial background.  

Greenford High School did not comment.