Coventry school uniform bank expected to help 3,000 children

A charity which supports people in clothing poverty is expecting to provide free school uniforms to around 3,000 children this summer.

Clothing Coventry runs an annual pop-up uniform bank to help families who struggle to afford buying uniform from new, ahead of the upcoming school year, with items either donated and bought using funding.

According to government statistics, families are forking out between £300 and £450 on average for school uniform each year.

Faye Spicer, the charity’s school uniform co-ordinator, said, according to Save the Children, nine pupils in every classroom were currently living in poverty.

She said more and more people were struggling with the cost of school uniform amid a cost of living crisis.

“And 16% of secondary school pupils have actually missed time of school as they didn’t have anything suitable to wear to school,” she added.

“It’s not just people who are on benefits, it’s not just people that are struggling, the cost of living is hitting everybody hard.”

Ms Spicer added that lots of schools now expected branded uniform with logos.

“A lot of the schools now do expect logo’d jumpers, the blazer which is logo’d, and you can only get that from certain shops,” she explained.

“A lot of the schools now are going down the logo’d skirt route and then you’ve got the full PE kit as well, that’s all branded items.”

Families can get free school uniforms from Clothing Coventry’s Uniform Bank from Tuesday to Friday from the 12 until 29 August.

The charity provided school uniform for about 2,000 children in Coventry last year and said they were expecting this year “to be bigger”.

“It has grown every year substantially, we’re looking between 2,500 to 3,000 children perhaps,” Ms Spicer said,

“We are taking all of the stock from the warehouse that’s school uniform over to a venue that we’re hiring at Queen’s Road Baptist Church and we’ll be there for three weeks.”