School Uniform Price Comparison: Which Retailer has the Best Prices in the UK?

Back-to-school shopping can put a big dent in your household budget, especially if you have more than one child. We analysed the UK market to find the costs of your child's junior school uniform from various retailers, so you can get an idea of what to expect to pay.

In our study, we included 6 major retailers that supply our entire selection of kit and have easy-to-navigate websites for both at-home and in-store browsing and shopping—Asda, Sainsbury’s, M&S, John Lewis and Next—for a set of new clothes and shoes for boys and girls in reception (4 years old), year 3 (7 years old) and year 7 (11 years old). Note, we also included Tesco for the 4 and 7 year olds, because the prices are good, but they don't sell school clothing for 11 year olds.

Cheapest School Uniforms

Across the board, three retailers stood out for offering the most economical school uniforms: Asda (George), Sainsbury's (Tu) and Tesco. Their prices averaged around 35% less than the average cost of a school uniform, or close to 50% less than what you'd expect to pay at M&S, John Lewis or Next. The cheapest average all-in cost for our basket of new school uniform items (excluding shoes) was £71 at Asda; John Lewis cost more than twice as much with a price of £167.

Estimated Cost of Junior School Uniform at Major UK Retailers

Here we've broken out the uniform costs by age, so you can see the expected costs for your child at each retailer:

Cost of Junior School Uniform at Major UK Retailers

Sometimes, it is worthwhile buying a more expensive product. For instance, non-iron shirts often cost more but can save time and angst when it comes to the laundry. Plus, higher-end products might have taped seams for strength, re-enforced collars, minimal ironing, extendable hems and/or Teflon EcoElite to repel stains.

Also, while the analysis shows M&S, John Lewis and Next are more expensive, you may find other benefits to shopping at these retailers. To some extent they offer a wider array of styles (e.g., slim fit, plus fit, skinny leg, etc.) and, when we checked, tend to have ample stock in most products, in contrast to the cheaper retailers.

Boys and Girls

Uniforms for boys generally came in a few pounds cheaper than for girls, despite many items (e.g., shirts and PE kit) being unisex. The largest contributing factor is that skirts tend to be more expensive than shorts—on average, two skirts would cost a few quid more than a pair of shorts. Our pricing reflects shorts, so for girls add a few quid to your school uniform budget.

Cost of School Shoes

The most costly item on your child's back-to-school list will inevitably be a pair of shoes. The average price from these six retailers was roughly £20 for their cheapest pair of black school shoes (typically with velcro straps for boys, mary janes for girls). George at Asda came in with the cheapest at just £10.

This is one back-to-school item that you may choose to shop for beyond the six retailers in this study. Geox, Clarks and Start Rite are popular brands, but don't be surprised to pay £40+ for these quality shoes.

Back-to-School Clothing List

Different families—even those at the same school—will buy a different number of shirts, shorts, etc. For the purposes of this study we priced the following shopping list of clothing and footwear:

Basic Back-to-School Clothing List

For children required to wear a blazer to school, parents should expect to add between £20 and £27 to their school clothing budget, if shopping at these retailers. Note, the cheapest school blazer we found were from George at Asda, which started at just £14.

A School Blazer Costs Around £20