School logos should not be compulsory and uniforms should be more affordable says Education Minister

School uniforms in Wales should be made cheaper for families and logos should not be made compulsory, the Education Minister has said.

It follows a public consultation on school uniform guidance, which sought opinions on affordability in order to support families through the cost-of-living crisis.

Fifty six per cent of those who responded agreed that logos should not be required on school uniforms in comparison to 27% who disagreed.

Nearly 90% of respondents also felt that schools should avoid single supplier agreements.

What is the new guidance around school uniforms?

• The guidance calls for school uniforms to be made cheaper and logos not made mandatory

• also calls for more second hand uniform exchange or recycling schemes

When will it come into effect?

• The guidance will come into force straight away and schools are being asked to review their policies in light of that, ahead of the new school year.

• The Minister explained: "we're asking schools then to review their policies in light of the guidance and obviously there's a new school year in September and schools will obviously be mindful of that in how they go about doing it".

Education and Welsh Language Minister, Jeremy Miles, said: "We've heard for some time now given the cost of living pressures that families are struggling with the costs of many things including the school day, so I really wanted to make sure that we we're doing everything possible to make uniforms as cheap as possible for families.

"School logos should not be mandatory on uniforms. We think uniforms are a good thing, I think they play an important role in a school community and also help young people, because sometimes, if you're in school and some people are wearing expensive brands and some are not that can be really hard as well, so uniforms we think are a good thing but we're saying logos shouldn't be mandatory any longer."

The new guidance also calls for more second hand uniform exchange or recycling schemes, so that second-hand school uniforms are available for parents and carers.

"It's really helpful in terms of recycling uniforms and making sure we get as much wear as possible out of any individual garment." The Minister added.

"If there are schools that decide they want to continue with the school logo even though it's not mandatory we're asking them to minimise the number of garments those are on just to make it as affordable as possible for families."