Peterborough mother comes to the rescue of parents struggling to get hold of school uniform with ‘swap shop’

Donna White, whose 13-year-old daughter Kayla attends Hampton College, set up the group last year after being surprised nothing of the sort already existed when she was looking to donate some old uniform.

This gave her the idea of starting a group herself where parents could search for and donate uniform, all the while helping to watch the pennies and look after the environment.

Donna said: “It’s expensive to buy for one child but for people with two, three, four or five children it can be really expensive. Especially when you’re looking at £30 per pair of shoes!

“I was initially looking to give away my daughter’s summer dresses. They hadn’t even been worn and they were blue so could be worn for any school.

“We weren’t needing her uniform and it was all in good condition so I thought it would be great for there be somewhere to pass it onto people that need it.”

Donna is particularly looking for new members at the moment given the new challenges presented to parents given the return to school for children on Monday (March 8) during the latest lockdown.

Many children have outgrown their uniform in the period they have been out of school and with retailers closed and online stocks being depleted or taking a long time to deliver, many parents are finding school uniform hard to come by.

Donna added: “Kayla has now outgrown all of her uniform. The school sent through a clothing list but all of the places to get them are closed and all the online orders will take ages.

“I have heard about some schools that have allowed children to attend in any clothes because of this problem, which I think is sensible but I have been told Kayla needs to wear normal uniform.

“It’s great to now have over 2000 menbers to try and help each other out with this but compared to all of the school children in the city, this still isn’t a lot so we are always looking to grow and help out more parents with getting hold of school uniform.”

The School Uniform SWAP SHOP Peterborough group can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/587022181826585.