Panic Ye Not - We Have School Uniform All Tied Up

Well, I hate to tell you

this Glastonbury People, but there are only 131 shopping days left until

Christmas. Why? I hear you shout angrily, why spoil our lovely, long, lazy summer

break with talk of Christmas and shopping? Well this is because, my friends, if

you’re even a little perturbed that the festive season is not far off then you

may be even more alarmed to learn that there are now only approximately 14

shopping days left until the beginning of the new school term…….

Panic! How on earth did that

happen?!! One minute it was the end of term school bell and the prospect of fun

filled holidays and trips to the beach were being planned to fill a stretch of

empty calendar days. But all of a sudden, it’s that time to think about new

school uniform, shoes, lunchboxes, stationery, hair accessories, school bags,

pencil cases, music bags…….

Sigh. Oh well, best get on

with it I suppose. You could start by paying a visit to the Godfather of school

shoe providers – Clarks. Of course, my theory is that Clarks are actually responsible for the evolution of Adults With Bigger Than

Normal Feet. If they hadn’t had been so considerate in the past three or so

decades by making sure all kids feet were properly measured, with shoes fitted

to varying degrees of width, then recent generations would have feet stunted in

growth by the wearing of ill-fitting shoes, a bit like Japanese footbinding. Just

at what point in the past 30 years did teenage girls start needing to source

size 9 shoes, hmmm? Clarks’ fault (I reckon). But of course, having properly

fitted shoes for little feet is vital, and Clarks will properly measure your children’s feet and fit the shoes

accordingly. With the outlet shop at Clarks Village offering substantial discounts and bargains if you’re shopping on a shoestring,

it would be foolish not to go check out their extensive range of school wear.

Morrisons supermarket in Glastonbury and Sainsburys in Street offer a range of low cost,

good value school uniform items such as shirts, trousers and jumpers as do New Look

and Peacocks in the High Street in Street. PE kits, trainers, football and

hockey boots and all manner of sports equipment can be found cheaply at

Lillywhites in Clarks Village.

In Glastonbury, for a good range of quality stationery and art

items, try Dicketts in the High Street. This shop offers specialist art

equipment as well as various size portfolios for art work if your child is

starting Art GCSE or A’Level work. It could also be worth a try for any of the

GCSE Study guides required for core subjects such as Maths, English and Science

and the guys that run the shop are extremely helpful and happy to order in any

specific items for you.

Further up the High Street,

the newly opened 99p Shop also offers felt tip pens, pencils, and some items

suitable for uniforms such as socks and tights. Proper Job on Feversham Lane also holds some useful items such as stationery, calculators,

pencil cases and lunch boxes. Talking of lunch boxes, Julian Graves in Clarks

Village do a good range of healthy ‘snack packs’ which feature mini packs of

mixed seeds and nut, raisins and yoghurt covered nuts which make a great

alternative to sugary snacks to keep your youngsters healthy and happy. I think

they sell for about 30p each or 4 for £1.

If you have a budding

musician in the family, and music lessons are on the agenda for the next term,

then don’t miss a visit to the Glastonbury Music Shop for many note-able

essentials. Music bags, sheet music and instruments are all served with a

friendly smile from the shop keepers Neil and Wendy.

Girls of all ages will no

doubt be keen to show up at school sporting a neat hair-do and in some cases

tied-back hair is regulation: there are some lovely hair accessories to be had

at Claire’s Accessories in Clarks Village many of which are at real bargain prices.

So do you agree with school uniform or think we should make like our European neighbours and abolish it? Is uniform an advantage or an out-dated regulation that should be reviewed? Tell us what you think!