Huddersfield-based charity Uniform Exchange which operates across Kirklees including Dewsbury, Batley, Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton has become a vital frontline service providing free school uniform to anyone who requests it, especially with many families struggling to afford costly new uniform.
Over the last few years the charity has set up a project called Sustainable Exchange which has seen it support schools to hold their own pop-up school uniform giveaways, often organised by the pupils themselves. The scheme received a £16,000 boost from the National Lottery Community Fund last October.
Now is the ideal time for schools to hold giveaway days with parents needing school uniform over the summer ready for the start of the new school year in September.
There were 57 such events last year and schools throughout Kirklees are now urged to follow suit and hold their own giveaways with uniform donated directly to the school by parents and Uniform Exchange.
The school giveaways are estimated to have saved parents £20,000 in 2024. Overall, in 2024 Uniform Exchange gave away more than 100,000 items of school uniform to around 11,000 children, saving families across Kirklees well over £1m.
The number of children the charity has helped has continued to rocket every year – tripling in the last three years - caused by the severe financial crisis and the fact that many areas in Kirklees are classed as being in the top 10% most deprived areas in England.
Sustainable Exchange schools co-ordinator Katy Burden said: “The Sustainable Exchange project really started to take off last year with more and more schools taking part and now we hope many other schools throughout Kirklees will be inspired to do the same.
“Many of the events are organised by eco groups run by the pupils themselves and they often take on the responsibility of running the school uniform pop-up giveaways so the more we can expand this project, the more we can encourage children to become involved in ‘hands-on’ sustainability while helping others at the same time.
“We are doing our very best to make second-hand the first choice. We have a strict net zero policy. Absolutely everything donated to us is either reused or recycled which makes it very environmentally sustainable by keeping it out of landfill. We prevent around 50 tonnes of school uniform from going into landfill each year in Kirklees.
“People are shocked to discover that it takes 200 years for a school jumper to decompose in landfill and there are the equivalent of 36 plastic bottles in each full set of school uniform …. 18 in blazers alone and five in a pair of trousers.”
Government policy is that all schools should ensure parents can get hold of second-hand uniform by publishing details of how to do that on their school’s website.
Katy added: “We’ve made that really easy for Kirklees schools as Uniform Exchange is now so well-established and we have our Sustainable Exchange project up and running to help them.
“This would also save the need to transport individual requests out and make it easier for parents to just come in and choose what they want from the uniform available.”
Rowley Lane Junior, Infant and Nursery School in Lepton was just one to hold a pop-up and assistant headteacher Andrea Haigh said: “The children really enjoyed the experience and helped to set up and tidy away at the end. They were very confident speaking to parents and locating the uniform they were looking for.”
It now costs £12 to collect, sort and send out a bag of uniform so the more schools organise their own events, the better.
Uniform Exchange was awarded the King's Award for Voluntary Service in November 2024 and officially received the honour from the King’s representative, the Lord Lt of West Yorkshire Ed Anderson this week. The award is seen as the equivalent of the MBE.
The charity encourages thousands of people across Kirklees to donate school uniform they no longer need through dozens of collection points which its volunteers collect and then clean and redistribute to families in need from each individual’s specific requirements.
People can request school uniform through a quick and easy form on the charity’s website.
For more information go to the Uniform Exchange website at https://www.uniform-exchange.org