School Uniform Rules and Costs: What Schools Can and Cannot Require

The three-item cap on branded uniform is now law, PE kit counts towards it, and a plain jumper only one supplier stocks counts as branded too.

The school uniform rules in England changed this term. From 1 September 2026 a state-funded school may not require a primary pupil to have more than three different branded items of uniform in a school year, and may not require a secondary pupil to have more than three, or four where one of those four is a tie. That is a statutory cap, not guidance, and PE kit counts towards it.

This page sets out what the rule says, what "branded" actually means, which schools it covers, what it is likely to save, and what to do if your child's school is still asking for more than the law allows.

What the law says

The cap sits in section 35 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. The text of section 35 is short and worth reading, because the wording matters in two places.

First, the count is of different branded items across the school year, not of garments. A school that requires a branded jumper does not use up three of its allowance by asking you to buy three jumpers. It uses one. Buying spares is your decision.

Second, the tie concession applies only to secondary pupils, and only where a tie is one of the four. A secondary school cannot require four branded items where none of them is a tie, and a primary school cannot require four at all.

What counts as "branded"

The definition is deliberately wide. An item of school uniform is branded if either of the following is true:

• It has the school name or the school logo on it or attached to it. For an academy, that includes the proprietor's name or logo.
• As a result of its colour, design, fabric or other distinctive characteristic, it is only available from particular suppliers.

The second limb is the one that catches schools out. A plain jumper in a colour that only the school's contracted supplier stocks is a branded item even without a logo on it. So is a skirt in a specific unusual fabric or a distinctive check. If a parent cannot walk into a supermarket and buy an acceptable equivalent, it counts.

What does not count: generic items in ordinary colours. Grey or black trousers, a white shirt, plain black shoes, a navy jumper you can buy anywhere. A school can still require those without touching its allowance of three.

Which schools it applies to

The restriction covers relevant schools in England: academies, maintained schools, non-maintained special schools, pupil referral units and city technology colleges. Schools established in hospitals are excluded. Independent schools are outside it entirely.

PE kit is inside the cap

PE kit falls within the definition of school uniform, so branded PE items count towards the total. This is the change that bites hardest at secondary level, where a branded rugby or games top, branded shorts and branded socks could previously sit alongside a branded blazer, jumper and tie without anyone counting.

Under the new limit, a secondary school that wants a branded blazer, a branded tie and a branded PE top has used its whole allowance. Anything else it asks for has to be generic.

What it should save

Uniform costs had risen well beyond what most families budget for. The Children's Society's September 2025 briefing put the average at £287 a year for a primary school child and £422 for a secondary school child, the secondary figure including sports kit. Separate Department for Education research, based on the items required in 2023, put average total spending on uniform and PE kit at £381.92.

Those averages hide the real problem, which is concentration: a small number of compulsory branded items, each two or three times the price of a generic equivalent, sitting inside an otherwise cheap list. In the same research, 38% of parents agreed they were struggling to pay for the uniform their child needs, and 42% said uniform was less affordable than the year before.

The saving from the cap is therefore not spread evenly. Families at a school that already asked for one branded jumper will see nothing. Families at a school that required a branded blazer, jumper, tie, shirt, PE top, PE shorts and games socks should see a substantial fall, because four or five of those now have to become items you can buy anywhere.

The cost duties that already applied

The branded item cap sits on top of the statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms, which schools have had to follow since 2022 and which was updated on 6 July 2026 to reflect the new legal limit. You can read it via the GOV.UK cost of school uniforms guidance. The duties it imposes are still live and are separate from the cap:

• Schools must keep the use of branded items to a minimum and ensure second-hand uniform is available.
• Single-supplier arrangements should be avoided unless the school has tested the market and can show the arrangement delivers better value.
• Where a logo is required, schools should consider whether a sew-on or iron-on badge would work, since that lets parents buy a generic garment and add the badge.
• Schools must publish their uniform policy, including the cost, on their website.

Schools were expected to publish updated requirements before the start of this academic year. If your school's published policy still lists more than the permitted number of branded items, it is out of date, not merely expensive.

What to do if your school is over the limit

1. Count from the published policy, not the shop. Work off the uniform policy on the school website, and count distinct branded items across the whole year, including PE kit. Note anything that is only available from one supplier even without a logo, because that counts too.
2. Raise it with the school first, in writing. Ask which items the school considers branded and how the total sits within the section 35 limit. Many policies are simply out of date rather than defiant, and a governing body will usually want to fix it quickly.
3. Escalate to the governing body or academy trust. Uniform policy is set by the governors or the trust, not by the head alone, so that is the right level for a formal complaint.
4. Then the Department for Education. Once the school's complaints process is exhausted, the DfE handles complaints that a school is not following the law on uniform. For an academy, complaints go through the Education and Skills Funding Agency route.

In the meantime, ask about the second-hand supply and about hardship help. Some local authorities offer discretionary uniform grants, and many schools hold a fund for families in difficulty. Neither is advertised well.

What has not changed

Schools can still have a uniform, still enforce it, and still set standards on appearance. The cap limits what they can compel you to buy from a restricted source; it does not limit what they can require you to wear. A school can still insist on black trousers, a white shirt and plain black shoes, and can still sanction a pupil who turns up in something else, subject to its behaviour policy.

Nor does the cap force a school to abandon its logo. It forces a choice about where the logo goes. Most schools facing the limit are keeping it on the blazer or the jumper, where it is most visible, and dropping it from shirts, PE kit and bags.

For the wider picture on what a school year costs, see our guide to the cost of schooling in the UK, and the rules on attendance fines for the other charge that catches families out. Start at the Schools Insight home page for the admissions and appeals guides.