Surrey charity says they're on track to give out 8,500 pieces of school uniform by the end of the year
Stripey Storks say they're expecting to give out more than 1,000 more pieces of uniform compared to last year
A Surrey charity which is giving out second hand school uniforms is telling us about how much financial pressure there is on families at this time of year
The charity Stripey Storks tell us they're expecting to give out around 1,000 extra school uniforms compared to last year across the county.
The charity say with the ongoing cost of living crisis, the cost of school essentials remains a big issue for families and because of this they're expecting more requests than ever.
They add they often hear about children avoiding telling their parents they need items for school, because they know that funds are tight and their parents simply can’t afford them.
CEO of the Charity Nicola Dawes says it's common to hear about parents compromising extra-curricular activities in order to make ends meet for their children
"Many of them will tell us that families are struggling to make ends meet and it's decisions about maybe whether the child can take part in after school activities like football or dance or whether they get a new coat for the winter that's coming."
Nicola added the uniforms are about more than just financial support, they also can be huge wellbeing boosts to students
"It becomes really important to how a young person feels and how they've, you know, settling into school and school attendance as well.
We hear stories of young people who are missing school and actually when they get to the root cause of what the problem is it could be something as simple as they don't have the right stationary, they don't have the right calculator and maths said, they know that they can't ask the parents and as a result, they're actually skipping school.
So sometimes the difference between being able to provide these items is whether a child's actually happy to go into school."
Nicola told us about how Stripey Stork has recently adapted in order to try and bring more confidence to kids who receive equipment from them
"We hear so much about people settling into a new school fitting in with their peers they had mentioned that actually girls quite like the shoulder bags, the tote bags, rather than the backpacks as school bags.
And so we had a company who were providing us with some support and were providing some of the school bags for us. So we mentioned this to them and they provided the tote bags. And already some of the feedback's been fantastic because people want to fit in.
Being able to adjust and respond and make sure not only are we providing an item, but we're providing something that is what they actually want.
It's just really fantastic when the volunteers who are so essential to our work are able to put together the exact right item and know how much it's going to be appreciated by the recipient."