On average, families with school age children spend £316 a year on items for a child at a state secondary and £251 annually for a child at a state primary school (information taken from The Independent Feb 2015). With that in mind, I will keep the cost of altering their clothes to a minimum, and I will reduce the cost further with multiple items. The most frequent request is to shorten blazer sleeves, where often they fit perfectly in the body, but the arms are far too long!! Oh, and not forgetting the length of girls skirts - but please bear in mind your child's school may have a rule on not having them too short!