The School Bank.

Providing school children with clothing is a costly business, particularly when they grow out of kit quickly. Difficulty kitting out children creates worry for families and pupils who can feel singled out for not wearing the same clothes as their classmates. Add to that the carbon footprint of outgrown clothes, and there are two problems. School Bank West Lothian set out to address both problems and is transforming the way clothes are perceived.

The charity was established in 2015 and runs with four staff and a board of trustees. Making uniform available to all began with the charity working with schools and family support workers, who would make referrals. That has now evolved, with the creation of uniform hubs at several schools, which anyone can access.

With the help of WLCAN’s third Eco Development Fund, four new hubs were set up at schools in spring 2025: James Young High and Armadale Academy, Bridgend and Dedridge Primaries. Project worker Janine was ‘gifted’ to the schools to help set up their rails, and built all the kit. 

All four uniform hubs are up and running. The importance of these has many angles. Helping families access uniform isn’t just for financial help. It addresses stigma of not having uniform and therefore addresses bullying. Case studies from referrals demonstrate the difference this has made to families experiencing hardship that children get what they need to go to school quickly, and with that, dignity. “You need it, you take it,” says Collette Moran, the School Bank’s project manager.

The other reason driving the work is to stop clothes from going into landfill.

“We averted 300kg from going into landfill last year. Clothes have a huge carbon footprint.”

Logos make clothing harder to recycle and school-badge items that are good enough to be worn again should be sent back to the relevant school. But the need for clothing from age four right up to 18 has enough scope, with shoes, shirts, skirts, trousers, gym wear, and then on to underwear, bags, toiletries, hair clips and water bottles – everything a child needs for the school day. Over the last nine years the School Bank has provided 10,000 uniform packs. 

The School Bank has also run several successful campaigns to build donations of clothing into uniform packs, so that a child is fully supplied with what they need for the new terms. 

Donations can take the form of funding a pack from scratch, sponsoring a child, or donating new or used clothing that must be of excellent quality. A full description of what can be donated is here.   

There are 23 donation points in the community – the charity wants to make it easy for people to donate, especially if they don’t have private transport. 

Donations at places including partnership centres where the School Banks red bins can be found, This is aimed at helping people donate without going far or driving, which is important for West Lothian’s semi-rural population.

The charity is setting out to change the language of uniform. Having a rail is easy and one of many different ways of getting clothes. Young people themselves have helped to advise on what works – the thickness of tights, or the type of bag pupils would be happy to carry. The functionality of blazers is also being discussed with schools, advocating for pupils who say blazers are too cold in the winter and too warm in the summer.