Case Study:
Brockhurst and Marlston House Schools - Leavers 2026
Brockhurst and Marlston House Schools are preparatory schools in Berkshire, educating children from nursery age through to 13. Set within attractive countryside grounds, the schools offer a broad and well-rounded prep school education, combining strong academic foundations with sport, music, creativity and wider opportunities beyond the classroom.
The schools are known for their distinctive approach to single-sex education within a shared school environment, allowing boys and girls to benefit from focused teaching while still enjoying the wider advantages of a connected school community. This balance supports confidence, individuality and personal development, helping pupils achieve excellent outcomes as they prepare for the next stage of their education.
With leavers at both Year 6 and Year 8, Brockhurst and Marlston House support children through different routes into senior school, giving each pupil the opportunity to move forward with confidence and a strong sense of achievement.
“So much less hassle than doing it using a big spreadsheet, the portal was clear, easy to use and gave the kids so much more choice of colours to suit their personalities”
“Wow! An easy to use portal and cheaper than we paid two years ago when their older sibling moved on”
(Names and genders have been removed from this quote to protect identity)
The Challenge: Protecting School Time While Preserving Tradition
Leavers’ hoodies have become a much-loved tradition for many schools, giving pupils a lasting reminder of their friendships, achievements and time spent together. However, behind what appears to be a simple keepsake can sit a considerable amount of administration.
For Brockhurst and Marlston House, the school quite reasonably took the view that coordinating hoodie orders directly was not the best use of valuable school time and resources. Managing individual sizes, colour choices, personalisation details, payment collection and parent queries can quickly become a complex task, particularly where pupils leave at both Year 6 and Year 8.
Rather than allow the process to place additional pressure on teaching or administrative staff, the school supported a sensible parent-led approach. This allowed the tradition to continue while ensuring the school remained focused on its core priority: providing an excellent educational experience for its pupils.
The Parent-Led Approach
With the school choosing not to manage the ordering process directly, responsibility naturally moved to the parent body. This reflected the positive community spirit around the school, with parents keen to help preserve a valued leavers’ tradition for the children.
However, as is often the case with group orders, the practicalities soon became more demanding. Coordinating orders through WhatsApp groups, messages and spreadsheets created unnecessary pressure for the parents involved. Tracking sizes, colours, names, payments and deadlines manually left too much room for confusion and placed a significant workload on a small number of volunteers.
The requirement was clear: the leavers’ hoodie tradition needed to remain personal and parent-led, but with a more professional and reliable system sitting behind it.
The Solution: A Professional Ordering Portal
All Bar Uniform provided a dedicated online ordering portal designed to remove the administrative burden from both the school and the parent organisers.
The portal allowed parents to place orders directly, select the correct size and colour, add the required details and complete payment through a clear and simple online process. This removed the need for a central spreadsheet, reduced the risk of errors and gave families a more convenient ordering experience.
The parent organisers remained involved where it mattered most, helping to curate the names and details for the final leavers artwork, while the portal handled the repetitive administration in the background.
The Result
The result was a smoother, more professional process that respected the school’s decision not to take on unnecessary administration, while still allowing pupils and families to enjoy an important leavers’ tradition.
Parents benefited from a simple ordering process, a wider choice of garment colours and clear payment handling. The school avoided the disruption of managing individual orders, while still supporting a positive outcome for its leavers.
The finished hoodies were produced and delivered in good time, individually packed and ready for straightforward distribution. The project demonstrated how a school can maintain valued traditions without placing additional pressure on staff or relying on time-consuming manual processes.
The Process
The parent organiser or committee speaks with All Bar Uniform to confirm the requirements, including garment styles, colour options, decoration, timescales and any personalisation required.
The artwork and garment options are agreed before anything goes live, ensuring the final range is suitable for the school, the pupils and the occasion.
A dedicated online ordering portal is created and shared for approval. Once signed off, the portal subdomain is made available to parents.
Parents place their orders directly through the portal up to the agreed deadline. Product information, size guides and prices are clearly displayed, while pupils can choose their preferred colours and, where offered, add nicknames or other optional personalisation.
After the initial deadline passes, an order summary is supplied to the organiser. If required, a short extension can be agreed before the final order deadline.
Once the final deadline has passed, we prepare the decoration files, including any name-filled back prints. These are not displayed publicly on the portal for privacy reasons.
Garments are decorated, checked, packed and delivered at a time that suits the organiser.
The children receive a memorable keepsake they are excited to wear, while parents enjoy a simple, organised process with far less admin.
And, of course, we always hope they will be happy enough to tell others how easy it was.