As the lovely summer break comes to an end, it’s now time to address your child’s back-to-school checklist. Apart from ensuring that their uniform fits and their game kits are good for another year, it’s also essential to ensure that they have all the required school supplies. Yes! It's time to address the most important question for parents with children going to nursery, primary or junior school – what school supplies does my child really need?
School essentials your child needs regardless of the age
Let’s start with the basics first – most of the schools here in the UK share a school shopping list, so if you haven’t received that yet, a good starting point would be to ask for it. Now, that in no way means that you will skip the stress of wandering around different stores to tick everything off that list, but it sure will make your life easier.
- School Uniform: It's up to you how many pieces you would like to have and eventually up to your laundry schedule. Personally, when it comes to the school uniform we believe that's the perfect number to have: 2x Blazer, 5x shirts, 3x jumpers or cardigans, 3x trousers/skirts. 5x pair of socks or tights, 1x pair of shoes, one school tie, and hair accessory set (optional). For the chilly days, you can add a hat, a pair of gloves and a scarf. Don't hesitate to take a size a little bigger that's resizeable as children are growing quite fast.
- Waterproof jacket and a compact umbrella
- P.E essentials: sport bag, polo shirts, shorts, sports shoes, jersey, socks
- A functional back-to-school bag or a lunch bag with enough space to keep their school supplies and their lunch-ware.
- A thermal bag or food jar to keep lunch food warm or cold, so children can enjoy their food as if it was freshly made.
- A big bottle of water because hydration is as we know very important. A cute bottle of water will make sure they drink a few sips every now and then.
- Eventually, you can have a spare Small insulated water bottle for milk, juice or a small quantity of their favourite drink. This will ensure that they consume liquids and keep themselves hydrated even if they don't drink enough water.
- A snack box with some of their favourite snacks so that their tummies are always happy! Studying or doing anything productive on an empty stomach is not going to get them anywhere.
- We also recommend adding a cutlery set to the list. May we suggest our 3-piece cutlery set with a silicon case which is also dishwasher safe. It comes in different colours for your child to choose from.
- Find a nice composition notebooks that will help your child stay motivated and look forward to learning.
- A pencil case to organise their stationery supplies like ball point pens, coloured pencils, crayons, highlighters, a ruler, erasers, sharpeners, colours, glue sticks, etc.
- It's a good investment to buy plastic covers, it will protect books and workbooks from the casual damages over the whole year.
- Hand sanitiser and hand wipes is always a good thing to carry within your backpack.
- Our cherubs are never too far away from getting a runny nose so having a pack of spare tissues in a backpack is never unuseful.
- We'll never repeat it enough but name labels on kid's clothes and supplies are life changing. Not only kids tend to overlook their belonging, but schools and nurseries have to take care of lots of kids therefore name labels can make a huge difference. Instead of typing the first name of your child, we found writing the surname and your phone number is better. You can order machine washable and dishwasher safe stickers online or buy a sticker machine – what's the most convenient for you.
What Your Child Will Need Per School Year
If you don’t have a list, here’s a list of different supplies that you might want to stock up on before the school year begins.
Nursery / Early Years school must-haves
- A multi-purpose bag or a small backpack
- Nappies, wipes, and creams
- Extra change of clothes and some underwear
- Indoor shoes
- Their comfort item that can be left, it could be a toy or a stuffed animal
- Snack box with their favourite snacks or a food jar
- A leakproof water bottle
Primary school must-haves
- School bag that will fit school supplies and a spare change of clothes
- Lunch box if you decide your child won't eat the offered lunch or for school trips
- Pencil box
- Handwriting pens like erasable gel pens or ballpoint pens
- Colouring pencils
- Highlighters
- Glue Stick
- Eraser
- Sharpener
- Ruler
- Notebooks (Depends on the School – they usually provide books and workbooks)
- Reusable water bottle
- Plastic folder that will protect homework or art work
- P.E bag and outfit (Polo shirts, Shorts or Skorts, Jersey, Sport Shoes, pairs of socks)
Junior school must-haves
- Backpack with extra room for PE essentials
- Extra school shirts & shorts/ skirts
- Academic diary for 2023-24
- School bag and lunch bag
- Pencil box
- Handwriting pens like rollerball pens or fountain pens.
- Colouring pencils
- Highlighters
- Glue Stick
- Eraser
- Sharpener
- 30cm Ruler
- Notebooks & Notepads
- Sticky notes
- Stationery extras like geometry sets, scientific calculator, compass, dictionary and thesaurus,
- Big water bottle and lunch boxes
- Umbrella & Raincoat
- A combination lock (optional)
Look at our full teenager collection here
We hope this list is a good starting point for you to have all your back-to-school essentials. And remember, it is okay if you forget something – just know that you're doing your absolute best, and we’re so proud of you!