30 Aug 2024
Former teacher, now journalist, Laura Bill reflects on the new school year preparations taking place this week…
Scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed yesterday I saw an advert for ‘back to school lollies’ with a photo of a round lollipop inscribed with “First day of Year 5”.
It got me thinking about how full-on these few weeks must be for parents as they have the mad dash to make sure they have everything they need before their little or bigger ones go into a new school year.
The actual lists sent out by the schools can be quite overwhelming, from hockey socks to labelled ‘everythings’ alongside the list of ‘essential’ items the kids themselves demand.
I’ve seen everything marketed under the ‘back to school’ banner. There are stunning pencil cases that look exactly like a Rolo packet, a Yorkie bar and a tube of Love Hearts by Anya Hindmarch and rulers like a Refresher chew bar. I wonder if these are a thing all over independent school desks. I can imagine one girl coming in with one and then the whole cohort of 12 would all have one by the weekend. They only cost £295 each.
When I was a teacher the perfectionists like me would buy a posh planner from somewhere bespoke online and a nice pencil case and show it off on INSET day. And I get that there is a feeling of newness in September school that makes you want to do this whether you are a parent, a kid or a member of staff.
Rubbers that smell like strawberries and cream were a thing 40 years ago. But now it’s 40 quid water bottles, giant Smiggle pencil holders and trainers that can do fractions. (Okay not that but – quick…somebody get onto my genius business idea. You can have that one for free!)
Some schools don’t allow anything like this. They have equipment on each table. The primary schools, often. Some secondaries insist on clear going-on-a-plane type packaging of stationary so they can quickly inspect for protractors and the like only to issue detentions to those who haven’t come prepared for school.
I remember the annual trip to Stevensons for uniform and stuff that quite frankly was never used or hardly used. It was things like PE shorts to wear underneath a netball skirt when I was at Beaumont. A scientific calculator, which was used. How else are you going to do your Sin, Cos and Tan? Exactly!
I remember my Dad’s face as he painstakingly took out his debit card and drew breath before paying for it all and then probably all of us knowing that at least one sports sock and a tennis racket would be left in the boot of the car for at least a couple of years.
It must all be very confusing for parents. What do they have to have? What aren’t they allowed to have? What do all their friends really have? At a time when some children literally don’t even own a pencil, has the world gone mad?! The pressure, the cost, the competition…Is it all a bit much? I think probably yes.
