A list of everything your child might need for starting at primary school.

Uniform

• Polo shirts – most primary schools have polo shirts now rather than a shirt and tie. I have three polo shirts for my son as he can get quite messy at times.
• Sweater – the local school has both sweaters and hoodies as part of the uniform. I purchased just a sweater before the summer, but will be buying a hoodie too when they go back. They had run out of stock.
• Trousers/skirts – I managed to get some in the Aldi back to school event. The local school has both black and grey but not very many pairs in a small size. My son is still having a few accidents so I have plenty of spares and will be sending an extra pair in his bag
• Socks – My son only currently has multi coloured socks. I will be going shopping before he starts to buy some black ones.
• Shoes – I feel it is important to have well fitting shoes. I therefore always go to Clark’s for school shoes. I have had my son wear them in for a hour or so every few days. That way he doesn’t complain of sore feet on day one of school.

PE kit

• T-shirts
• Shorts
• Jogging bottoms
• Tracksuit top – I couldn’t find these for sale in the back to school stuff, so I included one my son had at home.
• Pumps/trainers – also from Clark’s
• Swimming kit as they get a bit older
• A bag for the PE kit to go into – luckily my mum had a old bag lying around that she had made for my sister.

Other stuff you need

• School bag – I managed to find this nice little Jack Wolfskin bag. It is small enough for the child to carry with a surprising amount of room inside. Also it has a magnetic clasp so that my son can open it easily.
• Forms – when my son went for his taster day I was given an envelope full of forms to fill in. I had to look around to find it as it was back in July. These forms include emergency contact information, permission slips for photographs, and an about me page for me to fill in with my son.
• Coat – I still need to purchase a good winter coat.
• Lunchbox
• As your child gets older they will also need a pencil case and pens.

You will also need to get lots of name tags to label all of the above items. Then you need to spend some time sewing them all in. Undoubtedly some of these will be mislaid in the first week and it is very helpful to the teacher if they can be easily identified as belonging to your child.