Joining year 7 advice

We have 5 cardboard magazine holders labelled Monday - Friday.

At the end of each day when DDs are packing their bags they put the books not needed for the next day in the relevant folder. So, if their next English lesson is on Wednesday they put the book, dictionary etc in that holder.

They then know that if the book isn't in the holder or in their bag then the teacher has it.

It makes bag packing much easier too.

Watching with interest for Ds2. Ds1 has suggested most things already.

This is great advice, thank you!

I’ve a DD who has just finished Year 7, would add on the following:

• Folder/case with lots of plastic dividers in for completed homework sheets

• charged up portable mobile phone charger for his mobile. My DD gets the bus too and if there are delays you don’t want them having a dead phone!

• put Life360 onto his phone so you can track where he is. Buses do get stuck in traffic or he may be coming home late from after school clubs so you’ll want to know where he is.

• deodorant in his sports bag. Often the spots bags get left in lockers for weeks so do encourage him to bring it home more frequently, their kits gets really whiffy!

• bus pass wallet

• screw top water bottle, won’t leak

• DD’s school carry all their books around with them so get him to sort out the night before what books he needs for the next day & what he doesn’t so he doesn’t break his back! We have the timetable on the fridge

• print out of the local bus times so if he misses one he knows what others he can catch and when they run

• if he’s going to be having a toggle to pay for school food as some schools do, the school will provide info on how to put money on there. I get interrupted at work usually about once a month by DD as the toggle is running out so would advise keeping an eye on what ££ is on there! Typically DD spends £3-4 a day.

Good luck to him!

I think most people have sorted the kit list but I'd recommend writing your mobile number on the inside of school bag, PE bag, the back of any bus pass and get personalised dog tag disks with first initial, last name and your number on for any musical instruments and house key.

My Year 9 pencil case consists of the following from the school list :

• 2 mechanical pencils and refill leads
• 4 black pens ( 1 Lamy and 3 Frixion pens ) plus 2 spare Lamy ink cartridges
• scissors
• 2 blue Frixion pens
• eraser
• Pritt stick
• Lamy ink eraser
• 15 cm ruler
• 30 cm ruler
• maths geometry set
• red pen
• 2 green pens
• 2 regular pencils
• sharpener
• colouring pencils
• highlighters
• Casio calculator

Pens, pens and more pens.

I'm in year 11 and honestly you wont believe how quickly pens run out, especially if others forget theirs and ask for one.

If you have a big enough school bag you won't need a PE bag, just put it all in together, however if that doesn't work then a small PE bag so it's not a burden to carry around.

Green pens are quite hard to find sometimes and they get used a LOT

Get a mini timetable for them to keep in their lanyard or pocket

I used to always carry at least £2 - £5 emergency money on me as well

@Redorangeyellowgreenblue isn’t there a list ?

Really good for his bus pass or house keys as no chance of getting lost

Until he leaves the whole bag on the bus...

Ours all started off with an attachable key ring clipped to an inside pocket of their blazers.

I'd definitely try to check about PE bags first. DS has a separate sports bag because there's no way he'd fit everything in his school bag, but he can just dump it on a bag rack so doesn't have to carry it around all day.

Agree with the PP about a separate zip lock bag per subject. This has been brilliant for DS, as everything for that subject lives in that folder, so when he's packing his bag he just lifts the whole folder into his bag and knows he's got everything. You can get really good toughened zip lock folders from Rymans which last far better than the standard ones. At home they just get put into a couple of magazine files on his desk when he unpacks his bag.

Timetables etc aren't such an issue for us, as everything is done via the school app. We do have a paper one up in his room, but I'm not sure how much he looks at it.

Thank you very much for the experiences with regard to p.e bags. I might get DS a fairly cheap p.e bag and let him work out what works best for him.

DD has PE bag and boot bag - mainly because the PE bag wouldn't hold everything, but it does mean that the muddy trainers don't get near the rest.

SwimWhizz: agree. Once found a friend of DD's in distress after school (different school, but we were there for DD's swimming lesson). Her dad hadn't turned up to pick her up after an after-school activity, her phone was flat (which was why she hadn't had any message) and the school reception was already shut. Fortunately she'd realised that the swimming reception would have her home number on file, and in the event she bumped into us which solved the problem.

(It's not just kids. Our toddler group started asking for an emergency contact number in case the parent was taken ill. Most people had to look it up. The only use so far was when someone inadvertnently came out without their phone or keys, and couldn't remember their wife's number!)

Id suggest getting your child to memorize contact numbers, rather than just writing them down. I drilled my children remorsely in them in y5 when they started going to school on their own and they moaned like crazy but they've been used a few times when they've lost or forgotten phones so glad they did.

In Year 7 DS had a separate pe bag. By y9 he was shoving his pe kit in with everything else. By y11, he was wearing it under his uniform to go in and then dumping in his locker after pe (in fairness in y 11, pe was early in the day).

Buy bulk packs of all the things on the required stationery list and squirrel them away at home. Its a lot cheaper to buy a load of pens/pencils/gluesticks/rulers when you have time to wait for delivery than a panic next day buy, or a special trip to get green pens.
If you can afford it, then I also recommend a spare tie and sports socks (possibly buy socks in the next size band up) for your secret stash as these have a life of their own
Take a photo on your (and his) phone of his timetable as soon as he gets it. Ds's timetable is online via Epraise, but its not as easy to access

Sorry if I am gegging in on your post OP, but I have a starting secondary school question.

Do most boys use a separate sports bag for p.e/games? My husband says that he just shoved everything in one bag and carried it around all day. I remember that my brother did the same. I found having a separate sports bag that I could leave on a bag rack or in a locker until the p.e lesson worked best for me.

What do your boys do?

Thank you

2 pencil cases in his bag, one for the every day stuff pens, pencils (they usually have to have a pencil sharpener even if they have a mechanical pencil) glue stick, rubber, school sanctioned calculator, highlighter and so on.

The other pencil case had compass, protractor, colouring pencils and SPARES of the essential equipment. So spare whiteboard marker, spare pencil, rubbers etc. Don't underestimate how devious other children are at nicking stuff so you get in trouble for not having essential items.

Also, agree with Teen at home have the same stuff so that your child never takes that school pencil case out of their bag, because they may leave the whole thing on their desk. (been there done that, I spotted it and jumped in my car to catch him on his walk to school)

Buy a pack of 12 glue sticks. Schools tend to operate on a print out system so lots of things to stick in books rather than using text books.

Spare £1 for anything he may need from student services, and attach the door key onto some elastic and attach it to his bag. That way he won't lose it, just unzip a pocket, stretch up the key, unlock the door, remove key then put it back into bag and then open the door. That way the alarm isn't beeping whilst they try to wrangle the key out of the lock. Once inside, shut and lock the door, then put in the alarm code. Safety first.

Plenty of pens. Ds gets through them so quickly and/or leaves them behind.

Spare copies of the timetable. Ds has one in his blazer pocket, one in his bag, one blu tac-ed next to where he keeps his books and one in his locker.

We also have a magazine file at home per subject. Helps to keep everything together - textbook, exercise book and various handouts.

Also helpful in the beginning was a plastic wallet per subject, so that DS could keep everything organised per subject when it was in his school bag.

He has strict uniform rules and his school bag either had to be from the school shop or completely plain black or navy. So we bought him a really good north face one in black which is pretty much waterproof. If you aren’t buying a waterproof bag, I’d suggest you send in a couple of decent plastic bags to put things in on wet days.

Ds’ bag (maybe all bags have this, I have no idea) has a small zipped top pocket with a spiral key ring type thing attached. Really good for his bus pass or house keys as no chance of getting lost.

Some cash for emergencies/blending in with everyone else when they decide to go to the shop or tuck shop.

Your phone number written down somewhere on his bag or pencil case in case phone battery runs out and the child needs to contact you.

I know you asked about equipment and you've had lots of good replies - especially this September, it will be important to have a fully equipped pencil case, with glue stick, pencil crayons. It is unlikely to be practice to be lending anything out...

But I wanted to add a non-equipment tip: please encourage your ds to remember that his secondary teachers and support staff are no more scary than his primary teachers and will all care for his wellbeing just the same. So, if he has any worries, he should ask or tell anyone...and it doesn't have to be about their subject. In fact, in secondary it can be brilliant having lots of teachers because you can ask for advice from anybody... Example : couldn't understand Spanish homework and worried about asking Spanish teacher or in lesson where everyone else seemed to get it. Mentions to form tutor, librarian, someone else's TA or his maths teacher... Any one of those will help him figure out what to do, how to sort it.