Overthinking everything for Yr 7 - any lunch box recommendations?

[aperolspritzbasicbitch]

Before anyone says it, yes I’m being ridiculous, as the thread says - I am overthinking big time.

my eldest starts secondary school in September, and all I want is for her to slip in to the corridor between lessons completely unnoticed…I want a little sheep, with absolutely nothing that stands out as being something a bully could hook in to.
once she’s there, settled and found her place she can do as she wants, but for now, that’s my plan. And she doesn’t give a shit right now, happy to go along with the current uniform trends etc.

my question is, what lunch boxes do kids use in secondary school? Primary was a cute coloured bento box thing in a lunch box bag, which I’m guessing is out of the question now.
is it just a basic Tupperware box?
happy for any recommendations!

Having met thousands of 11 year olds, it's probably quite a safe bet to be as anonymous as possible for the first couple of weeks.

In any case, most food will likely be consumed standing up at break in as short a time as possible, OP - so maybe not the MN usuals of Dahl, homemade soup and a full cooked meal in a flask her hands will be too small to open until she's found her friends and where they will regularly spend their lunch 35 minutes.

A lot of people saying secondary school don't use lunchboxes. DS is 17 and at his (girls) school they take plain tupperware or Sistema boxes with sandwiches or wraps, he likes a poke bowl type lunch. They also decide on the canteen lunch sometimes but there's a queue so many prefer to take their own.

When I was at school no one had lunch boxes, we just put the things in our bags. Sandwiches were wrapped in tinfoil.

Yes my DC say the school food is good but they always take packed lunch because of the queues

I think I’ll get a plain, smallish box just to fit in a sandwich then, and then she can just leave any snacks floating around in her bag.
she’ll be making her own lunch from September so it won’t be anything too extravagant.
will make sure she has money on her account for any snacks/extras, but I am hoping that she’s happy to take a sandwich most days as I can see it getting very expensive otherwise!

DC says that everyone just has a plain Tupperware box and takes food that can be easily eaten on the go or standing up- they usually eat outside and there aren’t enough seats and tables for everyone.

DS going into Y12 and DD into Y9. Both take packed lunches as the queue is too long for school lunch and they want to hang about in the playground with their mates/play football rather than stand in a queue. They both have one of these Sistema To-Go Salad & Sandwich Lunch Box,1.6L, Assorted and had no issues with it.

DD school starts off with an earlier lunch for Y7 (not clear if this happens all the way through Y7 but at least I know she won't have to fight with enormous 6th form boys in her tiny age 9-10 uniform!).

This.

Also we held off buying things like coats until she’d been there a couple of weeks. That way they can see the lay of the land - they’ll come home saying “everyone has got xyz” and then you can buy accordingly, and not spend £££ on stuff they won’t use.

Lots of kids at our secondary take packed lunches, as the dinner queue is long and boring, or they get a hot snack at break time (bacon rolls/slice of pizza)

Sistema "bento box" is absolutely fine at ours. It's not really a bento box, just has a couple of compartments big enough for a whole apple or similar, and is pretty easy to wash.

My ds is going into Y12 this year and has taken some kind of sistema box right through since Y7. There are ones with different compartments, and he normally takes a wrap and some fruit. This year he’s also requested a thermos so he can bring soup on the colder days. Lots of kids in his school take a packed lunch, otherwise they spend their whole break queuing and eating.

Plain Tupperware style box with hardly any food in it because they will buy overpriced crap from the school cafe/canteen in my experience!

Plain tupperbox for a sandwich, snacks are loose in the bag. DD took a smaller tupperbox for some fruit if she fancied some.

No coolbox, no complex choices. DD also often go herself some food during break she then ate at lunch as the queues for the hot food were too long for the fairly short break.

But - do help your DD to build up confidence. There will be other pupils who will say something, it could be about anything and often not bullying but a throwaway comment.

Mine started with sandwiches in a Tupperware pot but quickly moved on to getting a meal at school everyday. It cost a bloody fortune but only one left now (in yr10) so not long to go!

I've bought a thin waterproof coat and a thick waterproof coat off Vinted in bright colours (she wanted pink but I said "really, DD?" and she remembered she doesn't like pink). That way, if it's "wrong" I won't have wasted too much money.