Y7 starters bags??

[Pyjamatimenow]

Could anyone with a child going into y7 share what bags they’ve gone for? Particularly the girls?

Shoulder bags are banned at my DD's school. I imagine because they have no lockers so the students have to carry everything with them all day. This means everyone has backpacks, they're mostly black, although this year DD has gone for a teal one from decathlon!
In her school they can have tote bags for P.E kit but not their main belongings, so it very much depends on the school - lots of them just use a carrier bag for P.E. kit.

Oh God I can't stand black Nike rucksacks.
DS has one after more or less telling me in yr 8 that he basically couldn't take any other type of bag into school other than a black Nike rucksack. So I bought him one. Yuk. All the boys have one though. It's like a uniform. I think they're so downmarket and unstylish, but hey, what do I know!😂

But DD does want a backpack/rucksack.

Anyone old enough to have had one of these? Could fit EVERYTHING in and they were less than a tenner!

Schools went back for us on Wednesday and DD started yr 7 with a plain black backpack from Typo, she was slightly concerned that she had picked the wrong thing but 90% of the girls in yr 7 seem to have some variation of a plain black backpack, some from primark, some Nike, some Adidas but all plain and very boring looking.

Dd had a Nike back bag for year 7 and now has deemed it not cool so has swapped to an under armour tote bag which is totally unpractical for walking to bus and carrying laptop and books around. Hoping she will see sense and swap back to the backpack.

Oh my god I had completely forgotten I owned one of those!!! The rope straps were super uncomfortable to carry around though.

the useless ‘head’ sports bags were also all the range…. Then the strange, too small to be practical cloth bags from the Army & Navy surplus store.

pressure to have the right bag and ‘fit in’ isn’t new. At least you don’t have to carry your PE kit to school in a Jane Norman bag anymore….

A black rucksack for DD - yes there are lockers but she has to have a laptop as well for all lessons and the tote bags are just crap for backs and shoulders.

Yr 10 girls told me they went to totes in years 9 and 10 but had rucksacks for earlier years.

It's all JD Sports carrier bags for PE now!

In my day the decoupage River Island carrier bags were THE thing.

@ThanksItHasPockets what they actually call themselves mean girls?!
I think not.
As for back issues for the rest of their lives I think you are being a little dramatic.

DD has a backpack. I wouldn't entertain a tote as they are impractical for school and not good for back/shoulders.
Most of our kids have one similar to this....no lockers so lugging stuff around all day.

I promise you they do. You ask your DDs who the mean girls are in their year and they’ll reel off a list. It’s not really an insult any more. More of a descriptor.

All of mine (DD Y13, DS Y11 and DD Y7) have backpacks. Y7 DD was happy to have a backpack as her siblings do, but if once she's there she decides she wants the large handbag type bags, she can have one as part of her Christmas or birthday present. We dont have lockers so there's quite a lit to carry all day, plus walking to and from the bus stop.

DD is going into Y7 and picked a plain black backpack from Amazon. I've told her that if everyone else has XYZ bag and she wants one, we'll get her one. Whatever helps to make her more comfortable, she's nervous enough as it is without worrying about what bag she has or doesn't have.

My dd going into yr10 has always had a Nike backpack since starting school. Most of the girls have handbags or totes but that's really not her style.

I guess she looks downmarket or chavvy to some of the snobby posters on here, but she's got loads of friends from all different "tribes" and none of them give a toss about her bag or that she wears trainers and a lot of them wear ballet pumps.
I can see where some of the kids get their bullying from with some of the comments on this thread and the shoe ones!

My daughter is year 10 and this is her bag this year.

https://jansport.co.uk/products/cross-town-plus-remix-elemental-blue-corduroy

God my river island bag lasted years!

Coming late to the thread. My daughter, who did not go to school in Britain, decided when she was 14 to save up for a Freitag Messenger bag (I helped with the cost), which was very practical for carrying her laptop along with books and all the other paraphernalia teens carry. It served her well. As far as I know, she is still using it 15 years later. I don’t know if they are a) a huge no-no in the UK and/or b) way too expensive for Y7.
https://freitag.ch/en_GB/products/bags/messenger-bags?srsltid=AfmBOoqy5L10zwrCoI0OeReP3jbjBsUM90YAaVAczavHaZX7Ym-YpWpw