to think that asda could at least wait until schools have broken up for the summer to have their 'back to school' leaflets and displays out?

[zipzap]

Just surprised really - was in Asda today and they had just had the 'Back to school' leaflets and displays in.

Here, it's still summer half term - OK so they go back tomorrow morning but it's still a whole half term until they even break up for summer and they are already talking about going back.

I used to think it was bad when the signs went up before August (OK so that was a long time ago that they waited that long) - then they shifted it so that they turned up around the time that they broke up for the summer. Which still seemed a bit early - it's nice to have at least a week or two of holiday before all the shops are proclaiming it's time to go back to school.

But when there's still a full sixth of the school year left (in terms) and the long summer holiday it just seems excessively early.

I know it's not the most major thing in the world to be annoyed by, I'm just griping but just wondered if anyone else felt like this?

(And if this is the earliest sighting of the back to school stuff this year - I also get annoyed by the early xmas stuff - earliest this year I spotted was in Feb for people offering bookings for xmas parties next year)

we start the new school year tomorrow when they go back....dd will be year 10.

not all schools are the same

eh? how can the new school year start tomorrow, would that not mean GCSE students doing their exams in the wrong year, or immediately they start in year 11??

YANBU. Why don't they just get even earlier until they are doing things at the right time?

we just start early....gcse students get 6/7 weeks extra study time. exams are done at same time. my other dd is in middle of her gcse's now.....means those empty weeks before summer term ends,are spent settling in to new timetables,classrooms etc instead of introducing it all in september....works well here

YANBU my dd was crying in the supermarket the other day because I wouldn't buy her next year's uniform.

Our's break up in 4 weeks, and the High Schools start their new years tomorrow. Seems like a good idea to me - no more last minute rushing, only to find that the size you need has sold out.

YANBU - It really does make a joke of the whole year. Christmas doesn't start in December, but August, before Hallowe'en. Easter starts in January.
FFS - are they really THAT desperate for the cash? I think not. Greedy, scumsucking corporate bastards.

well i for one appreciated it today!! last minute shopping for the new PE kit and the new statioary. the rest of her uniform will be bought later though

We have only 3 weeks to go until summer holidays also M&S are doing their 3 for 2 at the moment.

Oh crikey - it is 3 weeks, isn't it. I'm thinking it's 4, but it's not

Our new school term has started for 5th years who were in 4th year doing standard grades and have 3 weeks of highers in 5th year before the schools break up end June/early July as Scottish exams earlier than English ones.

They always have their Back to School bits in just after summer half-term. It's designed to torment and taunt all the teachers when they're buying their Shreddies... "you thought you were having a holiday... it's time to go baaaaackkkk". Scotland do have holidays much easlier than the rest of the UK generally though so perhaps it's targetting them.

I'm as much of a sucker as the kids are for the joy of a pristine new pencil case full of goodies though!

Our Asda at one point had Xmas trees up in September - albeit with an apologetic notice that they hadn't in fact gone nuts, they were doing a week long trial of potential decor schemes for the festive season... took them down... and they went back up end of October as usual.

I think it's an excellent idea, last sept dc1 was going into reception and I ran around at the last moment like a mad woman trying to find everything. Not doing that this year will be going in next week!

I think it's deliberate push to bring spending forward and increase cashflow by encouraging people to buy stuff months before they actually want or need it. Also, that way there's a chance they will need to buy additional stuff later on because of outgrown/lost items.

IoveTiffany - that's a great idea.

DD is starting Year 10 in September, she is starting some of her GCSE modules now, but it would be a great idea if the year actually 'started' the second half of the summer term, rather than this strange limbo land she is in now. Some lessons she is starting her GCSEs in, some lessons (which she has dropped) the whole class are just pissing about in for 6 weeks. It seems a strange waste of time. What a brilliant idea to jump the gun and start teh year early, so to speak. Where are you Tiffany, out of interest.

In response to the OP - for some reason I love it when all the uniforms and (better than that) stationery is in teh shops.

fantastic! ds can have some new pumps! hes been doing pe in his trainers since he out grew his pumps and no where sold them... this time i am buying 3 different sizes!

Ilovetiffany - that's a new one on me, I've only ever come across the september school start (apart from some staggered reception starts for the rising 5s but that's different). Sounds interesting though - do lots of schools in your area do it or just yours?

maisie, seb and co, we still have 7-8 weeks until school breaks up (and ds1 is only 5 so long way off thinking about exams , I can see if you are that much closer to the end of term it is less of a surprise to find it in the shops.

And was in M&S today seb so thought I would pick up some stuff on the 3 for 2 (having missed it last year having naively thought it would be on for longer than it was) but it wasn't on here - maybe they do it differently in different regions depending on the prevailing school breakup times?

the ASDA offer only annoys me because it only applies to clothes for the under 10's.

apparently parents of older children have money to burn