Essentials for college/sixth form?

[sinningsaint]

Dawned on DD last night she starts college in 5 days and still has no stationary/writing equipment so i'm taking her shopping later on tonight. But, what do you need for college? Aside from pens/calculator etc, she obviously had exercise books at school but what did your DC's use for college? Have googled and found some students have one notepad and 4 ring binders (one for each subject) which they put work/printouts into but then some have just one notepad and one ring binder separated into 4? What have your DC's found the easiest, and is there anything else I have completely forgotten about?

One ring binder with dividers that travels to and from college with the current unit of work and a notepad

4 lever arch files at home -one for each subject

Ahh ok so does the unit of work get moved to the lever arch file once it has been completed?

Yes, I'm a mature student but that's how most people managed it, saves lugging heavy files about and potentially leaving them on the bus but you still have the work you need for that session

In my classroom I expect my students to bring their lever arch for my subject to class. We use some of the documents I hand out for reference in later lessons and there are tracking sheets and records that need to be kept in there. I also periodically check over y12 folders to check that they are organised, the head of sixth also checks samples occasionally.

So... It will depend on the school/college. Some will be happy for them to keep their main folders at home others will expect them to bring them to class.

I'll also add that I think one lever arch will be nowhere near enough as the year goes on. I teach a paper heavy subject and my student have two lever arch folders for my subject (one for each unit/teacher).

Lever arch filers, dividers and bulk buy decent quality paper, not the see-through crap that rips easily and you can't write on both sides of.

A hole punch for hand-outs and some plastic punch pockets will also be useful. Highlighters and post-it notes.

Ok will get a couple of notepads and 4 lever arch files to start with I think and see what happens as we go along with regards to what individual teachers require and buying extras. Hadn't thought of post-it notes giraffe so thanks for that and she got 24 '80's glam' sharpies for £6.99 a couple of weeks ago. Will 90 GSM paper be thick enough do you think? That's all I've ever used and never had a problem with writing on both sides, although I don't tend to write many long essays or the like!

Pukka pads are brilliant if a little expensive.

A good pen is also a must. I do a lot of writing on my course and cheap pens are painful to hold after a while, even worse if your hand/fingers start to hurt in an exam.

Sainsburys has loads of stationary half price at the moment.