What to budget for - state secondary

[tippytappywriter]

Dd starts secondary in Sept. I know each school will vary but what will I need to buy? Obviously uniform and PE kit. What else?
Also do most have dinner money rather than a packed lunch? And how much do you budget each week for that?
Just dawned on me how expensive the move may be!

multiple obscure ingredients that you don't have and will need to source at 9pm the night before

Oh yes indeed. Not that this is a budget issue as much as a "live near Tesco that is open til 1pm" issue. My best effort is DD wanting me to come up with her Italian starter recipe and ingredients at 6pm on a Sunday.

Another one which you may like to put on the long-term burner - GCSE revision guides (for year 10/11). We have Maths, Eng lit and lang, catering, geography and Spanish. All good useful stuff until about mid-June of this year

Tesco open till 11pm I meant, not 1pm! That would be no use at all.

Spare tie and multiple pairs of PE socks as they seem to get lost very easily.

Plenty of stationery too, moving from room to room they misplace a lot so bulk buy.

Dinner money varies but ours is about £2.50 a day with more if they buy a snack in the morning.

The school should issue you with a list in the summer, so hold off buying anything until you have that. Also, they are growing quickly and if you buy it too soon, some things might not fit in September. I'd say go to the school shop around the end of June/early July - early August and they are run out of everything here. If it doesn't have to be bought from the school shop, buy it elsewhere as it will be much cheaper. DD didn't like the PE skirts in the school shop as she thought they'd be sweaty, but luckily I knew I could buy a cotton one online from M&S £6 cheaper!

I think most of it is covered above, but DD's school like them to have a foldable 30cm ruler which fits in their pencil case - I got DD's from Tescos for about £1. When you go to parents evening ask them what calculators the school use (my DDs also use scientific Casio ones) - if the teacher is showing them a symbol to use at the front of the class it will be handy to have the same calculator so they can see which one they need to use easier. A school apron may be needed for cooking.

DD went through two fashion bags in the first term, by that time she was happy to have a backpack as she realised a lot of friends had swapped over to them. Got hers from Animal and it's lasted two years - has a bit of life in it still actually, but got DD another one at Xmas.

My DD was happy to take sandwiches as all the girls from her school were taking them. She goes to a large school, the boys seem to like school dinners and buying sandwiches at school. The girls aren't willing to spend 30 mins queuing for food, as they'd rather be chatting, therefore, they take sandwiches. If your DC knows others going to the same school, get an idea what they'll be doing the first week or so.

Anyone reading this who has dc starting at a school that has just become an Academy/had change of leadership (especially if the school was previously thought to be under-performing), please be very careful to check the rules when buying non-standard uniform options.

Near us, loads of children were sent home from one "turning around" school for supposed breaches of uniform policy. The main issues were fairly obvious: very short skirts, black skinny jeans instead of trousers and trainers instead of shoes. But there were some examples where I thought the school was being overly strict and certainly some boys shoes that were deemed too like trainers were ones that parents would have bought from well-known shops selling them as "school shoes". Locally, more of our secondaries are selling uniform in-house, even school trousers, to avoid the "unsuitable" ones but this means there is no chance of saving money by shopping around for items.

The move towards blazers in state secondary schools drives me mad. At least with a sweatshirt you can buy one on the big side and roll the sleeves up to give a longer period of wear. Out of our 7 local secondary schools (small town) only 2 have resisted blazers and stuck with the sweatshirts.

All been said.

Have 2 sets of stationery - one for school bag and one for home. So that when they lose their protractor/compass etc again they can still do their homework.

Also, I think my son must be eating glue sticks for lunch! Text books not routinely used so lots of sheets to be stuck in books....

Oh and I love a blazer! So much smarter. With all those lovely pockets my son carries his world around in it for easy access. A sweatshirt would be hopeless. Lunch pass, cashless card, pens, planner, phone, oyster card etc...

Where do they keep all this stuff if they wear a sweatshirt?

And sensible schools keep the cost of blazers at around £20. I reckon my son will get at least 2 years wear out of his. I doubt that a sweatshirt would be as durable.

Our school shop gave you a discount if you bought early - but also guaranteed to swop anything outgrown by September. So do listen out in case there are deals.
My DDs both prefer wearing "old" blazers though.
If you are broke do ask around, I have quite a lot of old uniform which is still perfectly wearable.

for food tech condiment sachets (salt & pepper) are very useful for the tsp of salt issue & dd transports liquids in plastic single glass wine bottles which are perfect (food tech teacher said it was ingenious!).

They let them eat their food tech products (!) for lunch - I know some schools don't though - which is great because they get fed & you don't get a box full of room temperature/bashed up on the bus mush presented to you.

Glue sticks & that clear sticky film for covering books.

They do a massive amount of printing - don't under estimate how much ink they will use.

I had better start saving! Interested that many take food rather than buying it. I think there are certain items of uniform that must be from the school stockist but other items such as white shirts can come from the supermarket. I will certainly ask around to see what is absolutely needed and what is nice to have.
I love Tupperware so never need an excuse to buy those!

What about a laptop/chromebook etc?

I have a knackered laptop that doesn't connect to the internet anymore. Husband had a decent laptop but uses it for work but DS has been able to use it when he needs to on the odd occasion for homework. Been ok so far as we all have tablets to use too, but will I need to fork out for a lap top DS can access more frequently/access the internet on? I have no idea what format secondary school homework is in. Is it via an online portal? Handwritten?

for dd it's about 50/50 - maths & science & IT are nearly always via school portal (which also has the science text books on), languages about 50/50 (I ended up buying the French text book(s) because the school have so few copies despite using them in most lesson). If the homework is filling in a worksheet or doing some kind of poster etc dd handwrites it - longer pieces of writing & essays she does on her laptop & prints out/emails in. They also use mymaths & whatever the language one is.

I gave her my old laptop when she started & got myself a chromebook. She could manage without it but it would be a pita

Bizarre extra expenses for drama lessons: previously it's been things like 'a battered suitcase' or 'four candle holders with artificial tealights'.

Today it was turnips. As the village shop couldn't come up with emergency turnips, he's got swedes instead.

Admittedly that's probably just DS.

Around £300 in total including stationary. The PE kit was the main offender, football boots, shin pads, gum sheid, trainers, logo t-shirt, shorts, jogging bottoms, rugby top, black football socks, white trainer socks. PE bag.

Then dc left PE bag in café, second week in and never saw it again

I know this sounds slightly mad but after endless printers broke/jammed/gave up the ghost in the £100 range (for which the ink was expensive and ran out very fast) I bit the bullet and bought a high quality one for about £400. We have had it for four years now and have replaced the ink cartridge once! One ink cartridge is £60 but it lasts and lasts and lasts. This has worked out much cheaper over the period. If you've got the money to lay out I would really recommend this.

And everything everyone else has said.

The other thing is that when DD started in Y7 her weekly fares were about £6. In Year 11 they are closer to £9. It's worth bearing that in mind and someone tell me what inflation's supposed to be . That's London Oyster and a tube journey btw.