Best writing pens for daily use at secondary?

[LilyTucker]

What are they expected to take? Fountain pens? Biros,if so which are good?

Notebooks,what size?

My Dd likes normal Bic ballpoint pens. They can write in black or blue and have to do corrections in green.

She hasn't needed any paper they get exercise books for every subject.

DD used a stabilo easy move (or something like that) roller ball that took cartridges.
Do any kids use fountain pens?
I don't think biros do much for handwriting personally, but I'm ancient.

No notebooks required, school provided anything required.

However I did provide DD with a spiral bound A4 notebook for home use as a 'rough' book. She did all prep for homework etc in that, and we used it for practice maths questions, planning essays, explaining science etc etc. She got through about 1 per academic year (2 in y11) and it massively helped everything stay together and not be overwhelmed by random bits of paper. It also meant that stuff could on rare occasions be looked back for if needed.

Girl or boy?

Girls will need a pencil case stuffed with nice sparkly pens in different colours.

Boys will need to shove a half eaten cheap biro in their pocket.

Don't buy fountain pens.

DS1 black Bic ballpoints
DS2 pilot eraserable roller balls
DD Stabilo fineliner (she's left handed and finds these don't smudge).

All good but Bics best value for sure.

State school so all exercise books provided - they just use cheap printer paper for anything they do at home.

DD has FIVE Frixion pens in her blazer (5 different colours).

DS1 sometimes remembers to bring a pencil (sigh).

Pens are a combination of:
Lamy safari
Stabilo Easymove
Jetstream & Zebra

Once they start doing external exams, they need to write in black ink.

Mine have always had exercise books provided for every subject.

Orange bic biros are DS1's all time favourite! They have a finer tip than the clear ones. We buy them by the box from Amazon. He's a leftie too, and they don't smudge.

DC only ever uses biros - bought from Wilkinson, Tesco & Bics own - they all seem to last about same amount of time to me. Going into Year 10, school have pointed out they'll need black pens (any sort) for exam work, but she can still use blue for general work.

These are really, really popular at my school: Pilot Frixtion Gel 0.7 Erasable Rollerball.

www.dailypens.co.uk/blog/tag/pilot-frixtion-gel-0-7-erasable-rollerball-pen-review/

I use them myself and confirm they are very pleasant and comfortable to write with quickly.

However, they are relatively expensive, so I would provide some trusty Biros as back-up.

Sometimes teachers prefer black pens, so check before shelling out for too many blue ones. Also, for public examinations, students almost always need to use black ink so many schools have a rule that all of the exams. (including internal ones and for lower year groups) are written in black ink so that students get into the habit.

Hope this helps.

Don't use the friction-erasable pens for exams; the heat of the scanner causes the ink to fade and even disappear.

They re not allowed gel pens at Dc's school or erasable pens.

Bic black Biro is good.

Please make sure they have several as IME students (especially boys!) break/chew/cause them to explode at the earliest opportunity

No notebooks needed at my school or my DCs' school.

@ noblegiraffe half eaten is right on the money!

We have just been stationery shopping actually; contrary to what I have just written, DD just wanted "some pens; Bic are fine; no I don't need to be there; no I don't need a new pencil case"; while DS2 (12) had to have new crayons, new pencil case, fancy fineliner pens, fancy fineliner colours "for geography" , maths instruments, rubber, new pencils and post-in strips.

Four-colour biro pen is dd's favourite at the moment - apparently the teachers encourage them to use them.

Lamy pens are reccomended at dds school.

Bic Cristal ballpoint pens are much better value than own brand. I like the Papermate Inkjoy as they write very smoothly.

Mine had handwriting pens in blue and black, one fountain pen, cheap bit is in blue, black, red and green, cheap highlighter pens, cheap pencils, ruler, eraser, tippex, coloured pencils and a geography set at the start of the year.

By the end- half a pencil, a Boro and a broken ruler
Hth

I am very surprised that secondary school children use fountain pens.

I feel like we have had every pen known to man here ! Between 3 DC 2 are left handed,one has just completed A levels , one has just completed GCSE's ( boy with half broken chewed pen in pocket spot on Noblegiraffe) and one who will be going into Y8 the vote goes to the humble crystal BIC no other pen will do .

My DC was horrified at the price of gel pens particularly considering how quickly the fluid goes. He wants me to buy him standard bic pens or similar