What rucksack is your year 7/8/9 daughter wearing to school?

[CurlySnout]

Dd needs a new rucksack for secondary, either navy or black. She doesn't like the Kanken, I'm not sure about Superdry's flashy branding and the Herschel seem a bit grown up.

Can you recommend a practical yet not too uncool rucksack for her please?

We started DD in Y7 with a Hype backpack that we all quickly realised was way too small. Graduated onto a larger ("XL") Herschel, they do a children's range (just bought a floral one in the sale - now sold out I'm afraid - for DD2, to put aside for when she starts secondary). DD1 says loads of kids have Herschel at her school. She's now Y8. Main thing is it needs to be big!

They don't really use rucksacks at my daughters school. They all have totes from River Island, Ted Baker or New Look type of shops.

Ditto. She had a Hype rucksack year 7 but discarded this year in favour of a large tote. Rucksacks beyond Year 7 are apparently very uncool!

That's good to know about rucksack beyond year 8, I guess she'll find this out over the next year. The Hype, Kanken, Eastpack etc do look small to me. Maybe a Herschel then. Do your secondary dc bring water bottle to school?

We’ve found that the Hollister backpacks are usually big enough www.hollisterco.com/shop/uk/p/logo-backpack-41803319?categoryId=85308&seq=01&faceout=prod1

Depends on your dd, mine hates the totes

I wish mine did! The rucksack was much more practical.

Yes to the water bottle. DD also carries her books for that days lesson, a homework folder, stationery, bus pass, charged up mobile phone charger, mobile and purse with an emergency £10. It’s quite a heavy load.

DD has a Nike one, mostly plain back with a small white tick. Year 9.

DD1 just swaps between a cheap plain black rucksack and a New Look tote that every girl in the school seems to have. She's had both since the start of year 7 (now year 8) and seems totally uninterested in upgrading either. Still, I guess it's not like they've had loads of use...

Blue converse rucksack decent size for all her books. Plain black drawstring for PE stuff.

Eastpak for both of mine (Y7 and Y11) - school specifies rucksacks rather than totes or handbags. Eldest still uses the one she had for the start of Y7 and most of her friends have an Eastpak of some sort. They have the one that is large enough to take a laptop and it's always been big enough for school.

Yes she takes a water bottle, hydroflask style (think hers was from Wilkos, the metal bottle type)

I cycle past a secondary school in the mornings. I'm heartened to see all the girls with rucksacks rather than tote bags. Most of the girls (and boys) have Nike ones, black sit either the tick or Nike in big letters down the front. A smattering have Kanken.

DD has a rucksack in Year 10. I suspect what is "cool" varies by school. Might be worth consulting with friends with older siblings or simply observing what the girls are carrying.

2 things to consider whatever bag you go for

1. What does she need to carry? Does it (e.g.) need to be big enough for an A4 folder (a surprising number of bags aren't).
2. Does it have to fit into a locker? if so, how big is the locker?

Oh and in response to the water bottle question - they can only bring a specific school branded one in (long history as to why). Worth hanging on for the information evening/pack to find out things like this as they will definitely differ by school.

Pre-Covid, many children didn't bother with water bottles and just used the water fountains.

Our secondary band any branding on rucksacks or bags. Plain, no visible logo.

Hot Tuna from sports direct.

The girls at the school dds will go to all seem to lug around huge unpractical tote bags that don't even do up. I get the bus with them and I always think it would be so easy to knock something out of them and what do they do when it rains?!

@RainingBatsAndFrogs

Our secondary band any branding on rucksacks or bags. Plain, no visible logo.

That sounds sensible. Do you just google black school rucksack? Or where do you find one of theseclueless

Eldest just buys the biggest plain style one in Tesco / Sainsburys. She has convinced all her friends that a rucksack is the only practical way to go to school!

My DD started off with a plain grey superdry one which was absolutely great. However she then succumbed to peer pressure and has one of those stupid big handbags. She hates it too but she says the people who use the rucksacks get teased... I’m hoping that as she gets older she will have the confidence to be her own person and use a rucksack, however at the moment it’s just all about fitting in...

I have a Herschel for work and it's lasted me 3 years (so about 1 year for a teenager!!) Black canvas, fairly big for all my stuff.

My daughter, yr 8 has a plain black vans rucksack. Yr 7 she had a kanken but it was too small. Yes to the waterbottle, plus all the books for the day plus music books. A couple of days a week she has either a clarinet or a violin too so a rucksack is easier to manage.

@CurlySnout , yes we used to Google ‘black rucksack’.

Office-orientated laptop rucksacks were often big enough, robust and good value.

The Under Armour one that everyone has. It needs to be quite big to fit everything in and quite sturdy obviously. Bit like this one