12.5kg school backpack no lockers

[PalmLady]

My son's Y7 back pack with only the absolute necessary items weighs 12.5kg. There are no lockers for them to use. This seems excessive to me? My son only weighs 35kg himself.

school writing books for each subject,

he has every subject, every day?

But surely he only has up to 6 subjects a day that might require books?

How many books is he taking each day???

Soup - a potato, leek, onion, celery, carrot, 600ml stock, coriander and 10ml oil. The stock probably bumped it up a bit more than usual too.

Today he had 4 subject books and a journal. Books are all A4 and have to have mandatory book covers which may add a few grams. 😁

Well over 2500 kids in my dc school, no room for that many lockers! They have a few so it's basically first come first served every year. They're pointless anyway because they're often on one side of the school and lessons are on the other and there's not enough time to get to the locker between lessons.

You don't think teachers carry a lot to and from school and classroom to classroom? Try lifting a set of textbooks and exercise books up and down flights of stairs.
That's not the point. I've no idea why any student is carrying all this. Mine often don't even have a pen.....

Why are you so invested in disbelieving the OP?

Do you mean textbooks? They're not usually issued. What's the journal? Is that like a planner?

This was raised as an issue in France some years ago.

Plus of course never underestimate the ability of schools to play silly buggers and insist that kids bring in everything even if they dont need it on pain of death.

I went to a large comp in the 1980s and 400+ kids per year group. We had lockers, and they lined the corridors. They were wooden, old-fashioned but big enough for bag, books, coat screwed up folded, and had clasps which we could put a padlock on. We went to retrieve books at break and lunch. The poor design of school buildings seems to be the problem.

No, if it’s like our school each subject has an a4 exercise book that they do all their work in, quite chunky. So you have one a4 thick exercise book per subject. Luckily (sort of) they don’t tend to have textbooks much.

eta - and the journal may be a homework journal thing where they write in what hw they get, the parents have to sign and write notes in them etc. Our school won’t kill them off - so annoying as all the homework is online these days. But still they have to have their journal…

And no, to whoever said they must have pegs or somewhere to leave their pe kit - nope definitely not!

Ok. I'm surprised they take them home each time. Ours remain in school. In KS3 the homework is only once a term , KS4 more frequent, but still. Perhaps, OP, ask the school why they can't be left in the subject classroom? They're not doing homework for each subject every night?

Ah, @Talipesmum - we don't have planners anymore, it's all on Satchel One. Quite a saving!

Yes, I was really hoping they’d get rid! I’m sure it won’t be long… all ours is on ClassCharts.

And no, to whoever said they must have pegs or somewhere to leave their pe kit - nope definitely not!

You can guarantee that PE kit wouldn't still be there if it had a half decent pair of trainers in it 🙈

They have homework usually once a week, or perhaps once a fortnight for each subject. Same from y7 upwards. And there’s nowhere to leave them in school - sometimes the class teachers collect them in but generally not. Surprised it’s homework just once a term for yours!

What a waste of time and money!

We’re all really enjoying signing the blank page “to engage parents with homework” once a week. 🤣

5 books can only be a absolute (generous) maximum if 5kg, but really more like 3kg.

Some water and a pencil case, again, at most 1kg.

So probably... Really he's carrying 6kg ish?

And then on PE food tech, he has more because he decided to shove it all into one bag?

It's not really like he's heaving 12kg around all day every day now, is it?

Sorry I know it's not funny but once again it highlights the differences in education in the uk.

My students don't even bring a pencil case. They are presented with one in the first lesson and it's walked to every lesson during the day by their LSA. They bring nothing whatsoever to school.

I have all my classes exercise books in boxes in the classroom. The KS4 get taken home, but not after each lesson, usually just once a week. Ours tend to just have a bag with pencil case, water and whatever book they're taking home that week. I think it's utterly ridiculous to ask children to carry that much! It can't be good for them and is completely unnecessary.

Yes, some of mine are like that. As I said upthread, they don't even bring a pen.

😂

Do you take the classes books with you to each lesson? They’re often in different rooms for the same lesson over the fortnight. Only one or two subjects are they in the same room all the time.

I’d say overall though the bags aren’t too awful. There’s no textbooks for a start, maybe 6 of the a4 books but not much else other than a pencil case (and the stupid journal but it’s small). PE bag is separate and not that often. At least they wear rucksacks on both shoulders these days, unlike us as kids - social death to wear them on two shoulders!

Not really. Only a few times a week. It's a massive pain. I was just responding to the "make teachers suffer" part. Actually I think it's nonsense that the students have to carry that much around. Ours don't. See my other posts.