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.

I mean there can only be 5 books a day surely?

Yes my daughters bag is so heavy

ah,that makes sense. here it's rotated so there's a term of home ec food, a term of home ec textiles and a term of product design.

It was the same when I was at school now I think of it.

I'm feeling lucky it's still taught as I know of at least one local school that dropped it completely!

Not having anywhere for kids to store their PE kit is just mean. Please don’t buy him a wheelie bag, though: social suicide!

what did he make?
Did he then bring home?!

600ml of stock shoved in his backpack with trainers, PE kit and the numerous textbooks you mention? oh and with a leek, potato etc alongside it all. That was brave!

oh goodness.. did anyone suggest that??!

you’d think

It's fairly obvious what he made from those ingredients, surely?

Where do you suggest a school with 1500-2500 pupils let's them store their PE kit?

Soup.

So 33 secondary school student then had to take home a vat of soup each on the bus?! 😆

Oh does seem a shame. Here textiles are now a part of the Art curriculum, although it was part of HE when I was at school. Product design - is that like Design & Technology? Or is it something different? Design & Technology is also taught all year round here.

Most schools here now have 5-6 periods a day but some still use the older style timetable of 9-10 periods a day so in junior school (1st-3rd form) when there are less doubles and triples you could have up to 7/8 subjects per day. In my DC’s school they have 9 periods a day and I like it because they always get triple PE and HE so 1hr, 45 min each week for those subjects. Tech and Art are always either doubles or triples. The schools that have 5 periods a day have lessons lasting 1hr each and most schools don’t have doubles for anything until senior school (6th form), maybe a very occasional one at GCSE years, but they’d be rare. It’s really hard to get anywhere with practical lessons in an hour. I was on staff in an HE department for years and it was a nightmare getting the pupils to prep, cook and clean up in an hour. They simply didn’t have time to learn the skills that my DC get in an hour and 45min

@Octavia64

Get him to ask the food tech teacher if he can leave his ingredients in the store cupboard and the beginning of the day

ask his tutor/form teacher if he can leave his PE kit in her classroom.

• So what happens when the other 1000 pupils or even 10 ask to do the same?

At DDs school, they actually have 5 large fridges in each food classroom so that ingredients can be stored safely. (And the cooked product stored correctly)

Where I teach, the students bring their ingredients in, then leave them in Food Tech before registration. No carrying about all day.

My kids cook about 6 times a year.

They don't bring any books home.

They wear trainers to school so keep them on for pe.

They both have those small Nike pro back packs.

I remember having to take all of my books, food tech, trainers, a towel and spare underwear and socks.

Why would anyone carry 600ml of stock instead of a stock cube or stock pot??

From the ingredients list, I reckon he made a lasagne.

That's what we used to do, bring all sorts home from food tech

Nonsense, he crocheted a Halloween hedgehog

why do people find this so unbelievable?

my dc need to take
laptop & charger
calculator
pencil case
text book per subject of the day (usually 5)
notebook per subject (those thin a4 ones)
shoes if pe 3 x week
instrument (or sheets) 2 x week

pe kit is worn on days of pe (minus shoes, as they have 3 different pe shoes) - no uniform school.

they have lockers though and can leave textbook in school if they can manage the homework during free periods.

and I forgot water bottle & food for lunch and breaks

think product design is similar to design technology... I will find out later I guess. She's in Y7 and only just started at secondary school. It's a double period and she has at least one double every day

thinking about it, even 30 yrs ago when I was at sec school myself it was very similar.

It is a massive shame some schools have dropped cooking though. It's needed now more than ever. My DD has been learning how to cook and bake from me, but not all children are.