Personal items to take to secondary schools

[Hushaby1]

A new Y7 parent here.

I received a document what to prepare but it doesn’t seem to describe everything.

I wonder if a Y7 student needs to take a pencil case with pencils and pens, notebooks, etc? What else do I need to prepare? The school only informed me about the uniforms.

Normally yes you’d want a small pencil case with couples of pens and pencils, an eraser, ruler, protractor set and perhaps a calculator.

Schools normally provide notebooks and a homework diary type book themselves.

If your school uses an app you could send a message and ask, perhaps there’s something on the school website.

Having had kids at 2 different secondary schools, I'd have a look on their website or look for a Facebook page for new parents to ask these questions. Or double check you've not missed an email or new starters evening type thing where this info was given.

Both our schools absolutely needed pencil case, pens, pencils (lead and coloured), rubber, glue stick, maths set (protractor, set square, pair of compasses etc) and calculator. Check which calculator the school uses as it's easier if they all have the same one. They said pocket dictionary English, and whatever language they study, but I don't think any of mine ever used these. Notebooks, no as exercise books were provided.

Do they need a laptop or Chromebook type device? 2 of ours did, 1 didn't. You'd need to know what type the school uses, again easier if they all have the same. Info should be on their website.

PE kit

Water bottle and lunch box if taking packed lunch. Or find out how the canteen system works, do you need to log in to something and put some money on their account before the 1st day?

Is there a kit list separate to the uniform?

DD did indeed need a pencil case to hold her x ,y, z pens , her gluestick, ruler, pencil, colouring pencils - that was the required stuff, plus a maths kit (small ruler, protractor, compass, the triangle thingy ) and a scientific calculator. Also english dictionary, language dictionary, apron and goggles , but other than the apron she never actually used any of the others.

You may get them a pencil case but my DS just had pens, ruler and calculator in this pockets. In fact it was all really basic. The only thing I needed to buy was a scientific calculator.

Yes all high schools locally you have to provide all your own pens, etc and a scientific calculator which is usually cheaper to buy from the school plus ours taught the kids how to use in class. Our school also only allowed the kids to write in black ink and use green for marking.

our schools this last year have got so fed up with kids not bring in correct equipment that it was checked each form time and kids got poor bahaviour points if any items were missing

A pencil case with 2 black pens, a pencil, a sharpener and a rubber. A ruler and (possibly) set square and protractor. A calculator. Pritt stick and a small roll of sellotape. In addition, pencil colours and highlighters are useful. A notebook isn't necessary.
Just make sure that their name is on absolutely everything!

Yes usually you need to take a pencil case.

Things to put in it (I am a former secondary teacher):
Pens – black for choice, whatever they like (Bic crystal are what I use but a lot of YP like the Bic four-colour ones)
Pencils HB or 2B
Pencil sharpener
Rubber
15cm ruler or maybe 30cm one if pencil case is big enough. Fold-up ones break IME
Glue stick! Please! Their teacher will love them
It's also handy to have a pen in the colour needed for pupils to correct their work. At my school this was green and I handed them out but it was great if DC had their own. If they had the four-colour Bic that covered it. The colour might be purple or (unlikely) red. Hard to know in advance tho.
Highlighters can be useful
Crayons may also be useful
Maths set - protractor and compass perhaps
YY check which calculator

Felt tips IME not great as they go through the pages.