Everything you need to know before sending the kids back to school, including best school shoes and back to school supplies
The first question we should probably answer straight away is:
When do kids go back to school?
Surely we're not the only ones scratching our heads wondering what day we can finally stop finding things for the kids to do? Let's just blame the hot weather for melting our memory.
You can check your local council website for the exact dates, but we've found the autumn term starts on Monday 3 September for most schools. Write that one down.
Clarks school shoes - still the best option?
Parents have been buying Clarks school shoes for years, relying on them for their durability, high quality and reasonable costs.
But Clarks came under fire for their limited choices for girls school shoes, after one mum blasted them on social media last year.
The mum in question, Jemma Moonie-Dalton, posted directly onto their Facebook page, slamming their offerings for her daughter and saying that they're just not good enough.
The post, which was shared over 13,000 times, compared the Clarks girls school shoes in the shop to Clarks boys school shoes, observing that the boys shoes are much sturdier and durable than girls shoes.
Clarks issued the following statement in response to the criticism:
“Today we have more unisex styles in our range than ever before. This means we now have a wider range of closed-in styles, school boots and Gore-Tex styles and these changes will continue in our Spring Summer 2018 range, which has been designed with an entirely unisex approach. In addition, in September we will roll out a new format in some of our stores, where the whole kids department will be unisex with shoes displayed by ‘story’, rather than gender.”
We took a look at a selection of Clarks girls school shoes in the 2018 offering, and we must say we're quite impressed. There are still traditionally 'girly' styles available, but they do look to have sturdier options which will protect feet just as much as the Clarks boys school shoes.
What do you think?
Back to school supplies
School shoes ticked off, it's time to plan what back to school supplies you need to pick up. If you love getting carried away in a stationery shop (just like Love Island's Jack Fincham - a stationery shop manager!) you're going to be in heaven with this list:
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Uniform
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Sports kit (including trainers)
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School bag
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Pencil case
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Pens, pencils, rubber, ruler, sharpener
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Note pads and folders (although, remember these are usually supplied at school)
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Calculator
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Required text books (the teacher might have supplied a list)
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Lunch box
Back to school morning routine
Love it or loathe it, it's time to get back into the old routine. Every family is different, so we've rounded up a few tips to try out and see if they improve yours:
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Lay everything out the night before (uniform, back packs, lunch box)
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Make overnight oats for something delicious and nutritious that won't take long to serve in the morning
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Try and wake everyone up an hour before setting off so that you're not rushing (obvs much easier said than done, but still worth trying)
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Put a piece of fruit or snack bar in everyone's bag the night before, in case you don't get a chance to actually have a sit-down breakfast because of all the madness
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Stick the radio on to wake everyone up properly, it's better than the TV because the kids won't become hypnotised by it
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Treat yourself to a coffee machine that will keep things brewing while you get the herd together - you most definitely deserve it
Check to see if you're entitled to financial help with school uniforms or free school meals.
Where to buy back to school supplies and school uniforms?
Supermarkets have such wide ranges of school supplies nowadays that you can probably get everything while doing the weekly food shop. The following ranges won't let you down:
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Tesco back to school
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Aldi back to school
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Asda back to school
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Sainsbury's back to school
If you're strapped for time and energy, make the most out of online shopping.
WATCH...Strictly Come Dancing star Katie Piper talks more kids, fitness and home life
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The terrifying meaning behind the phrase 'back to school necklace'
Do you remember these foods from your packed lunches?
Food items you definitely had in your packed lunch at school
1 of 11Penguin bars
Feeling peckish? Pick up a Penguin. And oh how we did. And we all know the best part was reading out the joke printed on the fold of the packet.
2 of 11Cheese slice (usually in a sandwich)
Remember when mums weren't frowned upon for using white bread, dollops of butter and cheap cheese slices? Ah, to live in ignorance bliss once more. A popular alternative was the cheese triangle.
3 of 11Space Raiders
10p used to take you so far, right? These tuck shop favourites made our tongues numb with pickled onion flavouring and we wouldn't change a thing about them.
4 of 11Sunny D
More e-numbers than you'd find in Willy Wonka's factory*, these mini Sunny D bottles of syrupy 'orange juice' gave us life for those afternoon lessons. But did you prefer the California or Florida flavour? (Yeah, there was a difference, apparently...)*Not a fact, just a wild guess.
5 of 11CLUB
If you like alotta chocolate on your biscuit, join our...CLUB. So simply yet so delicious - all chocolate, orange or fruit flavours were welcome in our box.
6 of 11Billy Bear Meat
Meat with the pair of a face 'printed' through it, which was then sliced up so it could sit in our sandwiches. Maybe this one's worth leaving in the past, eh?
7 of 11Pringle Pop Box
Because it would have been MADNESS to take a whole tube of Pringles to school, we just had to get our hands on these little Pringles Pop Boxes. The only problem? They didn't hold enough, in our opinion.
8 of 11Dairylea Lunchable
What was a lunch box without a Lunchable in it? Absolutely rubbish, that's what. Crackers, ham and cheese were an unbeatable lunch combination and HOW FUN was it stacking them up to make mega crackers?
9 of 11Choc Dip
We never quite managed to work out the perfect ratio of chocolate dip to bread stick, but we had fun trying.
10 of 11Fruit Corner
This is a classic lunchtime snack that's still going strong in schools over the nation. Did you tip the sauce and mix into the yogurt? Or did you scoop the yogurt with a spoon and sip into the fruit sauce? It tells you A LOT about a person.
11 of 11Panda Pop
If your parents were feeling particularly giving - perhaps on a Friday - they might have sneaked a Panda Pop into your lunch box. Unfortunately for your teachers, they are the ones who had to live with the hyperactive aftermath.