My child is going to school

Amara

LilElvis wrote: »

And name tags on absolutely everything.

What is the best way to do it? I thought about getting white ribbon, write son's name on it and sew on item.

bossymoo

Neither of mine have needed pens and the like in primary school.

I've found the quickest and easiest way is to buy a laundry pen and write the name directly on the garment care labels.

Just the uniform and pe kit, plus suitable footwear. Some schools have plimsolls for indoors but that would be on the uniform list if needed. Ours didn't.

Coats ideally would be showerproof/waterproof and maybe some spare wellies for rainy play.

Our school provided a water bottle, they don't allow juice, and they provide free milk until age 5, beyond that there is a charge (nominal, I think ours is £37 for the year).

Lunches are provided for early years and KS1 although if you would prefer to provide a packed lunch, a lunchbox with a carry handle is a good idea.

Enjoy!

Becles

Amara wrote: »

What is the best way to do it? I thought about getting white ribbon, write son's name on it and sew on item.

http://www.stamptastic.co.uk/

Just stamp everything. Takes no time to do and it lasts for loads of washes. Definitely worth the money compared to spending ages sewing tags on.

rach_k

Amara wrote: »

What is the best way to do it? I thought about getting white ribbon, write son's name on it and sew on item.

If you're going to write it in, just write directly on the clothes tags. You can get embroidered name tags made if you want sew in tags but I've been using printed stickers for the last few years. I don't mind sewing but stickers are easier and they aren't as lumpy as I remember them being in my clothes! I get them from https://www.mynametags.com - I like that each child can choose the background, writing colour and a picture, and I add my phone number which is reassuring as the kids know if ever they get lost they can take off a shoe and get somebody to ring me! I've found that the stickers start peeling a bit after a year or so but by then the clothes are being passed down or going to charity so they need taking out anyway. The stickers work really well in shoes, on water bottles, lunch boxes, book bags as well as clothes etc.

LilElvis

Amara wrote: »

What is the best way to do it? I thought about getting white ribbon, write son's name on it and sew on item.

Just use a laundry marker on the clothing labels and inside the shoes.

This one really doesn't wash off!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharpie-810630-Laundry-Permanent-Marker/dp/B00387BTJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471207972&sr=8-1&keywords=sharpie+laundry+pen

Amara

Thanks for replies. It's totally new situation to me.

Poppy9

My DD has just graduated and it feels like only yesterday I was sending her off to school. I followed tips from my sisters who had older children.

Buy only basics on list provided by schools. Don't go mad and buy 3 or 4 of everything as they grow! Two of each item is plenty and at beginning of new term only buy one new sweatshirt if rest of uniform fits! If school shoes still fit, polish them up! I used this rule through to end of secondary school as DD uniform always well looked after and the money not wasted came in useful for out of school clothes.

I never had to buy pens, pencils or dictionaries. For secondary school given long list of uniform, sports kit etc. but again followed advice and just bought basic uniform and PE kit. No school bather as they allowed non school bathers but put it on uniform list as requirement. As DD was a swimmer I had bathers coming out my ears and in 5 years she never once got pulled up on it.

In secondary school she needed statistical calculator specified so teacher could teach them how to use without having to refer to different models. She also needed geometry set.

Water bottles harbour germs so buy sterilising tablets as they may share in school and you don't want them constantly going down with bugs!

Weekly hair check for head lice now! You can see them in dry hair but to remove you just need comb and water spray bottle and some conditioner. The lice are paralysed when in soaking wet hair so easier to remove and no need for chemicals. DD had waist length hair so quite a job removing (she had 3 lots over her school years and all in Y5). I put a few drops of tea tree oil in shampoo bottle throughout primary and we got off lightly compared to many parents. I think though the chemicals in her hair from swimming 5 times a week deterred the blighters.

Make sure your child can put on /take off their shoes and coat and go to the toilet alone and know how to wipe/flush and wash hands.

If your child is left handed check the teacher knows and places them at left end of table so no clashing arms when writing.

I remember when DD went away with brownies for first time at 7 brown owl was horrified that all girls except DD couldn't brush and do their own hair. She refused to let them shower as past experience told her that they weren't up to showering alone. As DD had been doing these things alone since age 5 as sometimes her father had to take her to her swimming lessons/training she was quite capable.

arbrighton

Can he put on his shoes himself and his coat and do it up.

I did some stuff with reception children this year and we didn't appreciate how difficult it was to find their own coat and put it on. And as for little fingers in gardening gloves, wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

Probably worth getting an extra top and trousers or two in case of mess, paint, fall over and put a hole in etc

onlyroz

kelpie35 wrote: »

pencil case with appropriate pencils, rubber etc

I've never had to provide any stationary for primary school.


For us we needed uniform, PE kit, "book bag" and lunch box (unless you take advantage of the free school dinners in KS1). In the summer it was advised that we sent them in with a water bottle, baseball cap and suncream.

sujac

A few things that I noticed over the past year working in a reception class:

- Label everything! If you do go down the route of writing name on labels check every so often it hasn't faded. If in doubt label it!
- If your child has difficulty recognising their name (esp for water bottles) put a sticker on the side or top so they can quickly see it. (My daughter starts this year and can recognise her name but there will be 3 of them in the same class with the same first name so will be doing this)
- If they have a school book bag that they all have the same put a small keyring or a ribbon on the handle so again can be seen. You'll be amazed how many children pick up the wrong bag in a hurry. Same for PE kit bag.
-Coats- Practice at home putting it on and doing it up. With all clothes really as they get changed from PE many children couldn't turn sleeves/tops/dresses/trousers the right way round to put them on. Plimsolls - slip on ones/velcro are best, we had a child that had lace ups and not a clue how to do them.

Enjoy the reception year as they have so much fun and its lovely to see them develop over the year with such basic skills as writing, reading, imagination etc. It was a shock for my son when he went into Year 1 and was expected to sit at a desk all day. I would highly recommend being a parent helper if you can. It helped me to see what was going on and how they taught things, I could support my son at home more. He enjoyed me coming in to help too.