Back to school essentials

By Debbie Davies

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The shops are full of 'essentials' for the new school year, and your children will have their own ideas of what they can't do without. Debbie Davies looks at how you can please the kids as well as the teachers without breaking the bank

Pens, pencils and pencil cases

Classroom equipment needs to be functional, rather than fun. Teachers can be strict about what they allow in the classroom. Items like metal pencil cases are sometimes banned because they are too noisy and, when they fall onto the floor, the contents go flying.

If you want to be teacher's pet, choose a fabric pencil case, either natural or plastic, with a zip that is large enough to hold a pencil, pen, colouring crayons, ruler, rubber and pencil sharpener. W H Smith has a denim range of washable pencil cases for around £5.00 with designs for girls and boys. Teachers often dictate what children write with - usually a pencil to begin with and then a blue or black roller ball or ball point pen for older children.

Make sure the rubber is big enough to work well: erasers shaped like a big pebble are ideal. For children who enjoy art, try Myriad (www.myriadonline.co.uk) for a good set of first crayons (box of eight crayons: £5.70). The triangular, fairly chunky shape of Myriad's natural dye crayons is perfect for young hands.

Stationery

The choice of stationery is huge, but what do children actually need? Primary Schools all have literacy and numeracy hours, which allow children to learn at their own pace. This means kids have to do less structured, textbook work and more is produced on loose bits of paper. W H Smith's A4 document box folder (£2.99) is ideal for storing lots of work. Swedish stationery retailer, Ordning & Reda (www.ordning-reda.com), also has files and folders in lots of different colours as well as back-to-school, fun designs.

Keeping a diary has gone out of fashion but an alternative is to give children a notebook. Research has shown that children are encouraged to write if they have a notebook that is theirs and in which they can write whatever they want - swear words, jokes, lists of names of people they like, love or hate. Alwych (http://www.alwych.co.uk/) sells a classic, sturdy notebook (£4.25) that is used by everyone from the police to bird watchers. Over the years, a set of Alwych notebooks builds up into a collection of memories in the same way that a set of diaries used to.