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Term starts in a few weeks — close enough to think about it, far enough off that the good stuff is still in stock and you're not queueing behind the whole town on the last Saturday of the holidays. Most back-to-school lists are an exercise in buying the same things every September. This is the other version — the kit that gets bought once and quietly lasts the year, and usually several after it.
The bag
The single most abused object in British education. Buy accordingly.
A Fjällräven Kånken (around £80; the Mini, around £60, for infant-school backs) — dragged, dropped, sat on and rained on for an entire school career, and somehow still fashionable at the end of it.
An Eastpak Padded Pak'r (around £45) — 24 litres and a warranty measured in decades, which is a serious thing to say about a school bag.
An Osprey Daylite Plus (around £55) — for the secondary-schooler carrying books, PE kit, packed lunch and, on the worst days, a trombone.
The shoes
Feet grow over the summer. Everyone discovers this in the same week.
Properly fitted school shoes (Clarks, roughly £25–50) — measured, not guessed. The fitting is free; the alternative is buying twice.
Kickers Kick Lo (around £50) — the great teenage compromise: black enough for the uniform code, wanted enough to be worn without complaint.
The lunch kit
A Yeti Rambler Jr (around £30) — same logic as the bottles in the summer kit: buy once, end the water-bottle churn. Survives the playground; the playground does not survive it.
A Sistema bento box (around £10, and currently sold in pairs, which tells you something) — one of the few places cheap is exactly right, because when it vanishes in the cloakroom you'll want to shrug, not grieve.
A stainless Thermos food flask (around £18) — hot lunch without involving the canteen. Fill it with boiling water for five minutes first; this is the entire trick.
The wet walk
The school run does not check the forecast. This is Reading; it will rain.
A Berghaus kids' waterproof (around £50) — actually waterproof, as opposed to shower-resistant, which is coat-industry code for neither. This one comes with a zip-out fleece, which is two arguments avoided each morning.
A pair of proper wellies (Hunter's kids' ones, around £35) — lives by the door from September to April and earns its place daily.
The small stuff that saves the term
Stikins name labels (around £14 for 90) — stick straight onto the care label, survive the wash, and end felt-tip-on-collar forever. Label the coat, the shoes, the flask, everything.
The Casio fx-83 calculator (around £15) — the one the maths department asks for. Buy it now, calmly, rather than in the great September scramble.
A Lamy Safari fountain pen (around £20) — for the joined-up-writing years: nibs replaceable, pen effectively indestructible, and a small daily argument for taking care of things.
If you've got one heading further than the school gate, the off-to-university kit lands next month.
Fitted, locally
Clarks in the Oracle and John Lewis on Broad Street both do measured shoe fittings — book an appointment for a weekday in the last fortnight of the holidays rather than joining the final-Saturday queue (check availability before you go). And before buying uniform new, it's worth asking your school's PTA about second-hand uniform sales — many Reading schools run them in late August, and the blazers have barely been worn.
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