‘Starting school can be scary for children and parents. It can also be expensive’
THERE’S only one more hurdle in the school calendar to get over before a new academic year starts.
In a re-run of the release of A-level results last week, teenagers around Wales, along with their parents, carers and teachers, are nervously waiting for GCSE results, which are out on Thursday.
Once the results, and any fallout from them, are done and dusted, everyone involved in school education can breathe a collective sigh of relief – but only for a short time.
With term starting again on September 3 for most maintained schools, early autumn can be a nervous time.
Starting school – whether as a primary reception pupil, a Year Seven in high school or a nursery pupil starting out – can be scary for children and parents.
It can also be expensive. Some shops do indeed sell primary uniform for a fiver, but none at this price for high-school pupils. There is a uniform grant available to help those eligible for free school meals, but this won’t cover all the expenses of starting school.
Apart from the shoes, the trainers, the coats and the PE kit, there is the inevitability that some, if not all, will get lost at some stage. Then you’ll need to replace them.
It’s a never-ending cycle. If they don’t grow out of them, they’ll lose them.
I once spent an educational hour sifting through mounds of lost property at my son’s high school trying to locate his football boots, PE top and coat.
First I was directed to the PE department, where a member of staff directed me to a mountain of “lost” PE kit.
Some was brand-new, some had logos from years ago and the rest gave off a faint odour of rugby players’ armpits.
I didn’t attempt the boot pile, tempted as I was, and none of the clothes appeared to have name tags in.
By high school, most parents have apparently given up on buying those slippery iron-on or sew-on printed name tags and either write their children’s names on in indelible felt pen or tell them to bring home the kit or suffer the consequences.
A few of the shirts had blurry black names on labels which had rubbed off on sweaty necks.
I considered popping on a Sars mask and gloves to sift through the debris in search of my son’s shirt.
I faced one major setback. Uniform all looks the same.
There was nothing to indicate whether the garment I was holding was his or not.
I was one of those haphazard parents who had failed to write his name anywhere.
As for the boots – where do you write a name on football boots?
I suppose I could have carved his initials into the fabric or the sole, but hadn’t thought of that.
Giving it up as a fruitless search, I was at least reassured he could borrow a spare set of kit from the lost pile if all else failed.
Gone are the days when a pupil can tell a teacher they forgot their kit and ask to sit out rugby on a rainy day – now they’ll just be told to borrow from the vast quantity of spares.
From the PE department, I went on to a year tutor’s office, where I was directed to a room which looked like a clothes shop.
Here was the lost property that was anything but PE kit.
A clutch of designer-label coats, all in the required uniform black, hung in almost mint condition.
None had names in. None came from a supermarket.
How these had been lost and not reclaimed was a mystery.
There was also a stack of bags, shoes, jumpers, hats and jackets, either hanging neatly on rails or placed tidily together. I had a look through, but could not see my son’s coat.
Why, after years of having children and teenagers, had I even bought him a coat?
None of them have worn one since Year One.
So my advice to any parent embarking on the school experience for the first child is this – don’t buy them a coat.
Coats are used as goalposts, weapons and rugs – rarely for the purpose they were meant for.
Even when it rains, most children and teenagers, boys especially, seem to prefer to go out without a school coat.
If you don’t believe me, ask to have a peek inside your school’s lost property haul. Or go to your local park in the first week of term.
There you will see coats laid out as goalposts and left abandoned.
If you see my son’s coat there, please pop it in the post.