Back to school seems to come with an astonishing amount of stuff.
Uniform. Shoes. PE kit. Water bottles. Labels. Stationery. Things for homework. Things they've lost despite you buying exactly the same thing approximately three weeks ago.
I'm not going to give you a giant checklist of everything your child could possibly need. Your school has probably already done that.
These are simply some of the things I actually buy for my own children — the little shortcuts, useful finds and things that make school mornings and the general school-week chaos slightly easier.
Some are particularly useful when they're starting Reception. Some are things my older child genuinely loves.
And some are here because I have absolutely no intention of spending my evenings ironing name labels into school uniform.
Real life. Slightly more sorted.
Make the uniform easy.
They're already dealing with enough new things. Complicated waistbands do not need to be one of them.
Fully elasticated school trousers
These are such a simple idea, but particularly for Reception they're brilliant.
No zip. No hook. No button.
Just pull them up and get on with the day.
They're also much easier when little ones need to manage the toilet independently at school — which, frankly, matters rather more to me than whether their trousers have a traditional fastening.
Why I like them: easy for little hands and one less thing to wrestle with in the morning.Pull-up school shorts
Same principle.
Fully elasticated, with no zip or clip for small children to negotiate.
They can actually get themselves dressed and undressed without needing an adult every time.
Why I like them: simple, practical and Reception-friendly.Give the school stuff somewhere to live.
The rotating stationery organiser
My girl likes organising things.
I have absolutely no idea where she gets that from.
This five-section rotating stationery organiser is one of those things that's both cute enough for a child's desk and genuinely useful.
Pens, pencils, colouring things, scissors and all the other random bits that otherwise migrate around the house can actually have somewhere to live.
And because it spins, apparently that makes organising stationery significantly more exciting.
I'll take the win.
Why it's stayed: everything has somewhere to go and she genuinely enjoys using it.Stick-on personalised name labels
School uniform has an extraordinary ability to disappear.
Jumpers in particular appear to enter some sort of school-based Bermuda Triangle.
So yes, I label things.
These personalised labels can go onto clothes, bottles and other school bits, they're waterproof — and most importantly:
they don't need ironing on.
Who likes ironing?
I don't.
I'm certainly not getting the ironing board out to attach dozens of tiny labels to school clothes if I can just stick them on.
Why I like them: quick, easy and absolutely no ironing required.Without covering the kitchen in paper.
The magnetic whiteboard
I love this A3 magnetic dry-erase whiteboard for spelling practice.
Write the word. Practise it. Rub it out. Try again.
It comes with pens and an eraser and can sit on a desk, so it's one of those genuinely useful things we can keep reaching for rather than using another pile of paper.
Why I like it: reusable, easy to grab and genuinely useful for practising school work at home.Things I simply refuse to iron.
Non-iron school shirts
We've established my position on ironing name labels.
It also extends to school shirts.
If school shirts can come out of the wash without requiring me to stand over an ironing board, I am buying those ones.
These short-sleeved non-iron school shirts come as a two-pack, and this is exactly the sort of small decision that makes the school week easier.
Wash. Dry. Wear.
Good enough for me.
Why I like them: fewer jobs. That is the entire argument.The boring things they genuinely need.
The pairs we actually go for
Nothing revolutionary here.
I've included the school shoes we actually go for rather than attempting to compile every possible school-shoe option on the internet.
Simple school PE shorts
Nothing clever. They just do the job.
And sometimes that is precisely what you want from school uniform.
School tights
A multipack of grey school tights because tights are another one of those things you somehow need more of than you thought you did.
Stationery they'll actually get excited about.
The filled Minecraft pencil case
Do children technically need elaborate stationery sets?
Probably not.
Do they make going back to school considerably more exciting?
Absolutely.
For my Minecraft fan, this one is brilliant because the pencil case already comes filled with stationery.
That means I don't have to buy the pencil case and then separately remember pencils, pens, ruler, eraser and everything else.
One purchase. Done.
That is precisely the sort of efficiency I appreciate.
The pastel stationery set
My girl loves this one.
It's a 39-piece pastel stationery set with pens, pencils, highlighters and other bits already organised inside its own case.
It's pretty, she gets excited about using it, and everything has somewhere to go.
Win.
The water bottle.
The Stanley IceFlow bottle
A decent water bottle isn't particularly exciting, but it gets used constantly.
My girl loves this Stanley IceFlow bottle.
The 0.47L size is handy for school, it has the flip drinking top and — importantly for something that's going to be used every day — it's dishwasher safe.
Because again: we're trying to make life easier here.
Why it's stayed: used constantly and I can put it in the dishwasher.