Post Covid-19 Back To School Essentials

This post on post covid-19 back to school essentials contains some items that were a gift in exchange for a review.

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School uniform
Lunchboxes
Stationary
After school clubs
Face coverings

Back to school in September 2020 is looking very different to another other year. Parents are split between excited to send their children back to school, and feeling nervous about whether it is safe or not. School's have been putting measures into place to make sure that the environment as safe as it can be for our children but there are some things that we can do as parents to help too.

Normally I write a post with some back to school essentials but we are doing things a little differently this year so I thought I would do a post about what we have bought for the new school year, with Covid-19 and health and safety in mind, a post covid-19 back to school essentials list. I hope that you find it useful.

School uniform

This year I've made sure that we have more school uniform than usual because I will want to wash everything when the children get home. I've basically got 4 of everything so 4 jumpers / polo shirts / skirts / trousers. Our primary school have asked the children to go back in leggings / joggers instead of school skirts and trousers and trainers instead of school shoes so that they won't need to change for PE.

I've done most of my non-school branded uniform shopping from supermarkets this year, Little Boy's joggers came from Morrisons, Miss J's trousers and leggings came from Asda and Next. Their polo shirts also came from Asda. Saving a bit of money on their uniform has meant that I can buy more so it is washed more often. Normally I buy more expensive uniform so that it will last well and be passed on, but in the current climate when we don't even really know if they will last the school year again this was less of a concern to me.

We got some great bargains on trainers in Sports Direct too, and although I wouldn't normally have thought to look there for school shoes, E (who is in secondary school) found the perfect black patent slip ons in there which was brilliant as we usually have to traipse around looking for shoes for her!

I am planning to get the children changed out of all their uniform as they come into the house and I'm washing everything with the *Dettol Laundry Cleanser.

Lunchboxes

We have made the move from cloth lunchboxes to hard lunchboxes so that they can be put in the dishwasher when they get home. We already have two Yumboxes which are great for Little Boy but now Miss J is eating more we got her a larger one from Smiggle (PR gift).

It's completely washable and the insert comes out to make it easy to clean. It also has a removable divider inside so you can fit bigger items in there. I have also ordered some personalised hand sanitiser bottles that the children can attach to their coat's or bags. I know that they will have hand sanitiser available at school but the more access to it they have the better! Also my eldest has reacted badly to some sanitisers so I prefer her to take her own so we can avoid any allergic reactions. There are lots on Etsy to choose from.

Stationary

We were lucky to be given a gift voucher for Smiggle and the children got to choose some stationary. If you haven't been into a Smiggle store before, it is like a sweet shop for kids stationary and mine absolutely love it. This year we browsed online and chose a few bits. These multicoloured pens were a great choice because they aren't allowed to take full pencil cases into school so they get lots of pens in one with this choice! Miss J chose these beautiful glitter markers and has been using them already to add something extra to her work.

All the stationary we picked up for E from Asda on our regular supermarket shop so that we didn't have to make a separate trip. Luckily a lot of her things are still good from last year so it wasn't too expensive to pick up a few extra bits.

After school clubs

After school clubs are all starting back and with that comes extra thought into their uniforms and kits. Normally I would just pack a bag with their kit but now I am making sure we have separate bags for each activity so that we can leave them in the porch for a few days afterwards to make sure any virus that might be on them has time to go (I think 3 days is the general rule for most surfaces). The girls already have dancing bags but I saw this fantastic bag on the Smiggle website and knew it was perfect for Little Boy's football kit. He absolutely loves it and has taken it everywhere with him since it arrived so I'm not so sure how well my keeping it in the porch idea will actually pan out!

Smiggle has so many different bags which are perfect for school or out of school clubs. Their new Budz range is really cool and you can get matching lunchboxes and drinks bottles too which is really handy because then it will be clear whose belongs to who at school.

Face coverings

Literally as I am writing this, new guidance has been put into place about face coverings for secondary school students. In my daughter's school the current situation is still that they can wear them if they want to but it is not compulsory. I don't know when the situation will change though so just in case I am going to order her another couple of face masks. I got her these ones from Etsy in plain black.

I hope that you find this post useful. If you have any tips yourself for post covid-19 back to school essentials please let me know in the comments box below. You can also share this post with your friends on social media or Pin it for later...