Parents will fork out more than £1.2bn on new school uniform, PE kit, school bags and pencil cases as the nation's 10 million children go ‘back to school', according to new research from price comparison site
Gocompare.com.
On average, parents will spend £134 kitting out each child for the start of the new school year. And while calculators, geometry sets and plimsolls still top the ‘back to school' shopping list, a growing number of 4 to 16 year old students could also be receiving a new mobile phone or a lap top computer.
The 2010 ‘back to school' shopping list includes:
|
Back to school items
|
Number of parents purchasing items
|
|
Items of school uniform
|
86%
|
|
New school shoes
|
82%
|
|
New PE kit, trainers, football boots etc
|
66%
|
|
Pens and pencils
|
65%
|
|
School bag or rucksack
|
62%
|
|
A pencil case
|
47%
|
|
Geometry set
|
30%
|
|
Text books
|
19%
|
|
Lap top or desktop computer
|
8%
|
|
Mobile phone
|
6%
|
The study of a 1,000 parents also revealed that half of all children aged between 4 and 16 have taken a mobile phone to school while 20 per cent have taken their MP3 player.
Twelve per cent of children have taken a digital camera to school, and six per cent a lap top computer.
However, the study also revealed that 20 per cent of children have either; lost, damaged or had electronic gadgets stolen while at school.
In total, almost two thirds of children have taken expensive electrical items to school.
|
Items children take to school
|
|
|
Mobile phone/smart phone
|
49%
|
|
Musical instrument
|
21%
|
|
MP3 player
|
20%
|
|
Nintendo DS/PSP
|
16%
|
|
Digital camera
|
12%
|
|
Laptop computer
|
6%
|
While getting children ready to go ‘back to school' can be expensive at this time of year, parents are increasingly faced with the prospect of their children packing their school bags with ever more valuable items,” said Phil Paterson-Fox, head of home insurance at
Gocompare.com.
“While parents will manage the challenge in their own way, it is worth checking the terms of your home contents insurance to know exactly where you stand with regard to items outside the home."
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