Parents stump up £1.2bn to send kids ‘back to school’

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, 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%

Phil Paterson-Fox, head of home and pet insurance at Gocompare.com, said: "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.  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."