Back to School Checklist: Kit, Admin and Term Dates

A back to school checklist covers four things: the kit you have to buy, the paperwork the school needs back, the dates that have to go in the calendar, and the household systems that stop the first fortnight of term falling apart. Start it about three weeks before term begins. That is enough time for a uniform order to arrive, for a form to bounce back with a missing signature, and for a wraparound care booking to be confirmed before every place is taken.

This is the run-up, not the first morning. For wake times, breakfast and getting out of the door, see the school morning routine guide.

When should you start the back to school checklist?

Three weeks out is the sensible default, with two exceptions that need more notice.

Six to eight weeks out if your child is starting a new school, moving up to secondary, or needs a full uniform from scratch. Branded stock runs out, and a new school means a new set of forms, a new route and often a new childcare arrangement.
Six weeks out for clubs, breakfast club and after-school care. These are the things that sell out, not the pencil cases.
Three weeks out for everything else: shoes, kit, stationery, haircuts, the medical and consent forms, and getting the term dates into the calendar.

The last week before term should be quiet. If you are still ordering shoes on the Sunday night, the checklist started too late.

What do you actually need to buy?

Buy in this order: shoes, then uniform, then PE kit, then stationery and bags. Shoes go first because they are the item most likely to need a second trip.

Uniform and shoes

School shoes, fitted, with a spare pair of laces if applicable
Enough shirts or polo shirts for a full week plus one spare
Trousers, skirts or pinafores, allowing for a growth spurt by February
Jumper or cardigan, plus a second one because one will go missing
Coat that survives a wet playground, and a hat and gloves put away ready for the autumn term
Name labels for every single item, including the coat and the water bottle

Before you order anything branded, check the school's current uniform policy on its website. From September 2026, schools in England must limit compulsory branded items of uniform and PE kit to three or fewer, with secondary and middle schools allowed four if one of them is a tie (Department for Education statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms, checked August 2026). That cap is a legal requirement. The same guidance is worded more softly elsewhere: it says parents should be able to buy generic items such as a navy skirt or a grey cardigan from a range of retailers, and that schools should make second-hand uniform available and publish on their website how to get it. If your school still lists five branded items, the policy is worth a polite email before you spend.

PE and activity kit

PE top, shorts, tracksuit and a drawstring bag
Trainers, and separate outdoor boots if the school does cross-country or forest school
Swimming kit if swimming falls in the autumn term, including a towel and goggles
Shin pads, gum shield or anything club-specific

Bags and stationery

School bag that fits an A4 folder, plus a book bag for younger children
Water bottle and lunch box if your child takes a packed lunch
Pencil case, and for secondary a calculator, geometry set and any subject-specific kit on the school list
A device charger and headphones if the school issues a laptop or tablet

Do a wardrobe audit before the shop, not after. Try on last year's uniform, put anything outgrown into a pile for the school's second-hand rail, and only then write the buying list. The easiest money to waste is a second copy of something already in the drawer.

What school admin catches parents out?

The kit is the visible half. The paperwork is the half that generates the awkward email in week two.

Data collection and contact forms. Confirm your address, phone numbers and email. If a number changed over the summer, the school will still have the old one.
Emergency contacts. Schools typically ask for two or three, in priority order, and want to know who is allowed to collect. If a grandparent or a friend is on the list, tell them.
Medical information. Asthma inhalers, EpiPens, allergies, ongoing conditions and any medication the school needs to hold. Check expiry dates on anything you are handing in, because a July-expired inhaler is worse than no inhaler.
Dietary requirements. Send these to the catering team as well as the school office. They are often different systems.
Consent forms. Photography and social media consent, local trips, sun cream, first aid, and any online platform the school uses.
Home-school agreement and behaviour or device policy. Signed and returned.
Free school meals registration if you qualify (see below). Register even in reception, Year 1 and Year 2 where meals are already free, because it brings the school extra funding.
Transport. Bus pass, season ticket, or the walking or cycling route walked once before term starts.
Term dates and INSET days in the calendar. Not just term start and end. The INSET days are the ones that catch people out, because they land on a random Monday and there is no childcare.
Clubs and wraparound care booked and paid. Breakfast club, after-school club, holiday club for the October half term if you already know you will need it.
Parent app or payment system set up. Whatever the school uses for messages, absence reporting and dinner money, get both parents logged in, not one.

That last point matters more than it looks. If only one parent has the school app, every message becomes a relay, and the parent without the app cannot answer a question about a trip without asking.

Find your school's term, half term and holiday dates on your local council's website, and note that dates vary across the UK (GOV.UK term and holiday dates). If your child is at an academy, check the school's own calendar too, because academies can set their own term times (GOV.UK guide to school types) and they do not always match the council's.

What help is there with the cost?

Two things are worth checking every year, and both are routinely left unclaimed.

Help with uniform costs. In England, contact your local council to find out whether there is support in your area, and if there is not, GOV.UK's advice is to contact the headteacher and ask what support is available. Scotland has school clothing grants through mygov.scot, Wales has the Pupil Development Grant Access scheme, and Northern Ireland has uniform grants through nidirect. GOV.UK links to all four routes on its help with school uniform costs page. If you cannot afford the uniform or PE kit, the advice is to contact the headteacher and ask what support exists.

Free school meals. In England, you apply through your local council, and from the start of academic year 2026 to 2027 your child qualifies if you receive Universal Credit, regardless of household income (GOV.UK free school meals, checked August 2026). That is a genuine widening, so if you were turned down before on income grounds it is worth applying again. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own free school meal rules, so check your nation's scheme rather than assuming the English one applies. Children in reception, Year 1 and Year 2 at government-funded schools in England already get free meals automatically, but registering a qualifying benefit still helps because the school can receive extra funding.

Alongside those, the cheap wins are second-hand uniform (schools are expected to make it available and to say on their website how), the school's own kit sale or swap, and buying generic items from a supermarket wherever the policy allows it.

What should you do in the week before term?

Keep this week short and physical. Everything decided, nothing bought.

Label everything that is not yet labelled, including shoes and the coat.
Try on the full uniform including shoes, on a day when there is still time to swap something.
Haircuts, and the dentist or optician appointment if one is due.
Shift bedtimes earlier by 15 minutes a night for four or five nights rather than one brutal jump.
Do a shop for the first week of packed lunches and breakfasts, so the first Monday does not start with an empty fridge.
Walk or drive the route at the actual time of day, especially if the school or the route has changed.
Charge and set up any school device, and check the parent app notifications actually arrive on both parents' phones.
Put the first week's after-school clubs, PE days and any staggered start times in the shared calendar.

Which household systems keep term running?

The checklist gets you to day one. Systems get you to October half term. Four are worth setting up while you still have the headspace.

One shared calendar with the school year already in it. Term dates, INSET days, parents' evenings, class assemblies, PE days, club start and end dates, and the deadline dates for trips and payments. If the school publishes a calendar feed, subscribe to it rather than typing it in, and add your local holiday feed while you are there. Our guide to adding holidays and calendar feeds covers how.

A recurring kit rota. PE kit out on Wednesday night, swimming bag on Thursday, reading record in the bag on Friday, kit washed on Saturday. These are recurring tasks, not things to remember. Set them once and let them repeat.

Children owning their own bits. Term is a good moment to hand over a few age-appropriate jobs, because the school year gives them a natural rhythm. Our chores by age guide covers what to hand over and when.

A single place for school paperwork. Trip letters, permission slips, uniform policy, the club timetable. One shared spot beats a photo buried in one parent's camera roll.

How do you run the back to school checklist as a shared list?

Most back to school checklists you find online are a single long list, which quietly means one parent does the lot. The fix is not a longer list, it is an assigned one.

OneHaus is built as a shared household, so the same checklist lives in one place for everyone who needs it. Each item gets an owner and a date:

Assign by person. Uniform and shoes to one parent, forms and the parent app to the other, kit rota to whoever does the Sunday wash. Nothing sits in the gap where both of you assumed the other had it.
Give admin a due date. Consent forms and club bookings are the ones that slip, because nothing visible happens when you miss them until it is too late.
Make the repeating things recurring. PE kit, reading records, dinner money top-ups, and a termly reminder to check uniform sizes before the next holiday.
Put the school year in the shared calendar once. Both parents see the INSET day, so neither of you books a meeting on it.
Use a ready-made list where one exists. Task Packs turn a whole checklist into real shared tasks with owners and dates, rather than a screenshot you never open again.

If you want a printable or editable version to start from, the checklist generator will build one you can adapt to your school's list.

OneHaus runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android, and you can also connect it to your AI assistant and add a task or ask what is due this week in plain language. If September usually lands on one person, this is the year to split it. Start your OneHaus trial and get the term in one shared place before the first bell.

Frequently asked questions

When should you start a back to school checklist?

About three weeks before term for kit, forms and calendar dates. Start six to eight weeks out if your child is changing school or needs a full uniform, and six weeks out for breakfast club, after-school care and clubs, which fill up early.

What should be on a back to school checklist?

Uniform, shoes and PE kit; bags, stationery and a water bottle; school forms including medical, dietary, emergency contacts and consent; term dates and INSET days in the calendar; clubs and childcare booked; and the household routines that keep the term running.

How many branded uniform items can a school require?

It depends on the phase. From September 2026, the Department for Education's statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms says schools in England "must limit the number of compulsory branded items of uniform and PE kit to 3 or fewer", while secondary and middle schools may have four "if one is a tie". Second-hand availability is a "should" in the same guidance, not a "must".

Can you get help with the cost of school uniform in the UK?

Yes, in some areas. In England, ask your local council whether it offers a uniform grant, and ask the school if it does not. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own schemes, all linked from the GOV.UK help with school uniform costs page. Schools are also expected to make second-hand uniform available and publish how to get it.

Who qualifies for free school meals?

In England, you apply through your local council, and from the start of academic year 2026 to 2027 your child qualifies if you receive Universal Credit, regardless of household income (GOV.UK). Children in reception, Year 1 and Year 2 at government-funded schools in England already receive free meals. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own free school meal rules.

Where do you find your school's term dates?

Your local council's website lists term, half term and holiday dates, and they vary across the UK. If your child attends an academy, check the school's own calendar as well, because academies can set their own term times and may differ from the council's dates.