Kids wear the trousers when it comes to ‘back to school’ shopping

Nearly a quarter of parents see children’s stationery as a contributing factor in peer acceptance and a significant contributor to academic achievement

London; September 02 2008: Photobox, the UK’s number one online community for photo printing and personal publishing, today unveils a telling report into parents’ and children’s perceptions of the impact of school stationery on educational development and term time happiness. As more than 10 million [1] pupils return to school this September, today’s research indicates that school equipment has a huge impact upon children’s learning and social lives. The company surveyed more than 500 parents and children when leaving Borders, Rymans and WHSmith stores in August.

Three quarters of parents admitted that it was their kids who ultimately made the decision about what went in the ‘back to school’ shopping basket.

In addition, more than half of all parents think that having good quality stationery gave their kids a better start in the educational stakes, and had a significant impact on their child’s educational development and learning abilities.

When asked if they found school more interesting if they had colourful and personalised school stationery, 74% of children agreed. Although students expressed a desire for more vibrant school equipment, nearly a third of parents stated that although their children would like to personalise their school books, they were forbidden to do so by their schools.

A contentious and potentially worrying result from the survey revealed that, almost a quarter of respondents believed the type of stationery their children took to school contributed to whether they were socially accepted by their class mates.

Mark Chapman, UK MD, said: “We’re surprised with the results of our ‘back to school’ survey. The fact that almost half of all parents view personalised stationery as an important factor in children’s educational growth is very telling. It just goes to show that parents will go to great lengths to ensure that their offspring have the very best start. The fact that schools often ban ‘personalised’ stationery seems like a rash decision seeing as we should be doing everything in our power to make learning more impactful.”

Donna Dawson, independent consumer behavioural psychologist, commenting on the results stated: “Being able to ‘personalise’ stationery allows a child to put their individual creative ‘stamp’ on the things that they use everyday at school. The stationery then becomes an extension of the child, and consequently of more interest to them. They are then more likely to use it, and when they do to put in more effort because it reflects and represents them.”

Donna continued: “In this survey, parents have noticed a connection between good-quality stationery that a child can ‘personalise’ and the child’s degree of enthusiasm for school. Children themselves admit that having colourful and personalised notebooks means that they find school more interesting. Educational research does show that having an initial interest and enthusiasm in learning significantly improves a child’s educational development, in terms of quicker uptake and better recall. If children are allowed to be creative on a smaller, personal level, it helps them to make the jump to larger school projects that demand a degree of independent and creative thinking.”

For a more detailed breakdown of the results of the survey please contact Custard PR on 020 7494 6575.

[1] There are 10,466,700 in the UK, 18.7% of UK population www.statistics.gov.uk

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