Breaking down the back-to-school supply list

EDMONTON- As students prepare to head back to school for another year, some parents are having trouble deciphering their children’s supply lists.

Lists can vary rather widely from school to school, so who exactly comes up with the lists? And how is it decided that a Grade 1 student at one school will need 10 pencils, while another Grade 1 student at a different school will need 64?

“We work together. We’ve very collaborative here at our school too. And we work together to see, okay, I’ll ask one teacher ‘how many, roughly, did you go through last year?'” explained Kelsey Purches, who teaches a Grade 2/3 split class at St. Alphonsus Catholic Elementary/ Junior High School.

“We kind of brainstorm usually about 20, 30 pencils per kid,” Purches added.

“They kind of try to project what they think they’re going to need for the year,” said John Groten, principal of St. Alphonsus. “It’s a judgement call. It’s a best guess.”

Of all the items students bring to class, teachers say pencils are what they go through the quickest.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Get Started

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“I’ve seen students go through a full pencil in a day just because they’re hooked on the sharpener or they do a lot of work or their pencil breaks or they break it a lot,” Groten said.

“I think it’s a love for the pencil sharpeners,” Purches added with a laugh.

Schools officials say while the back-to-school list may ask for a set number of a certain item, it’s a guideline, and parents don’t have to get exactly what the list outlines.

“It is, in the end, at the discretion of the parents to decide does your child need three erasers? Do you want to just buy them when the child needs them? Or do you want to get them all together at the beginning of the year?” said Lori Nagy with Edmonton Catholic Schools.

And while supply lists vary from school to school and classroom to classroom, so too does the way some classrooms distribute supplies. In Purches’ classroom, school supplies are gathered together and shared amongst students.

“Some of the children have their own special pencil cases for their special pencils, to use in the classroom. But I have the community classroom tubs on each desk and in my groups they share their pencils, erasers, scissors, glue,” Purches explained.

While some parents don’t like the idea of shared school supplies, Purches says the concept has been working really well in her classroom and she hasn’t heard any complaints from parents.

“For myself, it also intertwines with Social Studies curriculum, like use of community and sharing with others and then it builds the community right from the beginning.”

“As a teacher, I liked having a community bin, community supply. It was a way we could say we’re looking after each other. It was a way of building community in the classroom,” Groten added.

At the end of the school year at St. Alphonsus, unused supplies are stored and either used the following year or given to students whose families can’t afford to buy school supplies.

Schools urge parents to contact teachers if they have any issues with back-to-school supply lists.

Follow @CaleyRamsay

With files from Julie Matthews, Global News.