Wells children back to school soon

Absolute cards put its ‘good luck in your new class’ card display in place even before the end of last term to help parents keep their spirits up during the summer holidays.

I know what an absolute joy (and a trial) the summer holidays can be and so you’ll not be surprised to hear that I, like many other Wells parents produced the list of new uniform requirements with trepidation for the offsprings’ scrutiny, explaining that they would look silly turning up for school with no trousers for instance, and if they didn’t want to be in that position, they would have to come into town with me to stock-up. I counter-acted the usual protests with a few incentives to help swing the balance of opinion in my favour and we headed off before they could think of any fresh arguments.

What a joy it was to arrive at the National Schoolwear Centre which is the only local shop selling school uniforms, the staff at the store were really helpful and jovial despite being really rather busy, thinking nothing of making repeat visits to the stockroom to bring the correct sizes as you painstakingly work down your list.

Not only do they stock a comprehensive range of local school uniforms but also rain protection, swimwear and lunch boxes to suit every taste. I had a longish inventory of varied school items the children needed replacing and it was a huge relief to only have to drag them to a ‘one-stop-shop’.

I always find the staff in Swan Stationery very helpful and they should meet all your requirements. Any additional items will probably be available at WHSmith, assuming you can get by the numerous ‘add-on-sales’ bins / stacks and don’t mind being asked whether you want to buy confectionary each time you try to make a transaction? Maybe this is a personal gripe and no-one else is bothered by it, but I feel tempted to offer the person behind the counter my photography / car-washing services or even raffle tickets for school every time they try to manoeuvre me into an impulse buy. While we’re on the subject, I would like to state for the record that I do not wish to purchase a mobile phone Top-up at Superdrug or holiday/pet/mid-lumber insurance when buying stamps at the Post office either.

In this repellent over consumerism-driven world, it puts the kind and helpful customer service I received at the National Schoolwear Centre and Swan Stationers even more in perspective – good effort to all concerned!