What's Actually in a Preschool Starter Kit? A Complete Checklist

Whether you are opening a preschool or reviewing what you hand out each June, the starter kit is one of those lists that looks obvious until you sit down to write it.

Here is the full version, grouped the way you will actually order it rather than the way it appears in a brochure — and with notes on the parts that go wrong.

Academic

The part that has to arrive first, because everything else can be improvised and this cannot.

• Workbooks, typically five per level, one per learning area
• A home-link folder — the thing that physically travels between school and home, usually with a weekly parent sheet inside
• A termly progress report booklet, printed and bound, for handing to parents at the end of each term
• A teacher manual, plus whatever training material comes with the curriculum

The note that matters: covers should be printable with your school's own name. This is the item most likely to carry someone else's brand into your building, and parents read the cover of the book their child brings home every day.

Uniform and carry

• Uniform set — shirt and shorts, or pinafore
• Sports set — tee and track pants
• Socks, two pairs (one pair is a decision you regret by September)
• School bag, 12–14 litres, with a padded back and a bottle pocket

Sizing is the trap here. A three-year-old measured in February is a different child in June. Build in a size buffer, and expect to reorder for roughly one child in ten. Ask your supplier before you order what a mid-year top-up costs and how long it takes — the answer determines how much buffer you need to carry.

Stationery

• Jumbo crayons
• Colour pencils
• Washable sketch pens — washable is not optional at this age
• Triangular pencils, which suit a developing tripod grip better than round ones
• Eraser and sharpener
• Slate and chalk
• Practice notebooks
• A pencil pouch to keep it together

The note: this is the cheapest group and the one most likely to arrive short. Count it on delivery, not in week two.

Identity

The group schools underestimate, and the one that makes day one look organised or chaotic.

• Student ID card and lanyard
• Name labels — around 60 stick-on for books and boxes, 20 iron-on for clothing
• Pre-cut book covers, sized to the books you are actually issuing

Why this group is fiddly: every item needs your final roster. You cannot print an ID card without a name, a class and a photograph. So identity items are always last in the queue and always tightest on time — they cannot start until admissions settle.

The four things schools forget

Consistently, across schools of every size:

1. Enough name labels. Sixty sounds generous until you label a bag, a bottle, a lunch box, a jumper, eight books and a pencil pouch. Order more than you think.
2. Book covers cut to the right size. Generic covers do not fit purpose-printed workbooks, so somebody spends an evening with scissors.
3. A spare set of everything. Children join in July. Something gets lost in week two. A small buffer costs less than an emergency reorder.
4. A second pair of socks. Ask any teacher.

What you do not need to buy

Worth saying, because suppliers will offer them:

• Branded water bottles and lunch boxes are pleasant but genuinely optional, and parents often prefer their own.
• Art and craft kits are better bought as a class consumable than as a per-child item — you will use them at wildly different rates.
• Diaries for three-year-olds are for the adults, not the child. Some schools love them; if yours does not use one now, you will not start.

When to order

Work backwards from the session, not forwards from today.

Uniforms and anything printed with your school's name need six to eight weeks. Delivery has to land in April or May so everything is in the building before June. That puts the order in March, which is also when admissions numbers finally firm up — hence the annual squeeze we wrote about in the procurement post.

One practical tip: split the order if your supplier allows it. Academic and stationery can be ordered on projected numbers, because they are less size-dependent. Uniform and identity items wait for the real roster.

How Starkid supplies it

Everything above ships as one programme — one order, one invoice, one delivery. Workbooks are printed with your school's own cover, and the identity items are generated from the roster the app already holds, so nobody re-types sixty names for the printer.

The Starkid app itself is free for schools, always; the programme is what covers the physical kit. It is available for Nursery and LKG for the June 2027 session in Bengaluru, with UKG and Playgroup following in 2028, and orders close on 15 March for a June start.

See the full kit, or book a demo and hold a workbook before you decide.