11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi everyone,

I'm a little confused about the sports kit required - I'm not sure how much we need to supply for the start of term, and whether there are any restrictions on the non-Gilbert items. There are two lists, I assume indoor (and summer) and outdoor, some of which is Gilbert branded and some of which is not. Am I okay to buy any old trainers and boots, and protective gear? Does the protective gear need fitting? And when they say "rugby/football boots" does that mean one or the other will do? We've never bought such things (son doesn't enjoy competitive sports) so I've no idea what I'm doing!

Trying to get on top of all the purchases required - it's an expensive business. Thanks for any advice

For rugby you must have rugby safety studs so, if you are buying one pair for both football and rugby get rugby. You can wear rugby studs for football but not the other way round. Whilst you can get boots where you change the studs, you won’t, and once they get muddy it is almost impossible. In the last 5 years I have seen 3 people farted off in ambulances with quite serious gashes due to the wrong studs being worn.

I'm not a parent at LSS. And I don't at all want to minimise the advice already given by KCG which is the proper advice.
But from a pragmatic perspective -
I asked the very same question on this forum 3 years ago and was given the same advice.
But I held off buying rugby boots because ds's feet kept growing and I thought he'd hate rugby and I was horrified by the cost of two pairs of boots.
It turns out that at his school they play almost no rugby. In pe lessons they did about 10 lessons in year 7 and they barely tackled. Genuinely no one had proper rugby boots.
Bizarrely ds turned out to love rugby and made the team. But they are in quite a low league and their season is 7 weeks long. In year 7 only about 3 boys had proper rugby boots (studs were inspected before one match). In year 8 I bought him some because they were playing a lot more competitively and I replaced them in year 9 because he'd grown. But literally no one wears their rugby boots in pe; they're only worn in training and matches which is for less than 10% of the boys in the year.
In the same time I've bought 5 pairs of football boots and 4 pairs of astros.
So unless it's a real rugby school I would honestly hold off till the start of year 7 when you can get an idea of what's genuinely required. They can be bought so quickly online if you do need some.
But I totally appreciate the safety perspective from KCG and the school might be a lot stricter than ours.

Thank you for your replies - so it's rugby boots not football boots, if they're needed at all. I think I'll hold off until the new parents' evening and ask in person, I was just trying to get ahead with my uniform buying. BTW what are astros?

Thanks!

Astros are all weather pitches.

No rugby or football studs allowed (they wreck the surface) - you get special astro boots with sort of rubber blips on them! Or you can wear trainers but if there is any slight damp it can get slippy.

LSS do play a fair amount of rugby - our school does play them every season - and in Warwickshire studs are checked before EVERY single match against other schools (if a ref didn't check, I as a parent would be worried that they didn't know what they were doing, and our coaches would certainly say something!) but, I do accept that our school IS a rugby school through and through and do not play football (anything other than the odd five a side game!)

So KCG advice probably better than mine then. Ours is a football school with rugby on the side!

I would agree though that waiting until you are sure is better than spending unnecessarily! If we have a long hot summer (ha!) then the ground will be too hard in September for studs (it's like playing in high heels!)

I would advise your son to have a go though - it's a game that has a position for everyone and is a lot more inclusive than football. School goes by in a blink of an eye - embrace every opportunity - even things he thinks he doesn't like - they are all experiences.

Hi all, thanks for the advice - we had the new parents' evening last night and I spoke to the head of PE who advised that we get football boots with blunt, removable studs (as the moulded ones are too sharp for rugby). Thought I'd post here in case it's helpful to anyone else.

Only problem with removeable studs (where you have rugby studs and separate fottball studs, but one pair of boots) is, although it seems cheaper, it is a real faff and once mud gets into the screw bit (which it will!), they become almost impossible to put in/take out - but they are certainly better than wearing the wrong ones for rugby! Avoid any plastic on studs as they are not ok for rugby. Ironically the metal ones just wear down - train your son not to walk on gravel paths in them either!

Thanks KCG, I think the teacher was advising that at this stage they just need to have studs that aren't sharp - which means they won't be changing them over for different sports, just wearing the same blunt ones for both. I'm hoping this will suffice!

One question I forgot to ask last night was about lunches and how they pay for them - I think someone told me they're given a card with their photo on it, but I haven't seen any mention of this and wondered whether I'd imagined it. I know we pay through ParentPay so at least he won't have to carry cash, I just wasn't sure how they allocate the payments. If anyone happens to know, I'd be interested in the answer, thanks.