While December often signals festive cheer and a well-earned year-end break, it can also bring stress for parents preparing for their kids’ first day back at school.
Don’t worry—we’ve rounded up the best ongoing sales, trendy brands, and must-have items into a list of the top 10 essentials to get your kids ready for 2026.
1. Textbooks
It’s a rite of passage for all Singaporean students to visit the nearest Popular Bookstore before the new year arrives. Besides being the official retailer for MOE textbooks and apparatus, Popular Bookstore also has outlets conveniently located all across the island.
Adding to the appeal is their annual Back-to-School Sale, happening from 24 November 2025 to 4 January 2026. Across all physical bookstores and online, you can enjoy savings of up to 70% off in a single transaction. Alternatively, hit the required minimum spend to receive a S$5 cash voucher.
Happen to be a Popular member? Enjoy the exclusive 5% off for textbook discounts to enjoy maximum savings.
Popular Back-to-School Sale
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 Various Timings
📅 24 November 2025 to 4 January 2026
2. Stationery
While Popular Bookstore does offer adorable stationery for little ones, nothing beats Smiggle’s vibrant, quirky, and colourful designs.
From notebooks to pencil cases, it’s a wonderland for both you and your kids to shop endlessly. The best part? These fun designs make studying feel exciting and motivate them to study, setting them in the right headspace for a fresh start in the new school year.
Smiggle
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 Various Timings
3. Water Bottle
There are plenty of brands to consider, from plastic bottles like the Nalgene MultiDrink Water Bottle to options from Decathlon. For older kids starting secondary school, you may opt for Montigo or Stanley.
If you ask us, we’d recommend the Owala Princess Series for the older girls who still love their Disney princesses while maintaining a big girl image.
Owala
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4. School Bag
Ergonomic bags may sound tempting, but they’re often too heavy for little ones. Nowadays, students can rely on their lockers or desks to store study materials instead of carrying them everywhere.
The key to finding the perfect school bag lies in your kids’ preferences. Primary school students will love anything featuring their favourite cartoon or game character, like Frozen or Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF).
For our secondary school kids, we know the trends—Fjällräven Kanken, Herschel, and especially, Paper Bunny’s tote bag series. Just make sure the bag you pick is durable and spacious enough to last you until the end of 2026.
Paper Bunny
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 10am–10pm
5. Lunchboxes
Unfortunately, schools don’t provide microwaves for students to preheat packed lunches—meaning your kid’s lunchbox needs to be heat-insulating to keep the food warm until recess.
While Smiggles does a fairly good job keeping food warm for hours, you might be tempted to opt for a snack box instead—and we found the perfect snack boxes!
Check out these Tupperware snack boxes with Sanrio prints of Cinnamoroll, Badtz-maru, Pompompurin, and more—super cute and super useful!
Tupperware
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 Various Timings
6. Wallet
Every student’s wallet should have these three compartments—one for notes, one for coins, and one for cards like Ez-Link or National Library cards.
Primary school students often prefer visually appealing wallets with a lanyard, as kids that age are notorious for losing them quickly.
For older students, we recommend something simple from The Wallet Shop. Either option works, especially as secondary schoolers gradually transition from cash to cashless payments.
The Wallet Shop
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 Various Timings
7. Shoes
Public schools in Singapore have strict rules requiring students to wear white shoes. Some schools insist on fully white shoes, while others may allow up to 75% white.
Whether your child is in primary or secondary school, you can’t go wrong with a pair of Converse. If Converse is out of your budget, opt for the wallet-friendly Northstar shoes, available at BATA outlets.
Converse
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 Various Timings
8. Name Labels
Whether they’re seven or 14, kids of all ages tend to misplace their belongings—especially in a classroom full of students using the same Smiggle lunch box bag.
To help your child stand out and easily retrieve their items, it’s best to invest in personalised name stickers or tags.
You can easily find custom sticker services on Shopee or Carousell. Whereas for backpack name tags, we recommend Sparkle Please’s Luggage Tag (S$15). Choose the base colour of your tag, then select up to three patches to be ironed on.
You can opt for pick up or delivery, with delivery costing an additional S$5.
Sparkle Please
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📍 89A Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088510
🕒 11am–7pm (Tue to Thu), 11am–8pm (Fri to Sun)
9. Accessories
It’s essential to have a variety of hair accessories like hair ties, headbands, hair clips, bobby pins, and more to keep stray strands neatly in place. For a fuss-free option, Watsons Comfort Hair Scrunchies are a great pick, with 10 pieces priced at under S$5.
Avoid colourful hair accessories, as some schools are strict and may confiscate them on sight.
Watsons
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 Various Timings
10. Miscellaneous
This segment is for secondary school kids in active co-curricular activity (CCA) groups. Aspiring athletes will want to stock up on deodorants, sports gear, and more from Decathlon, while the uniform group (UG) students should plan a trip to Beach Road Army Market.
If you haven’t joined a CCA yet, it’s best to hold off until you’ve chosen the one that truly speaks to you (admin’s favourite CCA is the going back home club).
Decathlon
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📍 Various Locations
🕒 Various Timings
We hope that this list has been helpful for all parents, leaving plenty of time for the whole family to indulge in the holidays before rushing into the annual last-minute Back-to-School preparations.
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