(The reason is that on top of the usual expenses, such as clothing, sports equipment, bags, books, stationery and lunch boxes, gadgets are making their way into the satchel. One of the main differences between today’s school bag and those in my day is the inclusion of electronic gadgets, with almost half of all secondary school children taking a smart phone to lessons and around 35 per cent carrying headphones. Nearly a fifth of kids take an MP3 player into school, 5 per cent take a tablet and 2 per cent an ereader.