{"id":892420,"date":"2026-04-14T01:58:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/892420\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T01:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:58:18","slug":"snp-to-promise-free-school-bags-for-all-p1-pupils-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/892420\/","title":{"rendered":"SNP to promise free school bags for all P1 pupils in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The SNP<\/a> has promised a free school bag filled with \u201cessential school items\u201d to every P1 if the they win May\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

John Swinney<\/a> said the \u201cWelcome to School Bag\u201d would build on the \u201cfantastic success\u201d of the Baby Box.<\/p>\n

The Tories dismissed it as a \u201cgoodie-bag gimmick\u201d and \u201ccynical stunt\u201d to distract from \u201cplummeting school standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

Labour and the Lib Dems compared the pledge to the SNP’s previous manifesto promises to give every pupil in Scotland a tablet or a PC<\/a>, and to provide free bikes to schoolchildren who could not afford them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The school bag vow will form part of the party’s manifesto, due to be published on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The SNP said the it would be provided to all Primary 1 pupils, and come with a starter pack which includes stationery, books, a water bottle and \u201cresources to help families encourage literacy and numeracy practice at home\u201d.<\/p>\n

The First Minister<\/a> said: \u201cI am delighted to launch our fantastic new Welcome to School Bag today. Starting school is an exciting moment for every child and their family and I am determined that we do everything we can to support them at such a big transition point in their life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Welcome to School Bag will be packed with items \u2013 stationery, books and other helpful resources to help our children thrive when starting school.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilding on the fantastic success of the Baby Box, Scotland\u2019s Welcome to School Bag is just another step in ensuring that we are supporting our children at every stage of their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 360,000 baby boxes have been given out to Scottish parents<\/a> since the launch of the scheme in 2017.<\/p>\n

Every new mother is entitled to the box, which is delivered a few weeks before her due date, and includes items such as books, clothes and a digital thermometer, while the box itself can be used as a sleeping space.<\/p>\n

While popular and well-known policy, there have been questions over whether spending around \u00a38\u20139m a year, roughly \u00a3160 per box, is the best use of constrained public funds, especially as the universal nature of the box means it goes to families who can easily afford its contents.<\/p>\n

The SNP has not said how much the Welcome to School Bag will cost.<\/p>\n

Mr Swinney said: \u201cThe Baby Box has been transformational for so many families across the country and receiving it is now an important milestone for new parents. The Welcome to School Bag has the potential to have the same impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what you get with the SNP \u2013 a government that is always on Scotland\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul O\u2019Kane, Scottish Labour<\/a>\u2019s education spokesman, said the SNP had a \u201clong list of broken promises when it comes to supporting schools and young people\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAt the 2021 election, they committed to giving free laptops to all school pupils in Scotland, but this pledge has since been ditched.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey promised to expand free school meals to all primary school pupils but have failed to deliver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey insisted they would provide free bikes for all schoolkids who can\u2019t afford them but have fallen woefully short on this ambition.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they vowed to eliminate the attainment gap, yet the gap between the richest and poorest pupils in our schools is wider than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmid their trail of broken promises, there has been a rise in the number of kids skipping school and families can\u2019t get the support they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Scottish Lib Dem education spokesperson Willie Rennie said: \u201cThe SNP love to announce freebies at election time and then ditch them the moment polling day has passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast election it was bikes and tablets, this time it\u2019s school bags.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scottish Conservative education spokesperson Miles Briggs said: \u201cScotland\u2019s once-proud reputation for educational excellence lies in tatters after two decades of SNP government, and John Swinney\u2019s big solution is a goodie-bag gimmick for primary one pupils.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwinney should be addressing plummeting school standards, the epidemic of classroom violence, the poverty-related attainment gap he promised to eradicate and the shortage of teachers.”<\/p>\n

The inclusion of a free water bottle for every pupil marks something of a victory for 12-year old Calum Isted, who became the Scottish Parliament\u2019s youngest known petitioner in 2021.<\/p>\n

After launching a campaign to stop his school handing out single\u2011use plastic water bottles with Friday packed lunches, he walked the entire 134\u2011mile John Muir Way in stages and raised more than \u00a31,400, enough to buy high\u2011quality steel bottles \u2013 plus spare lids \u2013 for every pupil at Dedridge Primary in Livingston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once his school switched away from disposables, he turned to Holyrood<\/a>, lodging a petition and asking MSPs to urge the government to provide a reusable bottle for every primary pupil in Scotland.<\/p>\n

He was invited to give evidence to the Public Petitions and won praise from MSPs and then first minister Nicola Sturgeon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, while supportive, the government stopped short of backing a national scheme. Instead, they said schools already had a duty to provide free drinking water and many councils are already encouraging pupils to bring reusable bottles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The SNP has promised a free school bag filled with \u201cessential school items\u201d to every P1 if the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,251935,251936,47306,4884,7852,251937,251932,251933,251934,712,9076,16,15],"class_list":["post-892420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-britain","tag-essential-school","tag-free-bikes","tag-free-school-meals","tag-great-britain","tag-john-swinney","tag-pupil","tag-school-bag","tag-school-bags","tag-school-standards","tag-scotland","tag-starting-school","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116400587782129171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}