It’s the last few weeks of school before the summer holidays and the kids have got new shoes. I know you can’t expect them to not grow since September, but it would have been nice. We’d had to kit them out with new uniforms too since the warmer weather seems to have inspired a growth spurt in my two younger ones.
Luckily for me, choosing new school shoes is a pretty painless process. Both my children are a regular width and enjoy making any style decisions. Also, Start-Rite make the process easy enough by stocking a variety of sizes and lots of trendy, durable styles.
I’ve got a boy and a girl in primary school – my daughter’s in foundation stage and my son is year 5 (and big for his age), so I can confirm the selection is great across all ages and has a great range for everyone.
Here’s what we chose:
Flourish
The first style we went for was “Flourish“. It’s a really pretty school shoe style that my 5-year-old picked for herself. She’s in Foundation Stage at school, so as you can imagine, he shoes take a bit of a hammering. I’m really excited to put these to the test (but I’ve always bought her Start-Rite shoes in the past, and found them very durable).
They’re just as beautiful in real life as they were on the site, and I was happy to find they have a removable footbed, which I didn’t spot originally. I find this is a good little hack for getting shoes to last longer – you can’t stop your kids growing, but if you have a removable footbed, you can definitely get some more mileage.
Another feature I’m a big fan of it the toe bumper. Anyone with very active young kids knows how good a toe bumper can be for protecting the soft upper toe of a school shoe. Kids seem to drag their feet along, kick footballs, crawl along the floor and all kinds of things the could potentially damage the toe part on a shoe. The toe bumper is an extra bit of sole that sticks out and protects them from all that.
Our first impression of these shoes are that they’re pretty to look at and seem durable and able to grow with Orlaith. They’ve got a rip tape fastening, meaning she can get them on and off herself, which is perfect for PE days.
She’s been trying them for the past couple of days and find them super comfy to wear. She’s even convinced the make her run faster – so 10/10 from us!
These shoes are available in sizes small 10 to large 4 and had two width fittings.
Rhino Sherman
I also have a 10-year-old boy who is heading into year 6 in September and is very image conscious. He chose the Rhino Sherman shoes because they’re grown-up and trendy. I really like the look of them because they do definitely look trendy, but more importantly, they look sturdy.
He’s football mad so he’s out there in all weathers playing football – sometimes on the hard playground. He needs shoes that can survive a bit of heavy wear and theses shoes look like the ones!
The shoes have a lace up design and are reminiscent of trainers, but smart enough to be school shoes at even the strictest schools. These shoes, like the Flourish above, also have a toe bumper, which I’m glad about for my football addict. Any extra protection is a win from my point of view.
The sole also has flex grooves, so they shoes are sturdy but not stuff. I think that’s really important, especially for active kids who spend their breaks running around.
Greg’s been wearing these shoes for the past couple of days and he’s found them comfortable and flexible. We really like them and can’t wait to properly put them to the test this term. We’ll report back on how they fare, so keep your eyes peeled!
These shoes are available in sizes 1 – 9 large, with a choice of 4 width fittings.
The Rhino Shermans look a good school shoe with the toe bumper. Our boys’ shoes were permanently scuffed.