Finally, it’s time to send those troublemakers back to the classroom… but make sure they have the right equipment to ace their exams

[Words James Day]

If you attended school in the 20th century, the contents of your rucksack likely consisted of thousands of finger-slicing sheets of A4 and enough Tipp-Ex to melt the teacher’s brain. But education has changed. A lot.

Yes, kids are sadly no longer guaranteed a shirt signed with phallic artwork; but on the flip side, textbooks, notebooks, reading books – in fact, anything tree-based – is becoming a thing of the past, which is tremendous for the planet and the socially conscious Generation Z.

The class of 2018 has gone whole-hog digital, and if you’re sending your little angels off to big school you’d better make sure they’ve got the tools for the job. Here are eight great school essentials, from the latest multitasking tablet to the Android phone that won’t cause tears over a cracked screen. You’ll also find the perfect power bank to keep them charged, plus a backpack and even a Bluetooth padlock.

Essential apps to pre-load on junior’s smartphone are included too, leaving you to drag them kicking and screaming to the school gates before high-fiving every fellow parent on your way home to celebrate a job well done.

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S4

£599 / stuff.tv/TabS4

There’s a real argument for saying schoolkids are the most demanding IT customers around. They want to play games, stream music and movies, video-call mates, scroll social media, and possibly consider doing some homework – and all without sending their computers into overworked meltdown.