September sees Miss Marnie starting school.
I actually cannot believe I am writing this – it all seems to have gone so fast. I started this blog when she was a year old and now my baby is heading to school. And, besides getting the uniform the one thing I’ve been dreading is getting the school shoes. So, I took refuge in my favourite store Marks & Spencer.
Marks & Spencer has always been there for me. During pregnancy and maternity wear, post pregnancy style and even now being back to work and needing easy separates – I don’t think I’ve ever walked into a store and came out empty handed. It seems only right I would start here for Miss M’s first school uniform – or, namely her school shoes.
As her reception year clothes are less school uniform and more ‘every kid dressed the same’ in joggers, white tops and school jumpers. So, the only thing I could really shop for was her shoes.
Which have to be black and with velcro straps. I have always hated the look of school shoes as they are always so clunky, wide and to be honest – not very attractive. But, I guess they have to serve a purpose – comfy, wearable and above all practical.
This weekend is apparently the busiest shopping weekend for buying school shoes so Marks & Spencer are rolling out a new back to school shoe fitting service. After they discovered that although parents were shopped from their wide selection of uniforms in store – they were going to a more specialist shoe stores to seek out the fitting service.
Available in over 35 stores you can now get your child’s feet measured and expertly fitted by one of the trained staff members. They will help you find the perfect shoes and advise on what pair fits best (I mean, did you know M&S offer narrow, regular and wide fittings in kids shoes?).
It was really handy to have someone else on hand to go and get the correct sized shoes and coax Miss M into them – as it also meant I could stay with my bags and keep her with me and be more present in encouraging her to walk in them and see how they feel and fit – without having to go and fetch more pairs, styles or different sizes.
If this expert shoe fitting service trial proves popular over the next few weeks it will be rolled out to all stores on a permanent basis. I think this will be extremely handy as in M&S – as we all know the shoes are just shelved in sizes and you need to know you kids current foot size or have a trying on session (which is often not an option on that last minute or busy shopping trip) meaning having this service option on hand will help not only at school time but come winter boot shopping too.
Just another reason for me to shop at Marks & Spencer right there!
We went for these Marks & Spencer Leather standard fit school shoes from £24
**This is a contributed post but the fitting, service and shoes were tried and selected by us to support this review.
