£550 back-to-school bill for parents of the gadget generation John Lewis said the days of children taking a lunchbox and protractor into the classroom were long gone as kids today take everything from an MP3 player to ereaders and smartphones with them into the playground. The high street giant said the cost of today's school uniform, school bag and its contents amounted to an average of £550.80. This compares, in today's money, with £252.40 in the 1980s and £231.20 in the 1960s. Matt Leeser, head of buying for communications technology, said the huge shift towards gadgets meant John Lewis expdecetd to sell two computing devices every minute in the two weeks up to the August Bank Holiday. The chain also expects to sell two touch screen tablets to every one laptop or desktop as more kids take tablets into the classroom. He said research suggested 45 per cent of kids take a smartphone to school, costing an average of £362, while 35 per cent carry headphones. Nearly fifth of kids take an MP3 player into school, 5 per cent take a tablet and 2 per cent an ereader. It marks a stark contrast with school bag of the Sixties, when the most expensive items were two text books, costing around £45.10. Today, while the cost of lunchboxes, calculators, and pencil cases have come down, the rise in demand for technology means parents face having to find a small fortune for the Back to School rush. Mr Leeser said: "Whilst the good old fashined exercise book and pencils have made it into the top 3 must-have school bag items for the last 50 years, there's no shying away from the fact that technology is making its way into the school bag and classroom. Technology is evolving at such a rate that we predict in another 10 years' time in the top 10 school bag list will be unrecognisable as today's digital natives grow up and become parents themselves. The survey comes just days after a report revealed grandparents are spending nearly £3,000 a year to help their cash-strapped children raise their own family. JP Morgan Asset Management said the "Bank of Grandad and Grandma" were funding everything from weddings to new cars and new school shoes for the grandkids.