I like many others we have bought school uniforms (had the name sewn on them) shoes and paid for the books, some might even have paid the school fees.
It’s looking like the schools might not be opening this term meaning the kids will have grown out of their uniforms and not really used the books.
For me the kids can attend school well at my sons school anyway, the classes are all separate so the kids can be kept in bubbles/separate classrooms meaning they would not be mixing. When we were in England this is the system they used, if some one in a bubble contracted Covid the rest of all the pupils in that class self isolated.
Obviously with older kids it is more difficult to keep the kids separate when they were coming and going, with the younger kids the parents collected the kids but were not allowed in the school and had to wait outside. The starting and finishing times were staggered meaning there were no parents congregating outside the school.