School 'resorce' charges - just how high are yours?

littlebitdull

I got my book list for my youngest daughter last week. Books not too bad, we already had the dictionary and atlas so it only came to 25 euro. Thanks in no small part to the school asking for everyone to hand back in the readers/non workbook type of book - finally a bit of sense!!

But the resorce charge is - once again - very high. I had an issue with this last year in the school - in previous years I had simply paid it and not questioned it at all.... but times have changed and I have to watch where every bit of my money goes these days

So last year, as each section was itemised and as I could see what was for what, I paid out for homework journal, and standardised tests - and wrote a letter to the school asking for an explaination of the rest of the charges.

For an example we were being asked for 25 euro for Art & Crafts... for a class of 27 children... coming to a total of 650 euro. Despite the fact that the previous year my child had only come home with 12 A4 sheets of 'art'. And we were asked for 12 euro per head for photocoping.

I got no reasonable explaination from the school. So for the first time - I did not pay :o Part of me does not like not paying my bill - but all I wanted was an explaination :rolleyes:

This year they have not itemised the charges !! We are being asked for 76 euro per child - for 5th class in primary school. And we are asked to provide copybooks, and pritt sticks for our children.

I feel I must add that this school is not stuck for funds - we have been given a fiancal report from the BOM - and there is a surplus so its not struggling.

Am I quibbling too much - is it a reasonable charge. Is it the norm?

nhg

My son is going into first class in september and the cost of his books is €84.70 (+ 4 books that thankfully have not to be purchased as these are available through @book exchange scheme'). As most of these books are workbooks these canot be passed on or bought secondhand as his class are the oldest ones in the school doing the jolly phonics.

In addition to the cost of the books he needs 2 x 15a project copies, 3 x 40 page copies, 2 x 10mm squared sum copies, 2 x 40 page notebooks, 1 x B2 handwriting copies, A$ display Book with plastic Pockets, Folens Homework Diary , Pencils, rubber, sharpener, crayons/twistables & prittstick.

+ €43 made up of Art, Craft, Testing Materials & Photocopying €30 - Music Made Easy Workbook €6 - jolly Dictionary €7.

Thankfully I got 2 years out of most of his school uniform, but most of it will need replacing for this september.

Free Education!

littlebug

I've never had to pay the school anything We get the booklist and get the books --wherever--. There's a good bookshop in Galway which stocks both new and second hand books so I usually get them there. There's no school charge for arts, crafts, photocopying etc. I guess I'm lucky. hope they don't read this :pac:

littlebitdull

nhg .... I hear ya - free education - whats that !! Your resorce charge of 30 is not so bad - to be honest if thats what mine was i would be paying up!! After all the other 13 is for actual books - and my youngest is still using the dictionary she got in 2nd class so it was worth the money.

I only have uniform for my secondary school children - but as my daughter is heading into 6th year and is still using the skirt i got her entering 1st year I have no complaints there!!

mariaf24

My girl is going into first class and her school asks for a contribution of 15 euro per term. Reading this i only realised that i only paid it for the first term,eeek! The school really don't enforce it,it's in small writing on the first letter home at the start of the year. I can't imagine many people paying it to be honest.

Ickle Magoo

nhg wrote: »

My son is going into first class in september and the cost of his books is €84.70 (+ 4 books that thankfully have not to be purchased as these are available through @book exchange scheme'). As most of these books are workbooks these canot be passed on or bought secondhand as his class are the oldest ones in the school doing the jolly phonics.

In addition to the cost of the books he needs 2 x 15a project copies, 3 x 40 page copies, 2 x 10mm squared sum copies, 2 x 40 page notebooks, 1 x B2 handwriting copies, A$ display Book with plastic Pockets, Folens Homework Diary , Pencils, rubber, sharpener, crayons/twistables & prittstick.

+ €43 made up of Art, Craft, Testing Materials & Photocopying €30 - Music Made Easy Workbook €6 - jolly Dictionary €7.

Thankfully I got 2 years out of most of his school uniform, but most of it will need replacing for this september.

Free Education!

Bar the uniform and add to that swimming fees and a general "parental contribution" as well as participation in or goods for the numerous fund raisers, and that's pretty much what we have too... :eek:

cynder

Haven't got the book list for next September yet, dont get that till the day they leave school.

Normally its 30€ arts and crafts and photocopying. 20-30€ book hire.

Books,copies and pencils and stuff come to around 150-160€. I now order the school books online and get them delivered to my door.

My little guy starting in September too, but at a different school.

byhookorbycrook

If the school look for the money,then I presume it is spent on the children. In our school,charges like that help towards photocopying, standardized tests, resources for the learning support team, like extra books for class-wide schemes such peer tutoring,art materials (and under the revised curriculum,they really do add up,between paint,fabric and fibre,construction, card, clay etc. etc.)Wait until schools have to pay the newer water charges!!

Schools really hate having to ask for money, but it doesn't go on hammocks and caviar for the teachers. If you feel irked, write to the DES and make your point loudly. Remember when Eddie Hobbs was invited to help a school just break even on a tv programme and he couldn't,no matter what he tried.Do you think we collect TESCO tokens and spend hours counting them,because we love Tesco?When do you ever hear of a nurse collecting tokens for tablets?The DES get away with under-resourcing schools and we need to shout stop.

littlebitdull

byhookorbycrook ....... this is not an under resorced school. I did state that in my opening post. I have a copy of last years fiancal statement and the school had a surplus of almost 40thousand euro.

So I do have an issue with the school looking for 76 euro from me for 'art and craft'.

I would dearly love to see my child return home with something made of paint or fabric or construction or clay..... last year we were asked for 25 euro as a contrubition towards art - and my child brought home 12 A4 sheets of art work, all coloured with her own crayons...

So maybe some schools hate to ask for money ... but some don't hate asking the parents thats for sure !

byhookorbycrook

We had a surplus a few years, but it was being put aside for our library and to get IT stuff. Have you talked to the parent assoc?Are the accounts presented to them each year?

littlebitdull

Another thing occured to me.

I have children in secondary too. And they do art - science - music - etc etc and the secondary school never come begging to me for money for these subjects. I only ever get asked from the primary who seem to approach the parents with a begging bowl for everything !

dan_d

As the child of a primary school teacher, I've seen my mother, over the years, spend thousands of her own money on supplies for her classes. Toys, books, crayons and pencils. Simply because there's not enough money to replace all the stuff that gets abused/broken and used up during the year.

For those of you who have kids doing art in secondary school - what's on their booklist for this subject? I used to work in a bookshop that specialised in school books, so I know most schools, if a child is doing art, will require each child to buy 1 no. HB pencil, and an assortment of others, such as 1 no. 2H and 1 no. H. They will also specify pots of paint, specific make and colours, often a tin of colouring pencils of a specific type and pads of drawing paper. That's why the school doesn't come looking for money - because most of the time the parents have already bought the supplies and usually at no cheap price. There's very little by way of actual supplies in most school's art rooms.

It's quite likely your child does not bring home every piece of art they do. What does the teacher hang on the walls? If you've a class of 27 kids, and you buy a bottle of paint, one of each of say, red, blue, yellow, green, pink, white, brown and black...how long do you think they will last? You might get maybe a month of art and craft once a week out of them if you're lucky. If you've 5 tables in a classroom, with at least 5 kids at each, and a box of crayons on each table - maybe two - how long do you think they'll last per table, between getting broken, crushed, taken home by accident, or just plain lost? And then look at paper - a ream with say 500 sheets will allow for about 18 copies per child for a class of 27 kids. You copy something twice a week, that gives you 9 weeks of photocopying before you need to buy more paper.And that's just for one class alone, one copy per child, twice a week...if you've got 9 or ten classes in a school copying several times a week, it amounts to an alarming cost.

I'm not disagreeing that 76eur is expensive. Maybe try asking the teacher what exactly it is that she plans on doing with the kids during the year? But most parents don't really realise how much a class of 27 kids will go through in terms of supplies. In an ideal world of course, the Dept of Edu should be covering all of this, but well, this is Ireland. Because everyone has been in school, everyone thinks they know how to teach and how it all works, but it's a very different world from the other side of the desk. As said before, budget surpluses will go towards libraries, maybe new computers, planting a few new plants in the ground, repainting classrooms, buying extra gym equipment etc.

As I said - I'm not disagreeing that it's a large amount, but it's not just lining a teacher's pocket, and it's quite likely that before the year is out the teacher in question will have had to fork out his/her own money to top up on supplies needed.

Just my 2 cents!

SerialComplaint

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Have you talked to the parent assoc?Are the accounts presented to them each year?

This is an important point - any group looking for donations should be open and accountable, and should at least be publishing their accounts.

deelite

Book list for 1st class for us this year was 54.00 euro

School fees (insurance / arts & crafts / photocopying etc.,) 58.00 euro per child

iwantopinion

i have two kids, one going into 4th and one into 1st class. 4th class book list was a total of 145eur, 20eur of that was for classroom materials. 1st class booklist was 115eur, 20eur of that for classroom materials. we have the option of giving the school the money and they purchase the books for us or we can get ourselves. i now go to the local 2nd hand shop for as much as poss and thankfully i do not need to buy new for my youngest:). I don't mind paying the 20eur per child per year as I know how much money u can spend when buying that stuff for them!!

up for anything

My pet bitch is having been asked for €100 for the JC mocks. When I did mine in the mid 70s the teachers set their own papers and also corrected them themselves. Only one teacher looked for a huge, at the time, £12 for buying in the Science paper and sending it away to be corrected. There's a fecking recession on, FFS! Can't they get up off their arses and do it themselves. At that, out of the four subjects in the JC proper that my daughter has done so far not one of her teachers has turned up for a few minutes prior to the exams or after to either answer last minute panic questions or commiserate or congratulate and these miserable old besoms are paid throughout the Summer holidays. Gah!

For the three still in Primary I have to pay €130 this month for class trips plus the fodder to send them with plus a few spends plus the bits one of them needs to take part in one of the organised activities. I haven't got the book lists but I'm dreading them. It was the best part of €200 last year for three of them for the art/photocopying/book rental/photocopying etc and then the glorious second week of a new term bulletin arrives with the extra-curricular activities expenses listed which if swimming is included can reach near to €40.

As many of you have said - free education, my arse! :mad:

SerialComplaint

up for anything wrote: »

For the three still in Primary I have to pay €130 this month for class trips plus the fodder to send them with plus a few spends plus the bits one of them needs to take part in one of the organised activities.

That's very expensive for school trips. Have you spoken to the school, or the parents association, or the parents rep on the Board of Management about this? Schools need to understand that many parents are struggling, and they may not understand unless parents start talking.

jane17

It has been known for some schools to ask for that bit extra to accommodate for those parents who dont pay at all !

deisemum

Our primary school only looks for €7.50 towards arts and crafts and photocopying and they come home most days with photocopied sheets that looks like a small forest has been used.

We have the option of paying €8 for the 24 hour insurance and the only other charge is for swimming and school tours.