Cost of School

T0001

I wasn't sure of the right place for this but I thought parents would be better able to answer my queries.

Basically I'm looking for rough figures for the cost of a child returning the school. Specifically, the cost of a plain uniform and the cost of renting books, for both primary and secondary levels. Any and all info is greatly appreciated!

pwurple

In my experience, it varies wildly from school to school.

Why are you looking for this, are you doing a survey, or have a child starting in september.

T0001

Basically a few of us who are politically active are trying to draw up a proposal for Education and we were looking for some figures to use in our maths. While we have talked to a few of our friends and families, we wanted a wider range of information to get more accurate figures.

eviltwin

As Pwurple says it varies massively from school to school. It depends on a lot of things. Barnardos do a cost analysis every August that gives a breakdown of the average cost. They would be able to give you a good ballpark figure.

Call me Al

This is akin to how long is a piece of string.

Some schools require crested uniforms and tracksuits , others take tesco/Dunnes/M&s generic.
In my case the crested tracksuit is around €35 while I can get twin packs of polo tops and twin navy trousers with a plain jumper for maybe €20
Some schools have book rental schemes while others don't. When the children are younger the teachers usually go for workbooks which can't be rented (which in our case meant that very few books were rentable), so there can be a big difference between (work)book costs between junior and senior classes. And if the dept of education go and change the curriculum then all these rental books have to be replaced.

This is all primary btw.

And as for the "voluntary" contribution.....

Moonbeam

Our uniform is approx 140 for all classes.
Books vary on class but for JI it was about 100 incl photocopying so about 300 euro.

pwurple

T0001 wrote: »

Basically a few of us who are politically active are trying to draw up a proposal for Education and we were looking for some figures to use in our maths. While we have talked to a few of our friends and families, we wanted a wider range of information to get more accurate figures.

If you had a proposal for education, as a parent I'm much more concerned about the dumbing down of the Maths curriculum, class sizes, the lack of european languages at primary level, the lack of permanent positions for teachers, how the schools are going to grow for our population increasing, maintenance of schools, etc etc etc..

It's within the remit of board of management of each school (which usually has parents on it) to determine the uniform and book schemes etc. This is where I would go if I had an issue with it, rather than a TD.

You can look up the cost of generic uniforms online in dunnes, tesco, m&s to compare. Ours cost 35 euro per 'set' (pinafore, jumper, tshirt) and we got two sets. Our book rental is €15 per term, and another 20 for heating/loo roll/maintenace. Workbooks were ~60. The parent's association runs a bake-sale twice a year, and christmas choirs in the local shopping center to fund craft supplies.

PLL

€75 yearly contribution
Uniform varies due to crested vs dunnes
Books have to be paid for ~ €100

On average between €250-€300 per year.