Cost of sending kids back to school

I read today that it costs nearly 500 Euro to send a kid back to school. What would this amount be made up of in general.

• Uniforms (can't be generic, must be made up by the local school uniform supplier, so €30-€45 for a child's nylon pullover, etc.)
• Schoolbooks ('new', 'revised' editions come out every 12/18 months with a few typos corrected and a different picture on the cover, plus rejigged pagination to render last year's edition worthless and unusable)
• 'Voluntary' contributions towards arts & craft supplies/photocopying costs/books for the library/use of sports facilities/private insurance, etc. (God bless 'free' education!)

Believe me, you'll hit the €500 mark pretty quickly...

my son going into junior infants

* books €66.45
* art/photocopy/ins €91
* crested jumper €28
* track suit €30
* polo shirts €18
* crested jacket € 28
* trousers €10
* shirts €10
* voluntary contribution €75

not to mention runners, shoes, school bag, copies, pensils, lunch box etc


free education!!

Loaded1973 said:

my son going into junior infants
* polo shirts €18
* crested jacket € 28
free education!!

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hey would that be a private school perhaps?
most public schools i know steer clear of crested materials or just sell the crests to be sewn on - might be the influense of a parents council.

Another question - what's the private insurance for? Also re new books when I went to school I used to buy my books second hand from the previous year, can you not do that anymore? Are there new editions for every subject every year?

Aileen2 said:

Another question - what's the private insurance for? Also re new books when I went to school I used to buy my books second hand from the previous year, can you not do that anymore? Are there new editions for every subject every year?

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What's the private insurance for?

In case your loved one hurts them self etc

Second hand books?

The publishers bring out new editions every year so. Where they don’t, the books are designed a workbooks so the children fill in the blanks on the pages. So no 2nd hand value.

Not like the old days when we had the likes of 'Soundings' by Gus Martin, first published in the 70's and continued in use until a few years ago. Does anyone remember "Latin for Today"... Here is an 1928 edition [broken link removed]

Aileen2 said:

Also re new books when I went to school I used to buy my books second hand from the previous year, can you not do that anymore? Are there new editions for every subject every year?

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It's called 'PROGRESS' —

Profitable
Recurring
Opportunity to
Get
Rich and
Escape from
Secondary
Schoolteaching

DrMoriarty said:

It's called 'PROGRESS' —

Profitable
Recurring
Opportunity to
Get
Rich and
Escape from
Secondary
Schoolteaching

Click to expand...

EXCELLENT!!
loads of teachers i know left to write "notes" books and books that went round 1 year and then were replaced with others!

THe primary school my daughter attends has made a real effort to reduce the cost to parents.
They have bought books and rent them to pupils for a nominal fee.
The uniform has no crests or badges to allow parents to buy them anywhere they want to avail of the best prices.
We pay 94 euro to the school for the year which includes all books, art material, workbooks, dance class, even pencils.

Of course the school have other fund raising events, but no-one is put under pressure to spend money that they can't afford.

Parents can influence the school to do more to save money by complaining and getting involved in the parents council. Schools wont change unless parents insist.

There was a website created there about 2 years ago where I think you could purchase used schoolbooks at fairly reasonable prices. By the way I totally agree with the idea of purchasing a school crest badge and sewing it on to relatively cheaper clothes . at the end of the day they will only last 8 to 9 mths before the child outgrows them and then you could reuse the crest badge.