Primary School fees

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slave1

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Just wondering what ye all think of the following.
My first child started school in Sept and there's been a list of monies to be collected and they are beginning to get to me
Photocopying €25, mandatory
Swimmming, fair enough
Milk, fair enough
Band fees, €50, if your child is in a certain year
Basketball fees, €20, mandatory
They tried to sell an childrens insurance policy, accident/illness, think it was about €12, NOT mandatory
Last one, "voluntary" contribution to board of management to finance the running of the school, €45 per pupil, although its voluntary, they are asking for it, if I was to pay this for all my children it would cost me over a grand before all my monkeys finish school.

Is this common practice?
I realise that free education is not to be expected 100% but that last one and the photocopying is a bit of a direct cost as is the band and basketball fees, there are no extra costs apart from equipment which is already there.
I want the best for my kids etc, but I'm paying a lot of taxes....
Appreciate your thoughts
 
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Presumably this is a National School? Whose is it in? Do other schools in the area levy similar charges? Have you queried the charges with the principle, board of management etc.?

What's that about trying to sell a mandatory insurance policy!? What were the terms & conditions of this policy and who was assigned as the beneficiary?
 
I also have no doubt that before the year is out you will be asked to buy a ticket etc for a raffle run by the parents committee. I agree it does seem one neverending list of 'contributions'. Having said that however I acted on the parents committee of both primary and secondary schools where my daugher was educated. The list of requests from the school to the parents committee for assistance for computers, equipment etc had to be balanced out each year. in one year ( before the above insurance contribution) the departments allocation for insurance was only about half what the insurance companies were quoting ( probably a closed shop ie church and general were insuring all the schools in those days, cant speak for now) . think the same applied to heating. it was paid on a capitation basis but most schools are big (and maybe old )and draughty and nearly impossible to heat efficiently. we ran cookery demonstrations, draws, and traditional music nights in one of the local establishments. didnt matter how much we raised ( and no opportunity was missed - at the cookery demos for instance we would sell the infamous 5 tickers for £1 or 15 for £2.) there was always a demand for it. I understand where you are coming from but think also of the people who are actually out trying to do this fundraising in as painless a way as possible. unlike Bertie we never had anybody making a donation of any substance to us. and before you think we could tap the local businesses etc - all the other school committees were at the same thing. thankless really but where do you think most of the computers/gym equipment in your school came from? the department of education? maybe if things have changed in the past 15 years, otherwise they came from parents just like you.
 
I drew the line when my daughter was asked to bring in her own toilet roll!! Of course I gave it to her but it was immediately taken away to add to the stock room. The children complained that their toilet rolls were never put in their bathrooms. They were kept for the teachers while the children complained of having to use tracing paper cut into squares!!!
 
slave1 said:
Just wondering what ye all think of the following.
My first child started school in Sept and there's been a list of monies to be collected and they are beginning to get to me
Photocopying €25, mandatory
Swimmming, fair enough
Milk, fair enough
Band fees, €50, if your child is in a certain year
Basketball fees, €20, mandatory
They tried to sell an childrens insurance policy, accident/illness, think it was about €12, mandatory
Last one, "voluntary" contribution to board of management to finance the running of the school, €45 per pupil, although its voluntary, they are asking for it, if I was to pay this for all my children it would cost me over a grand before all my monkeys finish school.

Is this common practice?
I realise that free education is not to be expected 100% but that last one and the photocopying is a bit of a direct cost as is the band and basketball fees, there are no extra costs apart from equipment which is already there.
I want the best for my kids etc, but I'm paying a lot of taxes....
Appreciate your thoughts
Click to expand...
Yes quite normal welcome to free education in Ireland
 
Interesting replies, the ownership link was most benefical.
Apologies with the comment that the insurance policy was mandatory, I got a bit carried away with my cut and pasting in the original post, thread amended, however my better half was talking to some mothers yesterday morning and they all thought it was mandatory and paid it, its a separate policy with child/parents as beneficaries.
Am getting the summary PnL of the parents association to see where this voluntary payment is recorded, however I think that it will be payable to the school so I won't see it.
I don't think any of these monies will be put to waste however I did go to open days and asked what would be required of me and no mention of the above monies, which is disappointing to me, its a great school and it would not have been a deciding factor but I just prefer information flow up front in an open manner rather that a series of letters brought home by the little one, just the one has been about doing some homework with her etc all the rest have been for money, would have preferred a "package" at the beginning, schools in the area have similar charges from checking around in work except for the voluntary contribution.
Interesting info for the new school-going kid parent
 
I have had similiar charges since my first child started school.
Add to that the 65 euro it cost for her school books
55 euro for school tracksuit - with school crest so no option to get a cheaper version.
100 euro for school uniform - no logo so could shop around for this.

8 euro for extra insurance, school insurance covers them for ebing on the premises during school hours but extra insurance means they are covere 24 hours.
So for example if there was some reason they were on school premises for a few minutes after school was finished they would not be covered without extra insurance.
35 euro for photocopying
15 euro for Irish dancing compulsory
Not sure how much swimming is but that isn't compulsory.

We also got a letter asking us for winter flowering pansies and bulbs for the school garden, I kid you not, and were asked to come up with some fund raising ideas to fund the new tarmac which was put down in the teachers car park!

I am new to all this but apparently it gets worse.
 
They put down tarmac and then look to parents to pay after? Work for private sector - have hardcore carpark and no hope of tarmac,
25€ per child for photocoping? €750 for class of 30- for 9 months use? 8 classes, a sweet 6k - are they buying a new one each year or what?
The mind boggles.

I think anyone becoming principle shouls have to do a basic bookkeeping / payroll course so that these sort of expenses are shown to be going where they should. In the UK schools are monitored by the councils who monitors their accounts here?
 
What I cannot grasp is what the hell they need to photcopy, she has ten books in junior infants surely that is enough without ever needing one other piece of paper photocopied.

As to the car park issue suffice to say they got no voluntary contribution for me and I am still pondering a good money making idea for them.
 
nelly said:
They put down tarmac and then look to parents to pay after? Work for private sector - have hardcore carpark and no hope of tarmac,
25€ per child for photocoping? €750 for class of 30- for 9 months use? 8 classes, a sweet 6k - are they buying a new one each year or what?
The mind boggles.

I think anyone becoming principle shouls have to do a basic bookkeeping / payroll course so that these sort of expenses are shown to be going where they should. In the UK schools are monitored by the councils who monitors their accounts here?
Click to expand...
You would think by the griping here that the schools don't want decent facilities.
I have no problem with people complaining about all of the above grievances, but please, direct your complaints to the government (and probably to every govt. this country has had).
My wife and mother are both teachers, my mother in NI, my wife down here, each is in amazement at what the other has to put up with in terms of assistance and facilities. The facilities in NI (and by extension UK) are state of the art, no child has to pay for anything, each teacher has a classroom assistant etc etc, most class sizes are mid 20's. Compare with my wife's situation, 36 6yo's with no assistant, a school where the heating fails twice a month, a playground which is not big enough to allow all the kids out at each break.....
With regards to the various payments which parents have to make, in my wife's previous school (underprivleged area), she would annually spend several hundred pounds on art material which would not be reimbursed as parents had not paid enough.
Anyway, rant over.
 
It is not the individual schools which are at fault nor the teachers.
It is the education system.

HAs your wife addressed her gripes to the relevant place?
 
Bamhan said:
It is not the individual schools which are at fault nor the teachers.
It is the education system.

HAs your wife addressed her gripes to the relevant place?
Click to expand...
I agree totally, the system is in need of a complete overhaul, yet what will the govt. do with their 3bn surplus (my money is on a big stamp duty cut, part of the deal McDowell cut with BA yesterday)?
Re my wife's funding of the arts budget, unless the school has all the various fundraising initiatives as mentioned previously, either the teacher pays or the kids do without. (it's no longer a problem as she has moved school, not that she ever had a problem with it anyway, the only anger expressed was from me!!).
 
either the teacher pays or the kids do without.
Click to expand...

I hope she claims this as a deduction in her tax return.
The expense was completely work related.

-Rd
 
this is not an isolated case I suspect. think lots of primary teachers in particular with younger classes purchase art and drawing materials themselves. not unusual for parents committees to fund gym/computer equipment and in the case of a secondary school we assisted with a language laboratory. but that was then and the country is now awash with money so the department should be funding this now. The one thing that did change in the mid 90's was the income tax rule. Its pretty obvious to most that tax rules by and large favour the wealthy in this country. ( if everone owned a horse for instance do you think there would be zero tax on the industry?) in the mid 1990's when voluntary contributions were taking off a lot of schools came up with the deed of covenant route ie you made a deed of covenant out to the school for say £50 and they claimed back the tax. government stopped that one dead pretty quickly but again it was only brought in to facilitate the rich making such covenants to 'non relatives' and being the recipient of other 'non relatives' ( in other words a mirror covenant) and the government never thought for one minute the average man in the street might actually be able to avail of it. when he did they abolished it. same as they alway do. and always will.
 
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