Larissa

Hi guys
I wasn't that organised before Chrimbo and didn't get my school book list sorted and given in. To be honest, I was still adjusting to life in Aus and functioning at about 20% of usual capacity... sleeping a lot and doing absolutely gilch!
So I went to Edith Cowan Uni (our local "Woolridges") for my daughter's school supplies. This was a strange experience as it's something we don't have to do in the UK. It took a while to locate the different coded books and pens etc. (lots of "textas") and I didn't bother buying the crayons as they looked a bit too pre-school to me!
The bill came to about $60.00, with a dictionary on order as they'd run out. It would have been more if I hadn't already bought some stuff last year, when we first arrived. What shocked me was that another guy was infront of me in the queue and spend over $300.00 on his 2 lads... I'd place them as being lower secondary age.
It also seems to be a really bad way to manage school resources. As a teacher myself (on a career break still!) I would find it annoying to have kids turning up to school with different bundles of school supplies... I imagine that the majority of parents would be organised and fork out the money, but what about poorer families or parents who just cannot be bothered? Do these kids simply do without or not?
Larissa

renth

There are plenty of those, the ones who can't be bothered are mostly poms and the poor ones Aussies. They make do with what little they've got and steal stuff off the other kids.

Pollyana

interesting point - we don;t have kids, but people at work talk about buying all the stuff for school.
in the UK there were plenty of kids who couldn't afford 'extras' like trips, and parents who either couldn't or wouldn't pay for stuff.
So how does that work here where the onus is on the parent to buy the lot? What does happen if lickle Sheila turns up without pencil or exercise book?
And I don't mean parents who can't be bothered, so much as can't afford it.

jad n rich

Text books annoyingly they get the kid next to them to share, hardly ideal. Or photocopy pages.

Paper pencils, those who buy find some of it walks and keep replenishing, if a kid has no books provided teachers seem to delve into what was left over from last years pupils or dip into the pile of books supplied by other parents. This year we have been asked to provide 36 pencils per kid, think if they ask for that many it covers those who dont bother. In my experience in well off areas, most provide the books but many skip the levies then the kids get no art or whatever as nobodies paid. In the poor schools sending no lunch is apparently common.

I dont mind the stationary its the envelopes that get me. So far, 2x $25 for class levies, paint, paper etc, and 2x $12 to use the school pool. We've been back 3 days. We pay but on a weekly basis this does add up. Just another little thing to allow for when budgeting for OZ.

E=mc2

Our school sent home a list before christmas with this term's listed item's, we had a choice, either buy itn ourselves or give the school $60 and they sort it out, we chose the latter through sheer laziness. We could of probably saved a few bob by getting it ourselves but it is a small price to pay for a childs education.

debsy

Yes we also ordered the schools book pack. It was easier than trundling round the shops.

Bix

Bet you thrived at it to

Our lad is about to start TAFE on a 6 month IT course and the 5 textbooks he needs total about AUD 300 plus all the other day to day stationary items. No doubt there will be numerous other IT things that crop up too.
This is all on top of the AUD 5,000 enrolment fee.

Brissiegirl

There is a thriving market in second hand text books. Check out the classifieds in the local paper, look at the school notice board.. some schools run a second hand text book sale at the start of semester or the the start of the school year - check with your kids school secretary/admin people - they should be able to help. Also remember you can get second hand school uniforms - again check with the school secretary/admin people. It's a good way to save some dollars, you kids get what they need for their education and everyone is happy.

Many of my school books were second hand, and some uniforms (I went to 2 state schools).

Also, University Student Unions often run a 2nd hand book shop - good for Uni texts which very expensive.

... I remember my parents getting the 'packs of school preferred project books/work books/pens etc.. think it helped for kids to have similar stuff - think haves/have nots is pretty hard on kids - also stopped stuff being pinched like 'fancy' pencil sharpeners and so on.. amazing what kids will do!!

Siren & Brian

For kids in primary schools its about $60 a year for all the stuff they need. (excursionare extra) Now if there are people out there that can not afford this to help educate their kids, then they need to sort there shit out. Stop there smoking for a few days. Dont drink for a week. Its bugger all.

ABCDiamond

We did it the same way, much easier, although I did look at the comparison prices just in case Our book list was $150 for the year, some schools are more expensive, others cheaper. We also pay a fixed $131 per term which covers all other materials and activities levys, including the camp they go on. This replaces the ad-hoc $25 here, $30 there for odds and ends. Ours is a bit more expensive than the local State schools though.

MrsDagboy

I absoutely, positively, definitely agree with you!

Our school insists that everything be labelled with the childs name, a bit hard to steal something or give it to another child when it has John Smith plastered all over it .

Pollyana

i agree too, thats not a huge amount of money - as you say, sacrifice the booze or fags or something. Yeah, its easy for me to say, with no kids, but then one of the reasons I don't have kids is because I chose to balance my life this way. If you choose to have the kids you should put them first.
However, I'm sure we all know of people who don't.

Larissa

I have absolutely no problem with coughing up 60 bucks for my kids, but I do have a problem with a system which I perceive to lack equality; particularly when there's older kids out there doing exams etc. without textbooks as their parents can't be bothered to pay or who can't pay. I think it would be better for schools to ask for book contributions, order from the same supplier then distribute among the kids and reuse as necessary. It sounds like teachers in less privaledged areas are having to spend valuable teaching time organising books and doing extra photocopying, which can't be good for the kids as a whole.

MrsDagboy

Our school this year has decided to do just that & parents are asked to pay $25 for the maths text book that the school is ordering. I can imagine that in some schools there would be huge numbers that just dont pay, leaving the school seriously out of pocket. So now the emphasis has been moved, from a small percentage of parents who wont be bothered to buy the book(for whatever reason), to the school being left short of money because certain parents wont pay the fee asked. The end result is that, if there is a significant enough amount of money not paid by the parents(and at $25/book in our case, it only takes a dozen families not to pay for the school to be $300 out of pocket, times that by how many wouldnt pay in a not so good area ), then the school cant supply other important classroom materials either & the kids still miss out.

So do we rob Peter to pay Paul, or not?

FWIW, in our school, generally teachers dont do any photocopying, its all done by either teachers aides or non contact staff. And we seem to be lucky as there are only a very small percentage of parents that dont pay the levies charged or buy the required books & stationery for the kids.

Polly, absolutely true too.

Larissa

[QUOTE=MrsDagboy]

So do we rob Peter to pay Paul, or not?

QUOTE]

Good point and post... but I still maintain its a flawed system and perhaps schools should be given government budgets for materials as in the UK then, not that it's the perfect system of anything :scared: