TestaRossa

I pay just under €4 per day for one child, so nearly €20 for a full week, but I think for what they get it is worth it. If they were taking packed lunches in you probably wouldn't get much change out of that anyway, and you don't have the hassle! Thing is we are used to paying a lot less in the UK for this service - but having seen the Jamie Oliver prog, you can see why!!

Lorna at Vicenza

Alex is in his last year at scuola materna and gets a fab lunch every day. He eats what he gets given that day. The monthly menu is up for all to see.

The school bill is 100 euro per month. That is mainly for the meals but I've never had to provide him with a book, paints, pencil etc. The bill gets reduced if your kids has been off sick so that must be the price of lunch coming off.

Chloe's school lunches are optional and she only has lunch at school twice a week when she does "rientro". Her lunches cost 2.30 euro.

She has a special booking key. We have the menu at home. She has to choose from a main option A or option B and there is always loads of salad, veg, fruit and yoghurt too. I have to make sure her key has 'money' on it. There is machine to do this in the school and in the library. I can just give her 10 euros though and she can 'fill up' her own key inside school.

The comune set up a website so that parents can track what their kids are really booking and how much money is left on the key.
It is called "Easy Meal". I won't tell you how many parents can't say that properly.

indiebird

I know you are right Testarossa. Could you imagine the hassle of having to go and collect them for lunch, make lunch and then take them both back?? I too am really impressed by the food. I used to make packed lunches in the UK just because I had no faith in the School dinners there. However the bill to the commune each month does feel quite painful. Never felt as bad in the Uk sending in £2 on the rare occasions my son had lunch there.I suppose there is a reprieve over the summer though.

The system you have Lorna sounds better. I dread to think how much I have spent on stationary for both of my kids. One at the scuola materna and one at elementary. I have also had to replace an 'inferior quality' pencil case that I brought at Woolies last summer and two lots of english felt tips that were apparently too dry for those giotto ones that cost a fortune at the local cartoleria. I have now learnt to just go and buy pencil cases for next year here so that my kids do not stick out too much. The teachers were beside themselves when I explained that in the UK our taxes pay for stationary at school. They said we must pay a lot of tax then......

TestaRossa

Plus my dd would almost certainly want egg mayonnaise everyday! A pain to make and you can't really do a week all at once, not unless you want a house smelling of egg forever anyway!! Plus there is always some waste from packed lunches, so on the few occasions I've had to do them - we had a strike last year - I've always ended up with half eaten packs of stuff that get thrown. I'm also very wary of stuff going off in the heat here. I get sick at the mere whiff of bad fish or milk so I couldn't imagine what a yogurt or tuna sarny would be like after 4 hours in a backpack!! Even an insulated one.!

Antonia took Winx crisps in today. She only wants them for the gift!!

Lorna at Vicenza

Tell them to stuff themselves.

I have to buy all Chloe's things for elementary school and I bloody well refused to pay 18 euro for a 3 zipper pencil case that is nothing but covered cardboard and a few elastic straps to hold the pens and pencils in place.

I buy as much as I can in the cheap bargain shops in the UK, especially huge packs of pencils for a quid, pencil crayons for a quid and packets of nice smooth gel pens. 6 for 69p in Wilkos or 10 blue or 10 black ones in the pound shop. I also buy loads and loads of glue sticks in the UK as the only ones here are brands like Pritt - Uhu and Giotto and cost 2 euro something each.
Nobody gives a damn in Chloe's class if hers says Asda or Tesco. They don't know what Asda is and at least Chloe knows exactly which stuff is hers.

Chloe's pencil case is now an English plastic washable one that has three zipped sections. It cost me £2. I bought her zaino school bag here .... English rucksacks were tons cheaper but not really the right size.

Some of her friends love her stuff and keep asking where she gets rubbers and stickers and things with her name printed on them!!!

I do have to buy her exercise books here though as they just don't exist back home.

I've also seen that all the kids have their names written on tiny strips of paper that are then sellotaped one by one to each pencil and pencil crayon.

I did what I was taught in the UK ......... get a stanley knife .... scrape off a section of colour at the end of the pencil and write the name with a fine pen on the wooden bit underneath. So much easier and faster and the kid doesn't eventually end up with scaggy bits of sellotape unravelling off each pencil.

indiebird

Lorna please tell me how I say 'stuff yourself' in Italian!!

I did buy the Zaino here as it needs to be humongous!!! How all Italians are not hunch-backed I do not know!!

Lorna at Vicenza

Just tell them nicely that if they can find the same things here at the same prices that you can in the UK then you're happy to buy things here.

Only one teacher has ever commented and she told me that Chloe's glue stick wouldn't last her too long as the Italian ones were a bit bigger and fatter.

I said "yes - but for the price of just one of those, I got Chloe a pack of ten glue sticks, so hers will eventually last her a lot longer."

Chloe might have to change hers a bit more often but it's a simple case of chucking out the finished one and getting a new one from the drawer in my desk!

duffer

Was it an Invicta by any chance?

indiebird

Also what on earth do they do with all those glue sticks?? I am convinced my kids must eat them!! Wasn't an invicta was something else (not here so cannot look!!). I was genuinely shocked at the prices though. My goodness!! €1 for a capuccino at the cafe but nearly €50 for a flipping backback!!

TestaRossa

Yes, I think they are pricey. I paid €25 for one with wheels for Antonia, so smaller than the school ones, the big one was around €50 like you say, even if it was Winx.

Can't remember the name of the big brand here...Something pak? I know all the kids have them.

Lorna at Vicenza

Chloe's is a "Seven".

I told her that the nice dark blue one with bits of pink and silver decoration was much better than a really expensive Barbie or Bratz one etc. It also meant that she wouldn't have the same old barbie as somebody else. Thankfully she liked it.

I got it almost a whole year before she started school. It was when all the left over ones not sold for that school year were reduced.

I think it still cost 29 euro though.

She's been using it for 3 school years and it should do next year as well. Not one catch or zip broken on it. It weighs a ton some days. I keep saying to her "leave some of these books under your desk at school"

indiebird

That be the one Lorna!! My son has a bright red Seven Zaino that came with some fabric pens so he could decorate it how he wanted.... it is still plain red!! I am hoping to do same kinda thing for my lovely daughter too but I have a feeling that only Winx or Barbie will do..... best start finding some English students then and saving up.....

37100

Lorna, do you have to have a Isee to pay for meals etc or does everyone pay the same? We do here and my son had to get one for uni fees and meals in Turin. You need it for just about everything in Verona from health to meals to waste.

Lorna at Vicenza

Lunch price is same for all.

I think the ISEE only makes a difference for the comune nursery school ... the Asilo Nido. That is definately based on income.

Having said that it might also make a difference to school bus prices that are comune run. I know the Muslim woman next door fills out loads of forms each school year. Think she gets discounted school books and maybe the transport too. Not for school dinners though becuse they can always come home for lunch. School dinners is a choice and not obligatory.

indiebird

I think here it is banded for income for the school bus and for lunches too. However the amounts on the forms, as far as I understand are rather miserly and most people must pay the top rate. Especially if two of you work as most people I know do.