If you are like me, you are probably in the middle of organising your kids school stuff right now. My eldest will be starting school in September for the very first time. Well, it’s the 31st August. When it comes to this kind of stuck I like to be on top of everything and ready to go.
In May hubby and me attended the parenting and teacher meeting. We got to know Matthew’s teacher and received several informative fact sheets such as what uniform he has to wear. Just a few weeks after that, Marks and Spencer’s had a 20% sale on for all school uniforms. I jumped at the opportunity and bought Matthew’s shoes, shirts, trousers and jumpers. They are now nicely hanging in his wardrobe ready for the big day. All this came to just under €70.
The tracksuit we had to buy locally. I bought two sizes because he is swimming in the 5-6 jumper. Also tracksuit bottoms he is still in 4-5 because he is so skinny. 5-6 trousers would fall off him. The price of two tracksuits came to €70. Something I will have to get used to and probably will take me a while as in Germany we do not have uniforms in school. There are pros and cons but I much prefer no uniform. For Matthew to wear a shirt will be an achievement in itself. I prefer him going to school in more comfortable clothes. But if that’s the rules, sure what can we do.
Recently Barnardos asked 1800 parents to take part in their school costs survey which I took part in, too. As you can probably imagine, the cost of school has risen. Barnardos allowed me to share their infographic with you lovely lot. You are more than welcome to share this on social media to show friends and family.
I found it quite interesting to read. 45% of parents had to cut back on daily expenses to be able to cover the cost of clothing, footwear, books, material etc. We still haven’t got our book list yet, so who knows how much we will have to pay for that come September. But it looks like the school is organising the books and we don’t have to chase around the Easons store and find the books ourselves.
I would love to hear your opinion on these results and the cost of schools in Ireland in general.
