Free book scheme secondary

[Parent2ateen]

My DS went back to school today. He collected his stationary stuff(1 red, blue, black pen, 1 pencil, 1 ruler, 1 rubber, 1 sharpener, 4 PK of highlighters, 9 copies, 1 folder, journal and another scientific calculator.) They are the cheapest things that will either break or leak before midterm and all will have to be replaced.

Last year we had to buy an iPad.

What school stuff did your kids get?
What are the schools spending the book money on?

This is my first year with no Back to School... I've never got anything free. Seem to always miss it - even when they were in primary.

@TaTuirseOrm every school gets this so no idea why your kids did not?

Mine just gone back today so assume same as yours OP as that is what we got last year anyway. First year we paid for everything so it is fantastic not to have to this year and last.

Because my kids have finised school.
As I said this is my first year with no back to school, so I've somehow always missed free school books by a year or so, same happened in primary.

Because my kids have finished school.
As I said this is my first year with no back to school, so I've somehow always missed free school books by a year or so, same happened in primary.

My youngest starts back next week. Collected his yesterday. So impressed. He got:

• All his books covered and labelled with his name
• Hard back copies
• Regular copies
• Black, blue, red pen
• Highlighter. Pencil, rubber, sharpener, ruler, colouring pencils
• Maths set
• A4 folder
• Journal

Waiting on calculators to be delivered.

What do you mean by your child getting the cheapest things? I'm not sure many kid were bringing in much beyond Mr Price biros, rulers and pencils before now. And the books are what they always were.

This is our first time getting free books in secondary. I'm delighted. It has saved us so much money.

Don't get me wrong it's brilliant that they are giving this stuff free to the pupils. I'm curious as to what the kids are getting as I heard they get €300 per student. Last year going into first year we had to buy an iPad through the school which including insurance and ebooks cost €800. We didn't get physical books.
What I mean by the cheapest is cheap plastic pens(not bic), small tiny plastic sharpener which will get get lost or broken, the maths set the compass doesn't work as pencil that came with it doesn't fit in and lid of metal tin is already broken. It looks like the brought the cheapest of supplies which to me looks likely I'll have to replace by midterm. Everything came in a large prepacked by the school folder.
No way they got €300 of stuff. Books on iPad are same from last yr. Just curious on what the money was spent on.

We've also had to buy an iPad. For one of my older ones we also had to buy the physical books. This time the books are free through the school.

Its 309 euro per junior cycle student. Not let year though. I could well imagine a child gets most of the 300 euros worth of stuff in 1st year, but less in 2nd and 3rd. The free school book scheme for Junior cycle was in place last year though, so I would have thought you'd have got books then. It's this year that senior cycle came into the scheme. My child going into 6th year didn't get anything like 300 euros worth of stuff, but equally doesn't need it. Most of the books needed we bought last year as they cover 5th and 6th year.

We did get a metal sharpener though!

No, no physical books last year. Some schools in the area had to buy iPads for first year but also got the books to keep at home. I would have preferred that as my son learns better from books rather then the distraction from a screen where he can watch you tube on a split screen while doing his work.
They got 2 workbooks last year everything else was uploaded into the iPad. The quality of the stationary stuff last year was better. I'd say pushing it there's probably €30 worth of stuff that includes copies and calculator.
We have to buy a novel for English which we had to do last yr as well. The second novel after Christmas they get a loan of from the school.
I've no problem buying what my DS needs but if the school is getting €300 per child and there's over 800 kids in the school that's a lot of money what are they spending it on. It's a DEIS school as well so they get extra funding

DS (secondary) just got 5 hard back copy books. The End!