First Term Blues...

[Inertia]

What are some schools thinking? As if back to school in itself is not painful enough, I can't believe how much money the schools have asked for already and they have only been back for a week!!

$310 for the HS fees
$130 for the Primary fees
$100 for the primary book packs
$50 for the HS book packs

Then I know coming up in the near future is $120 for all the kids school photos, around $90 for Mr C's "Peer Support Camp" - Yes, you read that right, camp. According to our local HS, Peer support is only for those that can afford it.

Then the HS also kicked us low, they have got a new company to do the uniforms, which decided to leave their mark and "update" it, and they want all the girls to get the new school skirt, which is ONLY available through the school shop at $55 EACH!!!!

All this in the first term!

They have got to be kidding me. Apparently its not possible to spread this stuff out over the year, they need us free to pay for the "someone dropped a hat" mufty days they hold every other day.

Sorry for the vent, just got all the notes today, the book pack one especially fun as it needs to be paid tomorrow, right after the dog houdinied a couple of hundred out of my bank account and oh yeah, Miss A got a suspension warning.

How bad is your bill looking.

[mrsmac]

We get our school fees each term which have all excursions, sport etc on them. This term there will be textbooks on it as well. Our textbooks MUST be under $40 per child (I teach at the school) and we limit excursions to 3 a year max. Nothing bad happens if you haven't paid they just keep sending you reminders!!

[maz]

I got our fee's yesterday and promptly put them in the big

$1500 for the year for the 2 boys (but that includes everything bar uniforms)
$90 term for V's 3yo kinder

I still owe $200+ from last year too that I'll be paying off.

[mrsmac]

Riley's preschool is $620 for the term Maz!! That's 2 days a week too.

[Lulu]

Then the HS also kicked us low, they have got a new company to do the uniforms, which decided to leave their mark and "update" it, and they want all the girls to get the new school skirt, which is ONLY available through the school shop at $55 EACH!!!!

Apart from the rest of it , surely they can't expect you to buy a new skirt - no school I have heard of does that! Usually they let you use the old stuff and replace it as needed.

I got heartily sick of the PS "book packs", by the time DD had left there were packets and packets of UNUSED pastels, crayons and pencils...

But I love DS's new school. It costs me about $150 a week but that includes all books, stationary, excursions, swimming and the week long camp. AND NO UNIFORMS wooooo!

[maz]

Riley's preschool is $620 for the term Maz!! That's 2 days a week too.

I am never complaining again

[Amity]

DS2's 4 year old kinder is $620 for this term but it's only 8 weeks. Next term which is 12 weeks is nearly $800.

DS1 school fees are over $400 at the local state school! And last year it was uniform ($27.50 for a size 6 T-shirt and over $40 for a size 6 JUMPER... almost $80 for the School Bag....let alone shorts/pants/shoes etc that I managed to buy from Target instead of the school uniform shop!)

And don't get me started on my daycare fees (DS2 goes to daycare when he's not in kinder)...

[Inertia]

Seems to be the norm here, Lulu. When the Primary redid their shirt (also custom made and only available through the school) they decided to phase it in over 2 years, this year is the first year where the old honeydew shirt is no longer official school uniform.

But the HS doesn't seem to be anywhere near as nice. They were on the phone to us last year because Angie was "out of school uniform". I said 'she left in the red sports shirt and black gymnastics pants' coz she was doing gymnastics and I didnt want her baggy sports shorts to get caught and risk her falling.... the reply was "Yes, but the pants have a blue pinstripe".

Wish I was joking. They wanted us to drive right over there that moment with different pants for her.

Uniform nazi schools drive me up the wall. The Primary kids get detention for the wrong colour socks. Last time that happened to Lyta I called the school and reminded them that it had been raining for weeks. Now I can send her in clean pink socks or stinky crusty yellow unwashed 'white' socks. As it was we were drying their school uniforms with the heater in the house. We just hadn't given socks a thought.

I swear, if it were not for the quality of the education at that school, everything else about it would have had me running for the hills.

[Lulu]

I don't actually pay for kinder though...thank heavens for a HCC. I couldn't even try to afford kinder fees.
Xp pays the PS fees as child support and it's this teeny tiny independent school that I love to BITS. The fees go towards maintaining the horses, goats, geese and chickens - their feed and the fences etc, as well as including everything upfront. It isn't cheap...but I actually think it is at the end of the day. I also have a few different option re fee paying and even those those didn't suit me they were happy to accept a different proposal

So much has changed. When DD1 was at school, there was a generic uniform (that you could buy anywhere) and labelled school tops etc....but it was fine to wear a plain one as long as it was school colours. NOW, even the local primary has a sports top worth nearly $50 (!), the uniform must be bought at a specialist (although it's very nice) yadda yadda. That really PEEVED me.

At least I can go to Best and Less and buy 4 pairs of hard wearing boys shorts for $7 each and DS can wear any old shirt he feels like. In fact it's best if he does wear old stuff because it's a mini-farm setting.

And I'd like to publicly thank OLIVE for helping me find this school....

[Amity]

Lulu, it's a fabulous school and suits your DS down to the ground. Well done Olive!

[Amaunet]

All those bills at once are awful. As a high school teacher - a few tips

You can "pay off" the fees - pay a bit each term. If you are having trouble getting the money for camp - you can usually organise a payment plan for this too (I know you can at my school). If your kids need to be out of uniform for any reason - just make sure you send them with a note explaining the problem - this should avoid you getting those phone calls.

Big hugs - hope the bills stop soon!