Eddie Hobbs & the junior school

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nelly

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anyone see it last night- pathetic that a state school have to raise money all the time for to "turn on the lights and heat" because the funding ran out by January each year. Good timing to raise it as an issue for the upcoming election though.
I missed the ending - did they lease space to a creche afterwards or was it just a suggestion?
 
While I sympathise with the school I wasn't sure of the point of the programme.

Eddie considers the issues, mulls them around, and at the end of the 30 mins (less ads) can't come up with anything......sounds like the bottom of the barrel was being scraped. Is it near the end of the series?
 
There are other grants schools can apply for besides capitation grants - I know there are specific allowances for cleaning costs for example. This didn't seem to be considered.

Also, I thought the principal of the school specifically wasn't allowed be in charge of setting the budget? I thought that role fell to the board of management?

Seemed fairly pointless alright.
 
I missed the ending - did they lease space to a creche afterwards or was it just a suggestion?
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Nope, Eddie didn't seem to think it would work. At the end of the program, he admitted that this is the first time he's been stumped and that he couldn't come up with a solution that could help the schools financial situation. This was because they couldn't cut costs anymore (they had already cut them as much as possible pre Hobbs coming in), they had done as much fundraising as they could do and the creche idea wasn't a viable one.

Eddie lost for words... never saw that coming!
 
just goes to show how frustrating aspects of teaching is - the young teacher who said that after all the fundraising etc that they see nothing new in the school (no new equipment etc) it was simply to pay for for basics that should - it really made me think. It also made me thankful that we had a great nuns who were forever raising money for the primary and secondary schools i went to. For all the negatives of having a church supported school system that was a positive.
They mentioned that the grants were so specific that they money they got that way could not be channeled into paying for power and heat and the principal really noted that the increase in power costs has hit schools particularly hard.
 
Slightly off topic but I would have to wonder also about previous episodes being used for free advertising. The boiler one last week was a typical example and its not the first time this has happened. They use all the presumably free advice and then ignore it at the end of the show.
 
sueellen said:
Slightly off topic but I would have to wonder also about previous episodes being used for free advertising. The boiler one last week was a typical example and its not the first time this has happened. They use all the presumably free advice and then ignore it at the end of the show.
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the bakery, the dancing teacher, the fish farmer.... yep a few blatent attempts at getting advertising however i dunno how "free" it is - you pay teh price by have the country talking about your finances
 
nelly said:
They mentioned that the grants were so specific that they money they got that way could not be channeled into paying for power and heat and the principal really noted that the increase in power costs has hit schools particularly hard.
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I attended a primary school that was classified as "disadvantaged" (and still is) - I presume the school mentioned would be similarly classified. My mother still serves on the board of management and I know they do get specific grants. Not for light and heat of course but they do get money towards the cost of cleaning. They also get extra teachers and funding for remedial classes. I was surprised none of these options were considered or explored and I thought the programme was set up to make a political point as much as anything else.
 
....nuns who were forever raising money for the primary and secondary schools...
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The single biggest source of funds were their (Government paid) salaries which were put back into the kitty to run the school.
 
Kildrought said:
The single biggest source of funds were their (Government paid) salaries which were put back into the kitty to run the school.
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government paid - they were teachers and all teachers salaries are government paid, yes it probably was ploughed back into the school to a large extent however i doubt completely as they also funded non-school charitable causes in the community and abroad with their salaries.
 
room305 said:
... I know they do get specific grants. Not for light and heat of course but they do get money towards the cost of cleaning. They also get extra teachers and funding for remedial classes. I was surprised none of these options were considered or explored ...
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Yeah but the point was and is that all grants are targetted and cannot be offset against something else like for eg the heating bill or the water rates.

I found it thought provoking. If there was a political message it wasn't biased in that they did comment at the end that FF have committed to increasing the capitation grant by 100%, I think. Although when that would happen or whether it would be a staged increase was not known. I also thought it was mentioned that all the parties had increased capitation as part of their 'promises' for the future?

If some of the contributers were seeking free advertising I'd imagine some of it would have backfired in that if you are offering a service or a product and you let yourself be seen in a vulnerable or even incompetent light that will hardly have a beneficial affect. Although they do say all publicity is good publicity?
 
Vanilla said:
Yeah but the point was and is that all grants are targetted and cannot be offset against something else like for eg the heating bill or the water rates.
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They were spending over €17k of a €60k odd capitation grant on cleaners for the school. If they sought and received a separate grant (there are grants for cleaning available) for this cost the money currently spent could be redirected towards lighting and heating bills.
 
for a short while in the 90's I was on a board of management. the insurance for the school ate up over half the capitation grant. and you had no choice of insurance either, church and general were the only company willing to take on school insurance.
 
nelly said:
just goes to show how frustrating aspects of teaching is - the young teacher who said that after all the fundraising etc that they see nothing new in the school (no new equipment etc) .
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The sad thing is that the contributers to school fundraisers are.......the staff and parents of the kids. If you are fundraising for a schoool in a middle-class area you will invariably raise more money, thus the school will have more resources. What happened to all the children of the nation being considered equal? (not)
(I'm surprised Purple hasn't chipped in to say schools would be much more efficiently run by the private sector ;) )
 
room305 said:
I've absolutely no idea but I'll be sure to ask if I'm home later in the week.
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To be frank, I think you should have checked it out before you stated;

"There are other grants schools can apply for besides capitation grants - I know there are specific allowances for cleaning costs for example."

"but they do get money towards the cost of cleaning"

"(there are grants for cleaning available)"
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RainyDay said:
To be frank, I think you should have checked it out before you stated;
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I happened to be at home when the programme was screened. My mother who chairs the board of management of a primary school where I grew up watched the programme with me. I was merely relaying her comments but I accept I should have made this explicit. As I said, I will endevour to find out the exact name of the grant for you.
 
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