Ms Colette Kavanagh:

My school is relatively new and this is our sixth year in operation. Each year we have used our book grant to purchase all the books for a specific subject, for example one year we purchased all the history books, the following year we purchased all the science books and so on. Gradually parents had a lower book bill, as they had to pay for fewer books as the years went on. We get parents to pay a rental charge of a quarter of the value of the books. In second level schools, it would be very different as teachers may want to use different schemes in their classrooms. I can understand how it would be much different.

The question of after school care was also raised. The cost of after-school care is a major issue. I know that Educate Together is looking at forging a relationship between its school and a not-for-profit organisation, where the schools could be used as a venue for after-school child care at a reduced cost. We think that is a very good initiative if we can help parents with after-school child care without being involved. Obviously we cannot do it ourselves, it has to come from somebody else.

There is an initiative in Lucan, which has five Educate Together schools called "time banking", where parents, teachers and children all can donate time to the school - Mr. David Campbell referred to schools as communities - where people work for the school and help to run after-school clubs. If one gives an hour of one's time then one gets an hour's worth of service. Let us take the example of a mother who works in the after-school club on a Monday, she can get an hour's "time banking" for her child on another day. Parents are working toward giving to the school but also getting something that has a value for them as a result.