Book Rental Scheme
It is a teacher lead team which is over seen by the school Board of Management. The team is lead by Andrea Burke-Khan and supported by parents.
The Book Squad operates the Book Savings Scheme & the Book Rental Scheme.
If you would like to contact the Book Squad by email please contact us at booksavingscheme@gvet.ie or attend and of our collection mornings. Parents will receive a text with dates and times.
Email: booksavingscheme@gvet.ie
Alternatively, attend and of our collection mornings, parents will receive a text with dates and times.
It is a teacher-lead service which is over seen by the board of management and supported by parent volunteers. The Book Rental scheme is an optional service which the school operates in order to organise the bulk purchasing of school books and classroom supplies at a substantial discount and arranges for these to be sold to parents at the reduced rate.
Depending on which class your child is attending, if you choose to avail of the Book Rental Scheme your child will be supplied with all single use workbooks, textbooks, protective mesh bag and classroom supplies such as pencils, crayons, all copybooks, sharpeners, erasers, rulers etc. As your child progresses through the school the classroom supplies increase to include items such as folders, scrapbooks, homework journals, calculators, maths sets, reference books such as atlases, dictionaries and tables books. Every child is supplied with a mesh bag to store their rental books in to protect them from spillages and food stains. These mesh bags are reused under the rental scheme and are to be returned to the school at the end of the year.
During the year your child will receive the books squad booklet. In order for the Book Squad to know how many books and classroom supplies to purchase, every parent who wishes to use the scheme must OPT- IN. You will be supplied with an OPT-IN form as part of the booklet. This form must be signed and returned to your child’s teacher by the date indicated. If you have more than one child you will need to return one form per child. These forms are colour-coded depending on the year and are easily identifiable.
Junior Infants will receive a Pink form.
Senior Infants will receive a Lilac form.
1st Class will receive a Blue form.
2nd Class will receive a Yellow form.
3rd Class will receive a Red form.
4th Class will receive a Orange form.
5th Class will receive a Green form.
It allows parents who are opting-in to the Book Rental Scheme to spread the cost over the year. This enables parents to save towards the cost of the next year’s school books. Families with a number of children may find this scheme particularly useful. The scheme is overseen by the school Board of Management.
The Book Savings Scheme has its own bank account, which is separate to the main school account, and transfers money to the Book Rental Scheme only when books have been ordered.
Parents can pay any amount of money into the savings scheme. Cash collections usually happen during the first week of the month – you will receive a text message from the school when these are happening. The amount you pay is recorded in a membership book, which you keep. Unfortunately we can not accept cheques or Visa Card. Parents can, however, pay onto the bank account by bank transfer.
During the first weeks of the new school year Junior Infant parents who have opted-in as part of their registration will receive an email with their Book Squad membership number and details of how to transfer money. This scheme is completely optional.
If parents have not paid enough money to cover the cost of books in June they can simply pay the balance on any of the book payment days. These book payment days usually take place during the month of June, prior to the new school year commencing. If you have overpaid into the savings scheme for your books you will receive a refund of any balance on your savings card.
Once you Opt-in to the rental scheme for the first time you will automatically receive a membership number. This number remains your family number until your youngest child leaves the school, regardless of whether you save any money or not.
Workbooks, Book Rental and Resource Fee
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Payments for books and resources will be divided into two parts:
1: For Book Rental*, Resources** and Educate Together fee*** – these fees are payable directly to the school and will be issued to parents via the Aladdin app. These fees DO NOT include workbooks or stationery items. Non-payment of these fees will result in rental books sets not being allocated for your child. See below for more information on the fees.
2: We have made arrangements with a local supplier School and Office World, to provide book packs and stationery packs at a discount for each year group. These can be ordered for delivery or collection from their shop located at Newlands Cross.
*Book Rental fee – this fee covers the cost of renting school textbooks for the full year. All rental books will be sanitised before redistributing to students.
**Resources fee – This fee covers the cost of all resources used during the school year which include – cleaning supplies, bathroom supplies, photocopying, online classroom learning resources, art supplies, classroom equipment and homework journals for senior classes. The Department of Education does not cover the cost of these items.
***Educate Together fee – Every child attending an Educate Together School must pay a fee of €15 each year. The school collects this fee on behalf of the patron and pays it directly to them for the coming academic year. The school does not keep any part of this fee.