Australia's Science Forum

Hi Guys

After attending a Labbies PD day on Friday I discovered, after a general chitchat, as you do, that my budget for equipment and chemicals was very low compared to other schools in the region. So I thought I would get an all over Australia consensus and ask my fellow labbies what their budgets are. You dont have to tell me the exact amount just an aproximate eg. under $1000, between $2000 & $5000 etc. Please also give an indication of how many students at school.
Who knows the result may give me some bargaining power to scrape up some more cash from somewhere.

Thanks guys
Nicky

Oxley High School is a large school with 1150 students. That means 7 or 8 classes in each year from 7-10 and usually 2 Biology, Physics and chemistry classes in both 11 and 12.

At this stage I get rather embarrassed as the budget we got this year for the Science faculty was over $ 15,000. This was for the new equipment chemicals etc as well as photocopying ( which in itself is over $ 4000) new text books and chemicals etc. The writing is on the wall and I can see that it will be drastically cut for next year so I have been having fun spending the money building up equipment whilst the money is available.

With 8 classes in each year I can need up to 3 class sets of equipment wanting to be used in the same lesson so I have been buying spring balances, lamps on stands, switches etc. to make up more than one class set.

I realise from talking with other Labbies that I am in a very fortunate position with regards to finances, most often I can just order what I need without ratifying it with the head teacher. Obviously expensive items like a new CRO are discussed with the faculty before purchase.

I hope this helps others to obtain a more realistic budget as having enough gear certainly helps our job.

Wendy

We pushed the point this year, and I got around $10,000 dollars - 70% for equipment and 30% consumables. Compared to other parts of the school, this is a very modest budget. By the way, I bought a great portable fume hood, which is obviously WAY more cyclone-proof than upgrading existing fume cupboards to meet current Aust standards. Call me if you want the ins and outs of that decision process.

Cheers, K

We get about $10,000 for a school with about 1000 students.
We spent all our money in the first three weeks of this year, because the HT wanted to get textbooks for all of Yr10, plus the senior texts.

What really bugs us is that Maths and English get about the same budget as us.

But we will pick up roughly $1800 soon because the Science faculty organises school photos - so WE get to claim the commission.

Carol

Our school has about 630 students and our total budget for this year is $7000. This for everything textbooks, consumables and equipment but not photocoping. In the past it has been up to $15000 but was cut in half this year as there was some budgetry crisis or other and I'll bet it won't be reinstated any year soon. But because we have been well budgetted for many years prior, our stores are well stocked and shouldn't hurt too much. Of course Science should have a much bigger budget that other subject areas like Maths or English. No point in having labs if you can't do pracs.

Our budget was cut in half this year - we have a new principal - to $11,000. We have just on 1,000 students. The English faculty got more than us which is very hard to understand.

Last year, as our budget was much bigger, we replenished and replaced a lot of equipment and bought a lot of text books.

This year we will spend our money on consumables eg. beakers, test tubes, organs for dissection, veges, milk and stuff for pracs.

So far so good this semester as we have more than half left.

Our budget this year is under 5000. This is for everything except photocopying, and also includes Agriculture's costs. We also have to pay for any photocopying costs over the limit - that then is taken off the next year's amount. Our budget has been this tight for the 4 years I've been here, and reducing each year, along with the school numbers - currently <830. Replacing equipment is a concern, and my 'wish list' only grows longer. The challenge is making ends meet, but I've had lots of personal experience with that(!!), and a good sense of humour also helps. We ask the staff to help out by bringing in consumables, particularly towards the end of the year, when we are usually 'targetting' leftover funds to replace some vital piece of equipment.
I have been told that Science 7-10 (in NSW), is not classified as a practical subject, which is why we get the same funding as Maths & English. What a Catch-22 situation that creates - how do we encourage the seniors to take Science if they don't get to do many pracs in the junior years? As a mother, I am concerned that the excess of photocopied pages they are given instead of textbooks, tends to turn them off rather than engage their attention.

Hi all

I am at a district high which means that primary areas come and borrow some equipment so I have to have enough for them as well but in terms of high school students there is only at most 90. Unfortunately to buy 1 bottle of any chemical is the same price initally so although I dont go through alot when I do have to replace I have to be very careful with my budget as i only get around $1000 - $1500. Recently our science co-ordinator got a grant/donation? from BHP and the solar schools grant to solar power our school and set up a evironmentally sustainable education program so all resources that are in any way linked to this can be purchased out of this.

In addition to the problem with low budget is the fact that I am in a remote area so goods are not always easy to come by or cost quite a bit for postage and freight and also it takes a while to get things here so it is hard for me to buy things at short notice meaning that I have to have supplies of most things (consumables and equipment) on hand.

It does make me more creative though lol.

Cheers
Nik

Hi All

Wow. I dont feel so bad now my budget just for equipment and chemicals is less then $1000. (We have approx 740 students.) That dosent include text books or anything. But still it is a stretch when I continually get broken glassware that needs to be replaced.

Anyway thanks for your replys its interesting to see that the private schools seem to have a bigger budget then state school obviously they can see the benefit of having up to date equipment etc to make our labs run well. Heres hoping......

Nicky

Our budget here has been reduced to $4500 for the year - some pretty fancy budgeting has had to be employed to cover most areas. All faculty's here are the same and all are complaining. Years K - 12 but 1200 in high school. How do we make do? Good question!

Sheeh! Painful Richard.
Lets hope that you have lots of backlogged stock to make up for the teeny budget this year.

At the Dubbo College/Senior Campus (Yrs.10,11,12) Science this year received $11,000 for Text books, Comsumables,Petty Cash and New Equipment. Text books take up most of the money though, and not much is spent on new equipment as it is very expensive.The College is just 6 years old and we received a substancial amount of money to set up.However that money is long gone!!! We have about 850 students.Photocopying is not included in the budget money thank God!! Otherwise we would have no money left after the first term!!! Paperless society, I don't think so.
Cheers
Mother

Paperless society!! I agree, what a joke I think we probably get a semi trailer load of paper each year just for copying. As a science department we aren't really helping out the environment in our school, the worst part is that a lot of the copying I do ends up just laying around. I also have a teacher who is passionate about the greenhouse effect and is always on her soap box to the students about it, guess who leaves the lights, fans, heaters on and walks out after every lesson!!!
I have even suggested to the head teacher to get this block set up on timers in the front office so that everything is turned off at break time, he thought that was a good idea but has it been done? Noooooooo.
I would like to find out more about the BHP grant for solar power.
Have a nice day.
Estelle