Jenny takes the pain out of back-to-school outfitting
“I would have spent a lot of time working with schools and parents, hearing about the struggles with costs, and the lack of support,” says Jenny, a Dubliner who has lived in Kilcullen for the last 13 years. “I wanted to put something together that combined the community and business models.”
The result was the ‘School Box’, a set of school clothing, footwear, and accessories such as water bottles and schoolbags, tailored to a child’s needs. There’s a set price for each box, and they are available for boys and girls at both primary and secondary schools. There are three levels of box with five, nine or 14 items, and three options within each level.
The clothing can be provided with the crest of the relevant school, and is Irish made, sourced from Hunter School Wear in Cavan. There’s also a school books section, the books sourced from Educate.ie.
All the ordering is carried out online at schoolbox.ie, and delivered to the customer’s home. In addition, there’s a unique option for customers to pay in three instalments between January and May.
“I found in my previous work that it was always summer time when families were struggling to get uniforms and books, and trying to find the money for them. Summer shouldn’t be like that, it should be family time. I came up with the phased payments idea, so for those who wanted it they could have that summer stress taken away.”
Customers can order directly, or can go to a dedicated space on the site for local schools who partner with schoolbox.ie. For instance, Scoil Bhride in Kilcullen has just linked up in this way.
Jenny says she was fortunate in that there were people willing to invest in her idea from the beginning, and she had also been conducting private practice psychotherapy, so she had an experience of business. “I also did a Start Your Own Business course with the Kildare Women’s Network through the Local Enterprise Office.”
Apart from knowing in advance what kitting out a child for school is going to cost overall, Jenny finds that the concept is also appreciated by parents who ‘don’t have to traipse around shops’ with their children to gather together all the required items. “And this year with the Covid situation, that’s even more important.”
The system is flexible. Parents can order individual items, or as a ‘box’, or schools can set up their own box set on their own tab on the site.
Outfitting a child or children for school is at any time a fraught and expensive process. In addition to making it easier by operating online, Jenny makes a strong point that schoolbox.ie is very competitive, quoting prices which can be a third less than from other sources.
As the coronavirus crisis recedes slowly there remain a number of unknowns in a variety of businesses and services. Particularly so in education, which hasn’t yet finalised how schools will look in September. At least getting the clothes and books together can be somewhat less painful than it used to be.
This article was originally published on The Kildare Nationalist.
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