Do you DC's school have text book for KS3? What do you do to support?

[LoveAutumnsky]

DC2 is in Y7, there is no text book in his school at KS3. How can you revise what teacher taught without text book?

Anyway,I bought science text book as DS looked at what the teacher use. But there seems not text books for other subjects. I went to the book shop, there are only exam revision books.

What would you do?Thanks.

[Doggyfeet]

My DSs school is the same. For French I emailed the teacher, we bought the text they are working from and it’s been really helpful.

[LoveAutumnsky]

Thanks. That's a good idea to just ask the teacher.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

I bought a KS3 CGP Science Guide. The maths one is helpful too.

Otherwise most other subject assessments for DD2 at KS3 were 'skill based' rather than knowledge based. The teacher would give a worksheet with required info before the test, and they would really test skills e.g. in history ability to talk about credibility of sources etc.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

For French we had a Collins dictionary-grammar-verb all in one book.

[stucknoue]

We bought the ks3 cgp books.

[LolaSmiles]

Most schools don't teach from text books.

They design their own curriculum plans and teach that. Students use their exercise books to revise.

[Wheresthebiffer2]

"Students use their exercise books to revise."
= this is okay in theory, but not if the child has not managed to write down the information from the board. Or has made a mistake. It is really frustrating not having a textbook to refer to.

[LolaSmiles]

They are secondary aged students. They are told what to do in class.

Assuming SEND needs are appropriately met, if a student chooses not to take appropriate notes then that's their responsibility.

Schools all have different KS3 programmes of study and academies don't have to follow the national curriculum.

In my subject, the texts students study at KS3 varies school to school. There's simply no need it market for a textbook for every work of literature that could possibly be taught between y7-9.

[peoplepleaser1]

@LolaSmiles what if the student's note taking needs to improve?

What if they struggle to write quickly (my DS struggles due to a hand injury 3 years ago). He has no other additional needs, scored in top 1% of SATs without additional help.

What if the student makes an error in their notes, and then revises from their notes?

What if the student would like to read in ore depth about the subject?

Personally I think more text book or online resources would be extremely useful.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

Search BBC KS3

[LolaSmiles]

what if the student's note taking needs to improve?
Then they need to learn and develop it.

What if they struggle to write quickly (my DS struggles due to a hand injury 3 years ago). He has no other additional needs, scored in top 1% of SATs without additional help.
If they've got a medical issue that affects education I would assume the parent has contacted the school, staff are aware and can put appropriate measures in place.

What if the student makes an error in their notes, and then revises from their notes?
Information is covered multiple times in class and recapped in class. They should be checking and correcting.

What if the student would like to read in ore depth about the subject?
Talk to their parents/carers about the topic
Use the internet
Go to the library
Any number of things involving using their initiative

Personally I think more text book or online resources would be extremely useful
It may well be for you, but again how does that work when texts in English at KS3 can cover any literary texts.
Maybe all schools should ignore decent curriculum design and plan their lessons around what's convenient for a minority of people who wish to complain they want a text book.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

I think Lola is being a bit idealistic.

DD1 struggled to take good notes, it turned out in y11 she had dyspraxia. Actually, I suspected it but didn't realise her school issues were related to her motor skills issues, and I was fobbed off in y6. So she didn't have suitable support in place, and was incapable (and I use that term advisedly) of 'developing' the skill on her own.

Information often isn't covered multiple times in class. Why would it be? If you have taught say pros and cons of palm oil in one lesson, why would you need to go over it again?

That said, although I found it weird not having text books, I found it was OK really. And now in KS4 most subjects have very good revision guides so the fact that DD2's notes aren't the easiest to read doesn't seem to be an issue.

[RedskyToNight]

DC's school is the opposite- they have online text books, but they are not allowed to bring their exercise books home.

I personally think this is more bonkers than not using text books!

[LolaSmiles]

TeenPlusTwenties
It's not so much being idealistic. More realistic.

At GCSE where each board has a set overview then there are revision guides and workbooks and textbooks galore. Same for A Level.

That's not how KS3 works so people saying "but I'd rather have a textbook" is just daft. No school I've worked in have taught the same texts at KS3.
Equally the desire for a text book because that way students can read around the subject doesn't work either. There's no need. There's a whole world of material out there, it just isn't in a neatly limited package of "textbook with your wider reading in bitesized chunks".

In terms of information being covered multiple times, it's quite standard. Why would I present information once and assume that because students have answered 5 questions on it on first presentation that they have actually mastered the material? That's mostly mimickry, especially if just after a model has been done.
If we want students to learn material over time then it makes perfect sense for it to be recapped in starters, homeworks, revision lessons and so on.

[LoveAutumnsky]

If a school has it’s own material to teach, I am fine with it. But, I think there should be ways for students to access the materials after school to revise. As not everyone can grasp all the things taught in one go, most students will need time to revise it.

[lovethecrown]

My DS2 in year 7 has text books for some but not all subjects. So he has textbooks for maths, history, geography, French and Latin. For other subjects I find DS1's old CE textbooks are helpful for revising subject areas at KS3 but not all books cover everything. Neither of my DS have been able to rely on notes from class as note taking at that age simply wasn't good enough.

[Ginfordinner]

Unfortunately schools are so underfunded these days that they simply don't have the resources to provide textbooks. When DD was at school she used her notes in her exercise books and used the school's online portal as the teachers provided loads of revision material on there.

For GCSE and A level I just bought the CGP revision guides which were excellent.

[Loveautumnsky]

If school think the text book is important enough, there should be ways to set up. DS1’s school lend text books to students, if students lost it, then students have to pay for it.

[Seeline]

Does your school have an online virtual learning environment? Both my DCs are able to access subject pages on a system called Firefly. Their teachers are able to upload teaching materials, revision materials and links to useful websites for each year/GCSE.

[Loveautumnsky]

That’s sound a good system. We only have goggle classroom, teacher will put homework related material there, however, there are only around 2-3 pieces homework per week.

[CripsSandwiches]

It's complete rubbish that kids in secondary will be able to take comprehensive notes to revise from. Most uni students struggle with that and use the library books to compensate. A y7 student is often not organised enough to chase up missed work due to illness either. It's also beneficial to have a textbook to refer to to check for mistakes copying and to get an alternative explanation if ymthe student is struggling to understand.

[noblegiraffe]

The maths department probably have online access to a package like mymaths, hegartymaths or mathswatch which cover the maths curriculum with online lessons and self-marking questions. You’ll need to ask for a password.

If you want something paper-based, CGP KS3 maths revision guides are good.

For maths, their exercise book isn’t great as a revision tool as they need to be doing questions and practising maths to get better at it.

[Ginfordinner]

Does your school have an online virtual learning environment?

Don't all secondary schools have a VLE anyway?

[LolaSmiles]

It's complete rubbish that kids in secondary will be able to take comprehensive notes to revise from. Most uni students struggle with that and use the library books to compensate. A y7 student is often not organised enough to chase up missed work due to illness either
University students take notes from lectures and independent reading.
Year 7 students complete notes in lessons that are broken down and scaffolded.

At our school, we keep copies of notes or photocopy from someone's book when off for illness. Students catch-up from missed lessons on the whole. Based on this thread I'm starting to think I live on another planet where my GCSE students manage to use Cornell notes format and graphic organisers, my y7s do cloze exercises to recap information, all classes recap work from previous weeks.
Honestly, I'm starting to wonder how on earth the students I teach manage to function given this thread shows how little adults expect students to be able to do. It's honestly like listening to jaded colleagues who baby their year 7/8 classes and then complain about lack of independence.

On the other hand it makes sense when I see threads about y11 students not being able to revise, spending hours highlighting and copying revision guides though. Don't invest and develop the appropriate skills in y7-10 and then wonder why they have inefficient study skills at 15/16 and parents and students want spoon feeding through y11.

[ChloeDecker]

May have got lost in the above thread but TeenPlusTwenties has it nailed.

For age appropriate support, a lot of money was spent on the KS3 BBC Bitesize online resources. Covers most subjects. It’s free.


Otherwise, unfortunately, the reality is that text books don’t exist at KS3 for majority of subjects. Teachers have to provide the resources etc. themselves.