Why on earth aren't subject text books plugged more???

Scotland is right next door to you and has only one board - the SQA .

In my son's sixth form, they actually "issued" CGP books for the students, both the full book and the revision/question books. They wanted the "full" book back at the end for re-issue, but the revision/question books were kept by the students as they'd been written in (as the teachers instructed). That was for Maths and Physics.

Totally agree. We use CGP revision books privately, but it would be so much better if textbooks were used as a class, in lessons. They provide structure.

Yes, although there is still variation in GCSE, such as schools / individual teachers can choose which set texts to study for GCSE English Lit
Means for example some kids can get a stinker of a question on Romeo and Juliet, while others get a lovely one on Macbeth. Shouldn't theoretically happen as the exam paper is meant to be all the same difficulty, but in reality in happens all the time. I'm not sure how much of that applies to other subjects.

Academies don’t have to follow the National curriculum, it’s part of their ‘freedoms’ that Gove was so keen on.

However, at GCSE the exam boards set a syllabus for each exam so that’s Years 10 and 11 sorted.

Schools do not set their own curriculum. This is set nationally. However in some subjects, such as History and English Literature, a number of topics are specified, allowing schools and individual teachers to choose which topics to teach.

Why does each school set their own curriculum? How do they know what they’re doing is right? How can exam results be comparable? Why are there exam boards for different subjects?

It's even more complicated than that unfortunately! In History GCSE last year at DD's school, different classes were studying different topics. One of DD's friend's did (I think) Victorian medicine whilst DD's class did Victorian crime. The crime question was apparently a nightmare for loads of the kids whilst the medicine one was considered really good.

This has been such an enlightening thread!! I’m from Ireland, don’t even have kids yet but I often think about what school would be like for them if I continue to live in the UK.

Why does each school set their own curriculum? How do they know what they’re doing is right? How can exam results be comparable? Why are there exam boards for different subjects?

This seems like a convoluted system? Is it the size of the UK? The 4 different countries?

Also in terms of the actual point of the thread - yes to textbooks, big fan!

Others have already said it…textbooks are generally frowned upon in the UK. My school can afford them, but I wouldn’t be allowed to teach from them. Instead, we spend hours cherry picking the best bits from the textbooks and supplementing with lots of other resources. Probably one of the reasons teachers are leaving the profession - it creates a huge amount of extra work. Gone are the days when teachers start every lesson with ‘turn to page X of your text books..’

I use a textbook if I’m away and have to set a cover lesson. Whenever I cover other teachers’ classes, I notice that the students generally love a ‘text book’ lesson. They are straightforward and the students can work with minimal input from the cover teacher.

I don't get why it isn't possible though? Other countries do it.

Yes, but it is easy to do if that is what you have always done.

Here, how would that work? Nationalising the exam boards won't work because you want a single one. Anointing one of them as the official state exam board? But Edexcel are good for maths, AQA are the best for English etc etc. I'm sure I heard something about it being an issue with regards to rules around monopolies as well.

If Gove could have done it, he would have done it, I think. He is, despite all his many faults, an extremely efficient government minister when it comes to actually doing things.

I don't get why it isn't possible though? Other countries do it.

There is also the "teaching from a textbook is bad teaching" train of thought. But how much of that is grounded in anything remotely approaching actual proven scientific theory, and how much is based on now defunct pseudo scientific jabber like "learning styles" (visual, audio, kinaesthetic - all must be catered for in each lesson! Remember those?) is unclear.

Tbf to DD's secondary school, they were given a revision guide for each subject and asked to donate it back after they'd finished Y11 (which DD did, apart from the subjects she was doing at A level).

At 6th form it seems to be a mix of lectures like Uni and worksheets. I'm actually finding it really hard to get revision guides for DD's A level subjects, any that I do see seem to be from about 2015/16 and I'm not sure if they're out of date or not. They definitely have to have the Eng lit books but can buy them cheaply from college.

Gove tried to implement a single exam board but couldn’t, so I don’t think it’s possible.

This is the real crux of it - they become obsolete so fast. Every bloody ed sec over the last 15 years has come in and fucked with the curriculum (or so it feels!) and schools can't be in a position where they suddenly have 300 text books for last year's exam syllabus. And even if that doesn't happen, if you've bought the books for one exam board, you're then stuck and unable to change to a different board should you want to, without shelling out thousands on new books.

I personally think it's a real missed opportunity. One national exam board, with text books. Homework tasks, unit tests etc built in. Everyone learns that same things, takes the same exams. It would make life much easier for students moving schools, for parent to support, and for teachers. Kids being homeschooled could study independently. But there we are.

I'm interested in this idea OP, do you think if a textbook was written by an expert and made free to teachers for example, then extremely low (production cost only) for students, do you think the teachers would use them? Maybe there are some idealistic writers out there.

I wonder what teachers would think or whether they would have a hard time having a book passed/accepted by the school as a recommended text...

I'm not sure we'd need much cupboard space for textbooks that parents bought for their kids brand new and at the end of two years didn't want to sell on themselves and that the kid was organised enough to bring into school.

We have enough problems getting back textbooks that belong to the school.

And your cupboard space!

At my university the library has to supply 1 copy for 10 learners and we need to request this up to a year in advance for the budget. Students hate the library and often the online versions are too expensive.

the textbook must be able to be available as audio and pdf to allow students who need special fonts, etc.

it’s so much easier to use resources the university already has paid for.

students do not buy textbooks. You may as well suggest they fly to the moon, or attend an 8am seminar.

Depends on your demographic, I suggest.

It's forward planning, no? It's amazing, but the schools I know that do this, accumulate a surplus of books. Who'd have thought? Some parents actually like to buy new for their kids, use that to your advantage.

How does that help me plan at all? Getting a random amount of textbooks maybe in a year.

I wasn't suggesting that teachers scope out World of Books or Vinted or Amazon. But what if those parents that can afford to buy books, buy them, and then hand them on when they are done (curriculum dependent). You then accumulate a store of text books.

I'm honestly educated my eldest child.

While we do lots of things by watching documentaries and listening to podcasts and independent online research, we are using textbooks for the core subjects, and it works! Of course, if he doesn't get a concept we supplement it with other materials and work on it until he gets it, but he loves learning that way.

Vinted is an excellent place to pick up used textbooks for a couple of quid.

1. The curriculum changes every year, so books are obsolete before they’re published
2. My subject doesn’t lend itself to textbooks
3. They cost too much for schools to buy to be unusable in a year, so we don’t actually have any.
4. We’ve been asked not to tell sixth formers to buy textbooks because of the cost being prohibitive to those on low incomes.

I wonder how many charity shops a Head of Department would need to dig around in to find copies of the same textbook for their full Y10 and 11 GCSE cohorts... Certainly a novel way of spending the summer holidays!