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Original poster

Are text books a thing of the past?

36 replies

Ladyflip · 10/07/2021 07:16

Neither of my children have any text books for any subject. They are both in secondary. Is this how secondaries are now? What happens if you miss a lesson or need to revise for exams? Does it change at year 10?
I'm a dinosaur and remember the beginning of every school year being dominated by handing out of books. It's not a criticism, just wondered when and why it changed.
Their school is large and there are no lockers on site. This may be the driver as to no text books as they have to carry everything with them all day. Just interested as to whether this is the same for all secondary schools.

OP posts:
user1471530109 · 10/07/2021 07:57

Tbf, I rarely use textbooks when teaching as it turns off so many kids.

But, at GCSE, students are encouraged to buy a revision guide (heavily discounted from school and those who can't afford get given one) and we provide a workbook which students find very helpful. We can't afford to provide the revision guides as well unfortunately.

The problem with textbooks is the bloody government change the syllabus every 5 years so they soon become less useful. We do have them in classrooms and I am sure some teachers use them more than others.

pocketcalculatoroperator · 10/07/2021 07:54

Normal, I think. Mine only have a textbook for a couple of subjects, and they mainly live at school. It's an independent school, so definitely not a budget thing. It does make things harder for revision. I think they get more textbooks later on.

HelloDulling · 10/07/2021 07:51

DD had text books for everything until last year. They now all have to take a laptop or tablet, and the text books are all online.

goatmermaid · 10/07/2021 07:50

I was at secondary early 80's. ...no lockers at school we carried everything everywhere. .30 mins walk to school!

it amazed me in thd first lockdown that like you say, they had no books at all..It still does! they kept saying how many kids had no computers to learn (yes that's bad) and I kept thinking where are the books!

Original poster
Ladyflip · 10/07/2021 07:49

I thought it might change at year 10. Eldest just finishing year 9, so it might be just KS3 that don't have them. I understand it must save a fortune but it seems a huge systemic change in teaching.

OP posts:
Orchidflower1 · 10/07/2021 07:43

Mine got them as they got to y10.

WeMarchOn · 10/07/2021 07:43

We used to have to carry all our work around too but now at my daughters school all work books are kept there

Original poster
Ladyflip · 10/07/2021 07:42

Yes, endless worksheets and handouts in maths (that then get crumpled in the bag and result in annoyed emails from teachers about presentation).

OP posts:
Aroundtheworldin80moves · 10/07/2021 07:39

What about in Maths? Worksheets?

Original poster
Ladyflip · 10/07/2021 07:35

They say not. Everything is copied from the whiteboard into their books. The whole concept of a text book was alien to them.

OP posts:
FourCandelabras · 10/07/2021 07:30

Are you sure they don’t have class sets of textbooks in classrooms, to be handed out as and when needed? Most state schools can’t afford to buy enough textbooks to allocate one per student.

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