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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think I should not have to spend £60 fecking quid on a calculator

120 replies

GrrrrrrFFFFFSSSSSS · 09/09/2014 17:03

DS just started at sixth form college, which, I understand is still a STATE education FFS!

It appears I have to buy him the following as literally NOTHING is provided:

-Paper/folders/exercise books

-£300 worth of text books and that's including some from the second hand bookshop and some cheap off amazon

and just as I've recovered from the above, I'm now told I have to buy him some fancy calculator for A level maths which is 60 QUID!

Funny how they don't tell you any of this at the open evenings.

I am honestly staggered.

OP posts:

ISingSoprano · 10/09/2014 10:48

FFS PoppySeed2014 education to age 17 is now compulsory. Our catchment sixth form is twelve miles away meaning we have to buy a bus pass (subsidised but still very costly). The costs of sending our child to their free compulsory post-16 education will be in the region of £1000 this year. The OPs point was that she wasn't aware of these expenses. Now whether she missed a letter or didn't is irrelevant - post-16 education is expensive.

HelpMeGetOutOfHere · 10/09/2014 10:49

Education isn't free though? Arguably its paid through via taxes. Other countries that pay for school equipment and uniform have tax breaks for this and they can claim on tax returns. I pay for my dc education (well my grandparents do via a trust fund), although ds2 attends a state grammar school, but am surprised at how every state school has a uniform often with expensive logo'd items required. (the dc old state c of e primary cardigans are £15 as opposed to £5-6 that supermarket non logo'd one would cost.

Although I do see the principle of school uniform in that all children look the same and to encourage an identity and pride in the school, as well as to lessen bullying for not having the right jumper, shoes etc. I do feel that if the schools didn't have uniform not so much pressure would be on the families to provide the right uniform items.

As for business dress in 6th forms its ridiculous, dc that attend college are free to wear virtually whatever they want, barring t-shirts with racist or offensive slogans and they still achieve the grades needed to further education or careers, so why are schools so obsessed with uniforms?

HelpMeGetOutOfHere · 10/09/2014 10:51

ISING- the same as you, for ds1 to attend college where his choice of engineering programmes un, its costing an additional £40 per month in travel, whereas his old senior school that only provides 'A' levels is walkable, but not every child is suited to 'A' levels or wants to study them.

BertieBotts · 10/09/2014 10:58

You probably can get an app for a graphic calculator but you can't use a phone in an exam!

I think YABU and this isn't at all surprising. It was the same 10 years ago when I was doing A levels. We were told about the calculator during GSCE year.

The idea behind the textbooks is that they are now doing subjects which will hopefully prepare them for their future career and/or professional life so the textbooks will continue to be of use to them. I bought mine a couple of editions behind, used from amazon and they were perfectly fine. Did not cost me anywhere near £300, one for each subject, came to about £40 maximum.

Actually that does seem a lot! How many textbooks are they suggesting? And are they all books he'll need to refer to throughout the year or are some "recommended reading" for particular exercises which he could find at the library and refer to when needed rather than buying?

Athrawes · 10/09/2014 11:12

It is free if you don't buy the stuff. The school can't refuse to teach your son because he doesn't have the books or the calculator. He will just have to borrow a rather dog eared copy from the library and do without the fancy graphics calculator function. If he is willing to approach the guidance counsellor and say that he is suffering financial hardship they may even find the money to lend him this stuff.

But then again, you have an Internet connection and computer or phone - so you aren't that hard up so maybe you could just pay, so that the money goes to someone in genuine hardship. Unless you are posting from a public library, in which case, you need those funds, sorry.

QueenTilly · 10/09/2014 11:14

I would expect an A-level/equivalent textbook to be between £20 and £30. £300 is a lot.

OP, have you got a quidco account? It's a cashback website. One of their partners is hive.co.uk, which is an online bookshop that competes with amazon. www.quidco.com/hive-co-uk At the moment, they have a cashback rate of 8% for books if you go through Quidco.

QueenTilly · 10/09/2014 11:17

Athrawes

These days, internet is a necessity, especially for families of secondary-aged pupils and sixth-formers, so don't start down the route of treating it like caviare. It's not evidence of a huge income. I have a smart phone that MNs. I pay under £15 a month for it AND unlimited data.

Athrawes · 10/09/2014 11:34

Ach well then, as usual the teacher will buy the kids the books and equipment. I do, easier than arguing with parents who manage to find money for sports trips and smarter-than-a- 15 - a - month - phone but still bleat about books. Buy the books second hand. The kids from last year will be selling them.

Athrawes · 10/09/2014 11:37

And I buy my class graphics calculators second hand off eBay and lend them out. So the OP can bloomin' well do the same.

acemay · 10/09/2014 11:47

Certainly when I was at university the books it was so essential everyone have an individual copy of we're either written by the lecturer or a colleage, or the lecturer was on commission from the publisher. Books then barely got used!

Definitely see if any copies are available in the library (I borrowed books and renewed for whole terms) and also look at older editions of the textbooks as often it is just the preface or introduction that changes, and they will be much cheaper.

partialderivative · 10/09/2014 13:48

You probably can get an app for a graphic calculator but you can't use a phone in an exam!

You can download a free app for android phones from wabbitemu, several of my class have done this.

Though you are correct, of course, in thinking that you could not use this in an exam.

It's still pretty cool though.

CarmineRose1978 · 10/09/2014 15:03

I was thinking that, Sock! And apparently they can also solve simultaneous and quadratic equations! What will they think of next?

I'm pregnant with my first, and I must admit, this has all come as a bit of a shock to me. I didn't even have to pay for paper in the sixth form - we were given a full ream of decent quality lined paper and when we ran out, we got another ream. All text books etc were included, even our English A-Level set texts. i think maybe we had to buy our own lever arch folders, and I know that lower down the school we'd bought our own scientific calculators, so maybe the Maths A-level students had to buy graphical calculators. But I was at a fee-paying grammar school so probably that's why a lot of it was "free".

CarmineRose1978 · 10/09/2014 15:09

acemay, as an ex-lecturer who now works in academic publishing, I can tell you that we do NOT pay lecturers commission on their course textbooks! or at least my company doesn't... we're offshoring half of the roles in the company due to cost cutting, so we'd hardly be happy to hand out cash to lecturer! We do offer free copies of new textbooks to academics so they can se if they want to use the book in their classes, but that's about it. I do agree that a lot of my colleagues would put their own books on the reading list, often as a set text, though! But they usually only get pennies per copy sold, so this is more of a ego trip than a money maker... Or it's simply that they're very familiar with the text so it easy for them to use it in their teaching.

BramwellBrown · 10/09/2014 15:48

yanbu, £60 for a calculator is ridiculous, that's a better one than I'm using for uni.

If you haven't already bought your books it might be worth looking on Abe books as they are sometimes good for text books.

Original poster

GrrrrrrFFFFFSSSSSS · 10/09/2014 16:35

Athrawes, don't unfairly tar me with that brush please! Although not a teacher myself I am from a family of teachers and I think you're all amazing - honest. Nowhere have I suggested that teachers cough up, have I? And if you read my posts you will see that second hand etc is exactly what I'm trying to do! I am not hard up enough to not afford a (cheap) laptop and an internet connection, but I am hard up enough to find £300 ish of instant no-notice expenditure, on things that have nearly always been provided before at school, a bit of a shock and a struggle. But this is U according to some contributors!

OP posts:

sharon56bus · 10/09/2014 17:30

there is a program that runs on a laptop .....he has one of those ??

partialderivative · 10/09/2014 17:42

that's a better one than I'm using for uni.

Please, BramwellB, what are you using for Uni, and what are you studying?

Cheeky questions that you have no obligation to answer.

The reason I ask is that many of my ex-students have returned to say hello, and all of them have said they have never used their GDC since leaving school

TarkaTheOtter · 10/09/2014 17:58

I agree with you in principle. It's air of money to find at short notice for low income families. I remember this from 1998. Pretty sure text books were provided though. It's also annoying because I expect most graphics calculators would be banned from uni exams due to their ability to store text. So unlikely to be useful in the future.

However, if they've given a specific model it is important that you do get that exact model or your son will really struggle to follow the classes where it is used.

Make sure you hold on to it until Sept in 2016 before you stick it on ebay to maximise resale price.

BramwellBrown · 10/09/2014 18:19

Partial, I'm using a Casio FX-85GT Plus, which is what was recommended in the course materials and is confusing me enough without the extra fancy bits

I'm actually studying humanities through the OU but i'm doing an extra module on the side as I want to teach in a primary school and felt i really ought to improve my maths first so mines only a level 1 (MU123) but apparently the others who are doing actual maths degrees will use the same calculator all the way through.

I've just asked my sister (she's just started year 12) and her sixth form have told them to use the calculator from their GCSE's too, which are the same as mine, is the very expensive calculator something she'll need later on in the course?

Nomama · 10/09/2014 18:32

There is no money provided for colleges to give such stuff to students, as there is in schools.

We just don't have the budget parents are used to. But that does sound excessive, I think ours would have about £100 a year on books and then the usual stationery.

And we give out lists once they have been interviewed, or after we get GCSE results, depending.

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