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Original poster

To be miffed at having had to pay for a school maths GCSE book

104 replies

rightknockered · 26/09/2017 13:06

In the original letter it stated that the book was to be used for homework etc., so I felt obligated to buy it, not wanting my ds to be at a disadvantage. Now I have learned that the book is to remain at school in his locker.
I feel quite angry that the school misrepresented how the book was to be used, also quite cheesed off that they couldn't just be honest with parents - that we were required to pay for school GCSE text books.
I understand the effects of cuts in funding, etc., but they could have been honest.

OP posts:
Gileswithachainsaw · 26/09/2017 14:54

Precisely dawned

All style over substance isn't it.

Logod shit creating a 400 pound plus start up cost every year should kids dare to actually grow then text books on top.

Imagine bow many books you could buy if Tesco blazers were ok....

Numbsnet · 26/09/2017 14:56

Wow, I am impressed. You UKer's having free GPs and all the school books?
No wonder so many people want to live there!

I'm in Ireland.I fork out about €100 for all the school books and stationary each year for my 6 year old. I've heard in secondary its about €200 a year.

Its funny reading this thread about being outraged at having to spend £15 on one book! Its all about perspective and I don't mean that in a patronising way. I'm sure I'd be the same if it was me. Be we all coast along having to budget for the big August expenses without much complaint.

CallMeDollFace · 26/09/2017 14:57

I don't think the op was complaining about buying the book, just at finding out in stays in school when she thought it was for homework.

As a separate point, I think that's fair enough though, tbh. If they worded the letter badly, that's a shame but ultimately, they are asking for your financial help in supporting your dcs education at a difficult time for school budgets. If they have found that textbooks which go home get lost or aren't available for use in the actual lesson, then they will have to keep them in school.

Imagine if you'd paid the £15 and then found he was having to share his book with 3 others who had forgotten theirs?

Bluntness100 · 26/09/2017 14:58

If you bought it it’s yours, the school cannot dictate where you keep it, they can only do that with books they own.

Ginorchoc · 26/09/2017 14:58

I've just had to pay for 4 text books. We didn't have to as the school also had internet access set up for the children for the content. I bought the books, they ordered in bulk so worked out £9 each roughly cheaper buying via school. I'm happy to support my daughters school and her education, each book was around the price of a large coffee in Costa. can't see how they can insist it stays in the locker though OP!

Gileswithachainsaw · 26/09/2017 15:01

Can they seriously dictate where you buy them?

I'd be seriously pissed at being unable to use say Amazon vouchers I'd been given or a loyalty card etc and get a book cheaper and then not even being able to bring it home. Takes piss and I'd not do it

CallMeDollFace · 26/09/2017 15:01

If you bought it it’s yours, the school cannot dictate where you keep it, they can only do that with books they own.

Maybe they can't, but nor can they teach the curriculum to 30 children who have left their book at home.

SandyDenny · 26/09/2017 15:03

Maybe it's not the same everywhere but ime buying books through the school is WAY cheaper than buying them yourself and believe me I check every single time Smile

lovelyupnorth · 26/09/2017 15:12

having gone to school in a different country to the uk - we had to buy our school books, exercise books, everything - the school had an excellent system and 2nd books would be bought back by the school the rate depended on the condition - so those that bought new could, those that couldn't afford new bought 2nd hand -at the end of the year if you looked after your books the school bought them back. so everyone had a text book - and if you looked after it you got most of your money back.

we bought all sorts for our DDs (yr 11 & yr 12) and will continue to do so to support their education.

Pangur2 · 26/09/2017 15:20

Lovelyupnorth, it's similar in Ireland. We used to buy our books from Chapters in town, keep them pristine and then sell them back to Chapters in the summer and get most of the money back! Free copybooks from Superquinn covered in old wallpaper. sigh Good times!

It is different here though; they are obsessed with constantly changing everything every couple of years, so textbooks are useless pretty quickly. There'd be war if you did that in Ireland.

Wasn't Soundings poetry book on the curriculum for about 40 years? Haha!

DiegoMadonna · 26/09/2017 15:35

I wouldn't be bothered about buying the book but I'd be bothered about then being told it must stay on school property. It's my book!

deadringer · 26/09/2017 15:58

Numb I am gob smacked too, books are supplied by the school in the UK? Wowsers!

noblegiraffe · 26/09/2017 16:11

My school isn't asking parents to pay for new maths gcse textbooks. We can't afford them either though so what's happening is we're bidding through the new syllabus with a mix of old textbooks (literally falling apart), the odd worksheet (photocopying budget slashed) and stuff projected or written on the board.

noblegiraffe · 26/09/2017 16:26

Bidding? Bodging our way through!

brownfang · 26/09/2017 16:31

The cost of science revision guides for DD Shock Shock Shock. I'm sure they were way more than £15 each.

Thankfully DS is only 2 yrs behind.

I have a French textbook I had to pay for, after I lost it age 16. My kids love it, really good volume for teaching French!

Numbsnet · 26/09/2017 16:32

In a related question, I was in the UK last week and noticed a few little ones around 7or 8 on the bus with satchels which had the name of the school on the front of them. Are they provided for free to the children too?
If so, thats incredible. That would NEVER happen in Ireland.

MyBrilliantDisguise · 26/09/2017 16:38

No, the satchels would be paid for by the parents, Numbsnet. Don't make things worse than they are!

SandyDenny · 26/09/2017 16:39

Numbenet - at my primary you pay for the bookbags/rucksacks but I don't think they are very expensive

MadisonAvenue · 26/09/2017 16:43

Numbsnet we always had to pay for those when my children were in junior school.

We bought text books recommended by teachers for GCSEs but there were never any stipulations about where they should be kept.

Funnily enough I was only thinking about school budgets the other day as two of the local state secondary schools have taken out huge advertising boards in prime town centre sites to publicise Open Evenings, and newspaper ads too. These must surely eat into a school budget.

AlonsosLeftPinky · 26/09/2017 16:43

I'd have no issue with buying the books. But as my property, the school would have no say in where the books were stored.

However, an awful lot of text books have ebook versions too, or are available in pdf, so it makes sense to have both. I find it much easier to take a tablet to my lectures than to cart around a load of books.

3luckystars · 26/09/2017 16:47

I'm in Ireland, books can cost up to €400 and most parents have to buy a second set for leaving at school because school bags are too heavy to carry all the books home.

Also, it's only 3 weeks into the school year, your child may need the book at home later in the year.

ReinettePompadour · 26/09/2017 17:22

two of the local state secondary schools have taken out huge advertising boards in prime town centre sites to publicise Open Evenings, and newspaper ads too. These must surely eat into a school budget

Schools see it as an investment. If 1 advert can get 10 more pupils applying for a place at their school then the schools budget will increase for every additional child. I'm not sure exactly how much per child they receive but if its £2500 per child then 10 extra from the usual intake will be more crowded £25,000 in the schools budget that year.

Sunnystars · 26/09/2017 17:24

DD's school have done themselves no favours with completely unnecessary uniform changes over the past five years, not one single item is the same from the blazer down to the stupid £9 logoed PE socks.

I, like a lot of people manage by sticking to a budget and this does not include replacing items of clothing that are neither outgrown nor worn out.

Currently, the school are asking for £50 per term donation, which I simply can not afford on top of the uniform changes.

I have supplied all the revision/text books I have been asked to (to be left at school as pp)and am tolerating the seemingly never ending stream of printing worksheets my dd is required to do at home due to the school not having a printing budget this year.

I am frustrated though at the lack of joined up thinking. I want to support my dd and I would like to support the effort put in by some of the damn fine teachers she has to get the best grades she can.

A different uniform and a state of the art PE kit worn for an hour and forty minutes a week seen by nobody but her peers is not going to achieve that though is it.

Notevilstepmother · 26/09/2017 17:28

www.schoolcuts.org.uk/#!/

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