Page 5 | school demanding £20 for books

twentypounds · 2018-10-16T17:38:00+00:00

Is this reasonable - gcse study guides. My niece is in year 10 and was told she had to bring in £20 for some books.

pointyshoes · 17/10/2018 11:23

FWIW, I work in a charity shop and every year after public exams finish dozens of these study guides are donated. They are all untouched by human hands and have obviously not been used at all. My kids' school suggested we buy guides, and offered them at a slightly reduced price. We did buy them, but they were barely used. Both kids did well and are now at "good" unis. I'm not convinced they are worth the money, but equally I'm sure some people feel they make all the difference.

tillytrotter1 · 17/10/2018 11:25

CPG revision guides are on line at £5.95 which surprised me because they were about £5 when I retired 13 years ago, I think I used to buy them in bulk for about £3.

Caprisunorange · 17/10/2018 11:25

Good for you Patti. Strangely niave to think all schools are run like yours though.

PattiStanger · 17/10/2018 12:06

Good for me what? Which assumptions do you mean? If it's about the cost of the books I know both from this thread and the many others on the same subject in the past that it's the standard for schools to sell revision guides for a cheaper price than you can get them elsewhere.

Caprisunorange · 17/10/2018 12:20

My point wasn’t about the revision guides, it was that not 5 posts in posters are claiming schools are broke and can’t afford to pay for anything. This is a dangerous assumption that allows schools to continue lazily managing their budgets and performance

PattiStanger · 17/10/2018 12:35

I haven't made any comment on whether schools are broke but if I did it would be that there's no question that many schools are underfunded and can't balance their budgets and that it's equally niave to assume that because you're involved with a school that you say doesn't know how to manage its finances and has a surplus that all other schools are in a similar position.

Furrydogmum · 17/10/2018 12:39

My son is in yr 12, his a level texts for maths and science subjects are loaned out for £30 deposit - he returns the books and I get the deposit back.. If he doesn't then I will take the deposit from him.

PinkAvocado · 17/10/2018 13:18

School stuff should take priority over every other expense

No. Somewhere to live, food and keeping warm take priority. If you can’t see that £20 is too much for some then you are ignorant.

Piggywaspushed · 17/10/2018 14:03

I think the good for me was actually misdirected at you patti and was intended for me.

OP, my main concern lies with a school that thinks success can only be secured if students buy study guides. That suggests blind panic or inadequate teaching, staffing, or teaching time because of the recruitment crisis and governemnt cuts

I have never heard of a school 'forcing' parents to buy study guides which are a supplement to teaching, not a replacement or a requirement. I think you would be right to question this insistence.

I'd also bet loads of students haven't brought money in. Departments have bought the study guides out of their budgets and are now running at a loss, I'd guess. So, now they are trying 'insistence' to cover costs.

LoniceraJaponica · 17/10/2018 14:55

"My son is in yr 12, his a level texts for maths and science subjects are loaned out for £30 deposit - he returns the books and I get the deposit back.. If he doesn't then I will take the deposit from him."

Same for DD. She only ever got textbooks in 6th form. The deposit wasn't as high, but we still had to pay a depsoit for the books.

"That is so bad! I didnt have to pay anything at school, im 21 now. Say No.."

Just saying no isn't going to help. I would suggest that if you want the revision guides you ask the school if you can pay in instalments.

Busybusybust · 17/10/2018 14:59

At grammar school in the 60s. All text books provided (hardback too). But we had to buy our own study guides from a book shop (so no discount). Things haven’t changed that much.

MrsStrowman · 17/10/2018 15:05

We were just given details of revision guides needed and had to go out and buy then ourselves, it cost a lot more than £20

LoniceraJaponica · 17/10/2018 15:06

When DD was doing GCSEs 2 years ago the CGP giudes were only about £3 each. We found them massively helpful.

BackInTime · 17/10/2018 15:14

Given that schools do not use textbooks, these study guides are very helpful for GCSE. Relying on notes taken in lesson and random handouts means that often vital information is missing that could make the difference between grades.

I would explain your situation in strict confidence to the school and perhaps they can help. If not maybe try to get these when you can afford to.

FinallyFree123456789 · 17/10/2018 15:14

I'm taking my science gcse again. We've been told to buy recommended books - £20 each and we need 4 - however we don't have to buy them.
We were given the names and I found them on eBay for £28 for all of them
They are helpful to have though x

pacer142 · 23/10/2018 13:01

Given that schools do not use textbooks, these study guides are very helpful for GCSE. Relying on notes taken in lesson and random handouts means that often vital information is missing that could make the difference between grades.

And some of the official text books are pretty crap. My son found the text books to be really difficult to use - he'd complain they were "too wordy" and weren't logically laid out. We bought him CGP revision guides, which he used instead of the text book for revision etc - he'd only look at the text books if he had to do the questions in them, and only then to do the questions, not read the chapters etc. Closer to the exams, we bought him the CGP exam style question books which he worked through. After the exams, all his "proper" text books were still new looking and clearly hadn't been read through, yet the CGP books were all heavily worn - it was clear what he'd been using. In the end, he got a string of grade 9s in all sciences, Maths and humanities where we'd bought him the CGP books, so I'd say they're a perfectly good alternative to proper text books.