to think we shouldn't have to buy the set book for GCSE English Lit?

[chomalungma]

We have been asked to buy the book that DS is currently studying for GCSE Eng Lit.

Yes - I can afford it. But that's not the point. There are many families who are on tight budgets. Apparently other subjects require the parents to buy equipment as well.

English is a compulsory GCSE. The school should have sets available to read.

I know that schools are on very tight budgets. I am not blaming the school at all. It's not an academy.

I blame the Conservative party. I hope people remember these cuts and the effect they have had on their children for the last 10 years when it comes to the election.

Obvious reason: schools are skint now, but weren't when I was at school

early 1970s - even I'm not that ancient

No annotating here either. School provided copies of texts and then they would be reused later.

Although I don't write in books I own either - it feels wrong to me to mark a book!

Post it notes to mark pages and a notebook to write in is all you need.

I remember being really shocked the first time I saw someone at university with their book all highlighted and scribbles in the margins!

Books on the English Lit syllabus change all the time - it's a massive waste of money

This book is one that I read at school when I was young.

(But I refer people to my updates having read many of the comments on here and realising my initial misunderstanding about what DS had said)

at school in the 70/80s.
For O'level we didn't annotate books to the depth that students do nowadays. And to be honest we could get away with just "plonking" down a quote and writing about it, none of this embedding in our paragraphs stuff.
But for school text books - we rarely had one per pupil (until O'level stage), it was often 1 between 2 and often they were held together by sellotape. And of course we didn't have photo copiers or computers.
We did need to contribute for materials or provide our own for most craft subjects.
And buying a book was quite hard where I lived - as the only places to stock books were two branches of WHS in nearby towns (o if you were lucky a second hand store). And the price of books was much higher than nowadays.

I blame the Conservative party. I hope people remember these cuts and the effect they have had on their children for the last 10 years when it comes to the election.

I left school in 2004, 7 years into Labour's rule, and had to buy books for school, so I blame the Labour Party. Am I doing it right?

Books on the English Lit syllabus change all the time - it's a massive waste of money.

Tbh I'm surprised how little they have changed.

I did Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men

My kids did Romeo and Juliet, An Inspector Calls, Frankenstein

I know that Macbeth and Great Expectations are possible texts today and American literature has been taken off the syllabus for political reasons.

I hope people remember these cuts and the effect they have had on their children

Even though you can afford to buy the books yourself its still the govts fault?

do you work for the government, Trewser? You seem extraordinarily keen on defending their spending (or lack thereof).

So you are paranoid as well as aggressive

Even though you can afford to buy the books yourself its still the govts fault?

What about families that can't afford it?

What about families that can't afford it

They can use child benefit if need be then or take on more work etc,

Children come with costs, a paperback book is pennies compared to what they cost overall.

They can use child benefit if need be then or take on more work etc,

[shock

We are talking about 20 on books. If you cant afford a fiver here and there for books for school then you are probably eligible for fsm and therefore books are provided.

Not sure about taking on more work, but that is partially what child benefit is for isnt it?

Why In shock at the thought of parents having to step up and provide Cassian? If I knew mine needed an item for their education then I’d make sure they had it otherwise I would be failing them in my eyes. My choice to have children, not other tax payers. We already have the luxury of free education to A Levels as well as healthcare. It would seem many think children shouldn’t cost them anything.

The problem with hand me down books that have already been annotated is that some children will simply regurgitate what has already been written when the teacher asks a question, whether they understand it or not, or even switch off completely because they think the work has already been done for them.

The current syllabus requires a lot of recall and memorisation of quotes, so students really need to have engaged with the text in order to answer the questions.

My English Literature GCSE was coursework based or you could have your annotated book in the exam with you.

Every government has made cuts to schooling so stop blaming one part.
It does annoy me when parent whine about providing for their own kids. If you wont pay why should everyone else via tax???
Do people really have them thinking they come free?

The families who cant afford it and are on free school meals ect will get it given to them

Hopefully your ds won't get to uni. I've just spent over £200 on books for dd.

DS is at uni, going into his 2nd yr, no books required that aren't already available on campus. DS2 is starting his first year and also has no books to buy. Everything is available online.

I was at school in the 70s and never bought a textbook, all were available at school, some already annotated from previous students. My two boys have only ever had to buy one text each for English lit and I got those second hand.

Everything is available online

For free?

What on earth are they studying?

People in the UK don't realise how easy they've had it. We had to buy every text book in Ireland, every note pad, every piece of sports equipment. It's one book. Those who can't afford it will be subsidised by pupil premium.

DD#1 announced the other day that she had to read DH Lawrence for her English Higher - took me two hours going through the shelves and boxes (I have a LOT of books) before I eventually found my 1960s Penguin edition of Women in Love.

Next day.
Me: "How's the DH Lawrence?"
Her: "Sooooo Tedious! Gudrun and Ursula?!"
Me: "Yep."

Day After:
Me: "How was school?"
Her: "Fine, here's your book back. I don't have to read it now."

Reading between the lines of the subsequent "you are kidding me?!" conversation I suspect the teacher had forgotten what a sodding bore Lawrence actually was to read.

Anyway.... The point of that (I digressed so much I forgot to make it) was that I could have saved myself a shedload of time by just downloading the sodding thing to her school Chromebook from Gutenberg.org

www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4240

A lot of Classic Texts for free in a variety of formats to suit differing EBooks. Might save someone some time and money.

YABU. Students who can’t afford it will get it for free- schools have a budget for this (look up pupil premium).