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.

I can't accept this is a new thing. My parents had to buy my books and I was at school in the 70s/80s. I bought my DDs books and the eldest is 27 and the youngest is 18. And I'm pretty sure my mums parents bought her school books too. I really don't think you can blame this on a political party. Now here's an idea … how about we all look after our own children and take on some of the responsibility for their education ourselves

I am really surprised at the pile on of so many people saying of course you should buy the books.

I never had to buy a single text book or set text throughout my education - though from time to time if we were the first year group to have a particular book, it was a requirement for each of us to make a custom protective cover for the new book for protection (either using brown paper, wrapping paper or sticky backed plastic) and that was at our own expense.

But I had seen MN threads about schools being so underfunded that books were scarce so when I did the rounds of secondary school open days this time last year I asked every English teacher whether they had enough copies of every set text that every pupil could have their own copy to take home. Every school I visited, which was a fair fraction of the available senior schools in a medium sized city, confirmed that they did have enough books for this and there would be no need to buy copies.

I wonder if it's about prioritisation and there's some other gap in provision that a school with inadequate books is providing in a high-quality way, and the schools with a higher books budget are failing to provide adequately.

It's not about prioritisation. There is no money. Schools have different levels of funding based on a variety of factors. We used to fund the GCSE books. When they took them into the exam it was easy to get the vast majority back.
We also don't physically have the space to store that many books when not in use either.

Yes you most definitely Abu. Students study 3 set texts throughout their GCSEs. For a school to buy clean copies of these every year would cost thousands. English departments would spend most of their budgets on them - so very little for the other students. If schools were to purchase a set for students to read while studying that text, students obviously couldn’t annotate them. Furthermore they might find that the texts are being used by the next year group to read them when they need them to revise for the final exams. Gove made all English GCSEs terminal assessments - everything is assessed by the exam at the end. So you need good notes to revise from. You need the text to re-read. This isn’t ideal, and it does cost parents money, but it certainly isn’t a problem if the school’s design. Buy the texts and be thankful that you are in a position where you are able to do so, lots aren’t.

Get it out of the library, or search for a free online one.

Surely it won't be too long before every pupil getsa digital copy which they can edit to their hearts content

I'm in my fifties and I had to buy my own books for English Lit. I also had to buy my own text books and stationery for my A Level courses. This isn't something new.

@Sunshine93 you are absolutely right about the calculator. My eldest has finished his A levels and off to Uni in 3 weeks but has lost his £85 Calculator from college.

Now here's an idea … how about we all look after our own children and take on some of the responsibility for their education ourselves

This is not a novel idea, however, the first place I normally hear this kind of sentiment is from Americans who think healthcare is a privilege rather than a right. If we're going down the "pull up your bootstrap and fend for yourself" route, then like the Americans, my taxes should be lower. I should not be paying ever higher taxes and getting less for my money. As an aside our council are scrapping recycling collections and we will need to pay for a new service instead. Council tax has gone up though. Recycling was included previously.

I think the OP is making a valid point. Things that were and therefore should remain free are not any longer, and like little drones/worker bees we all are accepting it.

Hi, the exams are much harder now than O Levels, so annotation is crucial. There would be no way of gaining anything higher than a D without annotation.

Of course you should pay. I find the general sense of entitlement in the UK very weird. I’m sure the school will have a plan for those who can’t afford it. How much does it cost? More or less than you spend on coffee in a month?

The texts need to be annoyed as all pupils have to learn quotes off by heart, analyse language techniques and synthesise different motifs etc across the text.

This is impossible without annotation.

Four set texts, the school provides the poetry anthology, so parents have to provide three.

Schools have never provided set texts to annotate at home, and to my knowledge neither have public schools.

This is during labour and conservative governments.

In any other country, you'd have to buy every single item your child needs, down to the paper they write on! Just buy the books!!

Buy the book to assist his education, or don't buy it and disadvantage him.

*annotated

In an ideal world books should be supplied. However pupils don't return the books and each year we have less. For schools to buy books we get a discount but to buy one class set can cost £££. Multiply that with 5-10 sets and your budget for the year has gone.
We know who can and can't afford books and we don't let pupils go without. We do ask pupils to donate books back but few do.
As PP said, some pupils don't even bring pens to school, but they always have their bloody phone!! But that is a different rant!

What has coffee got to do with it? We buy (or do not buy) our coffee with what's left after our taxes.
Our rather high taxes that should be (and we are assured are) used for healthcare, education etc but in reality, who actually knows.

The people in this country are getting so entitled nowadays.

Pupil premium buys all students with FSM revision books, set texts, calculators etc.
Everyone else buys their own. Can cost a small fortune.
Look on eBay and Amazon or local free pages. We've just given away the full set for GCSE so you might get lucky.

We ask our kids to buy the books so they can write in them. That’s how you analyse a Lit book.

Any pupil who gets free school meals can be provided with one by the school.

@chomalungma how bizarre that it must be a book. The A4 printouts have larger text and more space to annotate in the margins. I thought an A4 printout was standard practice these days...

The saddest thing of all in this is the implication that parents only but their children books because they have to for school and they shouldn’t even be made to do that.

It’s a book. It’s not a brand new laptop. Most of the common ones used at GCSE can be picked up for pennies secondhand. What kind of message do you think it sends to children to say “we want you to read and study and learn this book back to front, well enough to pass an exam on it. But it’s not important enough for us to spend £7.99 at Waterstones or 75p at oxfam so you can actually own a copy”?

I did my GCSEs in the early 90s and I simply never had my own copy of textbooks. I read the school’s copy in class, didn’t annotate etc. Never even crossed my mind that I should have a copy. My parents were poor but we were not on free school meals.

Be glad he’s not doing fine art, I’ve just had to buy art supplies for £65, dc has also taken food tech so no doubt there’ll be ingredients to buy every week, and I’ve also had to buy a Spanish grammar book and the English lit book. They’ve only been back 3 days, I dread what else will crop up! With the exception of ingredients, school have stressed these aren’t compulsory purchases and children are welcome to use school equipment at lunchtimes or after school but in order to be able to study properly at home I guess I need them.
I did my GCSE’s in 1990 and remember buying a Letts study guide for every single one, including Macbeth, however the actual book itself was a school copy.

In France you have to pay for stationary, pens, art supplies, calculators and books. I suppose that sorts of equates to uniform costs? Textbooks are provided up to college at which point you buy textbooks second hand and sell them at the end of the year. The poorest families get some financial support for this although I am not sure how much it is.