To think 10/11 year olds should be given an actual book?

[DinDjarin]

DD(10)'s homework this week is to read up to page 10 in the book they are reading in class. The teacher has scanned (badly, so there's an inch or two of black around the wonky page) every single page of the book and uploaded it as a pdf on google drive. DD says they don't have a copy of the book in class.

I think they should be reading from a book at this age.

YABU - this is fine
YANBU - they should be given a copy of the book

PS is it even legal to scan and distribute a book like that?

I'm not sure it's the school's responsibility to provide a hard copy of the book for every child; if they're providing a means to read it for those whose families genuinely can't afford to buy the book, this is a good way of doing it. But for me I'd buy a copy for my child and then keep it on the shelf at home, it's nice to build up a library of books they'll remember fondly when they're older.

A book costs around £7. A copy for every child in Y6 at my dd's school would be £420.

For one book.

They read one every half term. That's £2520. On 6 books, for one year group, in a relatively small school.

No, they can't provide every child with a book to use. Education is severely under funded.

YABU. Schools cannot afford to buy books for pupils. That's the truth.

Buy DD the book if you are that outraged

😂😂 😂

As if libraries in Britain have such resources. I've been teaching in England for 10 years and in that time have seen ONE set of class texts, for a Y6 class. It is absolutely laughable OP that you think the school would have anything like the money for them. The low ability readers in my class are reading the same colour banded books for a second or third time because we don't have the money to buy enough for children who get stuck on the same level for many months.

There is a school library service that schools have to pay to use. When I first started teaching I do remember we could get class sets from there. Not seen them in a long time (and we had to give up our subscription to the school library service as ot was too expensive!).

Yes, unfortunately it's a money thing. Even if you do have the budget to buy 30 copies of a particular book, you have to multiply that by, say, 6 books for that class for the year, then if there is more than 1 class in a year group you have to multiply again, so that many times each year group in the school... That's a lot of books.

Then, when the book is finished, you don't have 30 copies in each class anymore, because 6 children never brought them back from home and another 3 got drawn in/water damaged/pages fallen out from a broken spine etc. So you have to replace those for the next time.

And after 3 years there would be some new reading initiative or scheme and the books you were using are now languishing forgotten in a cupboard somewhere and then when the powers that be decide everyone in class needs their own copy of each book to take home, the new English Lead chooses the books for each year group and buys copies of these new books en masse, only for the cycle to repeat all over again.

You could ask for a list of what books they will be covering this year, then look out for them in charity shops, car boots ask for donations on facebook etc. and donate them once used. Sounds like a great project you could organise and get other parents involved in.

At both the secondary I teach at and DC's primary, parents have to buy the books (or find them in a library). PP pupils can get them for free from the school. But there are plenty of pupils who aren't entitled to PP but whose parents don't have a lot of spare money. Physical books also get lost, damaged in bags, etc.

While I personally prefer reading a physical book, I can certainly understand why the school have gone for digital. But your DC a copy if you're especially keen on paperback.

schools cant afford books or paper. simple as.

@DinDjarin I'm not actually sure what your AIBU is- who do you think should give them a book?

If you are saying the school should, do you imagine the teacher didn't think of that? Do you think a teacher really wanted to spend their time copying an entire book because they think a poor quality copy is better?

A teacher didn't waste hours of their life scanning a book for jollies. That is an act of pure desperation trying to provide resources for kids.

Dts are y7, nothing is printed, budgets.

schools cant afford books or paper. simple as.

This isn't an exageration. I've genuinely not had anything for kids to write on at a couple of points in my career because my department ran out of money for both exercise books and paper.

So why don't they use the books the previous classes read? DS always had books to read. In fact, he had both the class book and an easy-read edition of it.

Because they don't get sent back.

Because they start to fall apart from,children carrying them back and forwards.

and because the specification changes

except I find it much more difficult to absorb something read online rather than a physical book. I guess this is the reason we still have printers.

Feel, free to buy 30 copies for the class if you want, Im sure the school would appreciate it.

Don’t you think they would have books if they were available? You could always volunteer to buy books for the class.

In my recent experience, only about 75-80% of the books are returned, and many of those are in dubious condition. Schools simply can't afford to keep replacing them.

Wow, I wouldn't have thought the UK was any worse off in its libraries than us. Didn't expect a laughing face as it's hardly such an unlikely comparison. I appreciate our free library service even more now. I can reserve, borrow and renew up to 30 books for 3 months and have access to them all as audio or to read on a tablet via Borrowbox app. They even dropped library fines!

In my classroom I have piles of 30 books just ready to go. But instead, I always like to photocopy the book and make the kids read that instead. Just for no reason.

School budgets are threadbare. It wasn't much better when my DC were at school 10 years ago. If you can possibly afford it I would buy the book, that's what I used to do.
Yes I know you shouldn't have to and most parents couldnt afford it but you could donate it to the school afterwards.

To be clear, the laughing face wasn't at you - of course one might expect a rich country to have well-recourced libraries - it was at the absurdity of how very far from reality it was! It's absolutely ridiculous here.

I'm not in the UK, but is it usual that the school would provide text books, rather than the parents?
Here the school library has books the students can borrow for personal reading, but class texts would be provided by the parents - with funding for those who cant afford it. Book lists are made available during the summer and parents can source second hand where possible.
I dont think the schools could afford to provide all books for all the students any more than they could afford to provide all their uniform.