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?

Unfortunately there's no budget for books anymore! I'm constantly told that children don't read books anyway and prefer to read things online. This I know to be false - they definitely actually do reading homework when given physical copies. It's partly the fault of funding cuts but is also a result of some head teachers getting back handers from tech firms to push the use of class ipads and the like

When you say Head Teachers I think you mean MAT leaders in which case I think it is true.

I am sure iPads and computers cost a fortune too and need either repairs or upgrading soon enough.

Monster phonics by any chance?

Real term funding has actually increased compared with previous decades. In fact, it’s almost double that of 1980.

This.

Why has such a basic standard of responsibility become such an impossible ask?

Expect books to be returned or replaced if not. Parents have the choice of finding the book in a charity shop or paying for a replacement.

Why is no common sense applied?

Don't keep changing the curriculum so you have to keep replacing resources.

Replace set books and hence resources over a rolling time period, so each book can be used for a few years and each year, the oldest one is removed from the curriculum and a new one added.

Use bulk purchasing arrangements to buy at a discount. This should mean that the cost per 'read' is under £1, so you're basically talking about a fiver per year per child to provide them with their own copy of a book for each half term and obviously it is a disgrace that the government should be ashamed of that we've come to the time where schools can't afford to spend a fiver per year per child on books.

Are the educational outcomes for children at 16/18 now twice as good as the outcomes in the 1979s/80s? I’m not sure they are.

My MIL would have been at school in the 60s. She left school at 15 with no qualifications and had to go to work. She knew her lot in life was to get married and have babies, so a good education was not important. She wasn't expected to have a career, just a job until she had babies.

Until the school leaving age was raised to 16, the majority of secondary modern children left school without any qualifications.

Think that was why the CSE was introduced, as O-levels were mainly only sat by pupils in Grammar and independent schools

Exactly. I cannot understand why we are so accepting of books being damaged/not returned.

The government website states that “On a per-pupil basis the total funding allocated to schools for 5-16 year old pupils, in cash terms, in 2023-24 was £7,460”. So each child has, on average, almost £7,500 spent on them and yet we apparently can’t afford books for those children. As you correctly point out, this would only cost a few pounds per year per child if the majority of people had respect for books and they could be used several times.

Surely someone needs to look at exactly how this money is being spent. I understand that a lot of that funding is allocated to staff costs, but that still leaves a fair chunk of money being spent somewhere.

Schools don't have the money for books. Stop voting Tory

Our local Primary schools are much more in the £3-4K per pupil bracket than £7k. At least 80% of that will be spent on staff. Have you seen how dilapidated many of our schools are, so out of 20% left they have to maintain schools and then heat them. Not much left for school resources

Governors/trustees have oversight of school spending. If you want to know what schools are spending their money on become a school governor. Schools are always trying out for governors. Academies will have copy of their accounts on their website so you can see what they are spending their money on.

Remember, that state maintained schools have to have over about 8% of their funding to LEA before they actually receive it. The equivalent of this funding is spent on the central team in Academies

I also assume some of that funding included in £7500 includes things like FSM funding, so schools will be restricted on what that can be spent on, and rare for schools to make a profit on catering

toomuchlaundry · Today 13:46
Our local Primary schools are much more in the £3-4K per pupil bracket than £7k. At least 80% of that will be spent on staff. Have you seen how dilapidated many of our schools are, so out of 20% left they have to maintain schools and then heat them. Not much left for school resources

Does a school building’s physical maintenance in the way of painting, repairs, wiring, roof, fencing, grounds etc come out of the per pupil allowance?

Pretty much yes @ScrollingLeaves General maintenance, repairs, ground maintenance etc comes out of the GAG funding (general annual grant). Schools do then get some additional funding for capital but that does not cover anything like the amount they need.

The amount our local MAT gets for capital spend doesn't cover the amount one school needs to get the buildings into good condition and additional classroom required, never mind the needs of the other 12 schools in the group.

Reading from a screen is not the same process as reading from a book. Especially if you are analysing it which they should be at that age. You need to flick back and forth - find evidence - there is a page memory that we have about where things are. Reading is very complex and there are all kinds of brain areas in involved. The school should not be messing about with the learning process in this way. It is an awful way to teach. I'd be furious if it was my child. I'm a trained teacher including in special needs and this is really wrong. Many kids of that age are still not secure readers. Even secure readers at university level do not take in as much from a screen as they do from a printed page.

It is also not necessary - schools can economically rent batches of books from the county library services in most areas. And most schools have loads of sets of books in their stock rooms already. Even if a new set is required is is not huge expense and the school will get a decade or so of use out the set - it is not like buying exercise books that get used up and thrown away. I don't know what the teacher is playing at to be honest.

We need to stop letting public services off the hook for being crap because we think it is the budget. Very often it is not. It is because they're doing something wrong.

Some evidence

"Multiple studies show that digital screen use may be causing a variety of troubling downstream effects on reading comprehension in older high school and college students."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/skim-reading-new-normal-maryanne-wolf

www.snexplores.org/article/learn-comprehension-reading-digital-screen-pape

www.brainfacts.org/neuroscience-in-society/tech-and-the-brain/2020/reading-on-paper-versus-screens-whats-the-difference-072820

hechingerreport.org/evidence-increases-for-reading-on-paper-instead-of-screens/

If anyone's school is fobbing kids off like this then take the evidence in and complain.

It sounds as though we almost don’t have schools fit for purpose from this.

So what is happening with middle class area schools where children are somehow getting by? Is that from parents making up shortfalls either on an individual, or at school level?

ChristinaXYZ · Today 14:09
Thank you for your post!

When my similar age child is reading a class book parents get sent a link to it on Amazon via the school app. We are expected to provide copies ourselves to support the school. School just has no budget. Ordinary state primary.

If you are getting a photocopy hand out it's more then us!

Yes, parents make up the shortfalls here.

Most of the families I know will set their child up at home with their own mini library. We have a huge number of books of all kinds for each DC. When they were on the phonics scheme, I bought bundles of second hand scheme books at the right level and worked through them at home so they weren't stuck with the same 5 page book for a week. I have also lent out our phonics books to other families within the school community.
We supply our DCs with all the stationary they need at home and for KS2 DD2, who is asked to bring in a pencil case, the in-school stationary too.
A good number of families (us included) use private tutors, Ed Psychs, and OTs etc to plug gaps or try and avoid the huge waiting lists.

We help where we can within school too. Some volunteer time to read etc with DCs in school or fundraise on the PTA. The PTA is increasingly needing to purchase things like desks and chairs because there is nothing left in the budget. People donate books their DCs have outgrown for the library and old fancy dress outfits to preschool. I have donated loads of felt tips, paints, colouring pencils, crayons, random exercise books and the like when we've had a clearout at home and attempted to streamline our collection. It is all very gratefully received.

I might be able to help with part of that. Fads from the gvt which mean we have to spend money we don’t have replacing things that were perfectly good but don’t fit the latest craze.

For example, we have used the same phonics scheme for the last six years at least (how long I’ve been in this school - I don’t know when they actually introduced it.) It works well for us, we have all the resources we need, we have collected a decent number of reading books at each level connected to this scheme, and a good variety of books to suit the varying tastes of our children. We are a rural farming area and many of our children are extremely knowledgeable about animals, and enjoy books tailored to that.
Last year, some idiot decided our scheme was no longer suitable. I don’t know why. We had a buy a new scheme. Which includes online training for all staff, new posters, packs and packs of new flash cards, word cards, lesson plans, assessments…. And books. Apparently you Must Not Mix and Match. Your children will fail in everything they ever attempt to do in life if you dare to hand them a book not in the accepted reading scheme. Ofsted will hold you up as the perfect example of a failed school who has let down every pupil, past, present and future. So here, spend a few grand getting shot of books that are still in good condition and have served children at your school well for ages and replace them with ones that actually, seem to be no different apart from a different stamp on the back. (Sshh, don’t tell. We kept our old books. We couldn’t afford to buy enough of the new scheme to ensure everyone could get a book. So we have just added the new scheme ones in and kept a mix and match approach. We’ve just had Ofsted and they didn’t notice - we’re hoping by the next inspection a more sensible approach will prevail.)

Massive waste of money but one imposed on us because a waste of space in Westminster wanted to show he was worth his salary.

Oh and when I say some idiot decided the scheme was no good, I mean no longer acceptable in the eyes of the DfE. We didn’t decide it and we’re not in an academy (yet) so it wasn’t an overpaid CEO decision. Some phonics schemes are accredited, others are not, and you are only allowed to teach from those that are. And you have to have a scheme- you can’t just teach reading. Because that is Wrong and you are a Bad Teacher who is clearly incapable of teaching without the proper scheme.

There will come a time when children don't know what an actual book is.

There will also come a time when children are unable to write with a pen or pencil and can only type on a keyboard or screen.

It's not good, is it?

The answer to that might be partly due to funding applications. We have a secretary who is amazing at sniffing out any grants etc in our area. Like the Tesco charity thing. But often these have to be targeted. So we have no money but go after a grant which is aimed at increasing technology in schools, and we get new computers as a result. Can’t buy a new set of handwriting pens for another month but shiny new computers all lined up!