School don't send home books any more

[Applesandbananaz]

My DC's school have done away with reading books and instead children will learn to read on tablets.

All books will be available to read online only. AIBU to think this is terrible? We don't have a tablet and don't want our children reading on screens. I don't know how to approach the school. Am sure loads of children will be reading on their parents' phones

Are you sure? Our library has loads. I know at least one library where the phonics books are in a different place to the picture/ story books so it might be worth double checking.

There are almost none at our library either. The "reading books" section is only really suitable for fluent readers at the end of year 1. The few beginner books are mainly old look & say style series - for some reason there are always a lot of the very poor quality reading champions series, which relies on heavy (boring) repetition of key words and cues in pictures to encourage a child to a) memorise whole words and b) guess the text based on looking at pictures.

@110APiccadilly as in not in the children's section of the library? We are in Suffolk. I've scoured the children's sections but hadn't thought to look in the adult part

Homework in primary is optional not mandatory.

If secondary schools require specific equipment for work to be completed on, they will need to provide it as not everyone can afford to buy it especially if they have more child at the school.

I have about 80 phonics books at home, picked most of them up on Facebook marketplace for £25. Ebay has lots too.

We’re a book house though, DD has a huge floor to ceiling bookcase to rival the library and I pick up free/very cheap all the time.

Yes exactly the same for us. My eldest did the library "reading challenge" at the end of Reception and the 6 easiest books we found in the library were such a struggle

Yes we are a book household too and I've picked up lots of phonics books. But I gutted for all the other children who might not have the means or parents who think a physical book is an important thing. On the one hand the school is bemoaning the use of phones by their pupils, but on the other, many will be using said phones to do their school reading on.

As a secondary teacher I find this so sad. We constantly battle to get teens off their phones/devices. We got rid of our online homework and started setting booklet/ worksheet based homework to try and get pupils to focus more without the temptation to go on TikTok or Snapchat while looking at their homework app. It’s so sad that such young ones will have to read from a screen - I totally get it though. Budgets have been slashed. We can barely afford to restock our school library. We’ve had to ask staff and parents for donations and second hand books.

Get a tablet for your child.
Also, make books and reading books a big thing in your house. Weekly buying, reading, discussing.

Ouch, what a shame! Ours sends their reading book for the week and a selected ‘challenge book’ which gets replaced as soon as we note that it’s finished in their reading log. Sometimes that’s every day

sure the school will have old reading scheme books. Maybe you can ask that they include a proper book as well once a week..?

Couldn’t agree more. A sorry state of affairs

It seems like such a race to the bottom. They have reading books but they don't fit with the "reading scheme" so they will be disposed of. It really isn't about not being able to afford books

This isn't the schools fault.

It’s to do with OFSTED

It is the schools fault - what did schools do before technology?
Why change scheme if they knew they couldn’t afford the accompanying resources?

I am so saddened by this because for many children these physical books would be the only ones they would have at home.

Perhaps that’s not affordable

Ofsted?

They were next to children's but in a separate area if that makes sense?

Another thing you could try is ordering the books for the reading scheme from the library , but I guess you'd need to find out from the school exactly what they are in advance, and I don't know what the odds are that the library would be to get them.

It's sad to hear other libraries don't have a good selection - I assumed the good variety we have in ours was standard.

We had this for one term before the school bought the books. It was a nightmare. When you're trying to help the kids by pointing out a split digraph or something you can't touch the page because on a tablet touching the page turns the page. We thankfully have lots of books at home (all from teaching child1 to read during covid), we used those and didn't sign the reading diary until we got a real book.

I agree it's stupid. Ours still send real books but a lot do get lost which is hard to understand - I guess people don't value the books or they would take more care of them.

I wouldn't bother with the reading if it was on a screen. They read the phonics books 3x in school anyway before they send them home. You can get bundles of phonics books second hand fairly cheap. Our library has a lot too.

I suspect the school is sick of pupils not bringing back expensive books. I spent so much time chasing parents and children for books when I was a TA. It's really pissing off to see almost brand new books disappear because parents and children don't value them.

I’m shocked by this. DD is in year 1 and brings home a new phonics book every other day. Some are better than others but from now on I’ll appreciate them being made from actual paper!

2 years ago my daughters school didn't send home physical books and parents were not happy, they understandably preferred a book to a screen.

Last year parents were offered the option of physical books, but had to sign a contract to say if lost or damaged the books would pay the cost (£4.75). Only 3 books in total were lost or badly damaged, if people need to pay for them they take much better care of them

Because schools had to change to a government-approved phonics scheme. Keeping your old scheme and its accompanying books wasn't an option if it wasn't on the list.

I was going to suggest this!