School and kindles

[Stripitout]

DD 9 has a kindle. Books are generally cheaper , you don’t have to wait to go to the shops or order from Amazon, she has a lot of books and finishes around 1 a week.

They have to take a book to school everyday for reading - school library is crap and she’s read most of her age and older books.

The school will not allow any electronic devices. I’ve explained she can’t take photos, message, go on the internet with it but they will not allow her to take it to school. It means I have to keep buying print copies of books for her to read just at school, if she’s really enjoying a book on her kindle she has to swap and change with a print book for school (I’m not buying duplicate copies)

it seems so short sighted of the school. AIBU?

just get second hand stuff - look out for phone box libraries, Oxfam second hand book shops, facebook declutters. Buy ahead for her reading age so you always have a stock. DD was a BIG reader and this is what I had to do to be able to afford the 5 or 6 books a week she was getting through on top of anything school sent home.

You can also ask relatives and friends if they are decluttering.

In the time you’ve been griping on here/biting people’s heads off, you could have ordered plenty. Maybe….. just get off
mumsnet?

Ask them, tell OP and then she can let her school know. Or tell us and we can all let our schools know.

@LittleBearPad It’s a state primary school and I didn’t ’wear them down with Amazon advocacy’, I just had a quick chat with a sensible teacher who I know is a passionate reader and understood that it was worth a bit of flexibility to encourage a child’s love of reading.

FYI if you’ve got something against Amazon, a Kobo is another pure digital reading device that avoids Amazon entirely.

i honestly am a big obeyer of rules and I never make a fuss at school about anything. But I did consider this rule outrageous and luckily a teacher saw my POV and the rule was changed. Shock news, the school has not been overwhelmed with Kindles because hardly any kids read anymore.

And @noworklifebalance I did exactly that, as per my post immediately above. This is what I’m suggesting OP does too, as it seemed to work at my school!

Maybe suggest to the school that they invest in a few kindles for the classroom?

@Stripitout I do think it’s worth seeing if your library lets you borrow e-books on Kindle. Mine does, it’s a faff to set up but easy once it’s sorted and can be done entirely online, no need to get to the library when its open.

www.wikihow.com/Access-UK-Library-Books-on-a-Kindle

Parents do blame the school when things get lost or broken.

Kids do try it on and will do anything they can to access the internet and social media on devices in school.

If school allows devices, teachers do not have the time to be connstantly surveying what kind of reading device each child has and whether they are internet enabled.

When you are complaining about this sort of thing, you need to look at it from the point of view of umpteen classes of 30 kids, not your one child.

Schools can barely afford teachers and basic resorces at the moment. They do not need to be spending money on Kindles when there are books in the school library and public libraries.

Does your child’s school have no school library and no class bookshelves in any class, OP?

One additional point to make is that in a class of children reading their books for 10 minutes while I take the register, I can see the book they are reading. I can, as I look round the room, see who has the same book as they have had all term but seem no further through; the child who has picked a book way above their reading level; the one who is reading an inappropriate book for their age or stage of development. I can empathise with the child reading a book I love, or ask for an off-the-cuff review of one I’ve not seen. I can build up - over time - a picture of their preferred ‘book type’ and have recommendations ready from my book corner if they don’t know what to read next.

E-readers always look the same. The teacher can’t tell what is being read and has no control over its suitability (or whether the child flips from the book they SAY they are reading to something else in their library). For family linked devices, they may have access to books read by their parents or elder siblings. They are somewhat harder to share when reading with an adult. From a teaching point of view, an e-reader at primary has distinct disadvantages.

1. Could you buy a second book for a couple of quid and make it last the whole term? She can read her own books as fast as she wants at home.

2. could you print a few pages off and let her take that in to read?

Presumably you aren't so swamped with tasks that you couldn't do as suggested above and order second hand books online?

Alternatively, when collecting your food shop pop in to supermarket - a few local to me have a rack of secondhand books near the till for a donation fee.

There's also a handful of neighbourhood library/book swaps in my area. There might be some in your area too.

Shame you can't ever find the time to visit your local library though, my children absolutely love it there.

Surely going to the library is a nice weekend outing? You can probably only go once a fortnight if its such a huge chore. My kids love going to thw library you can reserve books from other branches and you can renew online so books are never late etc. Whats not to like

We can’t afford pencils at the moment.

I'm happy for children in my (Y6) class to read on their ereader-only Kindles at school and for at least some, they've been quite empowered by others not being able to see how easy or otherwise their book is. If parents are putting books onto the Kindle, the appropriateness is for them to determine.

My own DC takes a Kindle to school much of the time but if they're reading a paperback, they take that. Their secondary school is happy with that as their primary school was. It's a shame OP's school feels the children and parents would make it difficult were an e-readers only rule to be introduced.

Buy a cheap set of books from books2door or get a load from your nearest charity shop. Those are her school books. Use the kindle at home. She can donate the books to the school library when she finishes them.

I would just tell dd to get a book from the school library.

Sod if she's read them. Ignore if she engages in it for the short time a day they have to read.

My POV is that if schools want to dictate parents provide reading material they accept the reading material maybe an e book in the 21st century.

I work in education!

It's hard enough with all the stupids rules schools keep needing to remember without adding more rules to try and remember we've passed onto parents!

A book is a book 🤷‍♀️

Pardon me while I die laughing for a few minutes.

State primary schools have teachers provinding pencils and toasters and bread from their own pockets because they can't get basics from school fiunds and children are coming to school hungry. The idea they can rustle up "a few kindles" is so out of synch with reality as to make a grown woman cry.

I suggested it as my dcs secondary school has them…not completely out of reach if they wanted to I suppose.

I've known some schools to buy kindles to use in class to help children with dyslexia or poor reading skills, or those whose English is poor.
The ability to change the font size and typeface can make a huge difference, and the fact that they can read perhaps lower level books without other children being aware helps their confidence.

It seems that in the days of schools embracing all kinds of technology on whiteboards and laptops, it's mad not to accept that some children will find it easier to read/financially better for parents to use kindles or kobos. I also can't see that the numbers using them in a class would ever stretch to making it a haves/have nots issue.

I am on an old kindle. I find it easier to use for meetings.

I can access the internet, send emails, photos and download files and images. We don't allow them in school along with anything that has the capacity to take images.

Does library van come to the school? Dc used to take a list and order them from library van.

I sort of get your perspective but unfortunately I do understand why the school has to draw a firm line on electronic devices somewhere.

unfortunately you will have to stock up from charity shops, car boot sales and the library.

Agree with the majority that kindles should stay home and you can easily solve this situation by either going to the library once a month and doing some cleaning on Sundays or by ordering on Awesome Books or World of Books once in a while. It would be far cheaper than kindle books anyway and no bad thing for a child to read a physical book now and again. Am sure they don't spend lots of time reading in class anyway so one book will last ages.

I think it’s nice to have some screen free tIme they don’t need to be looking at screens during reading time at school. Just buy some cheap books from charity shops. Surely you just spend some time with dd at the weekends, not just tutor and food shopping with her. Spend some of that time taking her out to choose some books.