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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to burn school work/books

48 replies

newnewnamename · 22/08/2026 17:00

When you were a child what happened to your school work?

What has happened to your child's school work?

My kids want to have a bonfire and burn everything but I don't like the idea of it, neither do I like the idea of it mouldering in their rooms for ever.

Youngest has just finished A levels.

AIBU to ban the bonfire?

(would be done in a safe and controlled manner before anyone gets over-excited)

OP posts:
wafflesmgee · 22/08/2026 17:02

Get them to photograph stuff first and keep a few books, great idea to burn the rest. We’ve moved six times and my husband still insists we keep two full big boxes of his school books…they never get unpacked, just move with us each time. I’ve often imagined burning them 😁

Flumposie3 · 22/08/2026 17:07

We burnt most of my daughter's GCSE work on the fire pit after she had finished her exams. She kept maths as she was unsure if she had passed it. She did pass so that will be burnt when we are allowed to use the fire pit.

LittleGreenShoots · 22/08/2026 17:08

Why would you burn it? Sounds awful for the environment. Surely you can just donate the textbooks and recycle the exercise books if they don't want them.

LaurieFairyCake · 22/08/2026 17:19

I still have half a dozen from 50 years ago. I re read them recently, I had lovely handwriting and was great at poetry aged 7 😂

I would be upset if I had destroyed them and not read with the benefit of affection and hindsight

ThatLassFromLeeds · 22/08/2026 17:20

LittleGreenShoots · 22/08/2026 17:08

Why would you burn it? Sounds awful for the environment. Surely you can just donate the textbooks and recycle the exercise books if they don't want them.

This exactly! I’ve never understood burning stuff for the sake of it.

frozendaisy · 22/08/2026 17:27

I would recycle as much as I could and if they want to burn them then say sure a couple symbolically I guess

It’s common for exam students to burn books nowadays, not sure why, so as your youngest is technically an adult it’s up to them surely?

CaptainWidepant · 22/08/2026 17:28

What a gross idea. Just recycle them, surely?

ThisWiseRobin · 22/08/2026 17:31

I grew up as a very fortunate child in South Africa. Poor but white. In those days 3x more money was made available to white schools than black schools.
White children got given free textbooks while black children had to pay or share.
I will never forget the day a very smartly dressed black gentleman turned up at our door. He asked if we had school books to sell for his kids.
My mother gave him all our old text books and told him to come back next year for the new ones.
my mother forbade us to write in our textbooks. We had to put hard cardboard over the covers then cling wrap them, which kept them like new.
My mother never asked for a penny and the friendly arrangement went on for years .
This was one of those watershed moments in my life. A black man had the courage to walk through a white neighbourhood, have doors shut in his face and beg for books for his children.
I never again took my privilage for granted nor did I ever look at my mother the same again. The Afrikaner farm girl, labeled racist by the world and hated by other nations, her compassion shamed them.
That's what I did with my school books.
Funny to this day, even with my university books. I never write in them. Post Its rock

MargaretThursday · 22/08/2026 17:37

Can't burn them while we're under drought conditions anyway. By the time you'll be allowed to they'll have moved on and lost interest.

Anarchy99 · 22/08/2026 17:38

Some of the recent wildfires are suspected of having been caused by students burning their books at the end of their exams.

Burning them is environmentally a really crap thing to do. Of course it does mean that nobody involved gets to whine about climate change ever again.
If you don’t want to keep it, recycle it, sell the books on or whatever.

Natsku · 22/08/2026 17:41

Of course they should not be burning them, that's a ridiculous thing to do. Donate or recycle as appropriate. And some things you might really want to keep for the future - I visited my parents this summer and looked through a box of old school things my parents kept for me and the trip down memory lane was wonderful.

Thepeopleversuswork · 22/08/2026 17:42

No. I would never burn a book, even one I hated.
Books are a way to learn about the world, to improve your life and to escape. They are as close as it gets in a profane world to sacred things.
They could be used by other children.
Oh and burning stuff is shit for the environment.

ElsiePiddockSkipsinherSleep · 22/08/2026 17:42

We just put almost everything in the recycling. I kept a few things for a few years. Recently got rid of everything except GCSE and A level art books from one of them.

Besidemyselfwithworry · 22/08/2026 17:43

all ours are in the loft in boxes -
I have some of mine and it’s nice memories to look back on.
Plus my 2 eldest kids want to teach and want to keep them for ideas

Dontlletmedownbruce · 22/08/2026 17:44

Wow @ThisWiseRobinwhat a lovely story. People like that are the reason social reform is possible.

DefinitelyNotMaybe · 22/08/2026 17:44

Burning books... I take it they didn't do History then! Just recycle/give away the textbooks.

PoliteSquid · 22/08/2026 17:45

We gave my twins’ textbooks and revision books to school - they made them available to kids on FSM. The exercise books have been recycled or burnt - few years ago now!

Anarchy99 · 22/08/2026 17:45

Natsku · 22/08/2026 17:41

Of course they should not be burning them, that's a ridiculous thing to do. Donate or recycle as appropriate. And some things you might really want to keep for the future - I visited my parents this summer and looked through a box of old school things my parents kept for me and the trip down memory lane was wonderful.

My parents kept some of mine but I recycled them when I found out, as I had no desire to be reminded of those days.

Although I always hated looking at baby pics my parents had kept as I’m not sentimental about my past

Any1ForTennis · 22/08/2026 17:47

I threw mine in the paper recycling when i moved out the parental home at 20. Amazing how quickly I had no idea how to answer the questions on the 'past papers'.

geumsun · 22/08/2026 17:48

Why are people suggesting donating written in school note books and papers? Do you take all your shite to charity shops for them to toss in a skip?

AgnesMcDoo · 22/08/2026 17:49

Burning books 😳 not a good connotation

Corinthiana · 22/08/2026 17:50

Paper recycling. Why would you burn them?
Strange.
Plus, it's still very dry in most places....

Comtesse · 22/08/2026 17:52

Love that @ThisWiseRobin
Don’t burn text books that’s hideous (thriving 2’d hand market in DCs’ school). But if they want to burn their own notes, I guess that’s different.

Opus3 · 22/08/2026 17:54

I really don't think ops kids are wanting to burn text books, they mean their work books FFS.

BirdLandedonmyHead · 22/08/2026 17:54

Just recycle them like a normal person.