Ancient school reading books

[gloriafloria]

My dc school have some very old scheme reading books some dating from the late 70's/early 80's however in other ways they have very up to date IT resources and a well stocked library with lots of new books, many of which have been donated by families/fund raising over the years. The pta is very active and very successful so I know there are funds available which could be used to buy new scheme reading books but the HT believes that PTA funds should only be used for the 'Icing on the cake' stuff that LA does not have to fund. Fair enough but how old do these books have to be before they get replaced?

One of the books dd bought home last week is dated 1983. It is about communication and is really out of date wrt computers and satellite technology with no mention of mobile phones or the internet. I explained that the book was written a long, long, time ago before people really used the internet or mobile phones like they do today. Also there is a chapter on Helen Keller with an end paragraph starting off 'The story of Helen's life is the story of how a blind, deaf and dumb child learnt to read, write and talk.' My dd straight away said that's unkind to describe her as dumb and we talked about how a long time ago that was how people who did not talk were referred to.

I have no problem with other book she also bought home about myths and legends also dated 1983 as the stories are hundreds/thousands of years old. It's these non fiction books that are so out of date that drive me nuts and I'm thinking of putting a comment in her reading book. Would you bother saying anything? Are your dc's school reading books as old as this?

We have books around 20 years old mixed in with much newer ones. However, the school do not send home things that are out of date factually. All our really old stuff is fiction. I think it would be fair to speak to the school about it.

Yes, it drives me mad that our books are so old.

But I can understand the schools point. Having had meetings where the head has explained the budgetary pressures they are under, I imagine it's fairly low down on the list. Our school is in danger of losing a TA .

I do have a bit of a fetish for books so we have lots of children's books at home and DS knows he just has to plough through the school ones.

There was a great Biff, Chip and Kipper one about a rocket this week which had one of those telephone handsets attached to a computer - just like War Games!

Consider them history lessons

Most of our reading books are under 2 years old and we are adding new all the time

I was getting fed up with dd bringing home reading books with pages missing! This happened on at least 6 occasions also she bought home a book published in 1981 on family/new baby and it was so antiquated in it's viewpoint it verged on being offensive! So as a committee member of the PTA I spoke to the head and literacy co ordinator and explained my disappointment with the situation and said that we would like to purchase new books. They saw my point and we did pay for a whole batch of new books, not a whole new scheme though.

I looked at my DDs books today in the library as I'm concerned the ones she's getting home are fairly random and not supporting a structured synthetic phonics system. The Biff and Chip ones are fairly old and there were lots from early 90s. No new Dandelion Readers or Read Write Inc which the school supposedly follows. I'm going to ask this week when I have a meeting so it's interesting to hear that most of yours are under 2 years old mrz.

My head has committed to providing high quality reading books (and the government is offering matched funding pound for pound at the moment)

This hacks me off too a bit - weird teaching my class to read Roger Red Hat and Billy Blue Hat - books I learned to read with!

I would definitely mention it, but bear in mind new reading scheme books are criminally expensive - we had a grand to spend on books and I was surprised how few books it actually bought.

Private school - the fees are criminally expensive so you would have thought they could stump up for some new books in 20 years - they have a very glitzy IT system! But I guess that's more impressive to prospective parents

MrZ... is this

My head has committed to providing high quality reading books (and the government is offering matched funding pound for pound at the moment)

something my school would know about it? And if not, can you please send me the reference, so I can tell them? I am fed up with the reception class books and would be willing to fund raise if there is a pound for pound matching....

My dc's school has lots of new reading scheme books (eg Read Write Inc, Biff/Chip, ORT etc) but the non-fiction, semi-free reading books were really old and falling apart.

A group of parents got together and collected books from the parents of the older children in the school which their children had grown out of and then went through the school books with the teachers and swapped out the old books for the newer donated ones. Lots of parents of older children were happy and willing to have a clear out and give unneeded books to the school.

our school has Ginn books from the early eighties. I don't think they can afford to replace them. I think they may have one very old set of Biff and Chip books too as he's had one or two of those at each level.

I spent 2 hours last week together with some other mums sellotaping the Biff, Chip, etc books (all early 1990s) back together and throwing out the irreparable ones and the ones that were missing pages! But my kids love Biff and Chip so I don't really mind. And there are some less dilapidated phonics readers around too - possibly floppy phonics and snapdragons.

Thanks all, it's not just our school then!

Surprised about the private school Betterwhenthesunshines, I imagined they would have state of the art everything charging those fees!

Very interesting Mrz re the government matched funding, I'm going to suggest looking into this.

Shotinfoot, Yes was definitely a history lesson. I told dd this was what life was like back in the days of my childhood a long time ago .

Tbh for starting to read it doesn't matter how old a book is. To keep a child interested in reading new books should be available to reflect the changes. Obviously non-fiction should be overhault if the subject is one where a lot of changes happened.

But: there are books you don't need to change. Some stories are ageless and then it doesn't matter if the book was printed 1980 or 2011 as long as the book is in good condition. We read DD books at home I grew up with.

The tatty falling apart books possibly give out the wrong message about valuing books. However there are some wonderful books from the 80s that aren't available any more. Ladybird had a series of How it works books with titles on ships, computers, electricity and so on.

It is a history lesson that's really important. As an older mum who started work in engineering in 1983 I'm very conscious of how rapid and all-encompassing the changes have been and I think children need to know.

I did have to laugh when the kids were asked to bring in "toys that mummy and daddy played with" and one of them was a GameBoy. I sent in a Sony Walkman tape cassette player - but I remember seeing them on Tomorrow's World, when they were still in the future, we didn't actually have them until I started work.

likethespring yes your school should be aware of the funding they can claim up to £3000 (if they have £3000 to spend
www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/pedagogy/a00191791/match-funding-for-systematic-synthetic-phonics-products-and-training

Yep, some of the older books are great - my DD loves looking at the old ladybird books with pictures of nurses with uniforms and white aprons and caps. But they're not much good for teaching her to read. And it has been frustrating for her to be taught phonics, told not to guess - and the be given random books that have phonetic parts that she doesn't know yet (-ough -aw). In her eyes it made the whole 'sounding out' thing a fruitless task.

I looked in the catalogue of materials that schools must purchase from if they are to get matched funding.

I'm amazed that the Oxford Reading Tree Songbird phonics readers aren't in there ! (although I realise that they only go up to level 6 but once phonics is well established to this level surely dc are confident enough to manage most books of the right level)

I've helped both my dc at home with these whilst school sent home Biff & Chip stories with words like "fierce" and "scarecrow" in a stage 1 or 2 book which is seems to be encouraging look and say. At this point their taught phonics knowledge was way behind being able to decode such words.

The dc's reading took off very quickly with them rapidly gaining confidence due to the structure of the Songbirds Phonics books. DC1 ended reception on ORT 10 and DC2 looks like doing the same.

I've since lent our levels 1 -3 books to a friend and after a slow start on Biff & Chip her dd is now really getting confident and coming along nicely too, her mum has really noticed the difference between the 2 styles of book (ORT Biff & Chip style and the Songbirds Phonics)

Do schools not rate the Songbirds Phonics books Mrz ?

At the moment you can buy a 36 book pack (6 levels of 6 books) of Songbird Phonics readers for £15 from The Book People,so to have 30 of each book would cost £450. Say most kids in reception and year 1 tackle up to level 6 as per the ORT chart of average ability range. So to replace with 60 copies of each book would be only £900. I know we haven't covered extension packs at levels 1-4 in these sums but surely they could then be bought out of annual book replacement funds which wouldn't be under so much pressure for a couple of years if the whole Reception and Y1 reading scheme book stock was all new.

Our school talks about having to spend "several thousand pounds" if anyone mentions investing in true phonics early reading books instead of the existing Biff & Chip scheme. But I see the phonics as only being needed up to level 6 and children could then get to know Biff and Chip et al at say level 6/7 so no need to replace the whole scheme, just the starting to read using phonics early period.

Hey, what do I know though, I'm possibly an interfering/opinionated parent with a calculator. My dc have done OK, but I'm thinking about the school's KS1 children as a whole.

Yes we use Songbirds as our main early scheme and the children love them. We bought group sets of 6 originally but I've topped them up with the book people packs.
We also use Phonics Bugs, Floppy's Phonics, Big Cat Phonics, Rigby Star Phonics Rag Tag Rhymes and I've just got some Rapid Phonics in FS and Y1.

Quietcricket don't be quiet!!
Praise be your opinion! I feel exactly the same about DD school books.
You have put down exactly how I feel, but because I am too attached to dd situation, I find it hard to find the right words.
Made me feel more sane this evening at any rate

I bet schools aren't allowed to purchase via book people, though, quietcricket - they probably have their own superexpensive purchasing scheme they are tied into. It's possible though for parents to buy those packs and donate them - might be one way round it?

We joined the Reading Chest book rental scheme last year (cue mad rush for the door when the postman comes, as book deliveries are addressed to the kids themselves) so the school books coming home in the book-bags now look even sadder than ever next to their rented equivalents. Can't believe there's so much press coverage on declining literacy levels in the UK when no provision is being made for more reading scheme books in primary schools :(

We've had some dreadful books from school - Pussy and the birds written circa 1950 springs to mind as does Mumps!
Our school still only gives the children one book a week.
We signed up for reading chest fairly early on too

Mrz says she has topped up with book people packs so they must be allowed to in some schools trifling.

The obstacle at our school seems to be the staff themselves, not the lack of funds.

In a local charity shop I came a book scribed in the front cover as being donated to the school by xyz family and stamped with the school's library logo. This makes me reluctant to donate books direct to the school unless I can be confident that they will use them. Recommending them and passing them onto other parents may be underhand but the feedback suggests it is helpful.

Perhaps if ofsted marked EYFS down if insufficient approved phonics reading books were available, schools would find a way to switch over the very earliest stage of books.

We bought the Book People packs from petty cash