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 It is about communication and is really out of date wrt computers and satellite technology with no mention of mobile phones or the internet.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 It's these non fiction books that are so out of date that drive me nuts and I'm thinking of putting a comment in her reading book.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?

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

But there is - there's up to £3000 match funding to be spent on phonics materials, including books.

Our PTA used Book People to buy the Songbirds collection for the school. Surely the school wouldn't quibble when their price is £20 as opposed to over £100! I think we bought 10 sets at that price. Bargain :)

Feenie Mrz has pointed this funding out earlier up the thread but the phonics materials must be purchased from a prescribed source so any funding may not go as far as we think when we look at how cheaply some phonics reader sets can be bought from sources such as The Book People.

Tinytalker Our school "literacy co-ordinator" is a prickly individual and as I found out to my peril, does not take kindly to any suggestions for possible sources of library purchases even when a friend pointed out a heavily subsidised scheme available some year ago which could have mean't the school acquiring lots of books from a selected list at a massive discount.

Like I say, at our school it appears that it is the staff who are the obstacle. There's an attitude of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", the school gets a good ofsted report, fairly good SATS results compared with national/L.A. averages.

It's not right to say, then, that no provision is being made for more reading scheme books, when it is - for the first time since around 2007.

Each publisher had the chance to nominate 3 schemes to include in their catalogue, so presumably OUP didn't want to trumpet Songbirds on this occasion.

I think OUP went with Floppy's Phonics because it is a comprehensive program not just a set of books.

We're finding new reading book through a teacher running the marathon. Would love to match funding, but she's only raised £250 so far...

I don't think our budget will run to £3000 on books as we're already rationing paper.

If you used your £250 you could get £500 worth of book ... there is no minimum spend

books

Oh good - didn't read it, but have e-mailed her the link! Thanks.