Do your children get textbooks at Senior School?

[Noideaforausername]

My DD in Year 8 doesn't get textbooks for any subject. Just wondering if this is the norm now?

I forgot to add, the rest of the link is an interesting read too - dispels a few myths!

DS1 has textbooks (private school). I think their school practice is good. The school put a name sheet on the text book , so student put their name on the list, and they use the book and return it to the school at the end of the term. We have to pay if the textbook is lost. It is interesting to see who has used the text book before you.

I am a supporter for textbook from primary school to A level. The knowledge in Primary school and secondary school don't change so quickly as the university , isn't it. As long as the textbooks are reviewed regularly, it is much better than the worksheet. It's easier to make sure every points has been covered, and students can revise, parents can keep an eye too if want.

Dd has textbooks in most subjects except English & music. For some subjects like science she has more than one textbook & also workbooks too.

No, they don't count as stationary but I get a set amount of money to spend to run my department. When it's gone it's gone. I have to buy stationary from that so I can't afford to buy textbooks as well. Photocopying comes out of a central pot, not dept budget so I can photocopy as much as I like.

I appreciate it is often a money issue, but the idea that children don't learn to use non-fiction books as a source of information really depresses me.

I teach a humanity and at GCSE would issue 6 textbooks to the kids though the GCSE course - some relevant for all topics and other relevant to individual topics. Often I will have a lesson where pupils use 3 textbooks, cross referencing and adding to their overall Knoweldge by using the 3. It is a useful skill and a great source of information. There are also lots of worksheets/info sheets and use of websites etc too, but the textbooks are the best single resource in my opinion. I work in an independent school. I always knew our kids were issued with more textbooks than in state schools but the idea that in some schools they don't get any truly chicks me.

Yes dd at private secondary has textbooks in most subjects

They can learn to use them though wombat without being issued with them. We have textbooks in my state school, but only one class set of each sort(ie 16 books) for the current curriculum at KS4. If you want the books for a lesson you reserve them. We would need 270 odd of each one if each student was to be issued with their own. the cost would be huge, then add in the staff time chasing down returns and bills for unreturned ones and we cannot afford it.

chocolate - I'm head of humanities in a comprehensive. I don't disagree with you but I simply don't have the cash to buy new textbooks.

And yes, like rosie the ones we have we have 16 of each and you have to book them.

My grammar school (two schools) children do for most of their subjects. The books are mostly very old and knackered. My comp school children (1 school) do not - a teacher told me that one of the issues is that books do not reappear at the end of the year, and are obviously too expensive to be a disposable resource.

I've bought a lot myself. And sold them again afterwards.

I totally get that it is about cost. I know that an individual book can cost up to £40. Appreciate too that books will be used in some lessons.

The thing is, it wasn't always like this, was it? I have worked in state schools too and the kids had 1 book each per subject.

These kind of things just make the job of teaching so much harder. I remember in the first school that I worked in, I had a budget of £40 for the year for photocopying - the amount of time I spent reducing things so they were barely readable,to fit more on a sheet, was huge. Now I can copy as much as I want and liberally issue handouts or chapters of books when it really isn't worth buying the whole book.

People typically think of the independent sector being better off for things like swimming pools and theatres and fancy facilities, but actually the basics such as books probably make more difference. Hearing on here how many parents buy their kids books shows again, how those that can't afford to and disadvantaged, whilst those with more money or inclination find ways to get more advantages for their children.

DD1 (y7) is similar situation to DC of OldBeanBagz - combined science and french text books. These were assigned to DD1 and both were numbered and came with a letter stating parents would be charged for damage and would have to be pay for any lost books.

No reading book come home - they are read only in class - having asked at parents evening I was told they aren't sent home because over the years so many pupils lost them and the parents would not reimburse the school for the losses. I get that but do think it an enormous waste of time to be reading books in school, rather than as homework - freeing time to discuss books/ plays, watch productions (plays/ tv or movie adaptions) and write about them.

I believe there are maths text books but pupils get My Maths for homework or photocopied worksheets. DD1 explores other lessons & plays games a lot on my maths (for extra work) but we are aware that's very unusual - most kids only use it when they have homework.

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I don't think it is essential pupils have a text book/ reading book - I can see that we're in a bit of a educational material transition and eventually a lot of this will be on-line, very well produced and explanatory videos/ worksheets/ etc... will be subscribed to by schools (most likely far more cheaply than purchasing hard-backed text books). Moreover the material on-line can be easily & more frequently updated/ improved.

Unfortunately we're just not quite there yet. But I live in hope.

Those online books do exist past, we have just subscribed to them for the new a level specifications, very excited about using them. The ones we have subscribed to have all you mention, plus self marking tests and other great stuff.

RosiePosy I think online resources could overcome the problem of transporting textbooks to and fro and the problem of pupils not returning books to school. I think they could present other difficulties though which may disadvantage lower income families:

1. What to do if your internet service is down? We've lost internet service at least 3 times in the last few years for up to 4/5 days at a time because of cable theft. A friend lost her connection for 2 weeks after a workman drilled through the cable. You can get to a wifi hotspot (if they aren't also down) or you can use some phones as mobiles hubs but this can quickly add up to a large bill for data. Cost us £35 - £40 last time for mobile data during a 4 day outage as we needed to access online A2 content.

2. What if you have 1 PC at home but multiple children and possibly home working parent(s) all needing to access online content at same time?

3. Not everyone can afford fast broadband service and not everyone lives in an area where it is available. Some people even in cities get really slow internet speeds.

4. What if your child wants to do some homework whilst killing time out and about - whilst waiting between matches at a sporting event for instance? You'd need to provide them with a notebook or tablet with mobile internet for them to access online content or print off the material they need before you leave the house.

Noidea
Every student at our school has their own device so access not an issue. For the very few students without internet at home, if they cannot do it in the libary then they are given hard copies. Internet down always a pain but again there are spaces for homework every lunch and for at least 90 mins after school. Lots and lots of public spaces also provide free wifi.
Sports fixture waits are not generally ideal for high quality homework but presumably the student would know on advance so would do some other work then, or sort out hard copies

My dtr's school (private) has issued textbooks and I think continues to do so into sixth form (she's just finished GCSEs).

My son's sixth form (mainstream) does not issue text books at all - I have had to buy every single one of them. I was shocked to be honest. When I questioned it I was told that the school didn't have the money for such things.

Luckily, I could afford it but I pity the family that can't if their child needs those books.

It's hard to see how you can do lots of A Level courses without issued books. In many subjects, you would need several books.
And what about schools/colleges being able to provide students with wider reading material so they can put it on their UCAS forms and refer to it at interview? Tbh, if you've never had a subject based book at home and only ever relied on handouts or websites, have you actually been prepared for university based study? This to me really flags up the most basic and essential differences of experience children are receiving in education.

Textbooks in every subject.Grammar school-don't know if that makes a difference.

We don!t buy textbooks because they go out of date so quickly, every time the syllabus changes. We also have to budget for sets of lit books for GCSE and they change regularly too. We can't afford both and so we buy the lit texts as the students can't study for the exam without them, they are essential, textbooks are not.

Text books have never really existed in my subject because there's no set national curriculum. At my old school, we had a range of different books and worksheets and we would just use what was relevant.

I only teach 6th form now, and I've made workbooks that the students buy. It contains everything they need to get full marks in the exam, and has my stuff, space for activities, space for note taking, extension readings.... All in one space. I know at the secondary school my daughter is going to, they have also got topic based workbooks. I like these - you can mix up your work and pages from textbooks, keeping it all need and organised in one place.

I have signed my subject up to online textbook. It's a fraction of the price of actualb books and although only used occasionally in lessons (I prefer my own resources it's a useful tool for homework, cover lessons it's a revision tool for students

Two children, two different schools, both have always had textbooks for all subjects. At GCSE level they have always been an offical book for the syllabus they are taking. Both schools are state grammar. The only one I ever had to buy was for gcse astronomy, but that was being studied as a twilight subject.