Are text books a thing of the past?

[Ladyflip]

Neither of my children have any text books for any subject. They are both in secondary. Is this how secondaries are now? What happens if you miss a lesson or need to revise for exams? Does it change at year 10?
I'm a dinosaur and remember the beginning of every school year being dominated by handing out of books. It's not a criticism, just wondered when and why it changed.
Their school is large and there are no lockers on site. This may be the driver as to no text books as they have to carry everything with them all day. Just interested as to whether this is the same for all secondary schools.

Are you sure they don’t have class sets of textbooks in classrooms, to be handed out as and when needed? Most state schools can’t afford to buy enough textbooks to allocate one per student.

They say not. Everything is copied from the whiteboard into their books. The whole concept of a text book was alien to them.

What about in Maths? Worksheets?

Yes, endless worksheets and handouts in maths (that then get crumpled in the bag and result in annoyed emails from teachers about presentation).

We used to have to carry all our work around too but now at my daughters school all work books are kept there

Mine got them as they got to y10.

I thought it might change at year 10. Eldest just finishing year 9, so it might be just KS3 that don't have them. I understand it must save a fortune but it seems a huge systemic change in teaching.

I was at secondary early 80's. ...no lockers at school we carried everything everywhere. .30 mins walk to school!

it amazed me in thd first lockdown that like you say, they had no books at all..It still does! they kept saying how many kids had no computers to learn (yes that's bad) and I kept thinking where are the books!

DD had text books for everything until last year. They now all have to take a laptop or tablet, and the text books are all online.

Normal, I think. Mine only have a textbook for a couple of subjects, and they mainly live at school. It's an independent school, so definitely not a budget thing. It does make things harder for revision. I think they get more textbooks later on.

Tbf, I rarely use textbooks when teaching as it turns off so many kids.

But, at GCSE, students are encouraged to buy a revision guide (heavily discounted from school and those who can't afford get given one) and we provide a workbook which students find very helpful. We can't afford to provide the revision guides as well unfortunately.

The problem with textbooks is the bloody government change the syllabus every 5 years so they soon become less useful. We do have them in classrooms and I am sure some teachers use them more than others.

Yes, lots of teachers look down on textbooks and they are insanely expensive (£25-30 each). I’m a teacher and I have no idea why some teachers look down on textbooks, I think there was a fashion for thinking that they limited the teaching or were boring, or that it was better for teachers to spend hours recreating pages from text books by making worksheets - like text books were the lazy option. But text books are great imo, and the kids like them - especially if their notes are less than perfect or they are disorganised. No textbooks disadvantages lower ability children imo, if they are then having to revise from incomplete / less good class work it’s like a double penalty. There is real evidence that children remember less from screens than paper. They shouldn’t be used as the basis for the teaching but alongside it.

Normal here too.

For KS3 I bought a KS3 Science guide, some random books on religion, and French Grammar, Verbs & Dictionary books.

For GCSEs the revision guides for maths & science & RE are comprehensive. I struggled finding anything good for Food, or surprisingly for Geography (the issue there is they can use whatever case studies they like).

DD goes into year 10 in Sept. No text books so far, apart from science revision guide.

Copies of English texts seem to be provided.

I pay for a locker each year, but don't think she uses it.

Dd1 has lots of text books - we get a list and have to buy them over the summer, but she can hand them in at the end of the year if no longer needed and get some money back (private school). I just do a massive abe books order, as there are always plenty available second hand. Her little sister (at a state primary) had to ask what a text book was, she’d never seen one.

Few books here, except for languages and in y9 they started having online gcse textbooks which ds religiously lost the logins for. Most of the curriculum is online or googleable, I imagine textbooks get outdated fast. Yanbu to hate handouts though.

My DS school uses text books. We have to buy them, but they use them for most of the subjects he has done.
Textbooks are important, IMO.

I don't have a strong argument for or against, just that it felt so different to my education and I was surprised. I get that syllabus changes etc make some books prohibitively expensive, and that some pupils will always lose/destroy them. I also think there's an argument that it relies on much stronger teaching, as the pupil doesn't have access to the text book and a different explanation if they didn't understand the lesson. I think the poster above who said that we will be asked to buy the revision guides in year 10 are probably correct.

You have to buy them now.

Charity shops (especially charity book shops) can be a great source of revision guides, especially July-Sept.

@Sittinginthesand. I think when I was at school textbook were a lazy option for some. my o level history lessons consisted of us all just reading the ( very boring ) textbook. 2 weeks in and I was this how the he'll was I going to do 2 years of that when they switched teachers around and we ended up with a brilliant teacher! that said without anything to physically refer to feel I am out at sea with no raft.

We use textbooks in the classroom and have electronic versions for visually impaired. We provide revision materials for use at home. They can buy additional revision books if they like. We have also loaded materials on Teams. State school.

Handouts were awful. DD either lost them before doing them, before handing them in or, if they made them that far, after they’d been marked, so there was no way to work out what homework she should be doing/had done, or have them as revision material.

I imagine being a teacher was a lot easier back when textbooks were a thing. ‘Turn to page...’ read, discuss, write something, done (that’s how it was at my school for many lessons) Now teachers have to make slides, print separate worksheets - presumably source said worksheets first - for every lesson or like someone said write everything on a board or recite everything while students make notes. Sounds like a faff. No doubt a few years ago someone in a suit carrying a clip board decided text books weren’t the thing anymore. That or cash strapped schools don’t have the money for them anymore.

The government have a tendency to change the syllabus on a regular basis, making purchasing textbooks (which are expensive) a risky choice as they may soon become obsolete.

I expect Ofsted probably look down on textbooks as well.