Is it worth buying my own classroom supplies?

[sweetnsuga123]

I am doing my PGCE in my alternate placement. Obviously I am in different classrooms all the time and some of them don't have a lot of glues or highlighters which I need for lessons. I'm very tempted to just order a lot of glues and highlighters from Amazon and use them when I'm teaching. Is this a stupid idea?

I agree with all the don't start buying resources etc but honestly in your situation without your own class I'd do it. It'll make your life so much easier and any less stress to get through your pgce the better. But label everything. Give it out at beginning of lesson and count it all back in. Good luck.

I think it's one of those professions where if you buy it, label it and take it from job to job, it can make your life a lot easier. British schools are actually still relatively well equipped compared to North American ones.

I teach in a private school now and had to pinch myself when I discovered the fully equipped stationery cupboard.

The other thing to do is make friends with marketing and sales people. They always have pens and Post-Its.

@OntheMat I'm a teacher in a state school. Last year I taught at a school with a massive deficit, so I'm well aware of constraints in education. If a department can't give its teachers some stationary for pupils to use in lessons that's dire straits indeed. Student teachers are students earning no money. I would be buying them resources to use from my own pocket before I'd expect them to buy them from their student loans!!!

And to clarify what I meant by box in the first place, I mean a cardboard box like that used for paper for photocopiers.

If you do buy any resources, label them; don't leave them lying around EVER; count them in and out religiously.

Don't just label them, number them, then it is really easy to see which one hasn't been brought back and the kids don't think it's theirs. I can often be heard asking who has glue stick number 6 and I don't lose them that way.

Student teachers are students earning no money.

Maths PGCE trainees are earning way more than me in a tax-free bursary, I won’t be buying stuff for them!

@noblegiraffe Of course, that's completely fine, but the resources for lessons in a school should come out of that school's budget! No employee in a private sector business would be expected to subsidise their workplace and neither should teachers (although many choose to do so freely)!

Resources should come out of the school’s budget, obviously. But the cupboard is often bare.

It’s a choice between buying your own kit and making your own life easier, or not buying your own kit and your life being a bit harder. I’d rather the easier life than the moral high ground in this instance.

I get all the arguments that subsidising the school will cover up the deficits etc, but seriously OP, if you can afford it, do it, and take very good care of your purchases. It will save your sanity.

No. Use what your school can afford to buy. It’s a job, not a charity.

I would agree for your PGCE, you just have to make your life easier. I spent my first year of teaching in an academy that gave a completely insufficient budget to the science dept and it was miserable. My second year of teaching I chose a state school where the science dept had a healthy budget and the joy of having all the glue sticks I needed was indescribable! Ridiculous but not having to buy your own supplies makes a massive difference to your wellbeing!

If there are no glue sticks stuff doesn’t get glued. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I remember a couple of years ago my school wrote a new policy that all assessments had to have a purple box drawn round them. Fine. But they didn’t buy purple pens or pencils and they didn’t put it on the list of core equipment. Then my HOD had the cheek to question me about why I wasn’t adhering to the marking policy! Erm... 😂 I just said I would be perfectly happy to adhere to the policy when provided with the necessary resources.