Buying classroom books with your own money

[MissPrimaryCrafts]

Hello, this is probably a laughably stupid question so I apologise but I'm a PGCE student so not much experience

In terms of classroom books - how much does the school provide and does it feel sufficient or do you feel the need to supplement with books you buy with your own money?

I'd really love to read lots of diverse books to my future class that promotes acceptance of everyone, but the classroom on my first placement didn't have many of these, though they had a well stocked book corner.

I'm wondering who chose those books? Was the class teacher given a budget to supplement them? In my future class how much influence would I have over the class books and if I want lots of diverse books will I need to buy them myself?

In some schools each class is given a "budget" and you can spend this on whatever you want-although there's never enough for everything you need!
In some schools, the Literacy co-ordinator will have a budget for books, you can probably ask for some specific titles .
In some schools, you will be able to order specific books for teaching purposes if they are linked to the curriculum.
In some schools, every book will be at least 20 years old and if you want any others, you buy them yourself.

Completely agree with the above. I don't think it's great to get into the habit of buying things for your classroom unless they buy you time. It wouldn't be expected in other professions. I joined a new school and my colleagues were shocked that I submitted receipts (for things we were required to buy!) but there was absolutely no issue with this and the business officer gets really frustrated when she hears about people spending their own money - some teachers seem to do so almost unnecessarily in my opinion.

I buy books if it's my choice to read them. These days often on a kindle and we read them on the board. I keep them, they move with me.

Others I have a budget for.

I took my collection of books to school this year when the decision was made not to have communal bookshelves any more. Probably in the region of 200-250 books. I've collected them over years, some I've bought for myself to read, some I've bought for my DS to read and some I've bought to use at various schools.

I took them to school so I know at least my class have access to decent children's literature. They are mine though, and labelled up, so I will take them with me if I go.

I've always had my own collection of books for sharing with children at school. They're a mixture of books donated to me by kind people who know I'm always on the look out for decent books for school, ones I've bought and ones I've received from family as birthday/Christmas gifts. These books are clearly labelled with my name and are supposedly only for reading in school. That said, if a child has ever wanted to take one of them home to read, I've always let them. When I've moved schools, my collection has moved with me.