2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
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Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
That is rubbish ... write to Governors, other schools aren't doing it. Ask to see the accounts which they should publish because they are an Academy.
Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
We have had to pay at A level too. I think there are a few copies hanging around the school library but the parlous state of education funding means this is becoming more common. I don't think letters to governors or anyone else will suddenly produce the money to pay for books.
Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
OK write to your MP then - it is unacceptable to charge for textbooks which get reused.
Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
I sold DS1's to someone in the year below. Couldn't for the ones which were reformed this year. I have a feeling we paid for DD's as well, but can't be sure. There are some available in the library too.
scary mum
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Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
Ummm - I did think it a bit strange. I am sure the science books are helpful at school but DS doesn't like the dumbed down format so doesn't touch them at home, preferring the more serious books we have (covering the same information before you ask). I am not sure the English books will be any more useful as I think he is unlikely to annotate them having been brought up not to deface books Annoyingly, I already own all the literarature we had to buy but the school said it had to be the correct format so the pupils can find the right page, which I fully understand and support.Guest55 wrote:English texts are usually asked to be bought so students can annotate them. ALL others should be supplied by the school. Some schools ask for a sixth form deposit to cover non-return of books.
Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
If I was going to waste my time writing to my MP this would not be top of my list I am afraid. I met the man at one of his surgeries a while back to bend his ear about the treatment of the elderly and disabled under local administration of the Blue Badge scheme and that was a total waste of time, though he did write to me on House of Commons posh paper after the event to inform me what a waste of time it was, while expressing his sympathy.Guest55 wrote:OK write to your MP then - it is unacceptable to charge for textbooks which get reused.
If I was going to write to him about education in a move which would represent a triumph of hope over experience, I would not focus on the issue of schools charging for books - the problems go far deeper: the dismantling of our education system in favour of politically motivated academisation programme, sold as a move to 'autonomy'; the decimation of the curriculum; the sidelining of Art and Music; the ridiculous emphasis on league tables; the citing of specious foreign 'evidence' to justify reforms based on ideology; the deprofessionalisation of teachers and subsequent recruitment crisis; the marketisation of Higher Ed... School book charges in grammar schools where most parents can afford them represent just a tiny little tip of a massive iceberg of chronic underfunding and the use of soundbite education reform as a vote-seeking strategy for a corrupt government.
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Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
Not everyone can afford these items and will have to make other adjustments in spending. Of course, to help our DC's it is a small price to pay, but it isn't always easy and some things have to give way. That is/was the joy of the old Grammar school system - everyone could access good education irrespective of wealth/income. Now the system has been so messed up that only the poor or the rich can afford to be educated.Amber wrote:School book charges in grammar schools where most parents can afford them
Last edited by BucksBornNBred on Sat Aug 18, 2018 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
These schools chose to become Academies - they were not forced to. What are they choosing to spend their money on? Many are paying silly money to HTs ... people need to check accounts and ask questions.
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Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
Indeed. There is also the trend for CEO-type roles to oversee MATs, vastly remunerated roles sitting above, in some cases, very few schools, each of which with their own HT. It's farcical.Guest55 wrote:These schools chose to become Academies - they were not forced to. What are they choosing to spend their money on? Many are paying silly money to HTs ... people need to check accounts and ask questions.
I would also encourage parents to check the schools' accounts. Some of the figures are very interesting. I fail to see how a school that has simply changed status sees fit to award a disproportionate salary increase to the HT. They'll trot out the usual "have to pay the market rate to secure the top talent" line and it seems to be accepted as a fact. In a local academy chain, the top person and their deputy are paid at a level where between them, their salary and on-costs take almost £20 from each child's funding every year. They have no operational role in the school itself, they simply sit in the management structure overseeing it. There's your clue as to why books are being funded by parents...
Re: 2 year ks3 programme - text books etc
I would argue that the 'choice' exercised by schools in deciding whether to become academies was in many cases one step up from Hobson's. The Government made it clear that it expected all schools to seek academy status unless they had good reason not to and the idea was sold as an attractive package, promising all manner of benefits around the concept of 'autonomy'. The appeal of being responsible for their own budgets was too hard to resist in a climate of massive squeezes on public funds. It is now being judged for what it was - an ideological/economic idea dressed up as something attractive which would somehow magically 'raise standards' in schools.
I agree that there have been massive misuses of funds but disagree that this is why books are being paid for by parents. You can't create a system full of pitfalls and dangers and then blame those who have to live with the system for falling into them. Nicky Morgan foresaw huge chains of academies being overseen by CEOs in the same way as large corporations are run. The language in her awful White Paper (the 3 Es) was that of business and finance. The model was sold in that way, and blaming HTs for implementing it in that way, as intended, is disingenuous. It is a way of deflecting blame onto teachers (again!) when things go wrong in education.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-f ... or-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is a recent report which I confess to not having read but which basically says what others had said from the outset, that the programme would be self-defeating.
I agree that there have been massive misuses of funds but disagree that this is why books are being paid for by parents. You can't create a system full of pitfalls and dangers and then blame those who have to live with the system for falling into them. Nicky Morgan foresaw huge chains of academies being overseen by CEOs in the same way as large corporations are run. The language in her awful White Paper (the 3 Es) was that of business and finance. The model was sold in that way, and blaming HTs for implementing it in that way, as intended, is disingenuous. It is a way of deflecting blame onto teachers (again!) when things go wrong in education.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-f ... or-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This is a recent report which I confess to not having read but which basically says what others had said from the outset, that the programme would be self-defeating.