Hi all

Like many of you I have a DS about to start sixth form this week. He's staying at the state school he has attended since year 7.

I was shocked to discover at the weekend that I have to buy what appears to be all the text books that DS will need during his two years of study. Parents have been directed to a book list for each subject. All compulsory books must be purchased before the start of term with other books "highly recommended".

I haven't added up the full cost of this yet, but can see already that just the compulsory books will cost near enough £100, with some of the "highly recommended" costing £40 each.

Is everyone else facing the same costs? I'm used to buying the odd book lower down the school (eg for annotating purposes on English lit set texts) but this is a whole different board game

Yep!

DS2 came home from 6th form induction day at the end of the summer term with a book list. He's doing Maths, physics, chemistry and biology and they weren't cheap - somewhere over £100.

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Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !

Yep, same here. I just spent £130 on books for my dd who is about to begin Y12. It's a state school. The schools cannot possibly afford to provide expensive text books to A level students so parents must bear the costs themselves. I was in the 6th form decades ago and had to pay for mine too, so it's hardly a new development.

Thanks both.

This is my third DC to go into sixth form - the other two went to a different state school - but it's the first time I've been asked to buy anything other than novels etc for English lit which were a fiver each at most! That's why it's come as a bit of a shock.

Luckily we can afford the outlay, but there must be many families where this will be a struggle. I hope the school can help those who need it otherwise the playing field is definitely not level before they've even started.

Indeed. It is a shame that they did not provide these details at the start of the summer, then at least DC could take on some extra work and start saving up for them, rather than have it all as a sudden shock now.

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mad?

Please delete if not allowed moderators but I have Edexcel A level music and psychology books and Arthur Miller All my sons, if anyone is interested in buying a second hand one in the Bucks area. Plus S1 and D1 maths if the specs are still the same. PM if you are.

Several years back now and costs were not as great but we passed books on to those we knew might find it tricky.

Maybe you could suggest to the head of 6th form that they facilitate some kind of 2nd hand selling facility.

On a similar note, one DC needed several very expensive text books for Uni and we found Amazon 2nd hand options very useful.
There was a facility for graduating students to sell on but demand always exceeded supply.

Why can't they ask for a deposit against not return of books? School should be providing course materials.

I don't think DS bought any books for uni [Engineering degree] - everything was supplied in the library or online via moodle.

Re Uni books
Thinks it depends on course as to whats needed.
Much of DC's was academic papers online but some very expensive core textbooks.
Copies were available in library but they were the sort of thing that they needed to dip in and out of, so quite tricky.
I'm sure it would have been possible to survive without purchase if we hadn't found them 2nd hand but special needs already made Uni harder than for most.

We had to pay for all books in 6th form. Once the new courses are established you should be able to resell them.
Only a couple of books needed for degree.