School textbooks

[georgina007]

Hi there, my daughter just started secondary school and I am surprised, nay, shocked about the lack of textbooks used and the amount of information given to them and to us as parents.
On the first day back at school she has a day of assessments but again no information seems to have been given to her to help organize her study or to us to help her organize her study!
My husband had the brainwave of getting textbooks for her to supplement her study at school but we are stuck for knowledge about ones used today for year 7.
Might anyone have any ideas......... all subjects please!
Thank you so much

[squeezedatbothends]

No-one really uses text books any more - they're considered to be dull and they can't adapt to the individual needs of a child so good teachers will be planning and differentiating work to suit your individual child and her general ability level. Information for that comes from a variety of sources - SATS results, Midyas tests and teacher assessment. Obviously so early in the year, teachers will still be diagnosing your child and planning work to figure out her needs. This is quite a complicated process but your school, I imagine will be sending out assessment points soon - most gather data half termly. If you check your child's books, good teachers should be marking regularly and setting targets. You can help by reading through these targets with your child and supporting them - they might be to learn a spelling or grammar rule, or they might suggest a web site your child can go to. BBC bite size are good but there are a plethora of other sites. Most schools also have a VLE which you can access with materials to support your child in their learning. Our school has booklets on the V!E with suggested activities you can do with your child to support them. If none of this is happening in your school, then make an appointment with the head of year and explore why. Don't ask for text books - they have been largely discredited by research and few subjects use them any more.

[eatyourveg]

Blimey no textbooks! My dc have always had at least one textbook per subject and some subjects more than one, right the way through from Y7 to Y13. They always use them as part of their homework. The books are differentiated even in KS3 according to which set the dc are in. VLEs are fine if the school has one but the only one I have seen (not at the dc's school but at the FE college where I work) just has the powerpoints and notes from class on it. No wider material available or anything to suggest where else to look. The students invariably end up going to the LRC and digging out the text book

If you want to supplement your dd's learning I would go into smiths or waterstones and get something like the cgp ks3 books for ks3. Here is the list of the subjects they cover. If she finds the layout too busy (my dc did) there will be other books there which do the same thing. Collins and Letts are names that spring to mind but you would need to look at them to see what they are like. Would also second bbc bitesize, its fantastic for finding material to help with homework as has already been mentioned

[alemci]

They do where I work. very useful for things like science and languages. Other resources as well such as sheets etc.

[noblegiraffe]

Textbooks are expensive, schools are skint.

My department (maths) has textbooks but we don't let the kids take them home because we never get them all back at the end of the year. Sometimes we also have to share them between classes or only have enough for one between two.

[Clary]

Hmm I teach MFL and I have a textbook that I can use to work from for most years.

So they are useful/used, tho I am more likely to use them for reference (eg which pets should we be learning and what is the French for guines pig again?) than with the class.

And when I do use them (atm more with KS4 than KS3, more or less never with yr 7) we hand them out on the day. There's only one set or so for each year. We just don't have the money to buy 240 yr 7 French textbooks etc.

But if you want to know how to help yr dd OP, please ask at school. If no parents' eve is coming up, send an email or call to ask. I am sure they will be happy to help. For me, I would ask my yr 7 students to spend some time revising the vocab and phrases we have learned already as we will be using them over the rest of this term.

[Loshad]

Textbooks can be useful, we (secondary science here) don't find the ks3 ones very good but the gcse and a level bio/phys/chem ones are useful, and certainly at A level we strongly recommend the students buy a copy.
Am with eatyourveg over the cgp revision guides - for the science the purchase of the generic KS3 science one would cover your dc for the next 3 years so would be a worthwhile purchase and useful for exam revisiosn etc

[TheKaleFancier]

I came on searching for text book info, DS is Year 7 and has one text book for Maths. Every time he is set HL we struggle to find a good, accessible source of information for him to use. Browsing the web takes him hours. And takes us far too long. Rarely are we given a link or suggestion for how to get good reliable info. Esp Humanities & Science. I have taken to finding and printing him pages from the web that he can use to work from.
There seems to be no teaching of study/research skills, DS has been at a Steiner school so no idea if this is taught in Yr 6?
Asking the teacher is too slow a process, by the time the message has got through the work is due in.

[Kathy420]

Text books for Y7 don't matter . They only matter for GCSE, A level and beyond.