Primary School Book Rental Grant.

Bleating Lamb

A book rental scheme is just after been introduced in our local Primary School,met one of teachers yday eve and she said that Govt are giving Grant of 100 euro per child to each school in this years budget to help set up rental schemes...if its true thats great..... but I thought the figure sounded high,that's 20000 euro to a school with 200 children??

byhookorbycrook

Will be nice if it happens, but won't hold my breath. Class sizes of less than 20 for junior classes was nice too. Still waiting. Over the next three years, he says..

teacherhead

There is an over-dependence on books in schools in my view. All they seem to do is make money for publishers.

I think the des would be better advised to found the support services fully and resource schools so that teaching materials could be developed by groups of teachers and made freely available.

It is probably more practical at second level in fairness but the fascination with following a textbook baffles me. I use textbooks myself but dip in and out of them now and then, some of my colleagues start on page one and drive on through page by page, chapter by chapter.

MouseTail

teacherhead wrote: »

I think the des would be better advised to found the support services fully and resource schools so that teaching materials could be developed by groups of teachers and made freely available.

I'm not sure what you are saying, that teachers should be paid for curriculum development or creation of their own resources locally?

whiteandlight

Well I wrote iBooks for music that are available for free on the App Store. Not knowing who would be the coordinators but wanting to let schools know I contacted loads of groups, PDST, ncca, my etb etc. I heard nothing back for 6 weeks. Then I got annoyed because these kind of things should be used to help reduce cost to parents so I contacted my local td. Within two days the PDST got back to me. Now it may be coincidence but if it's not then their response rate is dire.

There has to be more teachers out there who have dabbled in writing modules or sections of books and just need guidance on copyright and a platform for schools to access them. Look at the quality of the resources on tes.co.uk. We really could do with a similar platform in this country

The publishers seem to be minting it. Even with heavy restrictions on copyright for music I've managed to write something that covers the majority of the course

Bleating Lamb

So are the Govt actually committing 100 euro per child to help set up and extend book rental schemes in our National Schools?

whiteandlight

I actually really hope not, that would be horribly shortsighted of the department. Far better to fund Open versions of books for every subject in Primary school which can be printed by the school or used digitally. They would be far cheaper to replace for parents/schools if they get lost/burnt/spilt on etc etc. And they could become living books, edited year on year by teachers rather than needing a "new" edition where very little has changed except the expense to parents.

teacherhead

The problem is that there is an incredible lack of imagination in the department when it comes to things like this. They have closed minds and want to know nothing of real innovation.

ustazjoseph

teacherhead wrote: »

The problem is that there is an incredible lack of imagination in the department when it comes to things like this. They have closed minds and want to know nothing of real innovation.

teacherhead wrote: »

There is an over-dependence on books in schools in my view. All they seem to do is make money for publishers.

I think the des would be better advised to found the support services fully and resource schools so that teaching materials could be developed by groups of teachers and made freely available.

It is probably more practical at second level in fairness but the fascination with following a textbook baffles me. I use textbooks myself but dip in and out of them now and then, some of my colleagues start on page one and drive on through page by page, chapter by chapter.

when I worked in London 15 + yrs ago we had set texts for english - shakespeare etc which the school supplied. Each dept / subject area had resurces which could be used , signed out to students but there was an expectation that you designed your own materials, worksheets , etc. Also homework was expected to carefully considered rather than just " finish the next 5 questions " Lots more real teaching rather than grinding on from first chapter to last with dull homework exercises in between.

byhookorbycrook

Well, I knew there was a catch, any school that slogged and slaved to set up some form of rental scheme to date will not receive any grant. And before you think "How would the DES know?", the box on the October census form that the principal ticked will now be used against the school.