To insist dd go school everyday between now and GCSE exams since school has no official study leave period?

I don’t think OP’s DD is suggesting there is study leave, but saying the school are turning a bit of a blind age to non attendance. The fact is its still March, so they certainly won’t be agreeing to kids being off a couple of days a week. So i’d be saying not a chance at this stage. Review after Easter if you know she will revise at home better.

My DD finished in April and studied at home - the school agreed due to her health issues. She is incredibly self motivated and I knew she would get more done at home. She got all 9’s so it didn’t impact her negatively. Depends on the child though. She is doing her A levels soon and hasn’t mentioned doing it again, but her classes aren’t disruptive like they were at GCSE’s so she enjoys going in a lot more for 6th form.

My son was in year 11 last year. Not only was there no study leave, but the young people were expected to attend lessons during the exam period when they were not actually sitting an exam. There were also extra revision lessons before and after school and during the Easter and half term holidays.

Probably explains dd attitude when mum caves in so easily

Bless her for trying. It’s the start of March ffs. Of
course she needs to go in. She’s got some imagination

My daughter and all the girls at her school (girls comp) went in every day until May.

The school tried to put in place having no study leave, but the parents and kids all rebelled and kept calling them in sick when they needed to stay at home and study.

School backed down and gave them study leave, with the option to be in school if they wanted, with revision sessions etc.

They won’t be allowed to have home study days now though, that’s ridiculous.

They need it from May when they’ve finished teaching the curriculum to be at their best for the exams I think - the time to study quietly.

A lot of kids need quiet time to study at their best. They need to pace themselves and get extra sleep (or sleep to a routine that suits their own body) to be at their best.

Dragging themselves in to school to study in a less comfortable environment with the journey at each end is totally pointless for many and counterproductive in alot of cases. I have no doubt my dd would have done less well if not given the breaks between exams.

Some kids do need the school environment to work and that’s fine. Either because home isn’t set up to be a place of study or because they need the push from the teachers or the routine. They should have the option to go in.

But forcing studious quiet kids to go in when they’d be better off at home to drag up those who aren’t self motivated is unfair.

I’ve told my dd she can choose after Easter. whether whether she can go

How sure are you that the whole syllabus for every subject will have been covered? Will non attendance affect whether she can go to prom?

Don't you think that teaching her that the rules don't apply to her is the wrong attitude?

For the record, DD revised better at home, but her school didn't offer study leave until mid June when most of the exams had been done.

My DC (twins) did GCSEs last year and their school was like this. It was actually very helpful to go in. Both got very high grades. I think they could have managed at home, although it's harder not to get into going to bed late/ getting up late etc.

It really depends if your DD is actually struggling. My niece struggled with being in school and my sister arranged with school for her to revise at home - but it wasn't just breaking the school's policy because she wanted to. If your DD wants to do it just because friends are then that's probably not the best reason!

I’ve told my d d she can choose after Easter. She’s predicted v high grades and works v hard. Sometimes she knows her time is better spent revising independently particularly when the sessions are covering the foundation part of the content.

Shed not ask to be out of school now as they still have part of the gcse content to cover but if she did ask I’d decline. Not long til Easter now.

The school will contact you regarding exam leave dates. Until then you send in as usual.

Wow, this sounds like it would burn a lot of children out!

I wouldn’t have accepted that for my dd last year.

Not the Saturdays and days in the hols or early starts. It would have exhausted her, and she wouldn’t have got the 10 x 9s she ended up with.

Dd is adamant a high percentage of her cohort are now "WFH" at least 1/2 days a week.

This is completely made up nonsense. I would be very surprised if all the content has even been covered by now.

As other posters have pointed out, low attendance might affect whether she can go to the prom.

OP, I always did really well in exams but there comes a time when you have to dump the school's silly rules.to get the desired result. 3 weeks before A levels I just stopped attending and locked myself up revising.

It's probably too early for her to start missing school but give her a couple of weeks when the time comes.

My DS has to go every day as usual and stays after school for extra revision too… He’s also set to get 8s and 9s across the board. Unless you’ve had info directly from the school to say they don’t have to be in every day, your DD is likely having you on.

When DCs did GCSEs they stopped school at May half term. It was def expected to go to school up until then. I know some schools don’t have any study leave though, which I find odd.

It's way to early to be on study leave, as I'd expect many lessons to still have content and others to be doing focused revision/exam practise. However I do feel for motivated, hard-working students later on. When I did GCSEs, we went on study leave from early May. I was able to study in peace at home and did hours each day. I know there are challenges for many students (not working enough, ineffective in their revision methods, no-one to ask questions, feeling anxious and alone, living in homes without space/quiet to work) but there is no way I could have done as much revision in school, meaning having to do more in the evening. I particularly appreciated the quiet at home in the mornings before an afternoon exam.

So in summary, I wouldn't be letting her 'wfh' now, but I would be sympathetic closer to exams, if she is struggling to work at school.

I have never heard of a school doing study leave before Easter.

these days fewer and fewer schools do it at all and the ones that do have it later and later.

independent or state?

my DD’s independent school has study leave from Easter.

But if your school doesn’t have study leave then I guess it doesn’t matter, she’s supposed to be there and so if she was my DD, she would be there.

To be fair study leave in the 90s wasn't exactly used for studying. Hanging round in parks, doing extra shifts in work and waiting for Saturday night to try and look 18 took up quite a lot of time.

I'm just imagining my reaction now, if ds decided to get pissed or fall in love at a nightclub on the Saturdays of his gcses exams!

Besides, most kids do so little work in class anyway as they are constantly longing for their phone/screens/social media like zombie junkies to get their continuous dopamine hits that they would be even worse unsupervised and left to their own devices (literally) at home on study leave. Most would do absolutely fuck all and probably even regress.

Kids taking study leave in March? She's having you on! Most schools either don't gjve study leave at all or only allow it after May half term. Stopping going to school from March is ridiculous and would be truancy!

Ha, ha, yeah that's funny. Schools are totally focused on Year 11 at this time of year. There is no way on earth that schools now trust kids with study leave.

This. A lot of subjects will still be teaching the curriculum, especially high-volume subjects like science.

Very few schools do extended periods of study leave now. Maybe only two or three weeks maximum in June. All but the top 10% of students do very little productive work at home on study leave, especially now that smartphones, video games and screens are more prominent. The culture of parenting has changed as has the perceived responsibilities of children. Communities and police also reported an astonishingly high amount of anti-social behaviour in the local community when Y11s are on study leave. The most challenging and disruptive children in each school are the ones causing problems in the local area when study leave takes place. The police and citizens of our town want children in school as much as possible. Our school even polled parents about the amount of study leave time and the vast majority wanted them to be kept in school as much as possible as so little did any work at home and most parents had no power to keep them off screens.

It’s not the 90s anymore. The several months of study leave don’t exist anymore except maybe in a handful of elite, grammar or private schools. I feel sorry for the high-attaining conscientious students who WOULD actually work diligently at home and appreciate a bit of peace and space but this is a very small minority compared to the collective.

I'm still teaching serious amounts of revision and intervention, as well as some new syllabus until Easter.

A very tiny number of students will be offered study leave in early May.

It's March.

The vast majority of schools I know of don't have study leave at all, and those that do certainly don't start it in March.