Is your school running GCSE revision sessions this holiday?

My elder boys are yr 10 and yr7 so no extra classes for them but there have been for yr11 from 9-5! And the yr 11 already have a longer school day.

I also got a letter to tell me that as from Sept the school day will be until 5pm three days a week for 'enrichment'.. By the time my boys get home (bus) it will be 6pm then dinner, shower,homework etc What bloody time do they have to chill? They are in bed 8:30-9pm as they have to be up at 6:30am to be out by 7:30 to catch the bus for school!

Longer school day is compulsory, there are some meetings we can go to to discuss what the enrichment sessions will be,so much for any choice or parent/school relationship this is what's happening in Sept end of.

And I am betting the teachers won't be paid any more for these extra hours.

Having come back from revision sessions this afternoon (and all week so far, unpaid 4 hours a day) I can certainly say that to an outside observer, lots of pupils walking into the school, with school bags, would have looked good. Appearances can be deceived.

I can assure you that not a lot of productivity was going on by all and I spent my time trying to chase kids to give then a free revision booklet I had spent hours writing, (as they did not come and collect them when asked) or tell them to revise and stop gossiping, eating, playing music etc. and disturbing those few and far between pupils who really did want to revise away from home or ask for questions, get past papers etc. I teach in a selective Grammar school if that helps to put into context.

I can also assure you that it is compulsory in a lot of schools, unless you don't want your performance management to be passed, don't want your pupils to exceed their made up targets and not have an awkward 'talk' with your line manager after Easter. This is due to the perception (that is evident in the OP) that this means that the school are doing a lot more to help the pupils and will help to please parents/governors etc. Quite often, all it does is show the pupils who have been bone idle all year, that they will be given extra support and not allowed to fail. Doesn't bode well for future employment and/or university studies.

Is it a new innovation this year OP? Maybe it is more of a morale boosting exercise?

I remember doing GCSEs. Coursework was done in our own time, and we handed it in on time or it wasn't graded. Revision was done in our own time. Our teachers taught the lessons they should, and that was it. No extra revision sessions after school, no extra coursework help, nothing. We did fine.

Now - extra revision sessions after school, coursework 'days' during the Easter holiday to help them finish it, etc etc. And do you know what? Having helped my friend's DC with her English this year, I had to explain the Russian revolution to her so she could understand Animal Farm. How she was supposed to have a clue in her exams, having no idea of the history behind it, I have no idea! We've also done punctuation, basic grammar, poetry study (she had no idea of what to look for, or how a poem worked really) and many other things. She tries hard, listens in class and was in tears over poor 'mock' results at the start of 2014 because she tries SO hard yet she didn't understand the exam questions.

And at the Outstanding school I teach at, we are not open for revision sessions in the holidays.

The kids were all provided with everything they need for independent study before the holiday (and are in email contact if needed).

I also hate the implication that the teachers at the so called 'sink' school are not working hard enough.

They should, in an ideal world - but we don't live in an ideal world, do we?

Which mark schemes were altered? Not maths. English probably, but you said your DD had three lessons today?

True. Somehow managed to temporarily forget the epic GCSE tampering shenanigans this year.

Ha! Because A&E doctors do their private work for love do they!

There should be time to do all those things during lessons.

Exactly what I was getting at noble

I wonder if there's been a Scottish/English divide that is now evaporating then?

Never heard of grammars here doing it recently either, but narrow-range ability teaching is more efficient. Must keep my ears open.

There should be time to do all those things during lessons.

People understand that hot housing kids like this in preparation for KS2 SATs is a bad thing and leads to overinflated levels causing issues with targets at GCSE. But if it makes a B grade student into an A grade one who is suddenly able to access an A-level, then it's seen as a good thing for schools to be doing.

And when that student struggles with A-level? Well then, that leads to intervention and catch-up sessions and meetings with the parents and tutors and stress and kids dropping out, failing, needing to resit Y12 etc.

Fideline - they can and should be doing both. It's definitely not spoon feeding - it's about recognising that there are some areas which might need additional work, or that some students might want the opportunity to ask detailed questions about an area they are finding difficult, or providing a forum for pupils to develop a more detailed understanding of a specific part of the curriculum.

Our Highers are not that far away, so if anyone thinks that they can use holiday masterclasses in place of revision (which they should have been doing throughout the year) they are mistaken. The Higher syllabus also requires students to pass NABs (National Assessment Bank) throughout the year in order to continue with the syllabus, so those not keeping on top of the work will already have been identified.

My very academic and high ranking Scottish comp offered this 30 years ago - I'm glad to see most schools up here still providing the classes.

My very academic grammar school (20 years ago) didn't offer this. I wouldn't expect it myself - in fact it sounds like spoon feeding and i'd be concerned the DC were not developing independent revision skills.

Ours has been running after-school revision sessions for weeks, but only one day during Easter.

DS has yet to go to a single one as he claims to be too busy

and for the teachers, only those who give a stuff are turning up so the teaching is much more satisfying

Would you tell a doctor to work in their holiday time but qualify it with 'its ok, you only have to treat the really deserving patients?

Or a retail worker, 'it's ok you only have to server naice customers'?

I'm so glad I work in the independent sector, I might have to teach revision sessions on Saturdays during term, but at least I'm paid for it and not forced into doing it over easter for fear of pay sanctions come September.

And attended by all levels, not just the C/D set

I'm not offering any sessions to my year 11s this holidays. They've done zero work so far this year; I'm certainly not losing my holiday!

DS is currently doing his Highers - most ie 90% of the Departments are running a one day 'masterclass' through the holidays, and they also run 'twilight' sessions after school and have visiting speakers. 'Bog standard' comp in a mixed area.

The departments who have gone to the bother of running these classes are amazing imo, and I know (from being a member of the Parent Council) that the HT "actively encourages, although can't force" them to run them. They are very well attended - 2 classes of 30 for some subjects for example.

DDs school has revision classes every day, different days for different subjects and sets

Dd is going in Friday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Ds1 is year 10 and he is in school today for English, and Wednesday for science.

I think it's great that teachers are giving up their holiday for this but I can't help thinking it's too much.

DDs school closed last Thursday for Easter. I believe there were a couple of classes on the Friday (an inset day) for subjects where they are still completing the syllabus. There are no other classes during Easter though and there doesn't need to be. Students/pupils should be revising themselves.
DD1 went to an extra chemistry class last Monday (before the holiday) as they are trying to get through all the work (AS level). School are very good in that there are maths 'clubs' at lunchtime, science - 1 night each subject after school, Spanish and geography also doing 1 night a week. All these subject 'clubs' are for an hour and are so the pupils can go and ask for any extra help in a particular topic or go through any questions they are stuck on when doing past papers at home.
I have 1 DD doing GCSEs and 1 doing AS levels.

DS is in year 11, and his school does not run any extra revision sessions during the Easter holidays. It is a very good school - but an independent one. I think they expect everyone to have covered the curriculum and be capable of revising by themselves over the holiday.

But then again they do not have many who are teetering on the C/D grade boundary which is where the focus of many state schools is forced to be by the league table system.

That reminds me - I must go and get DS out of bed...