too many GCSEs for too long

No I'm not. I have spent a lot more time with a range of yr 11s over a longer time period than you have. I'm not just meaning "better" as in results. Better as in calmer, better prepared, feeling more supported.

EvilTwins you're talking about 'better' in a different sense from me, as I said earlier.

noble yes I guess it's about the greater good but that's probably right (in my view at least). School could try to pull out all stops for that half a class and send in the teachers who aren't teaching the rest because they're on study leave but I know the timetable is complicated etc. Nevertheless I bet something more productive could be done with will than simply 'minding' those not permitted study leave.

Evidence suggests that the vast majority do better in school than at home. It's not a risk schools want to take. Not sure why parents would either TBH.

It's not half a class per teacher, it's about half a class in the whole year group so they are not supervised in their own classes but by a single teacher who doesn't know them.

I don't know what the solution is with the kids who can't/wont revise is. Perhaps there isn't one.

summerends I agree that examinations in a taught subject don't necessarily increase that subject's educational value but not many schools these days in the state sector will teach history or geography or german or art just for the hell of it.

Could you explain your second point a bit more? I'm not really sure what you mean. What I meant was simply that juggling a heavy workload had practical value for future employment or university workloads. I didn't mean it was academically educational in itself.

Molio The value of keeping up eleven subjects is to give DC a good broadish spread of education before they narrow down to four subjects at AS/ A2/ Pre-U.. Not sure why it should be obligatory for all taught subjects to be examined though.
It also has a value in a more oblique sense of enabling DC to juggle a workload that is true but a lot of that workload is fairly pointless as a real education in its present format.

But noble it's not the job of those other kids to boost the rest. If those other kids would do better by staying at home, then the teachers have to do their best by the rest. It's their responsibility primarily, and to be honest, they should be up to it, even if (especially if?) they only have half a class.

By the way.

Children are brighter than they were 30 years ago - by around 5 IQ points on average.
Because Lead has been removed from petrol and paint and the environment and exposure to lead has a well documented impact on cognitive ability.

Last year, my DD started GCSE study leave on 7 May, and didn't have to go in for any revision sessions, compulsory or otherwise, although I believe the teachers were available to answer questions during the time their lesson was normally timetabled, iyswim. It worked for DD because she is a self starter who wants to organise her own time, and can do so effectively. I do think some other DC need the school routine though.

DD did 13 subjects last summer - all linear
DS will do 11 next summer - all linear

I did 8
times have changed
we must not compare what we went through umpteen years ago with what happens now.

Stress? Stress? You want to try marking the sodding things!

My school gives study leave after half term to most and requires those with poor attendance/lack of progress/chaotic lives to continue to attend school. They are supervised in a classroom and are supposed to get on with independent study. Unfortunately they are usually the least likely to manage this and it ends up being a bit of a waste of time. If their peers had all been in, in proper lessons they might have got something out of it.

I was blaming results and league tables for the pressure put on students. Schools are simply not in the position to allow extended study leave to all when there is so much pressure on them to get results - it's too much of a risk.

It needs to be the rule rather than the exception in most schools I think. IME, where revision classes are optional (and we've run optional classes at weekends and in holidays), it's the students who are probably perfectly capable of organising their own revision who turn up, and those who could do with the extra help who do not. For some, in-school revision classes can act as a bit of a security blanket and actually help alleviate the pressure.

EvilTwins it was your post of 20:04:39 where you seem to be prioritizing league tables that I was thinking of, although you're admittedly blaming the government. That same post referred rather disparagingly to what you see as the limited experience of indie parents who might think study leave is the panacea to all ills. I'm simply observing that extended study leave in my exclusively state school experience can be very helpful in reducing pressure at a pressurized time. I think optional extended study leave must be the best option, since schools are able to identify those for whom it would be a disaster and refuse it for them. I can't see the problem, at least not where some imagination is deployed by the SLT.

I don't know if this has any bearing or not on which schools decide to have compulsory revision classes but schools are now judged also on how well students that attract pupil premium do relative to the rest of their cohort. Students that attract pupil premium may not have the same home environment for private study.

Many kids would not attend if the classes were optional.

The routine of school during exams has certainly been of benefit to my ds (who has ASD), I imagine different personalities suit different arrangements though.

I think compulsory revision classes add pressure. Many kids are able to decide for themselves that they would achieve more by studying from home.

Milly independent schools cut down on the numbers of GCSE exams taken on average years ago, to maximise grades. Many sold this to parents by way of persuading them (falsely) that IGCSEs were tougher and of inherently more worth. That argument was actually only sustainable against a background of modular exams, but where GCSEs were being taken as linear then those exams were/ are the harder, overall. The value of keeping up eleven subjects is to give DC a good broadish spread of education before they narrow down to four subjects at AS/ A2/ Pre-U. It also has a value in a more oblique sense of enabling DC to juggle a workload, but obviously needs to be tempered at the lower end of the ability range if the government is insisting on one type of qualification for all.

I think eight O levels was very narrow. I'd have much preferred to take eleven subjects myself and I'm glad my DC have had the chance.

Molio, I don't agree that revision classes add pressure.

I know 3 students doing GCSEs ATM. The one who feels supported because her teachers are offering revision classes is faring much better than the ones who feel their schools have deserted them in their hour of need - having stopped all lessons and almost all contact a month ago.

Molio - if you yhink I value results above mental health I suggest you actually READ my posts.

bad try not to despair: my DD was in a bad way in year 10, cutting herself etc. She point blank refused to go into one of her science ISAs, had a bit of a breakdown. CAHMS were rubbish and insisted she was OK. She wasn't; she's just a bright girl who said what they wanted to here.

I was dreading these exams: we have been careful to put no pressure on her. Unfortunately she puts it on herself, and some of her friends are competitive high achievers.

Amazingly she seems okay so far though, better than we could have imagined. We are just focussing on all the nice stuff we'll do when it's all over.

EvilTwins every one of my DC have gone or go to state school. I'm simply expressing the view that it can take the pressure off kids to give them study leave. I'm coming at it from the pov of the DCs' mental health whereas you seem to be coming at it (understandably, as a teacher) from the pov of results and league tables. I tend to value health above results.

noblegiraffe,

the criteria for meds in our area is self harming or suicidal thoughts.
dd is very ill but is months away from seeing anyone able to prescribe meds.

only psychiatrists can prescribe, something i have learnt along the way. i have wanted meds to be considered for my dd for months, but she's not self harming or about to commit suicide--yet

badasahatter - why is it necessary for your child to do 1 GCSE in yr 9 and two more in yr 10? That's ludicrous.

And I'm not expert but really, I don't think that anxiety can result in ASD. I am happy to be corrected, but I don't think a chikd can be so stressed that they develop autism.