When is a good time for holiday in Yr 11?

Not quite sure how that works when you have multiple children all taking GCSE's and A levels in different years. As a family we needed holidays both for us adults to negate the stress of work (dh is a teacher) and for the kids to give some relaxation time, especially as SEN is involved. Going away at Febryary half term and Easter (dd's request) didn't stop dd from getting mostly 8's & 9's plus a 7 in her GCSE's and actually probably helped.

Our kids requested that we did not holiday all year! And we complied with their request - they finish GCSEs tomorrow and we’re about to start making up for it!

No plans to go away abroad as such but certainly long weekends off at Oct half term and Easter. Only one set of mocks straight after Christmas so Christmas hols would be revision focus.I’m surprised that some have 2 sets of mocks, let alone 3. I’m aware that DS doesn’t finish some subjects like English Lit until Easter!

October half term or end of June (after the last exam).

I personally wouldn't book a holiday at Easter in y11, but make sure your DC is sensible with taking breaks throughout the year.

I would prioritise having a nice family holiday any day. Kids need a break. They are put under enough stress as it is.

I don't think it's legitimate to extrapolate your experience to the entire Yr 11 population of the United Kingdom, but hey, fill your boots...

Correcting minor flaws in idiom online isn't big or clever.

I think the phrase you were looking for was 'brass neck'. Or 'nerve'.

But I can only go on my experience. Which is dealing with kids who still haven't got their work ready now and are making excuses for it not being there when the moderators are due in less than ten days - but they've had nice holidays, rather than coming in. It shouldn't have been a surprise to their parents, as they had letters and timetables for holiday revision, coursework and intervention sessions from this time last year.

I suppose I could just shrug my shoulders and say 'oh, well, fail then'. But nobody wants to do that - they want the kids to pass and get good grades.

It still feels crap when you know that their parents prioritised having a nice family holiday, though, as the kids could hardly refuse.

Watching with interest as have this next year and hadn’t thought of it. Think we might do the Easter weekend reading this, break things up a bit.

It never seems to be the kids who are well on track or above and submitting everything on the first deadline whose parents take them on holiday - it's the ones who are at best borderline for good grades or those for whom a pass in Maths and English and nothing else would be a fantastic outcome.

at that rather sweeping generalisation, Mitzi. FIY both my DDs were on track for some very high grades when we took them on holiday - and have stayed on track with revision. We are not an exception at our school. You've got a bit of brass nerve coming out with this tripe.

I will agree that if there are coursework deadlines that can be a problem - but that can be managed by had working motivated kids.

Bear in mind that they have left well before the start of standard school summer holidays even if there is work experience and prom tagged on the end so another option is to go away in early July and avoid school holiday price hikes. Obviously not feasible if you have younger DC.

My youngest of 3 DC is in y12 and we basically avoided going away except in the school summer holidays for 7 years (3 lots of GCSEs, 2 lots of AS and 2 of A). It was honestly pretty dire being under that constraint and with the pressure of exams for so many years. So glad DD hasn’t done AS levels this year, although she won’t holiday with us anyway!

I’ve got one current y11 and one y10. Mocks were just after October half term last year (as they are again this year) but we have two weeks off so we went away first week and are going to do that again this year. Most of DD1s peers went away in February but dd1 did both art and textiles GCSEs so had to use that holiday to get on top of her course pages for submission. First week of Easter holidays was popular too.

Ds is almost through with his GCSE's and finishes on Friday. He is going away with his dad 12 days after he leaves school.

Unfortunately for ds, his dad booked the holiday without thinking about the prom and ds leaves for his holiday the day before prom. He was seriously debating what to do over going.

His school had 3 sets of mocks. November, January and March.
October half term would be ideal I think.

Check with the school - many have autumn mocks. If I were you I'd look at Christmas or July/August when you can all properly relax.

Check with your school, but honestly, as others have said, it is as important to have good clear breaks, as it is to keep on top of your work. We only had one set of mocks, no revision classes, and the school actually runs trips in October, February and at Easter. They encourage down time, which personally I applaud.

Any school who felt it was not fine for a child Togo on holiday during October or February half terms are being ridiculous. And there is plenty to stop some families from gong on holiday after 1st July such as younger siblings still at school (or in our case a teacher husband).

During Christmas and Easter a holiday is fine as long as the child makes some time for revision. (Easter can be tricky for us sometimes due to different term dates between dd and ds. )

Trouble is with sticking two fingers up and going on holiday is that you can end up frantically trying to get the kids to complete their final coursework submissions and finding out that they've lost their sketchbooks or they 'definitely handed it in electronically/is on their Mum's laptop' but it's nowhere to be seen whilst all the other subjects are pushing for interventions and dropdown days, before and after school revision sessions, etc, etc.

It never seems to be the kids who are well on track or above and submitting everything on the first deadline whose parents take them on holiday - it's the ones who are at best borderline for good grades or those for whom a pass in Maths and English and nothing else would be a fantastic outcome.

Subjects with a practical or coursework element are great for those who find sitting still and writing for over an hour nonstop very difficult - and for those who get anxious over it all hanging on performance on a particular summer morning. Even those who find writing easy, but are in danger of being overwhelmed by it can feel better if they know a proportion of their GCSE is already done and dusted. But that means they do not have spare time to go on holiday.

By July 1, there is nothing stopping you going on holiday until mid September. Christmas is normally absolutely clear. The Easter weekend is normally clear. But the others, including the Autumn half term, are likely to be important, particularly for those doing Art, Graphics, DT, Music, Music Tech and any other subjects that have a practical/preassessed component.

If places at 6th form were unconditional, it wouldn't be so bad, but many are subject to getting particular grades now, with no 'and if you don't get that grade, you'll go onto this lower level course instead'. I don't think it's fair, but that's how things have changed.

Talk to the school. See what they say - if they say it's fine to go on holiday in October, fair enough - but I'm not convinced that they will.

October half term

We went for a week of the Easter break with both DDs. The school did offer revision sessions during the holidays, but they weren't compulsory and even if they had been, I'd have stuck 2 fingers up at the school. Holidays are holidays and the kids need a break.

Having time off from revision is just as important as ervising enough.

We are going straight after the GCSE exams finish. She's turning 16 but also it's a treat for working hard. Counting down the days as it's been a long slog! For me and for her!

They had two sets of mocks at our school so it was hard to fit anything in.

Reading with interest, because this will be Ds1 in September and I hadn't really considered this.

I think they positively need a break at some point. They cannot work intensely from Sept-June.
DD2's school have mocks early Jan. So when the time comes we will be doing something like:

• 5 days off over Christmas break, but otherwise regular revision
• possible short break for some of Feb half term
• 4/5 days over Easter

October half term is a no go for us as dd and ds have different half terms. When dd was in Year 11 last year we went away for 3 days at February half term (after January mocks) and she went away for 5 days at Easter.

Ds is in Year 11 next year and we will probably do the same.