Any 6th form teachers about?

[MaybeAMoaner]

In the month of May or June do year 12s do exams?
I’m looking at booking a holiday which means taking my DD out of school for one week that falls before or after the May half term.

Thoroughly apologise for asking this boring question and for using mumsnet to do so.

Highly unlikely that it’s external exams. But the school is more than likely to be doing mock exams around this time, which will k form UCAS predictions. Any time out of A-levels will have an impact. There’s so much content to get through and not simple to just catch-up.

*inform UCAS

We wouldn’t do mock exams at the same time as actual GCSEs and A-levels.

@noblegiraffe

We do them in June, but in lessons rather than sports hall etc

Sorry to say but this is such a bad idea during A-level courses!

It depends on the school when they do exams in Year 12 but , as a 6th form teacher, you would not be doing your daughter any favours by doing this so please don’t!

Have a look on your school calendar; my DCs' school website full calendar has dates for work experience, mocks and all sorts on it.

Depends on what courses DC is doing. Some schools do AS levels in Y12 and A Level in Y13. Other schools do full A Level in Y13, with no external exams in Y12.
Having said that, we would be setting coursework, preparing for mocks in May/ June time.

To be sure you need to ask your school or look on the website, it may well tell you there. Each school set their own timings for yr12 exams. Unless they are taking AS levels or resitting GCSE they will not be doing external exams. Our school would not do yr12 exams at the same time as GCSE and A-levels so the week before or after half term would not be yr12 exams as the external exams will be on at that time.

However it's really really not a good idea to miss a week of school for a holiday at any time in 6th form. Even more so at the moment when they might miss another week or two due to covid and that's before any 'normal' illness sick days.

Thank you all for your replies. A bit of a mixture!
The schools website doesn’t seem to give a lot of info so I will call tomorrow.

I do absolutely agree about it being a bad idea to take them out of school. But my DH job is the issue so we have no other alternatives

I’m a teacher - Your daughters exams are far more a priority than having a holiday. You’re doing her a huge disservice taking her out of school for a whole week any time in May in Year 12. School will not look favourably on it either.

my DH job is the issue so we have no other alternatives

What about missing out on your fortnight holiday for one year only? Go just for half term week itself.

I honestly would avoid doing this. The end of year 12 and also year 13 are very intensive and as said upthread you won’t be doing your DD any favours. The year 12 mocks are really important (DS sat his in the hall last year as they missed out on sitting GCSE’s) and whatever grades your DD achieves will go on her UCAS form.

End of y12 is manic, prepping for mock exams that form the ucas predicted grades and references, finishing up the curriculum and usually getting a jump start on y13 especially coursework. Not to mention that's the key time for any decent college to really ramp up future choices research, personal statements and application prep. Really would not advise missing term time at this time of year unfortunately it might just be one of those years to either take separate holidays or miss out on one that year!