Any schools not give study leave in year 11 for GCSEs??

[studyleavegcse]

Our school have just announced the kids have to continue at school for lessons until the end of May in between their GCSE exams which start on 3rd May. We are in England. I have never heard of this before at any local school and definitely not at this school. Last year study leave started the week before GCSEs started.

Different students will be in each lesson as they have exams on different days and some will have exams on the official leaving day.

Is this just our school or a regular thing or a new government policy?

Hear hear

I did actually send an email of thanks to my daughter's school for all the support and extra sessions they put on. They were great - the after school sessions focused on specific bits of the topic so they could attend the ones they knew they would get the most from.

Not trying to derail this thread but your help is needed to support students whose learning has been badly impacted by RAAC and asbestos in school.

There are thousands of GCSE students across the UK who haven't even been in school for the majority of the school year so far. After weeks of home schooling, they're now in portacabins with no access to the resources they need to even compete their GCSE coursework. No science labs, no access to cooking facilities or design & technology equipment... and that's just the start of how bad it is.

There's more on this thread and a link to a petition to urge the Government to give these students a fair chance of passing their GCSEs.

Please sign the petition. It's a disgrace that this situation is being ignored.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/5022985-5022985-help-raac-impacted-students-get-the-exam-grades-they-deserve?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I’m just bumping this as we’ve just had this. DD got 10 9s in her mocks and does not want to study at school. I’m going to have to make up endless appts to get her out of it .

Don't bother making up appointments, just phone her in sick.

We have kids who are 'ill' during the exams so they can study at home and it doesn't get chased. It's not the kids on ten 9s who the school are worried about having study leave.

Thanks @noblegiraffe its getting her out of school after a morning exam which is the worry. They seem to be all morning exams pretty much! She says she can’t just leave so I have to pre arrange.

"She's ill but dragging herself in for exams and then needs to go home to rest"

Or, you could phone the school and see what they suggest? You won't be the first to ask.

Yes I’m wondering about asking for dispensation, as she must have been one of the top handful in her mocks. I’m also at home wfh and can guarantee supervision. Maybe try that first then do as you say @noblegiraffe . She does see it will help a lot of her friends, even those doing really well, but she really has been working well this year and I think this could mess things up for her.

I'm a secondary school teacher, we haven't had study leave since Covid. We're still making up the time lost.

Teachers aren't allowed near exams, it's all external invigilators

In my dc’s school, exams are invigilated by the teachers and support staff.

That’s very unusual and potentially in contravention of JCQ instructions if teachers are in the room for exams in the subject they teach. (https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/ice---instructions-for-conducting-examinations/notice-to-centres---the-people-present/)

Not to mention that it's a massive waste of teacher time!

Agree with this, I just assumed it was the norm, as it was when we were at school and still is for my dc now!

It doesn’t seem like the most sensible thing!

We had study leave back in the ‘90s. I got very good at Super Mario World! Believe it’s less usual now from chatting to friends who have kids.

Might not be a bad thing; I effectively had 4 months off and it wasn’t helpful when I had to go to 6th form college and get back in the routine again. Didn’t help that my college was ridiculously strict and I hated my A Levels!

My DD's school tried this but I got special permission for her to study at home. They knew 3/4 of the students won't study at home, and many can't due to chaotic home lives

DD sat her GCSEs last year and didn't have study leave.

They had a revised time table and the revision lessons were very well done.

I think by the second week of June they had less and left after their exams.

DD had always mixed lessons apart from language and maths, I know not everyone likes this but it worked very well for her.

We have study leave (academically selective private school) and it's the norm for private schools in our area. You're able to work in the school library or an empty classroom if preferred.

I wouldn't have wanted my kids to revise in school. There's a lot of wasted time spent getting there, assembly, etc. It meant my kids could focus on their weaker subjects and not sit through revision classes on their stronger ones.

My son's already moaned about revision classes this week for his lower sixth exams which he hasn't found particularly useful (with the proviso that teenagers don't always know best).

The thing is that in the autumn they gave study leave and said it was to protect their wellbeing as well as a rehearsal for the real thing. And they’ve suddenly changed the policy and dd has been expecting study leave and has been working to a planned revision timetable since late Feb.

I am going to request she has study leave and if not just take her out. I’d pay fines etc - it’s just whether they would remove her prom. But surely for a child who has always worked hard etc they wouldn’t really do this. I did speak to the school earlier in the year asking for MH support (and got no response) so they have a record of her anxiety around exams.

We just don’t really need the additional stress of having to fight the school right now.

In schools where I have worked study leave has not been a thing for many years. Kids go to lessons until their final exam in that subject.

I do get this and dd is lucky as it’s just me and her, and as I wfh I have a decent study and she can obvs take it over. As long as there is some flexibility for students like dd who have basically proved themselves in the mocks and for whom having to revise in school would actually seriously threaten their grades.

Study leave went years ago in my old school. Students attend until their last exam.

I was mixed about it as my oldest DC was super bright and sitting through maths lessons that he could have taught but he really needed to be revising languages which was his weak point. It removes the element of choice.

But my younger DC loved the help and seeing his friends.

Specific subject revision lessons before each subject’s exam were great though. The day or morning before everyone did a past paper and it got them in the zone.

Teachers don’t invigilate but subject specialists do have to be present at the start of exams to check for issues/answer queries. And have to be available at the end of a phone in case there’s a specific problem.

No, that changed about ten years ago. I posted the JCQ guidance last night. A senior member of centre staff needs to be available to supervise the students’ entry and deal with any disciplinary issues but they cannot have taught any of the content being examined. Subject specialists aren’t allowed anywhere near and there is nothing they can help with over the phone as they can’t be told anything about the content of the exam while it is ongoing.

Teachers don’t invigilate but subject specialists do have to be present at the start of exams to check for issues/answer queries. And have to be available at the end of a phone in case there’s a specific problem.
We've not been anywhere near our exams for a long time.

In most schools I've worked in there's been a morning briefing in the dining hall (or other large space that's not used for exams) for Year 11s. It's an opportunity for the subject staff to wish students good luck, remind them of timings and answer questions if anyone needs any last minute reassurance.
Once they go to the exam hall a member of SLT from a different subject area is there to oversee the start/end and it's invigilators only in the hall.