Y11 students expected to come to school during Christmas break

[Abangersrash]

My 16 year old in y11 due to sit GCSEs in spring brought home a letter stating it is now compulsory for all students to stay an hour after school to study and to come into school during the Christmas holidays for extra studying.
Dd is doing very well and already spends most evenings going over things and doing work that couldn’t be completed during lesson. (All students are expected to do this too)
Now I know it’s hard being a teacher and there just isn’t enough time to get through everything, but I’m shocked and angry that they are expected to use their free time to do work that the teachers cannot fit in during school hours.
my dd is anxious she will fail as many teachers are driving it into students that they can do better even if they’re predicted high scores. She gets nervous that her work isn’t good enough when it’s fantastic by my standards. She is predicted to pass all subjects and in my opinion doesn’t need extra help in her own time.
These students are entitled to a school holiday and a break from learning, when are they supposed to have down time or socialise with friends and family?
Does anyone here have children who have had to do this? Is it common? What can they actually do if you refuse, surely it cannot be compulsory after school hours? It’s good they offer this for students who need it, but it should be something you request and not something that is expected. What do you all think?

My daughter’s school tried to do this. I simply didn’t make her go in. I would have done if I was concerned about her grades or effort but she’s very studious and had her own revision timetable set up. All they were doing in school were walking, talking mocks over and over again.

This is outrageous for the teachers who will have been volun-told.

We do Easter revision. It’s paid and you can say no (but expected to say yes). Easter is a very different holiday and at a much more important time of the year.

Those teachers need a strong union voice to push back. As for your kid: don’t be ridiculous. You just say no. If enough parents say no, leadership will realise they are arseholes and knock it off.

Same at dc school. They have extra lessons for those who might be struggling in some subjects and extra lessons for those who are predicted 7/8/9 go help them achieve that grade.

BS

I do revision after school weekly from April to GCSE exams but no more. My time is my time. Students need to revise then selves but mostly (in my experience) they don't!

Our son is in Y11 and they have to stay for an additional lesson each day except for Wednesdays, they have also introduced an additional language revision lesson on a Friday so that's an another hour on top of mandatory extra lesson but that is optional. Students are also expected/encouraged to attend in the school holidays except for Christmas and also at weekends in the run up to the exams.
He will most likely attend in the school holidays as they don't usually have to go in everyday but I won't he asking him to go in on a weekend unless it's absolutely necessary.

You try taking a holiday in term time and watch them tell you holidays are for time off and term time is for school. If they get pushy this needs to be turned round on them.

This is madness. GCSEs were not that long ago for my two, but our school offered opportunities rather than forcing students to come in. Both my DC chose to do extra sessions for subjects where they felt it would enhance their chances of good grades, this alongside working hard at home as well, but the school also made it clear that downtime was a key part of good exam preparation. The school ran separate sessions for different needs: there were 'getting you to that passing grade 4' sessions, there were 'pushing ahead to the 6/7' sessions and there were 'shooting for the 8/9' sessions so that everyone could access what was right for them.

one of mine is doing ib this year and they are strongly encouraged to come together for study groups in the holidays.
school library is open every day for this purpose. however, no teacher is involved, just the caretaker.

I think it's great that they are offering this actually, although I don't know how they will staff it and I hope that is voluntary and paid extra.

They certainly can't compel anyone to attend though.

I've done all sorts of revision over the years. Like a pp, I think it gives the kids a false sense of security: I've turned up for an extra hour, so I don't need to do anything at home.
Voluntary, in lots of schools, means: you don't have to, but you'd better hope your results are good.

As a teacher I would have refused to do this without any additional pay, normally catch up sessions are provided during Easter holidays. Christmas seems a bit too soon as students tend to forget quite quickly.

I'd be upset about this. When I was at school I'd have hated it too - I always hated group / guided revision, was intrinsically motivated to study at home, and had a 1.5hr commute to school each way so would definitely not have wanted to pop in for an hour on Saturdays! And got top grades. It would have been a total waste of time.

I don't mind if teachers want to do it and it helps some pupils, but don't make it compulsory.

You hardly think this is the teacher's choice!?

I wish schools would stop doing this. Or do it as a voluntary thing (both pupils and teachers) one week of the Easter holidays. It's no wonder there are so many HE lecturers on here who start threads saying they're shocked at the amount of spoon feeding the students expect. Schools should teach pupils how to revise effectively, suggest on areas they should study more deeply and do some revision during normal classroom sessions. Everything else should be done by the student, alone, or in small groups if they work well that way, but they shoudl be organising themselves.

I worked in a Scottish state secondary. Staff were asked to provide an Easter study school for a small payment.

Some departments did. Everyone in my faculty refused, I'm pleased to say.

Absolutely this.

These students are entitled to a school holiday and a break

So are the teachers. I’d be going to the union and looking for a new job if my SLT tried to get me to ‘voluntarily’ submit to that bollocks over my Christmas holiday.

I had a complaint from a parent wanting to know why my department wasn't offering an Easter School.

My response was "Quite simply, all the teachers in the department will be on holiday."

The parent who complained had taken their child away on holiday during term time...

Interesting. So the school are encouraging DC to arrange their own study groups with classmates and the school is open for this purpose?

Well, you'd kind of think that the teaching of the various subjects in school has been thought through so that the syllabus can be covered in the time available. If the school has an "average" spread of pupils they will presumably get an "average" spread of grades, in line with national expectations, come exam time.

If so much extra tuition is needed, it must mean one of two things: either the teaching is not good enough to get the pupils up to that average grade; or the cohort isn't up to the subject. If its the former, that's a school problem - get better staff. If the latter, tough,extra tuition may help, but you can't get away from the fact that half the population are below average - sometimes that fact will never be beaten. Kids need holidays, don't send them in because the school can't fulfil the subject!

Well, you'd kind of think that the teaching of the various subjects in school has been thought through so that the syllabus can be covered in the time available.

You'd actually think wrong there, it's a well recognised problem, particularly in science but also in other subjects which is why schools started dropping their GCSE teaching down into Y9 to try to cover it all. But then Ofsted bollocked them for 'narrowing the curriculum' and so schools have to try to make up the time somewhere else.

The curriculum is currently under review.

Do you seriously think any school is inviting hundreds of 15 / 16 yr olds to meet in school with no teachers involved ?

This is actually very common in schools now, especially in core subjects like English and maths which are 'double weighted' for Progress 8.

In the last two school I worked at, these 'optional' (actually compulsory) holiday and weekend study sessions for Year 11s were rolled out. Senior leaders put pressure on HoDs to show what they are doing to raise the results, and the senior leaders put pressure on the teaching staff. At least most schools pay for the extra hours and commitments. I know for a fact that some schools expect their staff to do this for FREE!

(One school of my acquaintance actually had a science HoD tell an NQT that he had to attend during the Easter holidays to run Y11 revision sessions, and the poor lad had to change the holiday he had booked with his finance! No extra pay or time in lieu was offered for these extra sessions. Absolutely true story, did not engender a lot of goodwill among the staff and the NQT promptly left at the end of the academic year. And the school STILL struggle to hire good science teachers! (If you think this is untrue, contact Bedford Free School and ask them yourself!)

It's the longest term so I think a proper break is needed over Christmas. Poor teachers, having to cone into school .