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?

Hercisback1

DPotter
I know from contacts at secondary schools that offering revision classes in the Easter holidays lifts GCSE results by at least one grade, so there is a proven justification for such a step

BS

Why do you call BS @Hercisback1
That I have contacts in secondary schools?
That schools offer revision classes in the Easter holidays?

I suspect it’s that holding a revision class puts kids up a whole grade.

Well you can think what you like but for the 2 schools I know where this has been done, they have found Easter holiday classes bring grades up from predicted.

How exactly did they measure that? Randomised controlled trial? Boosting by a whole grade is quite a claim.

It's not the revision class alone.

That's why I called BS.

They still should not be compulsory. And I agree with @Noblegiraffe that your statement requires evidence.

This is BS for teaching staff & for the students. Teachers need their time off to regroup and start prep for the new term. My daughter was under incredible pressure when doing GCSEs and was burned out at the end of every term, and then piles of homework would be sent home for her to complete in the holidays. Burning kids & staff out isn't the key to success! DD is actually happy now doing A'levels because it's not as full-on and she doing the subjects she actually enjoys.

I would be onto the union too. I'm not a teacher but I would not stand for that if I was.

I've read some batshit things on MN in my time, but this crackpot idea really takes the biscuit.

It would be a hard no from me. It's not fair on the staff, it's not fair on the students who ARE working hard anyway and meeting their targets, and it will make no difference to the shirkers anyway.

They’re on crack. They can’t make extra study sessions outside school hours and days “compulsory” they can’t grade anything done in these sessions. I’d be informing them that your DD will not be participating.

This is outrageous.

The Christmas holidays are already full on, and both pupils and teachers are always completely f**ked after a long, hard term.

I managed to get all my GCSEs by starting to revise in April FGS.

Wasn't aware this was an academic, peer-reviewed website.

You said "I know from contacts at secondary schools that offering revision classes in the Easter holidays lifts GCSE results by at least one grade, so there is a proven justification for such a step"

But this isn't actually proven at all.

You can't go around saying things like "easter revision classes boost kids by at least a grade" with absolutely nothing to back that up.

Comparing final grades to predicted grades and saying those who came to easter revision isn't enough. There will be lots of other reasons those children did better, probably because of the supportive home environment encouraging them to revision sessions.

As a teacher, my colleagues and I always found that the use of holiday and after-school sessions was counterproductive.

For higher attaining pupils, it simply added to their stress (extra timetabled sessions for students who will be revising in their own time anyway). For lower attaining students, it often devalued what the teachers were trying to achieve in usual lesson times (students often expressed the attitude that if they didn't pay attention in class, they could just go through comtent again in revision classes).

When occurring after school, they also seek to achieve intense revision when both students and teaching staff are tired after a full day. If schools reduced the marking load of brainless book marking, this would be ok, but the prospect of doing these extra sessions by command from on high AND then having to mark pointlessly the classwork often copied from textbooks - well, now we have some idea why there is a retention crisis in most core subjects in secondary schools!

It's not, but that doesn't mean you can just make things up and expect to be taken seriously.

There will be lots of other reasons those children did better, probably because of the supportive home environment encouraging them to revision sessions.

I'd also include mocks results in that - those can really galvanise people.

Seems unnecessary. I have had DC through Y11. Cranked up the revision slowly over the year, little and often. Total break
over Christmas when they are knackered anyway. Full steam from Easter onwards. Too much more and they just burn out.

Oh wow. That’s terrible - everyone needs a break at this time of year. The break may do more good..
can you phone in and say you don’t think it will work for your daughter and you may be away and traveling so she won’t be attending?
I’ve heard of this over Easter but never Xmas! They have to keep this up for another 5 months x

Dear OP,
All the parents need to say no.
Then the teachers, who have families too, won't have to do the sessions.
The world has gone mad.