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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder if holiday revision classes for Y6 are really a good idea?

95 replies

DrSeuss · 01/04/2015 19:31

The primary school where my daughter is currently in Y4 are running revision classes on three days of this week. Two hours a day by invitation of the class teacher if she judges that a child will be helped by this. I commend the teacher for giving up holiday time for free and am delighted that she cares so much but I am still unconvinced that ten and eleven year old children should be in school working while on holiday. The local secondary places children in sets from September using end of KS 2 results so I suppose they need the best possible results but I still don't like the idea of the pressure being placed on them, even though I am myself a teacher.

Are other schools doing this? Are people sending their children to revision classes? Does it not all seem a bit much?

OP posts:

SconessMcFloness · 02/04/2015 15:18

I didn't require or encourage my dcs to do any sats revision over the Easter holidays and I have no regrets on that score. They did not suffer burn out like some kids, they remained engaged in their studies, they settled easily into secondary school and have worked hard all year.
My mantra to them during year 6 was it was important to work hard and produce work you are proud of but it was not important how well you perform on the day of the SATs and I will not be fussed either way and they knew I meant that, they were getting so much pressure from the school to continually improve scores - detentions or what they called break time classes for those who didn't improve scores, I told the teacher I wanted them to have their breaks and I did not support the school's approach - they worked hard enough during lessons.

SugarPlumTree · 02/04/2015 16:16

Thought I'd better check what DS has for Homework this holiday. 4 sheets of science questions and slightly amend and print off an English piece they did recently. He'll do those as set written homework but nothing else.

DS won't be changing school until the end of Year 8 so it means he will get a chilled year 7.

yomellamoHelly · 02/04/2015 16:31

Ds has had lots of supposedly targetted homework sent home with him. We're doing ten minutes a day (meant to do a whole sheet a day - we do about a third) as we both know he'll get aggro for not having done it when he returns and this'll set him off on a stress-out which will add to the pressure that'll be there as soon as school kicks off again. It pisses me off though as I really don't think he's benefitting from it. Is a chance for us to have a good moan to each other about it.
The school he's going to will do their own tests, so these are purely for the primary's benefit.
The fact that it's well known they'll do nothing educational from the time the SATS are done until they leave school is the worrying bit. What impact does that have on them. (In the other years we keep being told to practice stuff with them as they lose so much over the holidays particularly the long summer one.)

Pointlessfan · 02/04/2015 16:37

This is one of the most sad and ridiculous things I have ever heard. I am a secondary teacher. It is no help to us or the pupils if their KS2 results are inflated as pupils end up in the wrong ability sets and then we spend half of year 7 swapping them around which really interrupts learning.
I don't object to SATs or any other ability test in theory, it is the league tables and Ofsted that is putting all this pressure on primary schools and in turn, the pupils. It is no wonder that more and more young people have mental health issues or that so many teachers are leaving the profession. 11 year olds should not be worrying about exams and should be enjoying their holiday.

TheWindowDonkey · 02/04/2015 16:53

We've been considering home schooling for our y5 dc, this sort of thing means another tick in the 'yes' column for me. We are destroying a whole generations love of learning/ability to learn independently with our ridiculous testing system.

Pointlessfan · 02/04/2015 18:26

I quite agree, Window. I see pupils in Year 7 who won't write anything down for fear of getting it wrong. They can't come up with an answer unless it is a comprehension exercise and they can find the answer in the text. It is sucking the joy out of teaching and learning and it makes me angry and sad in equal measure.

Sallystyle · 02/04/2015 18:29

At that age? Ridiculous.

My 15 year old has gone in a few times for GCSE revision which I think is a great idea.

EasyFromNowOn · 02/04/2015 19:04

DS will do his maths homework because he thinks it is fun and he enjoys it. If he doesn't feel like doing the literacy I won't be forcing him into it.

He is required to attend an afterschool booster club once a week, if he doesn't attend, he won't be allowed to go on the post-SATs trip (which parents pay for), neither will he be allowed to attend the end of school disco.

I strongly disagree with both of these policies, but the current HT, who arrived after he had started at the school, has turned it into a complete factory. He has been doing practice tests every day for the last two weeks (we broke up today), and most lessons have been revision of some sort since half term.

In the assembly the HT held to announce the booster club rules to the children, they were also told that their SATs results would affect their chances of getting into the school of their choice, and also that bad results would result in teachers losing their jobs. I actually checked that with the HT as I was sure he'd got the wrong end of the stick, but he hadn't.

calmseeker · 02/04/2015 19:25

My heart tells me it is a bad idea. It is a very pressurised system. Teachers (I am one) are under so much pressure to get good grades from their students. Children are under pressure however I find it reassuring to hear that at secondary school results are treated with reasonable scepticism. I can understand why parents buckle and give into their gut instinct and send their child along. When my child gets to that age would I send him along? I am not sure to be honest but I hope I can bite the bullet and say no.

MrsCakesPrecognitionisSwitched · 02/04/2015 19:38

To be fair to DDs school, despite the cramming during term time, they have set no homework for this holiday. And I have no intention of inventing homework, so we won't be doing any SATs work this holiday.

Hulababy · 02/04/2015 19:42

My DD didn't do SATs. She did do a couple of entrance exams and did do some practise for that, in school time and also as part of her normal school homework. But the amount of work done and the amount of pressure was nothing compared to what I have witnessed through friend's schools.

Despite having no SATs results have all managed fine in their chosen schools, including those who moved into the state system - all the schools involved did their own assessments within the first term, not one used any SATs results to set children.

Wordsmith · 02/04/2015 21:22

EasyFromNowOn: did the HT really sayvthat? The whole thing sounds horrific!

echt · 02/04/2015 22:17

Easy, what that HT said is out of order. I'd straight to the governors, unless it's an academy, in which case I think the HT can do pretty much as he likes.

CocktailQueen · 02/04/2015 22:20

Dd was in tears tonight, saying she feels under pressure to do well in SATs and doesn't want to let down her teachers. No matter how often I say the results are purely for the school, not her, she believes her teachers. Argh. I feel a letter coming on....

BossWitch · 02/04/2015 22:28

Easy that is horrendous. You really should complain to governors, even if it is an academy. The HT has no business putting that pressure on children. Vile, shameful and completely unprofessional behaviour. What a total cunt.

ChillySundays · 02/04/2015 22:28

Stunned that schools are doing this. I wouldn't have sent mine.

Also how are working parents supposed to deal with this?

It also annoys me that GCSE target results are based on SATS. Virtually every teacher used to say at parents evening that he could do better than that but as far as my DS was concerned he was getting his target grades why work harder

littlebillie · 02/04/2015 22:31

Such a bad idea kids need to be at the right level at high school

Mehitabel6 · 03/04/2015 07:01

I am appalled Easy* . I think this is a new thing- there have always been booster classes but not in the holidays. It shows how scared Heads are of the results and the league tables.

Mehitabel6 · 03/04/2015 07:04

I didn't understand your post littlebillie- do you think they are anything more than a measure of the primary school?

EasyFromNowOn · 03/04/2015 18:28

The governors don't give a monkeys. They are all but invisible. It's not an academy, but probably will be soon - the links with the closest secondary get closer and closer, although they have backed off a bit since the secondary failed another Ofsted.

Yes, the head genuinely said it, although apparently the bit about teachers losing their jobs was badly phrased, and if they'd have said it in the way they meant it would not have sounded half as bad. Terrible communication is a characteristic of the head, tbh, and she shoots herself in the foot on a regular basis.

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