To think the Headmaster should realise that rural schools don't run like a town school (transport related).

[Sunnymeg]

I'm not personally affected by this, as we drive DS to school. DS goes to a rural secondary school, three quarters of the children travel to school on transport provided by county.

The school buses are all times to arrive by at least 8.45am. In previous years, GCSE students have caught the bus as normal and gone straight to the exam rooms. However we have now been told that GCSE students have to be in school by 8am. No reason has been given. I can only assume that it is to give school time to do their admin etc and make sure everyone has turned up.

We received an email about this over the weekend. The secondary school is in a village location and I would imagine that lots of parents already have their own work commitments and probably work in one of the two nearest town's, both some 20 miles away from the school.

The more I think about this, the more unreasonable it sounds. The Head has only been in city schools, previously. Some children have a journey in excess of 20 miles , due to the rural location.

I cannot understand why he is doing this and why he has only given a few days notice, what does he expect people to do. The majority of them will probably continue with their existing routine and put their children on the bus.

However the kicker to all this, is that the email says that if children don't arrive by 8am their names will be taken and repeat offenders will not be allowed to attend prom!!

That’s crazy - DD2 gets the train to school. She leaves at 7:00 and gets to school at 8:00. There’s only one train home and that gets her home at 4:45.

They have a rule that they’re only allowed on school premises during exams but they make an exception for rural students and arrange supervision and revision activities for them.

I don’t know what I’d do if our principal insisted on arrangements that don’t suit the school transport system.

Sounds like this is a sneaky way to save money on the prom.

the regular teachers would know what's going on, would it help to talk to them? Tell them about what the HT has implemented

Idiotic, I hope pupils manage to get this changed.

Well it seems to me the only solution is for the children to sleep over at the school.

Maybe send the head an email asking what sleepover arrangements have been made because it is the only way they can get their for 8am.

Alternatively ask for the risk assessment that the HT has done for the early start, eg water stations for the children walking 20miles, showers when they arrive to stop heatstroke. The effects of walking 20+ miles before GCSE exams etc etc.

He's an idiot.

I teach a GCSE subject. We have over 900 pupils sitting. They have to be in by 8.30 unless they come on the transport, then it's 8.45 as USUAL.

The exams start at 9.30. There is simply no need for them to be in at 8am.

I fail to see how he thinks this is acceptable or enforceable. Governors, then LEA. He doesn't have the authority to alter school times, even if he thinks he does! Pillock.

And if we can admin over 900 students in almost 100 rooms (exam access arrangements) with an 8.30 arrival as standard they should be able to manage it too...

"Where are these places?, they must be remote not just rural."

No, it's a typical spacing of market towns.

DH grew up in a village that was big enough to have a primary, but not a secondary. The LEA decided to cluster all secondaries in two towns the nearest being about 18 miles of pretty inconvenient journey (looks closer as crow flies, but there isn't a direct road). And the school bus took ages, because it picked up from various places.

Back in his day there used to be a bus to the second nearest town with schools, but that's been cut now.

I don't know how village parents would manage if they couldn't get a school place in the town the school bus goes to. There's only one bus service in and out of the village, and the only place it stops where there is a secondary school is the city, which is so far away I doubt they would be able to get a place for distance reasons.

And official start time for AM exams is 9.30am. Schools are allowed to start up to 30 minutes before or after this, but that is a choice.

If HT chooses to start at 9am with a rural catchment area they are, again, an idiot who is prepared to jeopardise their own results.

Actually Storm, if you rttft everyone is saying the opposite. Anyway, heads a dick, I'd imagine, like said ready, that it's not the first year of exams, so what happened then? And whilst I don't usually like tit for tat methods, maybe say you are thinking about withdrawing 6th form applications (if it is 6th form) because of unreasonable demands.

Well, unsurprisingly, it all kicked off on the school's Facebook page last night. Several parents have said that they are going to go to school during the day and demand to see the head and chair of goveners. I am sending an email to the Head of Year, as I expect that the Head's inbox is already full.

The official start time of AM public exams is 9.00 am. The PM session is 1.30.

This is the guidance for AQA but timings are identical for all of the awarding bodies:
filestore.aqa.org.uk/admin/t_table_pdf/AQA-TT-GCSE-JUN18-CONFIRMED.PDF

“2. Each exam must be taken on the day and at the time shown on the timetable. The published starting time of all exams is either 9.00am or 1.30pm. Students taking more than one exam in a session should take these consecutively. A supervised break may be given between the exams taken consecutively at the discretion of the school/college.

1. Schools/colleges may start an exam up to 30 minutes before the published starting time without notifying AQA.
2. Schools/colleges may delay the starting time of an exam by up to 30 minutes later than the published starting time without notifying AQA.”

If your school routinely starts exams at 9.30 am then it is availing itself of the provision made at point 3, but if for any reason you needed to delay this start time then your exams officer would have to notify AQA.

I would imagine that the head's logic is to get all students in, registered, settled, have subject staff do some reminders etc (we aren't allowed in thr exam hall) and then get students across to the hall ready to start at 9am.
But...

1. It doesn't need to be 8am. Most school I've been at do 830-845
2. If it doesn't fit with school transport then the school should be putting on an early bus
3. 8am is a ridiculous time to start anyway

Hope all goes well when you speak to the head. Hopefully they're just naive about the realities of rural living and realise their plab doesn't work.

That is added stress.
How many exams are due to start in the morning.
ime some are in the afternoon

I live in a town, but my DC's school also serves a village few miles away - so far that the County provides free buses for that village. Lots of other students come on public buses (some from other villages).

The school - doesn't punish for "late buses". The school is informed and parents given the right to comment when bus times change.

For the "free buses" there are two times - and early and a late - but you don't have a chance to swap buses unless there is room on the bus. So even that wouldn't help such an arbitrary decision.

The Head seems to be being totally unreasonable - and even in town this could cause issues.
(A new head at a private school near me, adjusted the school day so the girls got out so they "just missed" a train; within a year the day changed back - but she had lost pupils.)

storm I am also in Suffolk. DCs bus takes 40mins and we are also only 9miles away as it picks up from villages. It is often late so maybe this is why they are asking GCSE to be early.

It is reasonable to ask those taking public exams to be in early.

It is not reasonable to do that in a rural area where everyone relies on school buses without facilitating it: adding an earlier bus, or whatever.

Gillybeanz, I normally like your posts, but on this occasion you really are showing yourself to be totally out of touch with life anywhere except in a large town or city.

When you live in villages or some market towns then not everything is right on your doorstep or within walking distance. Buses and public transport can be erratic at best and schools, particularly secondary, can be miles away. School buses are essential and have to be timed to suit the whole school.

DS's school has a lot of rural kids. We're in the Midlands, but have the same issues as elsewhere. Lots of villages some distance away, contract buses that have to take a route that loops through the villages, etc.

Our HT came from a city school. But he's not a wazzock, and exams run fine.

Topseyt

I have lived in villages, but town now.
I did apologise but should have added I'm a bit out of touch.
The situation was completely different when our older ones were at a local state school when we lived in the stix. Honestly, the kids there were all from small villages around the nearest large village and full to capacity before you got more than 5 miles away.
This wasn't that long ago, but things have obviously changed.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunoon_Grammar_School
A localish school that provides a hostel for some kids to avoid a 30 mile journey. For some that includes a ferry

Gilly - local authorities have spent the last however many years closing smaller schools (small is anything less than 1000) & re-opening academies/amalgamating them & the like with huge pupil numbers. This means that children have to travel much further in rural areas

My Neice and nephew attend a school 11 miles away across-county borders on county transport (not enough spaces in own catchment, so bussed out). They live in a rural area. There are no local buses to the town where they attend school. Their parents both work. We would all find op's HT request to be very challenging.

Rural schools often allow students of other further away schools to sit exams with their students. There is also the expectation that by 16 / 17 students don’t rely on the school bus and can use other forms of public transport.

gilly, it's not that times have changed - it's that it's very common for rural catchments to be spread over a wide area. Always has been.