To send my children to school in the last week of term?

[ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs]

Here in Scotland it is the last week of summer term. According to both my dds (14 and 13) NO ONE goes to school in the last week, and definitely not in the last couple of days! They know they will both be sent in anyway, but are moaning that it's really boring, they don't do any work as the teachers can't teach anything because they would just have to teach it again when the rest of the class was there. Apparently they are told to "play on your phones", and some teachers are actively hinting/ suggesting they don't come in!

I'm a bit pissed off with this. On one hand the school officially disapproves of parents taking children out during term time to get cheap holidays, on the other hand the children who do make the effort to go in are seen as an inconvenience, it would seem. There is no penalty for not going in. Dd2 is home upset because her lovely friends are all staying off the last two days and going to a theme park, despite knowing that dd won't be able to join them, and will be in school on her own. (This isn't just hearsay, they did this at the end of last term too) So I am the worst mother in the world for making them go to school. Am i?

On the Compuing thing - and it is called computing at Nat 5 and not ICT - it's a recruitment issue. And it's such a standalone subject that you can't easily cover either other subject teachers - like a biology teacher covering S2 chemistry is possible, less so with computing.

The last week of term is always a wind down week, whatever age the kids are. Let's face it, any assessments are finished so there's no point starting new units of work that will be forgotten over the holidays- especially as in many cases they'll have different teachers for at least some of the subjects.
However, that doesn't mean they shouldn't attend. It is still school time, even if lessons are more relaxed. My teenage DC's school has a special activity week at the end of the summer term- think sports, crafts, science investigations, drama, that kind of thing where they get to choose their activities and do big projects that they wouldn't have an opportunity to do otherwise.

Seems ridiculous to just let them play on phones play games etc my son was bored rigid today it’s roastinc outside too so felt quite uncomfortable, fine if they are actually doing school work but can’t see the point when he’s sat doing nothing.

We are in Stirling they’ve house sports day on Thursday and break up Friday lunchtime then we go down south to my parents for 2 weeks. I thought they’d be broken up by now too (Norwich?) my 13 year old isn’t going in Friday but will be there the rest of the week

@Clionba I’m sorry, I’m majorly over sensitive about it, especially on here. Glasgow Uni is indeed a brilliant university, my cousin did medicine there I’m sure.

I think it's correct that they don't seem to take registers for the last week. The school reports with the attendance stats have already been sent out

Iirc, ds went in on on the last morning last year but only because he had a double period of Modern Studies (which he was crashing) and he enjoyed the smaller classes and bring able to have debates with his teacher

Re Computing Science, we are fortunate at ds' old school that a) it has a good reputation and b) we are in the Central Belt so that when there are vacancies, we do get applications. Although ds was telling me yesterday that his 3 friends who were doing AH in Computing Science knew more about the subject than their teacher (But fortunately they have Unconditionals, so it doesn't matter what they get for their AH )

Dd said one of her classes had 2 pupils and busiest had 8 pupils today!

Our kids will be going in (the youngest is five and in nursery, so couldn’t really let her stay at home herself ;) )
When I was at secondary school (90s), the majority of pupils attended right until the very end of term. My husband (secondary school in 80s) said no one at his school (Edinburgh) attended in the last week. Guess it just depends on schools.

The first day of the holidays here is on Tuesday. I do think that’s a bit ridiculous. Could they really not have pinched a day’s holiday from somewhere else in the year so that we could finish on the Friday instead?

We are scotland too. Tomorrow is final day of term and my ds 13 has been on his phone watching movies the last few days in every class.. Loads of kids given up already.. He was more or less told today not to turn up tomorrow'... I think it's a shocking attitude from the school but there you have it.

But they do take register.. Doesnt count on absence but we will still get a text if he doesnt go in tomorrow.. Its a safety thing.

Polkerris beach. I think you are fairly local to me going by the 4 day strike..
I think the schools in your area will be deserted tomorrow.. 😂😂

As a pp said there are no OFSTED inspections in Scotland. Education Scotland is responsible and there is not the same focus on the reports produced that there is in England. Pupils typically attend their catchment school, although you can put in a placing request for a different school. Schools are definitely not ranked in the same way. I have looked at reports in the past and there was no focus on attendance figures.

Over the last decade the number of inspections has fallen significantly - only 19 secondary schools were inspected in 2016. There are 367 secondary schools in Scotland - at the current rate on inspection it would take 20 years to cover all schools!! Education Scotland have stated that it is the local council's responsibility to maintain standards.

There is no inspection report available for the high school that my children attend.

For all those posters that say that the kids are lying I don't think it's the case. There will be some teachers that maintain lessons throughout the last week but many that don't. For my DC this week there are some subjects where they have been taught but equally some where they have not. As they are in school there is little point in lying about it. When they were in the more junior years there were less subjects that were taught 'til the last day.

Re ICT it's not always taught as a separate subject but often incorporated across subjects. Computing Science with a programming focus being offered from Nat 5 upwards.

Don't children like the semi controlled chaos of the end of term? It always seemed the best bit of school to me. Especially the last year before Alevels when we all signed each other's shirts and got egged and floured (school had banned the egging so was all the more exciting). Didn't realise secondary school had changed that much!

Im amazed that some parents are believing their kids!!!! Really, it certainly isn't true in my kids High School! You work properly till the last day.

Our school did activities week for the last week. You could sign up to various fun things either free in the school or paid like days out.

A lot of kids will have gone on holiday.

Our local council have closed all schools early as they had strikes so was closed from last week.

(And the taking of registers is a legal thing!)

Oh and to someone way up the thread we go back around 16th Aug so that's why. In September in Scotland it's positively autumnal

Laughing at parents believing their childrens rubbish about nobody going in!!!

It was true when I was at school no one did go in. I work in schools and was down to 75% last week. Goodness knows what it is this week

I would have been sent to school regardless of what my mates /rest of the school and I would be telling my child she had to do the same .
I realise this is much easier said than done but if all the parents did this then there wouldn’t be this issue .

It's term time. It's a day in the term which they are legally obliged to attended. Send them.

I think it is really school dependent and also varies by which year your child is in.

DS1 just finished 6th year, apart from going in for his 3 AH exams, his last day was at the end of April.

DS2 just gone into 6th year also finished for exam leave at the end of April had finished his exams in the firts 2 weeks and then had 3 weeks off. He then went back to school and into is new year and new subjects for 4 weeks.

Their school moves pupils in S1-3 (into S2-4) up to their new year at the beiginning of May when exam leave has just started so they do 2 months in their new year before the holidays.

Friends son's school decided not to move anyone up until after the school holidays so you have the new s5 and 6 having finished their exams, returning to school and still in their old classes, some went over the exam paper for the first few periods and then a lot have started on the higher curriculum but not all pupils in the class have elected to take the class at higher or indeed might not pass the Nat 5. Then they just resorted to movies and phone playing so the kids have not gone in and who can blame them really. It's bizzare.

We’re preparing for and doing end of year assessments in the last week so that the groups can be rejigged at the start of next year.

There is zero time with the spec we teach to miss a week of teaching. The copious numbers of children who will miss the assessments because they get a mysterious bug in the last week - we’re considering getting them in on the first inset so we can still mark and set them, but they’re at a disadvantage because they are so far away from the teaching.

Would never let my dds take the full last week off by I'm happy for them to decide to go or not to go on the last day.

Fwiw we never finish for the summer on a Friday so it's only ever a couple of days of doing nothing.

Glasgow schools finished at 1pm today and the pupils go back on 15 August.

As others have said, there have been lots of Bronze, Silver and Gold DoE expeditions out (with the associated "monitoring" don't know the correct word teachers away) - something like a 10th of the school , I know a couple of years ago (when he was going into S4 so really the end of S3 ) ds had his work experience in the last week of term, so there really were very few kids in school (which helped ensure the "space" to have the P7s/new S1 intake in school).

Many of the teachers will have been a bit tired today for their half day at school as it was the S6 Prom last night, which only finished at midnight!

I think it's correct that they don't seem to take registers for the last week. The school reports with the attendance stats have already been sent out
If that's the case then the school is failing its legal obligation for safeguarding. Registers are a legal document (am/pm sessions) and have to be done.

I think it's correct that they don't seem to take registers for the last week. The school reports with the attendance stats have already been sent out

They just calculate the attendance up to the point of the reports being completed....how would they safeguard children if they have no idea who is in?