DS and ‘study leave’.

[YippeeKayakOtherBuckets]

Ds’s school aren’t doing study leave for the GCSEs this year, instead they are doing ‘revision’ in between exams. DS is a bright, sensible boy and fairly introverted and he says these sessions are a waste of time, lots of mucking about and little actual revising.

He doesn’t have any exams at all today but is supposed to be in school all day. He has asked if he can skip it and do actual revision at home instead.

What are the consequences likely to be? The official line from school is that they can leave school after their last exam but up until then they are expected in ‘lessons’.

I’ve lost a lot of faith in the schools methods anyway (gcse maths in yr 10 which was an utter failure, absolutely rubbish when he was ‘bullied’is punched in the face several times, compete lack of staff at one point with PE teachers teaching English, I could go on) so I’m happy for him to stay home but realistically are we likely to be fined or something?

Following with interest as my DC will be doing exams next year.

I definitely agree with the advice to keep him at home, you're giving him the best possible chance to do well in his exams.

Your son sounds like a great lad, hope he does well x

Back in the Day there was no study leave, but loads of very strict revision lessons so I was a bit horrified when my children effectively left school just before exams. Luckily they were 'mostly' diligent and did study but I can imagine many, many don't.

But if schools are going to keep them there they need to be properly managed classes, preferably with actual help

If they're not doing that, keep them at home. It's too important.

At Ds2 school they have to stay in lessons until half term

Then its two weeks of ‘should be in school attending revision sessions’

Ive told ds2 that those are the ones he can stay at home for if he wishes...though he will probably attend the ones just before or just after his actual exams

Dd didn't go in at all after half term

I was also told that (certainly after half term) the school doesnt inform the attendence officer

No idea how true that is but i was told by a reliable source

pookie

Yes she just fails...she may do better than she thinks, ds2 said the questions on the chemistry paper were very weird and he struggled in the second half

He did guess and i said that possibly the information was actually in his head and it wasn’t actually a guess

I appreciate that that is different to not being taught it though

@SkyBluePinkWithYellowDotsOn my apologies, I thought it did, I realise though that it does have a statistical impact with reporting of authorised absences so maybe that is why they avoid using it.

No local schools to me use study leave, unfortunately they cannot allow the children who would study at home that luxury because they need to try to enforce study for those who won't or can't study at home. Ds definitely has friends who would game half the day away instead of revision.

I think in terms of schools, if a child does not achieve what they hoped schools who provided revision sessions can say that they did everything they could at their end.

The timetable naturally begins to fall away, no one expects pupils to be in a RS lesson when that subject exams are complete, and the time table naturally collapses the week after half term.

It will still go down as absence.

We had text from school yesterday saying Y11 must still attend lessons but my son says they’re not doing anything in lessons and he’d get more done at home as they all end up chatting and messing about. I’ve rang in today to say he’s revising at home.

pookie my DD also said the AQA Biology paper was ridiculous as she said they had not been taught anything (much) on it. I could scream as she had learnt so much of the syllabus and yet nothing she learned was on it. She's not the greatest at maths so struggled with the surface area of a cube question too. The only thing is if everyone found it tough, I guess the grade boundary will be lower but its small consolation.

I work in a school and at a meeting with the Head on Tuesday last week, a question came up about attendance. We are due OFSTED so this is quite important for our school. The Head said that figures for attendance don't include Reception before the age of 5 AND Year 11 after Easter. Worth remembering if your school try it on about attendance figures if your DC is not going in.

The idea is that a lot of our more vulnerable students with little or no support at home, will not spend any time revising. At least if they are in school there is a chance they are revising. I'm a Maths teacher and my students will be working in every lesson until their final exam.

For our extremely vulnerable students, keeping them in school gives them a little more protection from home life. Even 3-4 weeks of nice supportive adults around does make a difference. The summer won't seem quite so long for these students.

Otoh if you have a child that will work hard at home and is finding school a distraction rather than a hand, keep them off. Schools won't chase attendance at this time.