Please read the words!

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I teach English in a secondary school and my subject's first GCSE exam is tomorrow morning (8:45 am on the timetable).

I updated the VLE to remind my class what's on this exam and that they're invited to revision with breakfast before tutor time, to calm their nerves and give a final recap.

I just received a reply asking what time they can leave as their parents have booked a table for tea!

Sounds like you should have put the actual times down. When is tutor time?

I would be absolutely delighted that one of them engaged with the VLE! Also missing the point

In my kids school they gave 'little break' I have no idea what time that is. I would need actual times to understand what you meant. Maybe they think it's the night before and you're sending them home with a croissant for the next morning.

Totally agree with this! As I stood outside the school hall waiting for my A level history, I was reading about a topic that I hadn’t really revised as it was fairly minor and we’d done it right at the start of year 10. It came up on the exam so I knew what to write. I got an A.

Well you didn’t put in the OP what time they’ll finish so can they make it for tea or not?

I don't think there's ever been a GCSE that started at 8:45 and went on til tea time.
You've just confirmed the OP's point.

Yes. This. Me too.

So for five years, school has started at half eight in the morning and finished at half three in the afternoon. It is commonly known that there is no study leave at our school; come in on time and leave at the end of the day.

I posted a message to say it's paper 1 tomorrow ( 20th c prose and narrative writing only). Remember you're invited to my classroom for a last minute recap before you go to registration. There will be breakfast food too.

I can't fathom why my student and/or his parents don't understand that I'm not keeping him after school to revise after the exam is finished. Nothing against them going our for dinner ( or double checking the length of the 1 hr 45 min exam, if that's what they actually wanted to know from a preparation point of view). It just doesn't bode well for him analysing and evaluating a challenging text tomorrow MORNING.

But maybe that level of literacy is just completely average.

Of course they'll be home for tea if exam starts at 8.45 am. Hth the hard of reading.

You're not wrong op I work in a shop and the number of products put out wrong because no one can be arsed reading labels properly is staggering. There's no hope.

Do you think someone mixed up 8:45 am and pm?

Honestly i despair and I'm not a teacher.

Jeez so many people on here you can’t read!! The OP was perfectly clear and I got it straight away.
If they can’t even read a message about a breakfast without thinking it’s about teatime then they might be in trouble with reading the exam paper!

For the other posters, this is what I read from OPs post.

Exam is 8.45am. Breakfast is the start of day meal so its before the exam. GCSE exams dont normally last longer than 3 hours (usually split into parts if longer, spread over different days). So based on that the exam finishes around noon. So they either leave at noon or end of school time (3pm - 3.30pm depending on school). Tea is normally around 5pm ish.

Asking if they can go to a booked tea would come across as stupid if my deductions above are correct. You lot are making me start to doubt myself.

oh nvm, cross posted with op.

There’s quite a few people on this thread who haven’t read the words!

Thank you for reminding me to remind DD to read the words in the morning OP!

Before registration could mean the night before and 8.45 could be pm. Tea can also mean an evening meal, not necessarily an early meal, depending on where those reading the message are from. A packed continental breakfast might have been provided for the next morning. Unless the op put 8.45 am there is room for interpretation.

Especially during exam / end of year/ leaving time, when there are lots of emails / texts with different times and instructions for all different things flying around.

I swear people are being awkward on purpose. It's obvious if revision is 845 before a morning exam then it won't clash with their tea booking FFS. Not difficult to understand.

These kids have never done GCSE’s before, in this situation info needs to be clear and factual, not reading between the lines.

That'll be the gist of my pep talk for the ones who turn up!

Read carefully. Look for the key words/clues. Stick to the focus of the question. 😀

The OP wrote:

I teach English in a secondary school and my subject's first GCSE exam is tomorrow morning (8:45 am on the timetable).

HTF could that be read as 8:45 the night before?

So why not just bloody say that to them? To a stressed teenager who by your own words need a bit of extra support and reassurance. Instead of coming into a public forum to be snide and mock them, just fucking help them.

The OP was clear and straightforward.
The student querying whether he can go out for tea is heading for a grade 1/2, as are quite a few on this thread berating the OP.

I think a lot of posters need to attend your session to learn some comprehension

It was perfectly clear what your first post meant OP and agree it was a daft comment for the student and/or parent to say. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to exam nerves

Well now you're worrying me as my understanding is that it starts at 9.15am tomorrow and not 8.45am!

Don’t you love MN? We will argue about anything and complicate simple matters, plus go off on tangents and argue about them as well.

Your original post really wasn’t written very clearly at all. Nor was your second post.

I thought it was pretty obvious what OP was saying.
A student clearly thought they were going to a revision session after the exam and in the evening instead of the morning.
And no student would think a morning exam would last past the end of the school day. Although I suspect a lot of posters will now come on and tell me all their GCSE exams were 12 hours long.