To think the Year 11 cohort this year....

[bloodybankholidays]

...have had enough upheaval without 2 bank holiday Mondays in a row JUST before their exams start?!

I don't care what anyone says, the Year 11s have suffered considerably because of Covid, then they've had years of no teachers or constantly changing teachers due to staff shortages, the teachers strikes and to top it off, 2 bloody bank holidays!

My DS will be missing important lessons plus much needed after school intervention just before the exams start. It wouldn't be so bad if it was a Friday to make a long weekend as at least it would be different lessons he'd be missing!

Hear, hear. I have a y13 and she's struggling as she's no real experience of formal exams before except mocks- which really aren't the same!

If there is a deadline for finish a practical piece then an hour or 2 might make a bug difference between a finished and an unfinished piece.

At this point they will have finished course content and just be revising which can be done at home. I’m sure he can ask teachers for past papers

I actually think year 11 is a very stressful year and having a couple of bank holidays where they can relax can only be a good thing.

If he wants to spend the entire day revising then he can but I think these days would be better spent forgetting out the upcoming exams and just relaxing/having a good time.

He’ll probably do much better because of these days than if there were no bank holidays.

I think that posts over the next few weeks complaining that Y11s aren't being given Study Leave and are therefore expected to stay in school all the time until their exams are completed and missing their chance of a muck up day will contradict your POV.

I'm sure your DS will be happy to spend both days studying from 9-4pm with you supervising him throughout so that he doesn't slack at all. But for most, I think they'll benefit from a couple of days where the pressure is off before going to school as normal until the end of June.

I’m not sure what the set up is at your DS’s school but DD has the last bit of coursework to finish for gcse art and the teachers are essentially letting her go and do some stuff in the art room whenever she likes at the moment. There’s also intervention after school every day. I’m sure he’ll get it done.

I think this might be the straw that broke the camel's back. COVID was massively disruptive, then strikes now an extra Bank Holiday right before exams.

My DC entire class are likely to fail one of their subjects. They have not had a proper subject teacher for two years.

This has all been a lot for pupils and teachers.

I have a yr 11 and 13, I’m more worried about the yr13 tbh. They have missed more and there seems to be so much competition to get a place at Uni now.

Can your ds do extra at lunchtimes? My dd in 11 had some coursework to finish last week so spent a few lunch breaks doing the last bits. The teacher wasn't there for much of the time but it just helped dd concentrate and get it done.

They already have loads of time off before exams and bank holidays have always been prevalent this time of year, one extra day won’t make any difference.

Current Y11’s have had it no worse than many other year groups.

They have not had a proper subject teacher for two years.

@QuestionsFromThePublic I suspect this may be more of an issue than strikes or Covid or Bank Holidays. Lack of specialist subject teachers is a huge issue, sadly.

i also agree the current year 13 are the most damaged of all the year groups including last years year 13.

They missed huge chunks of gcse syllabus, they have never taken exams before and mine seems to be working extra hard with the knowledge that they haven’t been given the same advantages as last year.

My year 11 has been disrupted in their education, however they haven’t had the disruption during the exam years.

I'm talking about Year 11's, not comparing to Year 13's. They've had different issues that I wouldn't want to comment on.

As for finished the teaching, if only! Still haven't finished in science or maths, only just finished in history, not even started the final assignment in BTEC Construction! And the practical part is way behind. He is missing 2 hours of intervention and will struggle to get it finished.

Exactly the same here for construction, no proper teacher for months, they've got one now but it's too little too late. They had a music teacher babysitting them for months on end.

You might think differently if it was your child’s degree that was massively affected instead of their GCSE’s or A levels.

I don’t think it’s helpful to try and work out which year group has been most damaged. For differing reasons, they have all been treated very badly and it will have been especially damaging to some individuals than others, despite what year group they were in.

Actually, I'm glad my dd is getting an extra day off. She's absolutely burnt out. She spent every day of the Easter holidays going into school for extra revision lessons. She's STILL doing mock exams and finishing coursework and the bloody GCSEs start in a couple of weeks! She looks like a ghost most of the time and she's completely rundown.

My DS is glad his study leave doesn't start until June 15th. He struggles to concentrate at home and would much rather be in school, although he is probably in the minority!

Exactly that.

And 2 strike days this Thurs and next Tues

Not sure the bank holidays make too much difference. DS will just use the time to revise, but I agree that covid as well as strike days have had more of an impact that people seem to think.
However, they are all in the same boat and I'm not too worried about DS.

Yep, so he'll miss 2hrs of construction on Thursday!

They won't even give them a predicted grade as the school can't guarantee that they'll get the course finished.

The year 11s in my school will be on study leave for the second bank holiday, and I imagine lots of other schools will start theirs then.

My daughter's school have rejigged the timetable to reduce the impact of two consecutive Mondays off. They're largely in revision mode in school now so I think this is the least of the problems the yr11 cohort have had to face.

The masses of time off during yr10 because of lockdown rules was far worse. My daughter lost at least 2 months of school during GCSE curriculum time because of the 'bubbles' and isolating. Some of the more practical lessons have been a nightmare to try and get the coursework sorted for.

It's not a race to the bottom as to how badly each year is affected. They've all had their challenges and the teachers have had to try to adapt to the challenges each year is presented with.

We'll be seeing the impact for years, there's a huge number of children starting their school journey now with very poor communication skills because of the complete lack of socialisation they've had to deal with during a very important developmental phase - that must have a long term impact too.

Of course YANBU and national holidays for 70 million people should be based on your kid.

Once again, I'm not comparing any other years. I can't, because I don't have anything to compare to. I'm just talking about this year and how much shit they've had to deal with. For me, the extra bank holiday has been the final straw.