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!

🤣 there are 3 this May you numpty 🙄

Do you have a child in an exam year?

@Leah5678 apologies, that's what you meant. I'm the numpty 😂

And it is a big deal if you'd bothered to read any of my subsequent posts.

He's probably better off at home revising! There will be very minimal impact from bank holidays and strikes, and the grade boundaries will take covid into account.

Yanbu. Many schools are swapping timetables so Mon lessons aren't missed twice

GCSEs are scored on norm referencing. It uses a bell curve. What this means is that all the papers are graded and then the boundaries for each grade decide. The boundaries they need to achieve for a level aren't set until after the exam. That means that generally the same number of students will get each grade each year. Therefore, if a year are impacted by any factor, the amount of students getting a 9 for instance, will be around the same as all the others years.

I'd be worried if this was one school having more inset days than others, but because these are national days, all Year 11s will be impacted in the same way and so if there is any impact from additional days without a teacher.

Year 11 students are still in school on the strike days for the schools here. Are they actually shutting some schools fully? 😯

We're open to y11-13 as we have been every other time.

@MrsJBaptiste school is open to vulnerable children only on all strike days

Out of interest…. For how many years is the “this years year 11 have had it the hardest?” It was boring the first year… now it’s just getting silly.

Presumably that comment isn't directed at me as I've not said that at any point.

I think your anger should be at your son's school. The extra bank holiday should have been worked around in terms of GCSE project time.

Many schools, mine included, have had one or two teachers off long-term since COVID. But we have had a pretty much normal school year this year, some cover teachers due to normal staff sickness but teaching has been well planned. Since lockdowns ended, we've been having extra after school study sessions, and some holiday study sessions too. Y11 have been in and taught by qualified subject specific teachers on all strike days. We are lucky that we have a good mix of subjects within our SLT and they have all been in on strike days. We're a normal sized city-based state secondary school with a mix of students from many backgrounds.

The current Y11 cohort have (of course) not had a completely normal two years, but our school have worked really hard to get them to where they need to be. It sounds like your son's school has either had a particularly awful time this year or SLT/Head have not managed things well.

Out of interest, do you have children?

Are SLT not allowed to join the NEU strike, or are yours just scabbing?

Are SLT not allowed to join the NEU strike, or are yours just scabbing?
They're only allowed to join if they're in the NEU!

My daughter is sitting her first A level May 3. One day (or two) will make no difference. She will be on study leave from the following week anyway - syllabus completed weeks ago, only art is ongoing.
The pandemic affected my now 19 year old far more than my daughter.

Some of this year Y11s are having it very hard, some not so hard.

Do you have a Y11 this year?

To be honest it sounds like it’s a more a problem with your ds’s school rather than an extra bank holiday. My school has finished teaching in all subjects and had done by Easter (many were earlier). Practical exams/speaking tests are currently being done and all lessons are now revision/exam practice. It’s not the government’s fault that your ds’s school is disorganised. My school are also open to year 11 who want to come in and revise quietly, use the computers etc. This year group haven’t had it so bad. Last year’s cohort and the majority of their year 10 lessons taught online. At this this year’s group have been in school.

Yes, and can SLT be in the NEU? It's a genuine question, I'm not in education so I don't know how it works (and my kids are in primary school, who've closed fully on all strike days). I'm in the civil service, and the PCS strike mandate covers my entire Department, so even non members, members of the FDA or Prospect etc, are able to join our current strikes. Many colleagues meet the eligibility criteria for a combination of those unions, whilst for others that's not the case and there is only one which fits their role. And huge numbers of new members have joined PCS since the start of the current campaign, so even if they weren't members when the ballot was called, they're members now the strikes are underway.

I wondered whether a solution such as that I was responding to (SLT able to cover the priority teaching during strike days) was widely viable.

I sympathise OP.

While in the big scheme of things an extra bank holiday isn't going to make any difference, I do feel that our kids are still suffering the shit storm of the last few years.

I have one at uni, he did A levels as school assessments
I have one year 13, who has never done formal exams, and has high uni offers.
I have one aged 15 who struggled so much during COVID, and is really only this year (year 10) back to anything like a normal schedule, so that is 3 years of school massively disrupted.

I do feel that al of them have struggled in some way.

But taking a step back, it has always been true that life gets in the way of education, and kids just have to get on with it. Family illness, redundancy, war, domestic abuse. There are always dozens of kids who are doing school against the odds.
When I think of that, I realise that helping my kids to be emotionally stable and to be resiliant is the thing that matters. Each exam set is only the stepping stone to the next thing. They are not the be all and end all, no matter how much it seems like that when we are parenting through the middle of it.

The thing that worries me the most is the lack of subject specific teachers in so many schools, and the budget cuts meaning that support and pastoral care staff have pretty much disappeared.

@notsurewherenotsurewhy yes they can be in the NEU but they can only strike if they are.

Our year 11s have been and will be in every strike day. Full timetable for them.

Most have finished the syllabus now.

Revision sessions were held throughout Easter holidays.
Revision sessions (science me) are held every lunchtime.

It's 1 extra bank holiday this year....Will make no difference to our department at all.

How can 'study leave' start mid-June when GCSEs finish then?

This is an unhelpful description. SLT are caught between a rock and a hard place balancing staff right to strike against the detrimental impact on the kids. This kind of terminology is unnecessarily insulting. I am an ardent card carrying trade unionist but I would not refer to school leaders who are trying to help children as scabs. It is insulting and unfair when people whose union voted not to strike are simply fulfilling their contractual terms.

if there were less of this polarised talk, on both sides of the debate, we’d be closer to getting a deal in public sector pay talks by now.

many in SLT will be NAHT or other leadership teaching unions.

I am not a teacher or a school leader.