GCSE day off

[Mardymaryyou]

Ds is into last week of gcse. Thurs will be the day before a science exam on Fri. Last exam on Mon is also science. He has no exam Thurs but the school have kept them in throughout the exam period to "revise". However the revision is not structured it's just revise what subject you like. No he probably won't revise if at home and I'm at work, but I kind of feel like letting him stay home anyway. The school have given them no study leave and they've had to stay in school after every exam. I feel like this late, he isn't going to learn much more anyway and what will be will be. What's everyone else doing in this situation as I know it's not just our school who has adopted this view of study leave? On the other hand he finishes altogether Monday so maybe I just make him go Thurs. Apparently no one else is going in.

So to be clear… your children don’t share your view that school work is strictly for school time? They did their homework?

“Manage their own detentions”

yes, I can imagine

Then my post was obviously not directed at you. Why would it be if you are an engaged parent who knows what your children need achive their potential, which it sounds like you are?

If you read the thread you’ll see some parents who clearly don’t value their children’s education and have very little respect for teachers and what they’re trying to do.

@VeterinaryCareAssistant why did he takes subjects that you and he don’t care about?

@VeterinaryCareAssistant doesnt seem to really care about school full stop!

Exams are exams. What do you think would have changed?

Weirdly the exam process hasn’t changed much at all as far as I can see

That's what I thought

Yes. I’m surprised reading this. My kids wanted to do well at every subject regardless of what it was. They both left with 10 nines each. Yes, they had natural ability and good teachers, but a large part of that was having an engaged and supportive home environment.

it is an eye-opener for me that so many kids have such uninterested parents. Schools must see it all the time though.

The way they are structured, the grading system, the amount of work and depth of knowledge that is expected of them, all kinds of things are different - even the subjects on offer.

You’d have to be living under a rock to think modern day GCSEs are comparable to O levels. They’re not even similar to the GCSEs I did in the 90s.

I'm not sure about GCSEs but some of the A level stuff my DD did was same as I did in O levels

Seriously
do you never read the news?
are you saying exams are essentially the same as they were in the 1970s?

I am a teacher (started 1995) and I can assure you that the gulf between exams in the 1990s to current day is striking. Let alone from further back!

Either way op, a 16 year old who without structured and supervised revision won’t do any revision despite being in the very middle of his GCSEs? Well, might as well just let him have the day in bed tbh. It will make no difference either way

obviously there will be overlaps, certainly in terms of content!

My daughter is in the same position but they have teacher supervised set revision sessions, some have been useful some not. She wants to be in school with her friends though. If she didn't I would be giving her one or two days at home just to recover. It's intense so recovery time is just as useful as last minute cramming.

Policing this heavy handedly seems abit embarrassing at this age surely? They’re not 12. It is entirely up to the pupil at dds school (all girl). Dd working very hard 4 exams this week. She picks and chooses which revision session she goes to depending on usefulness.

The geog gcse this week is a case study and the head of geog will do a refresher on the skills required the afternoon before the exam so she’s definitely going to that one

The exams are basically the same albeit better resources for the content. The same old rules apply too - you need to work hard to get decent results!

Fortunately mine are both driven though have different learning styles I’ve noticed. One prefers to revise alone as did I the other is collaborative and goes to the library with friends. The latter definitely prefers the revision sessions the former less so.

I worry about these people saying "he won't revise at home".

Well yeah then he won't get good grades and will learn to do some bloody work?

We scaffold kids so much these days then wonder why we get them in the workplace and they sit there waiting to be spoon fed tasks and have no initiative.

GCSEs aren't the end of the line, kids have to continue education to 18, and its a really important stage for them learning to self motivate. There's always been a clutch of kids who learn the hard way at GCSE that they needed to do more, who then pull it out of the bag at A-level. Schools should still have study leave, kids need to learn to revise for themselves

Yes, absolutely kids need to be able to revise alone. However the OP has said this child can’t/won’t, so for this particular dilemma (whether or not to make him go into school on Thursday) it’s a bit of a moot point. He’s better off at school. He’s not going to learn to revise at home before Thursday.

Agree with Iwas. Harsh but fair. Kids are so protected now think GCSEs are the first time they get a tough lesson that if you play stupid games you win stupid prizes.

I’m in Scotland. We have study leave for the entire duration of exams (after Easter holidays until the end of May). They get to choose whether to come in and study, or study at home. Both of mine stayed home to study, and study they did! Even my daughter, who before now, hated doing any kind of school work at home!

They also start the new school year at the start of June. Technically mid May, for 2nd to 4th year. So, 3 weeks of school, and the last few days are activity days. My daughter has just started 5th year.

Me and DS just went to get him some stuff for Prom then had lunch and now he is cleaning out my car for me.
He will then spend a few hours revising Maths ready for tomorrow.

I would let him stay off.

My child’s school put them on study leave on Monday which is a bit late in the day. They don’t have to be in for longer than 2 hours a day so mines happy to continue going in to see everyone.

They leave Friday.