To consider a 3 week holiday in August before Yr 13?

[Wickedwitchofthewest73]

Dd is in Yr 12. She's a hard working student studying A level Maths, Chemistry and Biology.
Everything going good so far. I'm now thinking about holidays next year and would love to go long haul next August. Dd has mentioned she's not sure if that's possible as so much work/revision is needed before starting Yr 13.
It would mean 3 weeks maximum time off. I don't want to disagree with dd and am proud she's so conscientious to her work but at the same time am thinking surely she will need a total break? Is 3 weeks too much?

No, that's fine.

Listen to her, I remember my DC telling me they didn’t want any holidays during year 11 because it would stress them out so I just went with it.

So you want to go long haul - and your DD is telling you it will cause her stress to be away for 3 weeks at that time. Why are you not listening to what your DD is telling you?

It's not Y11 though, it's the gap between Y12 and Y13. If she has studied hard in Y12 and performs well in her exams, then there really isn't 6 weeks of work that she needs to be doing in the summer.

Wouldn’t she have done her year 12 exams by then. So what would she be studying?

if she genuinely does need to study and would feel stressed then I wouldn’t go

It’s absolutely fine, it’s the holidays

No kid needs to spend the summer holidays revising and I’d be concerned there is too much pressure on her (possibly from herself!). I’d absolutely be encouraging a long holiday.

My eldest was very conscientious and focused but he definitely didn't spend the summer between Y12 and Y13 solving equations and drawing graphs. But he also didn't come on a family holiday.

If you’re planning to take the 3 weeks in the summer holidays then absolutely. I think it’s really important to have time off and a valuable lesson to teach your DD. My DC are at an academic school and I’ve never heard of children studying during the summer holidays. Most families go away for as much time as their work schedules allow.

I thought it would be a bit much not having a break but she said she didn't want to bring work with her. I'll have another chat. Nothing booked yet may be able to shorten plans and compromise.

Mine is currently in year 13 doing similar subjects but physics rather than maths. He is very conscientious and pushes himself hard, He is predicted all A* ( I feel this is relevant because it shows they don’t need to work all summer to do well). He didn’t work in the summer, they were set some stuff to do the week before they went back which he spent a few days on. Year 13 is brutal and I think that down time is important.

However, if your DD is likely to be stressed the whole time she won’t enjoy it so it might not be a very good experience for any of you and maybe better to wait for the never ending summer after A levels when she can truly relax?

She will potentially have a bit longer than the usual 6 weeks. Where I am the sixth forms finish early July to allow the new year 12s to do a transition day which was around 10th July when my last child was in year 12.

I think a 3 week break should be fine having had 2 children go through it. How year 12 worked for mine. Sit end of topic test. Go over the paper in class add in what you needed to get full marks in a different pen colour as they did in school so you can see what you missed the first time. Revisit that same test some time later to make sure you have retained the content. Then you are completely ready for end of year 12 tests.

Year 12 summer should be looking over those end of year test papers. Realistically she would be awake for 12-14 hours a day, that is a lot of time over several weeks before she has this 3 week holiday. I would point this out to her.

Assuming she does well in her end of year exams, then i think the only think she might want to work on is her UCAS personal statement- but I think those have changed since mine did them so not sure how much time that takes. But it would fit in with a holiday anyway. She could do 30 minutes a day for example (I realise this is extreme as well - mine spent way less time I’m just pointing out it could easily fit into a long holiday without causing disruption).

If she doesn’t do well in the exams to get the grade prediction she wants does the school allow retakes in September? Then she may want to study.

Can you have the holiday but she compromises by bringing some of her revision books and does half hour a day or similar?

We managed 2 weeks in August in the UK. At DS's sixth form they had a compulsory EPQ and most submitted it over the summer. As I recall there were 2 tasks they had to do before start of year 13. One was a video presentation of 7 mins about the EPQ on which the predicted grade was based.