I am willing to be enlightened:

[RollaCoasta]

My son is in Y13, and last Friday (May 14th), he finished school for good. He is now on 'study' leave until his 3 A level exams in late JUNE.

Can someone tell me what teachers do during these extended study leaves for Y13,12 and 11? (There are two revision days offered for Psychology - my son could do with many more (i.e. regular lessons leading up to the exam))

As a primary teacher, it is the busiest time of year - we are running round like blue arsed flies doing our assessments, marking SATs, moderating, working out new classes, sports days, music concerts, looking at next year's planning, writing 27 full reports (10 subjects).... plus planning the weeks' lessons.

To tell you the truth, I'm feeling a bit miffed .

Please, someone set my mind at rest that you're not all out shopping.

(BTW son is at a much-admired (by some) state grammar.)

Ok - doesn't seem as if 6 weeks' study leave for 3 exams annoys anyone else. I'll stand corrected. At least my son can get some paid work up the swimming pool in his time off, as, even with the best will in the world, I don't see how I can expect him to do 300 hours self-study (at 5 hours per day) in the interim.

Have a lovely time without years 11, 12 and 13, and enjoy those early nights.

BTW I would NEVER want to teach in a secondary school dealing with disinterested 15 year olds! I'm sure all you teachers are very competent as well.

One school in the local area doesn't have study leave any more, because (shock horror) pupils have been found to be using it as a holiday and have been seen hanging around the town centre.

And I know he's got to arrange his own life - he's actually not bad at that - it's just the timescale for so few exams will inevitably lead to a 'winding-down'.

Teachers I know are: writing reports, running revision lessons ( a lot impromptu for students who request them), catching up on producing SOWs for next year (exam syllabuses have bound to be changing), teaching all those not on study leave, catching up on all the other paper work that they have been neglecting all year, oh and if they have student teachers or NQTs to mentor, then catching up with that. As well as supervising practical exams, starting and ending exams, restocking for next year, oh and soon school trips, sports days, monitoring work experience, taster sessions for sixth form, etc. etc.

If your son is in year 13 he needs to learn to study independently or there is no point in going to university. Lecturers are not going to be there to nag or run revision sessions.

I've said that he's able to study independently, but he's just got a limited amount of study to do to warrant such a long time off.

As I said - I'll concede, but I'm still a little sceptical , because at primary we have to do all the above in the second half of the summer term, plus plan the week's lessons and teach all day (plus run clubs). And I can't imagine many teachers at secondary being incvolved in organising a sports day!!!

really? Well who do you think does organise them then??
and the cross-curricular days?
and the extracurricular stuff?
Have you ever considered the possibility that teaching across three key stages and three different syllabi (including three different exam syllabi) and up to 7 different year groups might be, you know, a slightly more complex task than you are painting it?

Um... teaching the rest of my lessons - years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12, running extra curricular stuff, planning for next year, marking coursework for Y10, Sorting sets for year 9 and 10 for next year...... I only lose about 5 lessons a fortnight from year 13 going and they're filled with extra revision for year 12 and prep for year 10 exams.... I haven't had a lunch break in god knows how long and work for 13 hours in the day......

enough for you?????

RollaCoasta - You've already said that you wouldn't be able to cope with 'disinterested 15 yr olds' (incidentally I assume you mean uninterested - obviously as a Primary school teacher you probably don't know the difference!). So perhaps, as harpsichord says, teaching across Key Stages 3, 4 and 5 is just a teensy bit more complicated than you seem to think.

At least in Primary school you can just get the paints out or read a story on the carpet.. it's not like having to prepare young people for real exams, or University is it?

As someone else said earlier, isn't it annoying when people who don't do a job think they know exactly what it entails?

BTW, you come across as being very bitter and resentful, and counting up the minutes you spend working, rather than genuinely wondering about exam prep for your ds.

I haven't read all the posts but what comes to mind is- it's just "bad luck" or whatever from your viewpoint that his exams are the end of June. many A level exams start now and finish sooner than end of June.

If he feels that he needs extra help he should approach his teacher for that.
I was a sec. school teacher BTW)

My DD had extra classes in her science subjects right up to her exams as the teachers felt they needed it. I also asked her teachers if they could give her extra exam -revision questions to do and they did- and happily had in her in school to mark them.

The other issue is that not many teachers teach JUSt GCSE/As/Alevel- many teach from Year 7 upwards so they still have a pretty full timetable.

I think you should stop griping. The pressure for a primary school teacher is not the same as getting kids through GCSEs and A levels. Organising sports day or an assembly is not quite on a par with running the country or a major company is it? I'm sorry but almost all primary school teachers I have known have had very low stress-levels and are quite pathetic when it comes to time management and working hard- and some of my best friends have been primary teachers .

I used to have 250 reports to write for 8 classes of 30+ pupils. As for your comment that Far from the Madding Crowd is the same each year -well, it is , but at A level the texts change each year!

I just wanted to add that you really do not know much about what some secondary school teachers do!

I used to teach in an independent school at the start of my teaching career- lessons finshed at 3.30 then from that time until 6pm I had to teach an activity such as a sport. The I had to supervise prep from 7-9pm twice a week. I also had to work Saturday mornings and one entire weekend "on duty" once a month, which meant dealing with anything that cropped up from answering the phone to organising a search party for pupils who had gone AWL! It was my first job- so after that initiation anything else was a doddle.

Even in a comprehensive I used to do after school activities, and other things apart from just teach.

If you really hate your job so much- leave! One thing that drove me out of teaching was the negativity of the other teachers. Moaning minnies a lot of the time.

I love my job. You all misunderstand me. I just want to know what my son's teachers are doing with these 6 weeks 'free' time (as I see it (what other proof do I have?). Look at it from my point of view when it is (genuinely) the most busy time of year for us!

I am NOT bitter - I can see the advantages of primary school teaching - but obviously some of you don't understand the pressures on us either. We're all paid on the same pay scale, but have vastly differing jobs - I don't understand yours any more than you understand mine.... and I hasten to add, it is stressful trying to meet your KS1 targets, just the same as in any other keystage.

Why is the teaching PROFESSION so divided - as is SO clear from your posts. I have said many times, I just want it explained what teachers do in this extended period of study leave - that's all.

Do we all need to get together ? Primary + secondary?

I am really NOT a moaning minnie purplepeony. (really, really )

And who DOES organise your sports days? I don't know!!!! Tell me.

(We organise ours as a key stage, but we haven't got any specialist teachers. I always assumed that the PE dept would organise your sports days at a sec school. Am I wrong?)

The thing that struck me observing primary lessons is how much slower paced they are. Secondary lessons tend to be very full on, and you have to do that for an hour 5 times a day.

Secondary teachers also have lots of different classes, in some subjects only once a week or even once a fortnight. So you could easily have 450 or more names to know, and reports to write.

Also teachers I know, log onto their email, to find they have received another 5 exam questions a pupil has done (while on study leave) to comment on.

My son hasn't been given anything to do by his teachers - should he have been?

Pace is paramount in a primary lesson, otherwise the little darlings tend to wander (mentally). We also have to innovate a 'creative' curriculum - think of linked curriculum activities to cover objectives for all subjects. (We also work 5 hours a day, mummytime!!! )

Reports do seem to be sent out at different times of year in secondary (I do understand why!), so that must help. Our reports have to be much more detailed and 'personal', as you'd expect from a teacher of 27 children.

I am a teacher and I don't really 'get' study leave as I never had it when I was at school - plus, we stayed on till the end of term.

I have to say that I am really busy though. We do invigilation at our school, so any Year 11 or 6th form slots on the timetable are likely to be taken, especially those at the beginning of the morning or the beginning of the afternoon.

We also have the rest of the school to look out for, with lower school exams and then reports. We also fit in a lot of educational visits and sporting events (eg house rounders and Sports Day). We plan for the coming academic year, making sure that class lists are compiled, books ordered, and schemes of work altered. It is also the time we do our staff appraisals.

I am a Year 7 tutor and will be visiting all of my new pupils in their primary schools. While some pupils come from the same schools, there are still quite a lot of visits to be done. We also do Year 10 work experience visits, and these don't always fit into Year 10 teaching time.

It is different work, but still busy. There is perhaps less work done at night, as there is not as much marking or lesson preparation.

At our school, it is standard for teachers to do study sessions during the Easter holidays and Summer half-term, equivalent to about half a day per exam class.

They are probably doing all the jobs you do on Toy day. We don't get our students to bring in toys on the last day of every term so we can sit with our feet up while they occupy themselves!
You might gain 5 hours a week but SOW have to be rewritten - that for 7 years not your one as well as revision sessions. have often given up whole sundays in May/June to spend in school voluntarily doing revision with students. It is a bit calmer at this time of year but as lots of secondary teachers have been doing extra hours all year with exam classes it is a chance to catch up on stuff that never gets done otherwise.

I'll tell you exactly why there is study leave.

Students leavebecause the exams start. It is unfair to finish course/do structured revision stuff when half the class have an exam that day. Many classrooms are used for exams and often subject teachers are required to help setup etc.

Have you seen when exams start now? Our first ones were last week. IN MAY!!!!! And run till 1st of July.

I work in a 6th form. And though your original post riles me I'll admit to having a more resonable work life balance now students are completing courses and not requiring lessons. But really this means going from 12 hour days to 10 hour days and work every other weekend instead of most...

Also. There are many jobs that get pushed to this end of the year - all my financial stuff, still unpacking from move last year, I have 5 concerts to put on in the next 5 weeks, 3 liaision dsys to prepare for, UCAS references to write, progression days as well as preparing for when AS student come back in 3 weeks time. ALso am doing almost as much teachong in revision classes which are an absolutle nightmare as it is in dribs and drabs as part of the class will always be in an exam.

I;m dreadfully sorry that you obviously feel a) over worked and
b) like you son is getting a raw deal.

But don't, for gods sake, imply that secondary / FE teachers have it easy this time of year. I've been in every school holiday doing either coursework or revision or concerts or somthing and damn it if I'm not going to enjoy getting home before my daughter goes to bed for the first time all year.

P.S. You son really should consider doing 5 hours per day. It is study leave after all.

Over time, I have learnt not to judge other teachers' workloads too much. We all have our burdens.

I am a Science teacher, and I have the added burden of planning practical work. Sometimes I have to practice these before letting them loose on students. It takes time. OTOH, my marking can be quite quick.

I can look at English teachers with their 'silent reading' lessons, but never envy them for their marking loads.

PE teachers don't really have very much marking at all, but they are working every lunchtime and several after schools, including some Saturdays.

Music teachers have rehearsals and evening concerts.

I'm pretty sure that primary teachers can fit their admin work into 'silent reading' times, or PPA - in the same way that secondary teachers carve out slots for admin. Our slots tend to be in bulk at the end of the year.

All I can say about the study leave period is that we are all working hard, and never get as much done as we planned.

It is not the fault of teachers that the examination period starts earlier and earlier each year. It means that all the teaching has to be done by the start of the easter holidays. And it does get done. Perhaps the time spent doing practice papers is lost, and then has to be tagged onto 'study leave'.

If your son is so gung-ho about his study leave, then you should be looking forward to A* all round. There is a silver lining to every cloud.

As for sports day, it is a whole staff involvement at our school. The pre-planning involves booking the stadium for the day. After that, it is a case of everyone doing their bit. No one is off the hook. Senior school sports are a teensy bit more technical than primary, btw.

Oh, and my reports are very 'personal'. What are you suggesting, OP?

I haven't implied anything! Don't be so defensive for goodness sake!! I've never worked in a secondary school. I don't know what goes on, which is why I asked in the first place. It was just an observation that the GCSE, AS and A level extended study leave coincides with our most busy time of year in primary schools.

I just wanted people to tell me what does go on when so many pupils are missing!

Another thing...

I don't know if other secondary teachers will agree with me, but we also think (early in the summer term), "when the Year 11s leave..." and have a whole list of things that can get done. We all genuinely think that it will be easier when study leave start. We have these same thoughts every year, and then reality hits and memories of the previous year come flooding back. There is no extra time and you really don't get to relax.

I think the only concession is that there is more flexibility of managing your time as timetable constraints are loosened a little. All the work still has to be done, but you can choose whether you do Task A during the lesson before break or the first one in the afternoon, and vice versa for Task B.

All the things that you do during your 'busiest' time, we do also.

Mme True: 'silent reading' times lol (we don't do silent reading! We do 'guided reading' against objectives in groups!) There's not a minute of my day I can go and do something else - little children are very demanding!! We do planning in PPA, I guess the same as you do. We also have classes all the time (apart from PPA (you probably have more free periods)).

As for personal reports: I can honestly say that the 2 lines we have had for each subject over the past 7 years have been a little disappointing. I guess different schools have different standards - it's just a little bit worrying that my son's school is 'outstanding'.

Isn't it just amazing that's there's so much ignorance (from both sides) about what teachers actually do all day?

I am also aware that my son will not get A*s as he's not fulfilling his 5 hours per day! But hey, he's happy.

If you're not happy with your son's school then maybe you should have dealt with that, rather than assuming that all secondary schools churn out 2 line reports and have teachers who put their feet up once study leave starts.

I have y12, 13 and 10, no y11 this year. Our y11's get no study leave anyway, our y13's are in school until next friday.
Any gained time i have (none as yet)might be spent marking the y9 SATS - used to be done by paid examiners, now done by us, but mostly gained time is spent helping students who come in with questions having done some revision at home. I won't feel too guilty if i get the odd spare half hour - i've been running afterschool revision sessions 2 nights a week since before easter, and 2 lunchtimes a week( + coursework catch up for my y10's - who have GCSE's this year). I gave up a day of easter hols to run repeat assessed practicals for my sixth formers who were below target on this, and will surrender a day of half term for an intensive study day.
We have special study seesions that all are invited into.
Our Y12's are back in by mid june anyway to start on y13 work, so we aren't looking at hours of frees.
any chance of a bit of solidarity for fellow (very hard working) professionals?

I've only got one son, who goes (went) to one school, which is deemed outstanding. How would I have known to expect more? We only realised at the end of Y11 that the maths teaching wasn't up to par, sent him to a tutor (very much against my religion!) and he came out with a respectable grade, having been told that his maths teacher was teaching them incorrectly.

Believe me, the doubts about the school have grown as the years have gone by - could open up a grammar school debate there.... but I had no experience or knowledge to complain (plus the fact that the grammars are revered in our local area).