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Further education

You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum.

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Original poster

A levels & Easter holiday

19 replies

OuiOuiMonAmi · 13/09/2019 08:41

DD has just srtaed her A level course. We want to go on holiday next Easter (ie. still her first year). Will this be a problem, do you think? I think I'm correct in saying that they no longer have 'important' exams at the end of the first year, just internal 'see how you're doing' exams, but I'm wondering about revision etc. during the holidays.

OP posts:

Newgirls · 13/09/2019 08:46

The threshold exams they take after Easter in year 1 will dictate the predicted grades she puts on her ucas form. So these exams are far more important than they were in my day. A short break where she can take some revision though is always good for the brain/soul!

YobaOljazUwaque · 13/09/2019 08:47

Are you planning the holiday for a week or two weeks? A week would be no problem - it is important to rest too. A tired brain is less good at learning. But I wouldn't plan to be away for the whole break because she should be spending some of that revising and consolidating what she has learned in the first 2 terms. If she doesn't she will get to the easter break a year later feeling she has completely forgotten everything she studied in the early part of the course.

JaneR0chester · 13/09/2019 08:49

DD has also just started yr 12 and I had previously thought yr12 would be a stress free break in between GCSE and A level exams. But no, DD will be taking internal end of year exams which will be used for her university applications, so she thinks they will be important already.

Depends when your school schedules their exams, I think we have ours closer to June.

Seeline · 13/09/2019 08:51

Also, at DSs school, they had to get above certain grades in the end of Y12 exams to be allowed to carry on with them into U6.

I think a week should be OK - it's good to have a rest, but I wouldn't go for longer.

Original poster

OuiOuiMonAmi · 13/09/2019 09:25

Yikes - it's for 2 weeks.

OP posts:

HugoSpritz · 14/09/2019 07:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

OuiOuiMonAmi · 14/09/2019 16:06

I'm really worried now - I will talk to her tutuor about it. It's a holiday where we don't do much in the evenings so hopefully she can revise for a few hours each night there (knowing her, she wouldn't do more than a few hours a day anyway!)

OP posts:

Comefromaway · 14/09/2019 16:12

Dd has just started her 2nd year of A levels. She took an AS Level last June.

Not going away at Easter never crossed our minds although she did take some books with her v

bigbluebus · 14/09/2019 16:19

We took DS away for 5 days when he was in Yr 12. He took books away to revise but didn't do nearly as much as we would have liked - and it showed in his AS results. He had to rethink his Uni choices due to his predicted grades based on his exam results!

berlinbabylon · 14/09/2019 17:07

So you've already booked it? Your post said " we want to" not "we're going to".

It will probably be ok though. I am sure predicted results are made on the basis of work through the year too, plus lots of A level courses have an element of assessed coursework.

Ginfordinner · 14/09/2019 17:20

DD took AS levels in May and June of year 12. A two week holiday at Easter would have seriously affected her results.
I think your DD will find it very difficult to motivate herself to revise on a two week holiday, especially if it is the kind where you are busy all day.
Why did you think it was a good idea?

YobaOljazUwaque · 14/09/2019 21:10

I bet you could reduce the length of the booking to one week without an extreme penalty. There's plenty of notice after all.

It's completely unrealistic that she will get any decent revision done actually on holiday. This holiday could seriously damage her future.

If you can't (or wont) shorten the whole thing, could you buy a separate one-way ticket for her to join you half way through? Let her go stay with a grandparent of aunty for a week of proper focused revision with strict instructions that if she properly buckles down and does real work in that week she can come and join you for the second week. If she doesn't buckle down then she can't come and join you.

A lot of kids are booked in to Easter Revision Grade Booster courses for at least one of those two weeks. That's the comparator for who she is going to be competing with for university places. And it's a better use of money than a holiday, if you have money available. She has the rest of her life for holidays but these couple of years it makes a huge difference how she spends her time.

YobaOljazUwaque · 14/09/2019 21:12

Typo "of aunty"="or aunty"

Original poster

OuiOuiMonAmi · 14/09/2019 21:50

So you've already booked it? Your post said " we want to" not "we're going to".

Yes. We booked it, assuming it was fine as wasn't the final year, then a friend told us it might be important after all, hence me querying it. So I should have said "we've booked it and still want to go".

Why did you think it was a good idea?

As I said in my OP, I assumed it was fine as wasn't the final year. I made a mistake.

OP posts:

pointythings · 15/09/2019 19:36

We had a revision free week away at Easter for DD1's Year 13. It was fine. The break was incredibly useful in terms of refreshing her so that she could resume revision at full strength immediately afterwards.

I'd encourage your DD to keep up with revision, note taking and other work (EPQ if she's doing one) from the start - that's what DD2 is doing in Yr 12 - and go for the holiday with a bit of study in the evenings. She'll be fine.

berlinbabylon · 18/09/2019 17:14

Just realised that we are going away in May half term, I suppose, depending on exams, that might not have been such a great idea either.

pointythings · 18/09/2019 21:00

berlinbabylon that depends - the whole week, probably not. But we went away for the Bank Holiday weekend, DD1 hit the revision with fresh energy when we got back. Even at this late stage there is space for rest. If your DC is struggling academically, I wouldn't - if they are doing well, I would.

berlinbabylon · 19/09/2019 14:32

We'll see. We didn't go away this year because of GCSEs but ds hardly did any work at all, so we could have gone, certainly for part of the time. We have booked to go for the whole week but Monday to Friday so in theory he'd have the weekends either side to revise if he's got Y12 exams afterwards.

noblegiraffe · 19/09/2019 14:49

I wish people would get the idea that Y12 exams aren’t important out of their head.

When they were external exams, the kids would do proper, thorough revision and end up with a good understanding of the Y12 content, giving them a good grounding for starting Y13.

Now we have kids slacking off because they’re not ‘real’ exams. They argue for their predicted grade to be increased because ‘I didn’t really revise for the Y12 exams but I’ll definitely work hard this year’, and because they haven’t had that thorough grounding of Y12 work, they start Y13 on the back foot.

I’m having to start Y13 going over Y12 work that should be basic because some in my class thought Y12 was a bit of a rest year. We really can’t afford the lesson time but we can’t do the Y13 work without it. I would say that there’s a good chance they have damaged their final grade in Y13 by not taking Y12 seriously enough.

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