No A-level study leave

[Linneasweet]

Hi all, my year 13 DD told me that all she does in school now up to her first A-level on 23/5 is revising as a class in the classroom. They been told that they have to come to school, even though my DD revise much better her own way at home and rather spend her days studying at home then in a class. One teacher have told them the school does not encourage it but she could stay home and revise her own way at home but it would classed as sickness absence. My question is: does unis look at the absence she had (she firmed her choices already) and would this affect her conditional place? And is this the normal, what does other 6forms do?

Ds1 had teaching/school, revision in lessons, sitting papers,right up until his first exam, the last week of May. Then May bank holiday week off. Then he's on study leave, sits exams in June.

I explained all the other options I'd heard of on mn, and he still prefers his set up.

And the fact that we have to wait 4 months to get the results is astonishingly bad organization

One of the papers I mark has 500,000 candidates. Marking them and processing the data takes a while!

If they were left to their own devices for weeks, there’d be plenty of parents and politicians etc complaining. You can’t please all the people all of the time.

My friend is a teacher and his school have done away with study leave. My ds is in Y11 in a different school and doesn't get study leave until after he has taken about 6 exams.

Fair enough to expect them in school during the run up to exams, I'm sure there's lots of useful stuff covered. I'm not a fan of continuing the normal timetable once exams actually start, which is what DD (y11) has to do for her first two weeks - attend lessons around 8 GCSE papers. It seems crazy that she has to sit through eg a history revision lesson, when the history exams are towards the end and she could be revising for whatever is coming next instead. We have agreed that on days when she doesn't have an exam, she can work at home if she wants, she will get way more done and it will fit with her revision plan. I will explain to the school. The good thing is, after half term when study leave officially begins, the teachers are still available as per the normal timetable, so DC can always turn up for help and advice if they need it.

ok. But do you need to mark all half mil papers? Guessing the workload is split between a number of exam marker ppl. So it could be organized much better. Also use of technology wouldn't be a satanic practice.
I have only one other example, for just 1 country. about 100k pupils do A-levels (there is no gcse). Curriculum is similar to ebacc: history, language+general lit, math are mandatory for all. Plus you have to chose 3 subjects. So 6 subjects all together.
Written exams in all: may 2-23. Orals: june 1-9.
written is marked and marks published before the orals. Orals are marked and published max 3 days after being held. Official certification is given within a week or so after exam.
To me this is the normal way of doing things. Quick and effective. Not 2 months of prolonged "pain and suffering" and tidbit exam pieces + another 2 months of waiting.
And before you say it: my example is from a country that has 10m people. so in a given year bit more than 1% of the population goes through exams. In the UK this is roughly the same %. So it is quite an apple to apple comparison.
(also: exams are also alike: have essays as well as select an option - so marking is similar effort too.)

Btw - I am a bit confused if here exam markers are civilians who do it as a seasonal job (seen ads, hence the question) or is the workload split between teachers? In referenced country it is all teachers, no "outsiders". Schools get paired randomly each year and mark each other's kids without knowing where the papers are from. (or at least that was the practice for decades)

@Goodbye
Not all super selectives are rural. Schools do make decisions to suit their DC. And where they are in the uk.

Very few super selectives are rural. Ours is fairly unique. I was only writing about ours, although the general point stands: differentiating between pupils at the same school is a reasonable idea, since different approaches will be required to serve the best interests of each of the individual pupils.

@goodbyestranger
From what I see, SLTs taking a nuanced view is rare these days. Everything is rigid. The government advice/expectation is rigid.

I am a bit confused if here exam markers are civilians who do it as a seasonal job (seen ads, hence the question) or is the workload split between teachers?
Most papers are marked by teachers of that specification but we do have seasonal contracts. Of the ten teachers in my department, only two examine. None of the others have any desire to examine and it's not part of our contracts to do so.

Also use of technology wouldn't be a satanic practice.
Indeed. All of my GCSE marking is online.

I have 2 sitting A levels this year, DC1 finishes next Friday for study leave but sat her first exam yesterday (CIE) and has another tomorrow

The exam centre is a 5 hour round trip so she’s resting and revising today instead of attending lessons ready for tomorrow

DC2 in a different school finishes 13/5 for study leave but doesn’t start exams till 2 weeks later. He needs supervision (by me) whilst studying due to inattentive adhd and poor executive function. Thankfully his exam centre is only 7 mins away

@TheSunIsStillShining the reason your DC's exam timetable is so cluttered is because your school has chosen to do different exam boards for different subjects. This is because they have examined the syllabus for each and decided that is what they want to follow for that subject. Therefore it is not a countrywide thing but a school specific thing.

By the sound of it your Dc is at an independent school so indeed you bought into their practices when you chose them.

@SeasonFinale partially true about the "bough into" part, but I would mention that for someone who has not gone through a uk system and has no prev knowledge it is painfully hard to get accurate info on the whole certification system.
So yes, we did choose this school. But we had no idea that they were doing it like this.

@MrsHamlet Thanks for the info.

Even if the school is using different exam boards, the boards usually synchronise dates at least for subjects such as maths and English which are taken by so many people. I'd just about believe that there would be a history/ancient history clash as most schools discourage students from taking both. So it seems as though OP's school may be taking different types of qualifications as well as different boards. Even then a 4 way clash with 3 such popular subjects seems very odd ...

There are limits for both gcse and A levels as to length of exams per day so if the clashes exceed the limits one would be moved to the following day with overnight supervision.