Nat 5 to Highers

[Bluepeach]

Do most kids do preliminary work for Highers over the summer holiday? Or is that unnecessary?

I'd love it if they did a bit Their teachers might give them specific work to do over the holidays once they start the new course - depends when they start this year which is different to normal obviously.
If your dc know what English texts they will use could be very useful to start on those - or indeed, to read other works by the same author.

Higher courses usually start after their Nat 5 exams so they would have some Higher class time before the summer break although all
Schools will be different and also affected by the exams that aren't exams this year.

My child is going to a new school for Higher and they don't start the course until August (I know some schools start in June, before the holiday). We have asked for some course details (including texts for English) but not getting much back, which is why I wondered if it's not the norm to do preliminary work. However, I think they haven't worked out sets for English yet and the texts will be dependent on the set - hoping to get more info by the end of the school year.

I wouldn’t expect my pupils to do anything over summer. Especially after such a difficult year. I sometimes ask my AHs to think about something for their independent work in my subject but I mean do a 10 minute Google so they’re not completely clueless. So nothing for Highers imo.

I have a DD who is currently in the middle of these assessments for Nat 5. Usually by this point in the year they would all have moved on to the next year's timetable and have 3 or 4 weeks tuition before the holidays. Not this year, so I suppose there is something to be said for working a wee bit through the holidays if they are super keen.

However, this year has been such a shitshow, and so stressful, and just so AWFUL, that I'll be encouraging to make the most of the summer holidays with her friends, forgetting about school entirely.

A lot of pupils change their subjects after they get their results or have different ideas over the summer. You DC wont be alone in starting the course for the first time in August. I think it was a third of pupils changed subject in DSs school.

They haven't started the new coursework this year in our school as they are still carrying out the assessments for the SQA qualifications.

I have never asked my dcs to do work during the holidays - dd is in S6 and is leaving school this year

Last year when ds moved from nat5 to higher their English teacher told them the text and poems, they would be using. Asked them to research George orwell, burma and how elephants were used and hunted.

This was the only school thing ds did. He put a lot of effort into it, researching taking notes answering questions she had asked them to do, he read Burmese days etc and really got into it, looked forward to studying the text. Also read animal farm as, after a slow start, he enjoyed Burmese days.

When they got back in August she'd changed her mind and picked a completely different unrelated text, never even asked if anyone had done the things she asked 🤬

Unless your dc wants to do something, after the year they've had, let them enjoy their summer. If they want to do something I would recommend reading books they enjoy and maybe reading/discussing quality newspaper opinion pieces once or twice a week.

Yes, I am certainly not asking him to do anything. He is the one hassling me to death to try and get more information from the school. @WeAllHaveWings that is actually quite tragic. I would certainly have wanted the teacher to be aware that had happened.