Holiday to visit family Easter before Nat5s?

[CalmerSeas]

DC in s3, thinking ahead to next Easter I’d like to take a trip to visit my cousin who has a place in the canaries for a week or so of sun & relaxation.

DC would have a place to study, we wouldn’t do any major excursions etc, just a chilled catch up with family. DC are bright enough to get away so far without much effort, we’ll need to address that regardless of holiday.

Yes go for it or and no way.

This is my first DC to go through any exams, I did GCSEs so a little later in the year than Scottish exams, and did no revision at Easter and managed straight As (no stars in my day!) but the landscape has changed considerably so any advice from exam experienced parents would be welcome, thank you.

Scottish exams really do ruin Easter holidays. I think going away the first week is doable if your DC is up for it. I would be very much guided by them. Also think about how the dynamic will work with others - eg younger sibs that would want one to play, or other family that would either interrupt or nag to study.

I'd wait to see how well they do in prelims before booking. My dd is in S4 just now and even though she got 6 As in prelims she wouldn't be much fun on holiday just now as she's feeling the stress and is a moody wee bugger which is usual for her. The school has also put on easter school for help in certain subjects which you would miss.

It’s going to be a bit miserable having to revise while everyone else gets to be on holiday. DDs school also puts on classes over Easter to help with revision.

Lots of good points, thank you. I’ll ask if our school do Easter classes. Poor teachers!

I can only hope they get a wee bit of stress going @Willowback, careful what I wish for I guess!

A few days is fine but school will advise against an holiday this length, and they often put on Easter exam revision classes. Are you confident they won’t need this?
You may well find your DC is the only one of their friends going on holiday, so will this cause them additional stress?

Don’t think it’s fair your child has to revise on holiday, not much of a holiday for them!

The exam timetable comes out in September. Can you wait until then and see when her actual exams are? Also Easter is earlier next year, so holidays might be earlier too (allowing more revision time on return).

Gah can I just have a wee moan about the Scottish school holidays in general - we get 3 days in February (5 including weekend) and two in May (4 days including weekend. October is only a week, and I always have a work conference then which I can’t miss, and Christmas too bloody expensive.

That only leave us summer to go anywhere once they’re in exam years.

(I did say a wee moan, there are worse issues I know)

Ah that’s a bummer! Do you get slightly longer summer hols?
Lots of areas get a week in feb or 2 weeks in Oct

I’ll totally join this moan. Edinburgh schools go back on 13 August this year! This means local kids miss out on half of the fringe and all of the book festival. And we only get a week in October so can’t go anywhere really. But going back to holidays before exams, I guess it’s up to how relaxed and motivated your DC is about them. My DD1 (now at uni) would not have been able to cope with a holiday in Easter. She’s pretty highly strung and anxious. My DD2 is doing Highers now and while more relaxed, really didnt want to go away so we’re here but at least the weather has been kind this year. Our school hasn’t put on any extra lessons over the holiday.

DD's school has extra sessions on during the first week of the holidays.

it's worth waiting until the exam timetable comes out and seeing if you can squeeze a cheeky holiday in at the end of exams, if your DC is finished early enough.

Our school has no extra Easter classes. Agree the exam timetable can be helpful - but this year it changed quite late with computing being moved from 16th May to 25th April (which means they don’t even get a week of study leave after the holidays). It really depends on you child, depending on their peer group - a week away somewhere warm might be more conducive to studying than being distracted by friends at home who aren’t studying. Depending on their subjects - (and whether you have other school aged children) the gap between the end of their exams and the end of all exams can be a week or so. (Not for us unfortunately)

We've booked our holiday for the week after the exams finish this year dds attendance is 99% and they won't start much of the higher classes until they know the exams results. It's also saved us £2k than to wait till the end of the month.

Can’t do post exams trip as have younger DC, years of exam hell to come!

Good idea to wait until the timetable is out, current s4 are back to school on 22nd and first exam is on the 25th. Yikes.

Not really, summer is 6 and a half weeks most years, though next year it’s seven & half…

We also get a long weekend in September, so they’re often back to school on the Tuesday, another 4 day week the following week, then in service day and off for another week.

If I was queen of the world I would completely re think school terms, the long long mid October to mid December stretch is hell for everyone, including teachers I would well imagine. We’re no longer dependent on agricultural year!

Our teachers told us give children a holiday first. You can’t expect children to do a full days study each day as that’s not properly taking in it all the time. Also, remember the exams start the end of April until the start of June so expecting studying full time from start of April until potentially the start of June is unrealistic

I have a child the same age and we've already agreed not to do an Easter holiday next year and prioritise exams. The school will do Easter classes too which I'm going to encourage they attend. I got excellent exam results but my DC seems far more relaxed and unmotivated/unbothered so a holiday won't be helpful to him at that time, we'll need to enforce/bribe some studying.

If you wait for the exam timetable you could go as soon as the exams finish? Most schools have a week or so before the change of timetable where kids are not doing much, if the exams are all early then they'll still be on study leave.

I find the Scottish holidays work well for us, we usually go away in the first couple of weeks of summer hols as it's cheaper with England still being in school. 2 weeks at October gives some flexibility and options too. We get a 5 day long weekend in May which many people stretch to a week and take their DC out for a cheaper break. We wouldn't travel at Christmas anyway.

I have students still doing sessions with their private tutor(s) these two weeks so I wouldn't personally. Obviously it depends on the student, but a lot of them would be more stressed at the prospect of going away and not studying!

The October to December stretch isn't nearly as bad as what we just had, the February long weekend to this Easter holiday. Second semester everyone is just knackered, before Christmas you still have some of the post-summer optimism running through you.

Exams and Easter holidays are one of my pet peeves! We went away for 3/4 days in the Easter before Nat 5s, no revision, with no ill effect. Haven’t gone away for S5 though.

I would consider it in your shoes for the first week on the holidays, if they are getting on well in S4, do well in prelims and happy to do a bit of revision in the holiday - say 3x 45 minute sessions each day.

Just for anyone reading this and thinking of a post exam holiday, this might not be the situation in all schools, so worth checking. DS went straight into Higher timetable and work at the beginning of June, as soon as the Nat 5s were done. There was no waiting for the results.

Well it might be a relaxed chilled out holiday for you but, from your child's perspective, I imagine it would look very different. I think you need to give them the opportunity to give the exams their absolutely best effort. Then think about a holiday that everyone can enjoy afterwards.
Being a parent can be tedious but that's part and package of the job!

I would do this in a heartbeat. I have two sitting exams this year, and I am a secondary teacher. I'd not hesitate.

We didn’t go anywhere. It may or may not have made any difference but I didn’t want my DC to miss grades they needed and feel like it might have been different if I hadn’t taken them away.