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Secondary education

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Original poster

gcse examinations and holidays.

58 replies

stacielise · 01/02/2011 18:24

wondering if anyone can help me.
myself and my partner booked a holiday back in october for ourselves my 6 year old daughter and his 16 year old son. the problem we are facing is GCSE's

we go on the 20th May school breaks up on 27th but im unsure if there is any exams on those dates. still waiting for the school to get back to us.

is it possible for children to sit there exam at a later date. or will he now not be able to go on the holiday? Hmm

hope someone can help me with this. i know logically we shouldnt of booked the holiday without checking. jus didnt realise at the time. x

OP posts:
jetgirl · 02/02/2011 21:59

If you know which boards his exams are with, you shpuld find all the dates online, they are published already. I have given my students their dates, even though my school hasn't published the exam timetable yet.

Original poster
stacielise · 02/02/2011 23:31

im not too sure what he is sitting to be hinest. ill ask his dad to find out. save me worrying till the end of feb.

the main thing the head of year said was something along lines of there is 4 sittings for science and they dont know which one they will sit????? dunno how true that is. x

OP posts:
scaryteacher · 03/02/2011 10:02

If you google June 2011 GCSE exam dates you will find timetables for each board and when the GCSEs are. These were published in July 10 I think, so the information has been there for some time.

If he wants to go into the Army, then he needs to get the GCSEs now. He also needs to be looking at alternative careers as there are going to be redundancies in all three services starting this year, and the Army will be hard hit, especially after 2015 when we leave Afghanistan, as there will be the potential to lose more personnel from then.

He could also see not going on the holiday as training for Forces life, as if you are deployed, you are deployed, no matter what is going on in your personal life.

He needs to do his GCSEs,end of, and I can't see any way around your situation other than cancelling, or going without him. He will miss valuable revision time, and some youngsters, especially the lads, put in more work just prior to the exams than they do in the rest of Year 11. Don't let this screw his chances.

scaryteacher · 03/02/2011 10:03

Oh, and for some exams he will have to wait another year before he can take them again, thus potentially putting back his Army application.

crazymum53 · 03/02/2011 11:05

It's not just GCSEs that are affected by May holidays. My dds primary school does not authorise any holidays in May as this is the time of year they do SATs assessments. If your dd is in Y1 then you may be OK but if she is Y2 this will be a problem.

empirestateofmind · 04/02/2011 02:25

Wow- some students have a lot to contend with. Sounds to me like a lack of communication with lots of thoughtlessness here OP.

Getting back to the holiday though- if the holiday is for you, your young daughter and parents it doesn't sound much fun for a 16 year old.

Plus your family can't be close to the boy and his father if they didn't think about the exams.

Hence my thoughts are do your own holiday and let your OH and son do their own thing in August.

mumeeee · 04/02/2011 11:04

He won't be able to sit the exams at another time. GCSE exams usually start early may and go on until end of June. I think you will ned to rearrange your holiday.

princessparty · 04/02/2011 11:10

You can't possibly take him out a week before his exams start!!

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