Is your school running GCSE revision sessions this holiday?

[TalkinPeace]

I just dropped DD off for her three lessons today and over half of year 11 were there for various subjects.

The teachers are giving up their holiday, the school is keeping the buildings open, the kids are going in.
Hopefully the grades will reflect that effort.

On my way home I passed the sink school.
No signs of life at all.
No evidence of pupils or teachers in the car park or the building.

Surely the failing school should make MORE of an effort?

I think it's absolutely shocking that there's an expectation that teachers should run these sessions. Whatever happened to independent learning?

Now Y11 don't get study leave either, no wonder they have no study skills when they get to sixth form.

Yes my school is open this week and year 10 and year 11 pupils are required to stay for an extra hour just about each evening for "intervention" classes (this is on top of an hour longer school day than any other school in the authority) and often on a Saturday.

Our school now achieves well in the league tables.

However the kids are highly stressed and worn out. It took a few of us senior staff to insist that the school not be open the second week and we "force" the kids to take a break and be refreshed to come back to their studies.

Another point is the high turnover of staff at this school. We have lost staff or not attracted good quality staff because of the hour longer school day let alone the extra hour each night of intervention classes (BTW teachers don't get paid overtime AND still have to find the time to do the marking and assessment and report writing and data analysis and writing of schemes of work and planning etc etc)

SO are you going to be the one that tells the teachers that they need to work through their holidays? (BTW I use the term holiday loosely, so far I have been in school 10 - 4 every day and not a child in sight, but I did take the WHOLE weekend off)

Noblegiragge
Not an "expectation" : some of the teachers are away on Holiday, others have just done booklets
and it all seems very relaxed

but for those at the C/D borderline which affects the colleges they will be able to get into
and for those at the A/B borderline so it affects if they will be allowed to do the A level at the colleges

and for the teachers, only those who give a stuff are turning up so the teaching is much more satisfying

And no, they do not have "study leave" but none of the revision sessions from May are actually compulsory - there is no register
so drive and motivation are starting to kick in

ksience
I get the pressure thing - and if the SLT are not supportive it goes pear shaped

one nice at DCs school is that it is COMPLETELY shut from 7am Friday till next Wednesday - for engineering reasons - so the teachers will not even be able to be expected to check the network!

Talkin, by wondering why the sink school isn't running this extra stuff, you are feeding into the expectation that that's what good schools do. Pressure will be therefore put on teachers in the good schools to give up their time, especially teachers of C/D borderline classes, and especially with performance related pay.

As for the teaching being more satisfying because only the kids who care turn up, go to the staff room forum on here and read the post by a teacher who gave up a day, put her own kids in paid childcare to run a session, and only one of the kids who agreed to show up actually did.

Usually it's not the ones who show up who need to show up. That's not satisfying.

I'm on the shelf on this one. Dd3 is going in 3 days this week and 2 next week. Our big holiday this year was going to be in the two week Eastr holiday and was completely scuppered because the revision days were 'compulsory'. Also 'compulsory' are 'revision days' during Whitsun and attendance on results day in August. I feel like we are never going to have a break this year. Dd3 is completely stressed with it all. I mentioned to the HT that for us it would have been better if the revision sessions could have been crammed into one week but she said it wasn't fair on the staff. I wouldn't have thought ANY sessions were fair on the staff!

Dd1 and dd2 managed without and tbh I agree that the students need to revise independently. That's what study leave is for. They don't need to be cramming this early.

Just spotted someone said there is no study leave any more? Is this all a government thing or just a school decision? I'm shocked if that's the case. I felt with my older dds that this was a time of maturity.

Yes, DD's school does lessons, but going away so she will craft her own study lessons. I agree OP, that the ones who are heading for lower grades need this more. Also agree that teachers shouldn't be expected to give up their holidays for this.

DS is in year 11, and his school does not run any extra revision sessions during the Easter holidays. It is a very good school - but an independent one. I think they expect everyone to have covered the curriculum and be capable of revising by themselves over the holiday.

But then again they do not have many who are teetering on the C/D grade boundary which is where the focus of many state schools is forced to be by the league table system.

That reminds me - I must go and get DS out of bed...

go to the staff room forum on here and read the post by a teacher who gave up a day, put her own kids in paid childcare to run a session, and only one of the kids who agreed to show up actually did.
That is awful.

From what I've seen at DCs school, the teachers with kids are not there
and each group is potentially 60 kids so the teachers will ALWAYS have kids in their group
AND several subjects are running concurrently so those who most need to be there might turn up

Also, it is NOT compulsory.
I've actually told DD she is NOT bringing all her revision books away with us over Easter itself - she is exhausted.

Jodie
I did independent study and revision - that is why I did my A levels twice (private school)
These kids are having the curriculum and requirements changed under their feet - the kids currently in year 7 and 8 will have it even worse
And in my day there were no league tables and Ofsted and blerdy Gove to deal with

noble
Fair point about the expectation thing
BUT
I take into account that when DCs school was shut for a term several years ago, they used the intranet to keep lessons going even though the buildings were out of whack and the exam results barely faltered - the teachers did not see the kids for weeks on end.

I'd like to think it comes down to teacher's expectations of their pupils
and fear that some schools do not expect much so do not get it.

DDs school closed last Thursday for Easter. I believe there were a couple of classes on the Friday (an inset day) for subjects where they are still completing the syllabus. There are no other classes during Easter though and there doesn't need to be. Students/pupils should be revising themselves.
DD1 went to an extra chemistry class last Monday (before the holiday) as they are trying to get through all the work (AS level). School are very good in that there are maths 'clubs' at lunchtime, science - 1 night each subject after school, Spanish and geography also doing 1 night a week. All these subject 'clubs' are for an hour and are so the pupils can go and ask for any extra help in a particular topic or go through any questions they are stuck on when doing past papers at home.
I have 1 DD doing GCSEs and 1 doing AS levels.

DDs school has revision classes every day, different days for different subjects and sets

Dd is going in Friday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Ds1 is year 10 and he is in school today for English, and Wednesday for science.

I think it's great that teachers are giving up their holiday for this but I can't help thinking it's too much.

DS is currently doing his Highers - most ie 90% of the Departments are running a one day 'masterclass' through the holidays, and they also run 'twilight' sessions after school and have visiting speakers. 'Bog standard' comp in a mixed area.

The departments who have gone to the bother of running these classes are amazing imo, and I know (from being a member of the Parent Council) that the HT "actively encourages, although can't force" them to run them. They are very well attended - 2 classes of 30 for some subjects for example.

I'm not offering any sessions to my year 11s this holidays. They've done zero work so far this year; I'm certainly not losing my holiday!

And attended by all levels, not just the C/D set

and for the teachers, only those who give a stuff are turning up so the teaching is much more satisfying

Would you tell a doctor to work in their holiday time but qualify it with 'its ok, you only have to treat the really deserving patients?

Or a retail worker, 'it's ok you only have to server naice customers'?

I'm so glad I work in the independent sector, I might have to teach revision sessions on Saturdays during term, but at least I'm paid for it and not forced into doing it over easter for fear of pay sanctions come September.

Ours has been running after-school revision sessions for weeks, but only one day during Easter.

DS has yet to go to a single one as he claims to be too busy

My very academic grammar school (20 years ago) didn't offer this. I wouldn't expect it myself - in fact it sounds like spoon feeding and i'd be concerned the DC were not developing independent revision skills.

Fideline - they can and should be doing both. It's definitely not spoon feeding - it's about recognising that there are some areas which might need additional work, or that some students might want the opportunity to ask detailed questions about an area they are finding difficult, or providing a forum for pupils to develop a more detailed understanding of a specific part of the curriculum.

Our Highers are not that far away, so if anyone thinks that they can use holiday masterclasses in place of revision (which they should have been doing throughout the year) they are mistaken. The Higher syllabus also requires students to pass NABs (National Assessment Bank) throughout the year in order to continue with the syllabus, so those not keeping on top of the work will already have been identified.

My very academic and high ranking Scottish comp offered this 30 years ago - I'm glad to see most schools up here still providing the classes.

There should be time to do all those things during lessons.

People understand that hot housing kids like this in preparation for KS2 SATs is a bad thing and leads to overinflated levels causing issues with targets at GCSE. But if it makes a B grade student into an A grade one who is suddenly able to access an A-level, then it's seen as a good thing for schools to be doing.

And when that student struggles with A-level? Well then, that leads to intervention and catch-up sessions and meetings with the parents and tutors and stress and kids dropping out, failing, needing to resit Y12 etc.

I wonder if there's been a Scottish/English divide that is now evaporating then?

Never heard of grammars here doing it recently either, but narrow-range ability teaching is more efficient. Must keep my ears open.

Lottiedoubtie
Would you tell a doctor to work in their holiday time but qualify it with 'its ok, you only have to treat the really deserving patients?

Bearing in mind that the school is a comp I think the better comparison is

A&E doctor working in private hospital elective surgery on their other days - which of course a lot of them choose to do

Fideline
Its not spoon feeding, its honing exam technique skills to fit with the marking schemes - which of course were altered more than half way through the course.

There should be time to do all those things during lessons.

Exactly what I was getting at noble

Ha! Because A&E doctors do their private work for love do they!