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?

when ds1 was doing his GCSEs about 5 years ago, one of the teachers spent every day of the half term before the exams, delivering lunchtime revision sessions in the local pub garden, it was a brilliant success and the novel approach meant he took far more in than he would have done if he had trekked up to school.

And our bus service (nearest stop three miles away) is about to be cut in 1/2.

Also why do the students need so much help this near the exams?

Shouldn't they have a pretty good idea what's expected of them by now?

I just wonder how much of this is for the pupils benefit and how much is simply to get Ofsted off their backs.

DD1 has brilliant Maths, Art, Drama and Music teachers all of whom have been putting in loads of extra time. Music because composition is hard and outside many of the pupils comfort zone.

But maths, art and drama have mostly been chasing lazy arses who deserve to get bad grades.

Science have also had (are having) lots of revision sessions. There's are for two distinct reasons.

Firstly we lose some of our best scientists to grammar school doing triple science in two GCSE slots is a big ask for some pupils.

Secondly some of double science haven't a clue, never have had a clue and never will have.

My dyslexic DD was made to do double as the HoD thought doing she wouldn't have coped with triple (she would have). She has been unpaid TA for many of her science sets since Y7. They are still hopeless.

I've been in this week because my GCSE Performing Arts class have their practical exam 2 weeks after Easter. Because of bank holidays I will only see them 3 times before the exam. Other teachers in my school have a lot more time before their exams. I am doing this for the benefit of my students, and at their request.

There may well be an element of "getting OFSTED off their backs" - it takes a very brave teacher these days to justify a student missing their levels of progress with "he/she got what he/she deserved" Unfortunately, that's the reality. Until parents stop placing the blame for underachievement at the schools' doors, and until league tables stop measuring schools on exam results, it's not going to change.

My school is in a semi rural area with a significant minority of students arriving on coaches.

We are running an Easter School next week - one of the teachers is running round the area in a minibus to pick up all the students who would otherwise not be able to get in.

Oh, and it's largely about the grades for the data. BUT, for individual teachers, giving up a couple of days of their holidays is about giving their students the best chance. Cos we like em, and want em to do well for THEIR sakes.

No, although the school premises is used by a private company running revision courses these have not been pushed at ds. He has been set a combination of past papers and essays for the holidays, as well as revision, with some of his teachers offering input by email.

I did one day for exam prep or catchup with controlled assessment. We had about 5 students out of 10. ( small subject). Other departments did similar or more days where needed/ appropriate. We were paid at the study support rate and it was entirely voluntary.

On the day I was in, we also had several lots of year 6's in, starting transition activities, with other members of staff.

Several other members of staff, including the Head are away on school trips.

Our catchment area is one of the most deprived areas in the country. Our school has just gone from outstanding to special measures in one inspection despite no change in management or results.

So, do we qualify as a 'sink' school or one where the staff do 'give a stuff'?

It does seem to me that to some people teachers can never get it right. We are either lazy or go in unpaid during the holidays for selfish, data obsessed reasons. I and other staff in my school went/ are going in because a lot of our pupils live in noisy, high rise flats with little chance of a quiet study area. It might seem odd but I really care about the pupils succeeding for their own sakes as do most teachers in most schools. Even the buggers who waited until now to re read Mister Pip, one charmingly told me today that he wished he'd read it properly in Yr 10 because he really enjoyed it!