Revision Classes and no study leave.

[Nocomet]

I'm just about to pick DD up from a 3 hour revision class, on a stunningly beautiful May Saturday.

Yes I'm incredibly grateful her teachers are prepared to give up such a lovely day, but why have we come to this.

Surely there must be a better way of preparing for exams, that stays within school hours and gives DCs some private study time.

All day in school, plus after school, plus two week end slots and then what you feel you personally need to revise in the evening is too much!

Well, I presume the weekend slots and after schools are optional?

I guess it comes down to whether your DD thinks an hour on her own doing the topic she selects is more or less use than an hour with others in a teacher lead session?

I think what sort of worries me a bit is that maybe the pupils are still not learning how to revise for themselves, which will make the step to A levels that much harder.

Not that I know anything about this as DD1 is only y10 at the moment.

Some are optional, yes. Not everyone was there today, but music and drama have been so pressed to get the practical stuff done, these sessions are pretty vital to be sure of knowing how to tackle the final exams.

The drama performance rehearsals were pretty much a 3 line whip for after school. Because of them DD1 had to treat maths as optional (or clone herself).

Certainly the degree of hand holding does worry me. It is no way to teach pupils how to revise into the future. There is simply too much stuff at A level to sort it out in 3 hours just before the exam.

I'm guessing it's optional.

This is a problem many secondary schools face. Yes, some DCs are perfectly capable of revising by themselves, but it's a risk - give them all study leave and you lose control over those who do nothing and then the schools lose out because of league tables and parents failing to accept that it might just be their PFB's fault that he failed to achieve grades of which he is capable rather than the poor harassed teacher not doing their job properly.

At my school, revision classes after school are optional. Revision sessions during school hours are compulsory.

That is certainly true. Some of DD's year are very hard to get to focus.

I just wish a slightly better balance had been struck and school had stopped with the first exam.

Dd does not get study leave. However she didn't go in last Wednesday (too bloody stressed, needed some headspace) and the attendance manager was v helpful and supportive and basically said she wasn't worried what dd did (she is a high achiever) I think no study leave does help some of the kids get better grades and therefore actually better life chances. That said I wish dd had it. I think it would be fine for her.

It's a Catch-22 situation. Give blanket study leave and risk poor results from those who don't have the self-motivation or have no study leave and risk the students not learning the study skills.

Our ex-deputy was dreadful for this - timetables would disappear and DC would do literally days of revision before core exams - no one wants 3 solid days of Maths revision. Also meant that non-core subjects were left by the wayside, so stuff like history etc didn't get the same treatment.

Current deputy is much more sensible.

Stuff like Art and Drama are tricky because those exams are often earlier (my lot did their practical exams the week before last) but not deemed as difficult and/or worthy of dedicated revision time. So Maths gets preference and Drama has to claw time back where it can.

Maths is last exam, so it was told where to go. Very politely, you are always very polite to the maths teacher - she is a bit fierce.