Do all Most Secondary Schools Allow their Y11s to go on study leave for their GCSEs?

[Reasontobelieve]

I am asking as my dd was told today that they will have to come in to school when they haven't hot exams and work in class rooms. This is a change in the school's policy following the appointment of a new head.

They were told that not all schools allow pupils to go on study leave. I had never thought about this, as even when I did my O Levels, we did this and I hadn't come across a school where this didn't happen, until today.

DS did his GCSEs this year. There was no study leave at all.

If they didn't have an exam they were expected to be in class. They still had the same timetable but with revision sessions instead of lessons. Once their last exam was finished, they didn't have to go to school anymore.

I think this was better for DS as he works better in school than he does at home.

Still study leave here (DS's school at least), although this past summer seemed to start slightly later than when DS1 did his GCSEs. Option still to go into school though - which some of DS's friends did indeed do - the "mix and match" seemed to cater fairly flexibly for different needs.

It's marked as unauthorised absence before the summer half term holiday. So schools have to bear that in mind.

raspberry
Technically 16, but in effect 18 ..... heaven help the state school that has lots it cannot account for after 16
www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-leave-school

cauliflower
It's marked as unauthorised absence before the summer half term holiday.
link please ....

dds started at the summer half term - most of the way through her exams. Even then they still had to go in for revision sessions.

CauliflowerSqueeze - The register code for any study leave given to Y11 students is 'S' which counts as authorised absence. There is no rule particularly about before or after half term but government guidance says " Study leave should be used sparingly and only granted to Year 11 pupils during public examinations."

Any absence be it authorised or unauthorised is recorded in the school statistics, this will apply up to the last Friday in June for those who are 16 (and presumably until the end of the school year for the summer born children but I am happy to be corrected on that)

DD's school didn't allow study leave until the last week of exams. It is in a rural market town and many pupils rely on the school bus to get to school, so taking study leave would have been very difficult for most of them.

DD found that she got more revision done at home than at school.

Apologies - I didn't mean unauthorised. I meant that the absence is still counted in the overall figures for the school until half term. After that it doesn't.

A fifth of the school being "absent" for a week, for example, is very significant.

My dd did her Scottish equivalent this year and they only got study leave if they were sitting so many exams.