need honest advice from senior school teachers about yr 10 ..travel dilemma

[ggirl]

son going into yr 10 , he's average bright but lazy
my family live in Canada and my parents are old , think this could be last xmas etc
so I have a new job and finally am able to take holiday at xmas so have decided we are going to spend xmas with my family for first time in 22 yrs..so excited !

I have just booked flights for adult daughter and myself leaving on 18th dec which is the Monday before the school breaks up on Thursday .

The plan was for husband and son to come on the Thursday so son wouldn't have to miss any school

But ..the flights leaving on the friday are £200 more ..ouch!

Shall I suck it up and pay the extra ? How important will that last 4 days be ?

You could email OP but probably won't get a reply til term starts.

FWIW we don't have any 'fun time' with GCSE year groups - no time in the syllabus. That's not to say that ?I think you shouldn't take him, but that he probably will have work to catch up on.

You might get a reply to the email around GCSE or A level results day so it might be worth sending a message. They head of year will let you know about dates for assessments. You might find that in the last week of term they are getting their assessments back with feedback and guidance - these are quite important sessions.

If your son is by your own admission a bit lazy you will need to make sure that he catches up with missed work.

In the last four days I'll be surprised if he'll miss an assessment. He'll miss the feedback and improvements.

'Fun' - assessment over. In English you might as a teacher save a film clip, like Macbeth or A Christmas Carol (depending on syllabus, we do AQA) as, why would you show this when students are fresher and livelier? I know our maths teachers do more pub type maths quizzes as opposed to traditional lessons. Half a lesson might be taken up by an extended Christmas assembly. Maybe they'll be a visitor in RS (our Brook visit KS4 in Dec as that's when students need a variant from same old hardworking lessons they've had all term.) Whilst I acknowledge other posters' reservations of 'fun' I think our definitions may slightly differ; I wasn't really meaning Father Christmas quizzes and 'let's sit in front of Muppets Christmas Carol because we're all waiting for Friday'. But the pace is undoubtedly different and I would rather miss the last four days of term than the beginning.

dilemma solved - husband and son flying out on the 22nd , have found a flight at great price but they do have to change at Zurich , saves over £200 on each fare so worth the hassle.

Thanks for all your replies

My son is moving into year 11 in September. Year 10 was no different to previous years in that in the week before the end of term, whether it was Christmas, Easter or Summer, very little new work was done and very little homework set to do over the holidays. In fact, a lot of the classes were taken by cover/supply teachers doing the usual "baby sitting" work like putting on videos to watch or doing some revision worksheets. I think very few teachers would do any new/important work just before a holiday.

I have no fun lessons with y10 and 11 ( unless i actually have them p6 on the last Friday of the christmas term)
One of my last years y10s did is and was taken by her family to Aus.
Due to timetable vagaries she missed 4 lessons which was a complete mini topic. I may or may not revisit it before the actual GCSEs next aummer.

Well done on your resolution btw.

And to other posters, please do not decide to remove your kid, then request work which is a considerable extra workload for the teacher ( and rarely completed) pull em out and let them miss essential stuff, your call, but don't then land me with a load of extra work to provide them with stuff please!

@Rosieposy4 wow, with an attitude like that, I bet you're popular with the parents. What if a child missed 'a whole mini-topic' because they were unwell? I suppose you'd still punish them for increasing your workload by not going over it again?

With all due respect, unless you're on the pastoral team, you wouldn't be privy to the reasons children have been taken out of school by their parents. In my experience visiting relatives who are at death's door or taking time out for other legitimate reasons are quite common. Who are you to pass judgement when you're nothing to do with the initial decision to allow the child to have the time off and request work from the class teacher?

I am very popular thanks littlelouse, each year i receive many letters, emails and personal conversations of thanks for my hard work from many parents, ( as well as the students) not least because of my good relations with both parents and students, keeping parents in the loop and regularly going the extra mile both at lunchtime and after school ( particularly if they have been off school ill, what a ridiculous leap to make). Also yes, we are kept aware of the reasons for absence, and usually the kids tell you anyway. In the case of a dying relative it would be very unreasonable of the pastoral team to not pass the information onto teaching staff, fortunately our pastoral team is superb and make sure we are kept in the loop.
It is not so much to do with passing judgement, as I said, take then out or not but please do not increase my very considerable workload in your quest for a cheaper holiday.

In my dilemma I didn't even ask ds what he thought
Turns out he would rather not miss any school ,so thankfully he won't have to .

Glad you got that sorted op. It's still worth asking the school whether there are any exams/controlled assessments before/after Christmas.

Our Christmas was ruined last year (or at least severely hampered) as the school had the pupils sit half of their GCSE sciences in Jan. They weren't mocks, they secured half of the marks required for the final grades. Other schools in the area didn't do it and had more exams to do in the May.

DD would have been even more stressed than she was if I'd taken her on holiday at Christmas as she spent all the time revising over that holiday last year.

hmm let's hope that doesn't happen

Drmadelines dcs must not be in England, modular exams disappeared from here a number of years ago so if you are in England no worries at all on that score.

True, I'm in Wales.