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Secondary education

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Original poster

Schools charging for holiday revision sessions - normal?

52 replies

crazymonsters · 11/04/2018 12:42

Just curious as a local school which my friend's daughter attends is charging £54 a day (or £27 per half-day) for Y12 revision sessions over Easter. Is this normal? I don't know if they have discounts in place for free school meals etc - hopefully they do.

If teachers are working over the whole holidays I'm not surprised schools need to charge, but I guess I am surprised that the sessions are so extensive - every day full time rather than just a couple of freebie sessions covered by school budget.

The school does get very good results, and has the sort of catchment that is prepared to pay, and I expect the money just covers staff overtime rather than making a profit, but even so, it seems a bit intense. Whatever happened to independent revision? I think if I was a student there I would feel the need to be at every session or risk being at a disadvantage.

OP posts:
CarrieBlue · 11/04/2018 14:43

I wonder why it's for year 12 when they don't have external exams in year 12?

Some schools are entering Yr 12 for AS which is an external exam.

LooseAtTheSeams · 11/04/2018 14:47

DS's school has revision sessions this week - they're free and completely optional. To be completely honest I think last week when he organised his own revision was better but this is our first time at GCSEs!

Makingworkwork · 11/04/2018 14:58

Most schools in my area are running at a serious deficit due to under funding so there is no money to pay to pay teachers to put on extra revision sessions. Like a previous poster I have to pay for childcare to put on such sessions so I nolonger do. School are not happy about this.

noblegiraffe and other teachers there was an article on TES a couple of years ago from a head who said the revision session and interventions were having a negative impact on results as students did not take responsibility for their learning so he scrapped all revisions and results improved.

samlovesdilys · 11/04/2018 14:59

I've NEVER been paid to prep and run revisions sessions, yesterday I had 37 students in for almost 4 hours, I provided packs, pens, biscuits and squash...(and my kids sat in my office playing electrical gadgets/doing jobs for me) mind you, I regularly provide this kind of stuff for students who need it anyway.
This may not be 'contracted hours' but with growing pressure on teachers being totally accountable for students results it is a brave staff member who says they don't think their students need help...

Hobnobsarenotfordunking · 11/04/2018 15:02

Our school offers session in Easter, 2 days work for my subject. They rely on good will of staff to run them for free. (I say good will, they tell the kids they are on and then we get bullied in to giving up our holiday). It actually costs me to work as I have to pay childcare for my own child to work for free looking after someone else’s!

Jobbieshitkakaboudin · 11/04/2018 15:11

drivinmecrazy unless your DD goes to the crapest school in the land, they will have been talking about HOW to study throughout secondary school.

My bigest problem is pupils with half arsed attendance all year turning up expectimg Easter revision classes offered for free in my free time. The rude emails from their parents don't help either.

Original poster
crazymonsters · 11/04/2018 15:45

I wonder why it's for year 12 when they don't have external exams in year 12?

It's year 13 actually. I miscalculated. Used to call it upper-sixth in my day.

They might be doing other yeargtoipd too but the girl I know is doing A levels this summer.

OP posts:
Original poster
crazymonsters · 11/04/2018 15:48

They were told the money goes directly to the teachers. I guess they have to pay the caretaker etc too though.

OP posts:
CarrieBlue · 11/04/2018 16:04

there was an article on TES a couple of years ago from a head who said the revision session and interventions were having a negative impact on results as students did not take responsibility for their learning so he scrapped all revisions and results improved.

Revision sessions still happened in that school.

BitOutOfPractice · 11/04/2018 18:42

Ah, ok op. I know what you mean about confusing the years. It was upper and lower 6th on my day too. And it's still called Sixth Form now isn't it? Jolly confusing all round I think

AlexanderHamilton · 11/04/2018 18:49

No revision sessions at dd’s School thank goodness.

There are at ds’s school I notice but I doubt he would want to attend. (Year 9 now)

There is no way in earth dh would forgo our family holiday at Easter to run revision sessions. Luckily his subject (a post 16 diploma) doesn’t require them.

TammyWhyNot · 11/04/2018 22:21

Both schools my Dc attend run free revision sessions for all public exams. They write to parents of kids they think need to attend.

The teacher in my family refuses to run revision sessions or for his department to provide them ) he is a subject Head).

He says he and his department make every provision to be available to support throughout teaching the curriculum. They work super hard at ways to ensure understanding and to inspire, and give kids confidence and enjoyment of learning.

He says education is an active process: he and his team teach, kids need to work hard and revise.

That he would rather his colleagues spend their holidays refreshing ideas and energy for their part in the process.

And that the ones who actually need to be there don’t turn up.

So, he refuses. His subject gets excellent results in an area which suffers a real disaffection from education (rural, coastal, poor, unemployment high, resilience low) and below average achievement.

BitOutOfPractice · 12/04/2018 08:34

I thought all teachers worked throughout the holidays - that's what they always say on here anyway! Wink

My DD1 attends a very high achieving grammar school 6th form and has had a handful of free revision sessions this week. She said the teacher at yesterday's was very grumpy

AlexanderHamilton · 12/04/2018 08:54

THey do - but those with families like my dh tend to get up very early in the morning or work late at night so they can have sone family time.

BitOutOfPractice · 12/04/2018 08:57

I hope you realise by the wink that I do know that teachers do work in the holidays but not all the time. Nor should they of course. It's their holidays too / they have family commitments. I just couldn't resist as a lot of teachers and their OH's get very defensive when this comes up!

trinity0097 · 12/04/2018 09:02

I wouldn’t have the time to do more teaching in the holidays.

I am SLT and in school every day of the holidays from about 6.30am to 3.30pm working.

Only days I don’t go in I am abroad, so a week this holiday and 12 days in the summer

Clavinova · 12/04/2018 10:00

They were told the money goes directly to the teachers
So one teacher, working 3-4 hours with 10 A level students gets £270 for a half-day session? I doubt that these particular teachers are complaining.

I wouldn’t have the time to do more teaching in the holidays.....I am SLT
And hopefully you are earning £60,000 - £70,000 for your troubles - our prep school leadership/deputies do.

whatifI · 12/04/2018 10:41

My daughter's school are holding revision sessions these Easter holidays. 9 am to 3pm Mon to Fri. Free to all children to attend if they wish to. Teachers are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and don't get paid any overtime for it.

trinity0097 · 12/04/2018 17:05

Sadly not, about £1k more than a UPS teacher in a state school in our area! (London fringe)

Etaina · 13/04/2018 09:27

My DDs school ran revision sessions for free in the Easter holidays but they said that these seemed to be directed at the borderline students and so they were a complete waste of time. I encouraged them to go because I felt that if the teachers were giving up their free time, the least they could do is show up. I was also worried about them perhaps missing out on some nugget of knowledge that would make the difference between one grade or another! However, my DCs used the fact that they'd attended as an excuse not to do any revision at all in their own time. I would have preferred it if there weren't any revision sessions in the holidays because I think pupils and teachers need a break (plus we usually go away over Easter and it ruined our holiday plans!).

Etaina · 13/04/2018 09:33

Forgot to say that DD2's school put on free revision sessions for Year 13s but we had to pay a deposit which would have been forfeited had she not attended all sessions. Everyone went. These were very well run and they were given revision packs to work through at home.

AlexanderHamilton · 13/04/2018 20:23

Suppose you had other commitments?

Rosieposy4 · 13/04/2018 21:42

Free = not valued as far the students go
So they don’t turn up for free after school sessions, held on a variety of nights, but demand holiday revision sessions.
As if 3 hours over easter in one block is of any use.
Continual drip drip revision is the route to success, whether you are pp or on £150k/ week.
My school charge, free for pp, I now refuse to go in for them, see above.

Acopyofacopy · 14/04/2018 19:46

I teach everything the students need to know in class and have run a (free, and in my free time) drop in clinic after school every day since Christmas. One student turned up once.

School were trying to bully encourage teachers to run unpaid revision days during the holidays. I politely declined. They have absolutely everything they need, and even I can’t magic stuff from a book into a head.

itstimeforanamechange · 16/04/2018 11:02

DS school charged £45 for GCSE revision classes over the Easter holidays.

There'd be a lot to be said, IMO, for ending the whole revision session culture & raising our expectations of students to spend their holidays working independently; but I don't see much parental support for that mindset

I think I disagree with this to an extent, I'd have thought that guided revision was quite helpful and it also frees up time in that if you've attended a morning's revision classes you can do something else in the afternoon with a clear conscience. Contrary to the recent claims that you should be doing 7 hours revision a day I would have thought that 3-4 hours was the most you could do and actually have anything stick in your brain.