'Compulsory' revision classes - Year 11

[Talkativeparrot]

DD has been told that all students must attend Year 11 revision classes three nights a week after school starting next week. She has SN and doesn't cope well with revising this far in advance of her exams. It causes her stress and anxiety. She's like me and has always been a last minute (few months before exams) crammer. She is predicted decent grades based on her previous exams.

Can the school make them go if after school finishing time?

Can I ask why you aren't talking to the school?

I'm just curious what the general rule/opinion is. I only found out today but I will approach the school at some point.

The problem is in Year 10, they had no revision classes, barely any homework and now it's like the school panic when they hit year 11. It's like going from 0-60 overnight. Surely a more measured and less stressed approach would be better.

My DD has dyspraxia. The school knew I was an 'hands on' parent. They were happy for me to say things weren't suitable for DD to attend if I thought they would be counter-productive.

However, is it really going to be revision at this stage, or actually question answering technique or deepening understanding?

Maybe either pick one subject that she is weakest in, or go along to first sessions to see how they go?

Seems a bit OTT. It's very early in the year to force compulsory revision lessons, I wouldn't sign up to this either. FYI we didn't have any revision classes in Y10 either, and homework is generally done during the day in their study periods, they have a few hours per week. Definitely query the objective and content of these sessions, if they will not suit your child, you should be able to decline. What about all the children who do sports/music/drama after hours?

Thanks for the replies. She's going to go to the maths one and all of them from January. I will have a chat to the school. I was just surprised at the use of the word 'compulsory.'

The school sounds great and I'd be supporting them by ensuring your DD attends.

Y11 students should be doing a minimum of 3-4 hours work/revision every weeknight from the beginning of the year. Your DD isn't going to get very far with her 'can't be bothered' attitude, and you aren't helping by enabling laziness.

Milky Many children would not be able to cope with that kind of workload and would burn out long before exams. You have to go with the child infront of you, not make sweeping generalisations.

Definitely encourage her to go.

It will be invaluable.

milky what nonsense. You cannot know what is needed for all children because all children are different. Extra revision should focus on weak subjects and subjects where extension is wanted for top marks. You are saying GCSE students should work a 10 hour day. Most working adults do less than that.

DD1 did all her work conscientiously, did a couple of extension sessions and got brilliant results. Total workload about 2 hours a night but she had the odd night off. It worked for her. Other strategies will work for other students. One size does not fit all.

Four hours revision every night from January??? Sounds more like a recipe for total burnout than exam success.

I agree, most year 11s would burnout well before the exams started on that sort of revision schedule. I also don't see how the extra revision sessions are enforcible.

My child would not be going. For one thing he has asd and simply would not cope with that length of school day. For another thing his outside school extra curricular stuff is really important to give him an outlet and help keep his stress levels down.

Incidentally, dd managed absolutely fine (mostly Grade 8's with a couple of 9's and a 7) on one hour revision a night during GCSE's.

milky

Just been to a talk at school (high achieving comp) where the head stated that 3-4 hours per night was 'madness' at this stage in the year, and told us to remember that this is a marathon not a sprint. Yes, do all homework set; yes, work steadily on coursework; yes, make revision part of your regular weekly schedule but no, not 3-4 hours of revision per day.

For DD, here are weekly drop-in revision sessions in 1 or 2 subjects (mostly the very content heavy ones) at lunchtime at the moment, and IME these will become more numerous and more targeted, but 3 nights per week after school sounds like a lot.

It sounds a bit intense to me. I teach in a school with a compulsory intervention schedule. No child would have to stay 3 nights every week though. And in reality compulsory just means that if they aren’t attending we call their parents, they aren’t punished for not attending.
I do think you need to encourage her to revise regularly from now though. I know you’ve said she’s always crammed before but the new GCSEs make cramming a poor strategy. There are too many exams, too close together and with too much content for it to work well. Looking at the results from our year 11s this year it’s clear that the students who left their revision until late did a lot worse than they would have under the old system and the ones who worked really consistently, even if they were quite low-ability did better than they would have under the old system.

A few revision sessions isn't that much this early on.
I get more frustrated when I hear students and parents tell me that they work better cramming. The bottom line is you can't really cram for the new GCSEs. There's much more content and nuch more application. Schools know this which is why they are trying to embed goos habits by taking a slow and steady approach.

By all means talk to the school about the potential impact of these session on your child, but I wouldn't be going down the route of 'we prefer cramming'. I think taking the 'cram later' approach will stress your DC out more when they start coming back to content in class and they don't know it that well/when others start gettinf big jumps in performance and they arent because they don't know enough etc.

Y11 students should be doing a minimum of 3-4 hours work/revision every weeknight from the beginning of the year.

My dd wouldn't cope with 3 late finishes. Atm she's staying late once for art, and her school are putting on a variety of optional subject 'clinics', and trying to publicise which topic will be covered so you can decide.

Just talk to them and hopefully all will be fine.

Maisy, I think it is the after school nature of it - the enforced extension of the school day, essentially - which bothers me. This may be especially the case for a child with SN, who often have to work 'closer 100% all the time', either to keep up or to contain behaviour, anxiety, sensory overload etc, than a child who may have to work very hard in some lessons but may find other times in a given day relatively less taxing.

Targeted use of lunchtimes, for example, I'd make a different comment about.

“and homework is generally done during the day in their study periods, they have a few hours per week.”

I don’t think most schools have private study periods in year 10. The timetable is full. DD had frees in 6th form only (and for a few months in year 11 as she took maths early)

It seems a bit early for revision to me. Could it just be consolidating what they have been taught to make sure it sticks?

cantkeepawayforever
Ok. I see what you mean.
Our lunches are too short to do revision in (well meaningfully).

Some schools I've worked in have had a revision club in the SEND department where students could revise but without it being as formal as a revision session. The only downside there is that youdont get the same input from subject specialists.

Another way forward is for a SEND student to take a revision guide to the teacher and the teacher identifies 2 topics they need to work on in the next few weeks. Then they catch up with the student again to review. It might be that the student only attends the revision session after school if it links to the 2 named topics.

Ds has SEN and stays behind at school several nights a week but to do performing arts which is his "thing" and helps him to de-stress.

Intervention is a different matter for example ds is woefully underperforming in English so he goes to a tutor once a week (I know this wouldn't be possible in schools but I purposely chose 5pm so he has a break betwee tutor and school and avoiderd Friday as he has had enough at that point.

Compulsory revision sessions 3 times a week would be completely counter-productive.