GCSEs, year 11 and study after Easter . Does your school state or private give them study leave ?

[Foxy333]

I've found out my DC school.does not give them any study leave after Easter holidays until the first GCSE of the year. What does your dcs school do?

Not best chuffed about this. Two
And a half weeks of lessons (towards the end of which about 3 exams happen) and then that is it - no more lessons all term. Although I believe the sports commitments continue. Boarding, so the boys will I guess have 15 hours of unstructured time except for meals and sport a day. Quite what we are paying for, I don’t know. I am hopi f there will be revision seminars but rumour has it not.

State school- no study Leave.

State school - no study leave at all.

But parents can ask for study leave if student is deemed able to revise at home. DD is looking at 26th April as her last 'school day'.

DS and DC are both at schools offering study leave for both GCSE and A level.
We only applied to schools where study leave was standard. Both schools offer revision classes for those who wish to attend. Forcing kids to go in is a massive waste of time. Time wasted on travelling, time wasted following standardised revision plans rather than your own tailored one that reflects what exams you are taking and when, kids stirring each other up and wasting time chatting to each other. Both kids at selective independent schools. I reckon compulsory attendance is the best way yet of stopping bright kids having the focus they need to get top grades. I think there was some research showing that denying ileave stopped weaker kids messing about on computer games and web but that is not a reason to blight everybody’s carefully worked out study plans.

Yes, specialist/private/ boarding school and they are on study leave for quite a while, can't say how long as mine is only Y10.

No study leave, in fact they keep them beyond exams to do other stuff like finance study, CV writing and making a film project as a legacy to the school although if students don't go to these extra things they don't make them - they have to go to lessons until they have done the last exam in a subject though.

I am 19, so was only 4 years ago. I went to sate school that offered no study leave at all. We where all required to attend school (every day, 9-3) until our final exam: Which was mid June. the school said the reason why they didn’t give it is because too many people where going on holiday when they offered it. The problem I had with it was they were only focused on maths revision and we had very little time to revise other subjects, as they were deemed less important 🙄

We only applied to schools where study leave was standard.

Ah, so that's why my state school educated DC are destined never to set the world on fire - I can safely say that back when they in year 5 / 6, it didn't even occur to me that this was something that should be on our list of criteria for our prder of preference. What I do know, now that we've got child 3 just about to sit exams, is that what DS1's school's policy on study leave was when he sat GCSEs was different from what it is now, with DS2 about to sit his at the same school.

What would you have done, if the school had radically changed its policy when your DC were halfway through year 10?

Last year DD's school (independent) had study leave for GCSEs (and mocks). Study leave for exams started about 2 weeks before the first exams.

For Dd it was really beneficial. She did way more revision in her time away from school than she did in school. Though I guess that depends on personality, independence, and also the availability of revision space at home.

Teachers were available in school hours and via email if they wanted additional help or advise, or revision support.

Should add though that Dd is, and was, very focused and self motivated. We worked a revision plan out together - she asked for this so I didn't force it on her.

She worked longer than school hours whilst at home but with built in breaks in the morning, afternoon and for lunch. And no revision later evening, nothing after 5pm once she was in study leave.
Built in time out with friends and for out of school activities, even right through the exams themselves too.

State school in Scotland not sure of the exact dates yet but my DC will have study leave from around April 25th until May 28th. Then back for 4 weeks and break for summer.