When will your Gcse student child go on holiday? Contingency Day

[avenueq]

Same for A level - contingency day is 26th of June. When we found out dd had already booked a holiday, so just gotta hope for the best.
Do you think it's because of Brexit or possibility of the queen dying?

No, it's in case of a cockup with the security of the exam papers, or some disaster at the school that mean the kids can't actually sit the papers.

We were given the date for Contingency Day months ago.

Why has this never happened before though?

I don't know. I don't remember it with dc1, but maybe that's because nothing happened about it.

Dd has plans to use that time for work experience.

It's definitely not been done before which makes me wonder what's different this year

It was brought in because of grenfell there was no procedure to delay the exam despite thousands being directly or indirectly affected. In the event of a significant incident all exams will be switched to the contingency day. Also in the past a major problem has been identified on exam papers and it could be corrected and moved. It's unlikely to be needed but they are being prepared now.

What is contingency day? I have never heard of it before. DD went on holiday the day after her last A level exam last year.

Dc and A level mates have booked a flight for as soon as their exams finished.

They didn’t know about contingency day until after they had checked all their exam dates

They are now having kittens , but I am sure it will be fine.

This is the 1st year it's been brought in. It's the exam boards and JCQ (joint council for qualifications) that have set the day, schools have no say in the matter. As someone above said, the trigger was Grenfell last year.

It's highly unlikely to be used, but there's always the 'what if.....' factor, no guarantee. Obviously you will know for sure at the end of your child's exams whether they will be required on that day. If they have taken all of their scheduled exams on the right days, then they won't be needed on June 26th.

Depending on when their last scheduled exams is, it may well be possible to go away after their exams but be back by June 26th. Probably easier for GCSE as they tend to finish earlier.

As this is the first year for it I think the publicity ought to have been better both from central government and the schools. I have known about it for months from Mumsnet but the school haven't said anything about it to me or to dd. That said, dd's school keeps them until the last Friday in June doing various life skills (CV writing, finance, childcare etc) things with them after the exams so they expect them to stay anyway.

Dd told me they have been told it's been introduced because of the Manchester bombing and as a safeguard incase of something going wrong.

When we got the letter from school, I'd assumed they were planning on striking around exam time, so made a contingency day just in case 🤷‍♀️

DD has to be back in after exams anyway, so booked holiday at normal time, after end of term. What is annoying is that but for the contingency, we could have had a quick week away somewhere, in between end of exams and going back to school. Oh well, saved us some money

We've been told that the students need to be available up to and including 26th June. We were hoping to go on holiday once DD's exams had finished and be back for the contingency day. Have now planned go go away on the 27th June!

Dated 25 Jan
ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2019/01/25/be-prepared-gcse-and-a-level-exam-contingency-day-2019/

We have been told it’s in case the Queen dies.
First year it’s been introduced - will be there every year until it’s ‘ not needed’ anymore.

Interesting. This doesn't apply in Scotland then? (Different exam boards) I'd best go off and google.

Why on earth would the queen dying mean a contingency day was needed.

It was suggested as a Brexit contingency, in case there was significant distribution which meant either exam papers couldn't be delivered or kids couldn't get to exams safely.

“Why on earth would the queen dying mean a contingency day was needed.”

Because there would be a day of national mourning with complete shut down, I imagine.

If it was about the Queen why have they only just done it this year? Doesn't make sense.
The Grenfell/Manchester bombing scenario is more likely.

Because the Queen is now 92. She won't last forever.

I doubt everything would completely shut down when the queen dies. It's the Brexit plan the JCQ came up with. Nothing to do with the queen. Or Grenfell for that matter.

Or any contingency.
It isn’t a bad idea to have a planned contingency day.
They just needed to have flagged it up simultaneously with the exam timetable, which was available ages ago.

Thanks for the info, I wasn’t aware of that either. Sensible idea in current times. Hopefully it’s just a precaution and won’t be needed.

I think it's sensible. We're going away on the 6th of July, before term ends but after contingency day - because DD2's prom is on the 5th.

Well this is the first I've heard of it and we've booked a break 23rd to 27th June