Christmas Hols

[Trixiebell06]

Hi ,my child is year 11 , would you go away for Christmas prior to the mock exams in Jan ?

Be careful i have a year 11 child and we have been told if exams don't go ahead the results will be based on their mocks. No one has said what will happen if your child gets covid next year during the GCSE s either.

If it's a few days from Christmas Eve to just after Boxing Day that could be ok as that is family time and noone expects kids to study then

@Trixiebell06 this is a hard decision....my ds is now in year 12 and for him I would say no...since he would worry prior to the mock...whereas my dd I would say it might be good for us all to get away.

Each child is different and you are the only one who can make that decision.

Sometimes a break might be good but it depends on the child.

@Opal8

Exams (as I stated) will take place but due to the disruption mocks will be used too

This categorically untrue.

Think also about where you would go and what sort of disruption it might cause if someone got Covid while you were away. I know of two people who went away for half term and are now stuck abroad (luckily with relatives) because they got it while they were away - so will be missing at least another 10 days, and longer if other family members get it now too. If that resulted in missing mocks, it could be a lot more difficult to catch up, but even if it meant missing revision, it could be bad enough. If you were only going away in this country, that might be less of a problem.

DS will be revising every day apart from Xmas Eve Xmas day and boxing day. Not 8 hours a day but hour chunks.

Perhaps if you away for 7 days then child could have 3 of those 'off' and do some revision on the other 4?

No- year 11 DC should be revising over the Xmas holidays if they have mocks in January.

DS2 will obviously have a few days off but will be doing at least 8 hours a day for the majority of the holodays.

@GreenLakes

No- year 11 DC should be revising over the Xmas holidays if they have mocks in January.

DS2 will obviously have a few days off but will be doing at least 8 hours a day for the majority of the holodays.

8 hours? That seems a lot. We doing 1 hour blocks throughout the day with hour breaks in between.

DT’s school said no revising over the Christmas holidays. They had worked hard and the school had prepared them well. Having a good break was more important. We went on holiday during Christmas/NY before their GCSE’s and A levels. They both got a full set of grade A’s.

If students need to do such high amounts of last minute revision, perhaps the student hasn’t worked hard enough throughout the term or parents and teachers are putting too much pressure on them - this usually backfires.

I'd hardly call revising over Christmas 'last minute'!

Plus you do also need to remember that the new style GCSEs don't have controlled assessments along the way so there are more final exams and there is more content to be revised for.

Green's school is at the far far end of the scale on the level of work expected by its students.

@TeenMinusTests - yes every student is different but too much pressure won’t help. Let them enjoy the Christmas holiday and come back happy and ready for the new term. DT’s spent every day of the holidays on the Colorado ski slopes and throughly enjoyed themselves. No impact onto their exam results at GCSE, A level or degree.

My eldest needed to revise in the holidays, because she didn't have bandwidth in term time to do much. My youngest would have been the same only it turned out she didn't have bandwidth for pandemic.

I suspect that for most there is a happy medium between none at all and 8hrs a day!

It's only 4 days lost (assuming no revision on the three festive days).
Maybe suggest he brings some mock papers with him from previous years in the key subjects and he can do one each of the 4 days.

DS2 will obviously have a few days off but will be doing at least 8 hours a day for the majority of the holodays
At your insistence or his?

How much content do you envisage actually going into his head sat for 8hrs at a time?

Mock results are not used if students are ill or unable to sit exams that's definitely not true.
When dd applied for sixth form mock grades had to be declared on the application form and were used as part of the initial selection process though.

@Parker231

DT’s school said no revising over the Christmas holidays. They had worked hard and the school had prepared them well. Having a good break was more important. We went on holiday during Christmas/NY before their GCSE’s and A levels. They both got a full set of grade A’s. If students need to do such high amounts of last minute revision, perhaps the student hasn’t worked hard enough throughout the term or parents and teachers are putting too much pressure on them - this usually backfires.

These mocks may count towards teacher assessed grades if Covid kicks off again so very important this year

Although exams are due to go ahead, we’ve already planned how we deal with a plan B for TAG grades and, in my school, we’ve made it very clear to year 11 that that plan B will include mock results.

I wouldn’t go away.

Not a chance I can't believe your even considering it

@NeverForgetYourDreams - the exams are always important regardless of the format but DT’s ensured that there wasn’t unnecessary pressure and the children could enjoy their holiday. They were at a international school so the majority travelled for the holidays. No holiday homework was the norm from 11-18 years and with DT’s all A grades it didn’t affect the results.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

DS2 will obviously have a few days off but will be doing at least 8 hours a day for the majority of the holodays At your insistence or his?

How much content do you envisage actually going into his head sat for 8hrs at a time?

Greenlakes doesn't have much time for work-life balance

OP - I don't think there's a hard and fast answer to this. Some kids would relish the break and will work while they're away and really knuckle down when they get back, some would be really anxious and others will do bugger all and then blame you when they bomb the mocks.

Only you know which of those your child is. I'd also speak to your child