Holiday homework before starting Sixth Form

[Notcontent]

My dd was looking forward to a lazy summer following GCSEs but to our surprise has been given quite a bit of work to complete in the subjects she is doing for A levels. Is this common?

Yes my DS has this too.
Not that he’s looked at it at all

Yes qnd probably quite important they make some time for it. Its so they can hit the ground running at a level standard amd know some of the basics. We used to expect a pack of work done !

Yep. Such a shame but seems quite common now 😕

It’s not uncommon. My ds has only been given it in one subject, but the work given is hours and hours and hours worth. It could be that the lockdown term in Y10 (and Y9), the severe disruption throughout the whole GCSE course and the fact that content was removed from GCSEs have combined to produce a cohort who have the potential to really struggle at A level.

Thanks - it’s helpful to know this is not unusual. In one subject (maths) it is hours and hours of work but probably not a bad thing as with maths it’s so important to just keep doing it.

It's very common for there to be some. We have the preparatory work for the three sixth forms DD has applied to. None of them are hours and hours.

In 2020, I think some sixth forms increased the preparatory work, aware that the kids had not had school since March, so might have huge gaps and be very out of practice with what they had covered. It made sense to send out some work to try and make sure that they were prepared enough for the A-level course. I wonder whether some schools, having prepared that package, are continuing to use it.

@lanthanum has it right - our transition work was originally to bridge the post-lockdown gap and give Y11 who had been unceremoniously chucked out of school in March something to do. And now it’s written we give it to all students. BUT! It is not compulsory and nobody will check or mark it. It’s all things that hopefully are fairly interesting for students who want to do my subject and will provide a well-rounded background before A-level study. It’s not hours or writing or anything, more research and some fun practical things they can do to prepare.

It is definitely compulsory in some subjects! But yes something that can be done in a few mornings finding out about the subject, bit of googling, learning key terms in a subject I'm aware of .

Maths however I would do little and often rather than leave til the end to keep the maths brain ticking!

There is also quite a bit set between years 12 and 13 which is perhaps less surprising. My dd is still incensed that no one marked her work from the summer pre sixth form. But I have no doubt it benefitted her…

DD has none. Now worrying about this :)

It doesn’t really mean much. Much of what I’ve set a keen student would do off their own back (and not regard it as work). Read around the subject, look up the specification for the exam if you know the board and see what’s covered if you want or use the school/college website to see what areas are being taught. Then she could watch documentaries around the topics, read a couple of books, go down a few rabbit holes.

Equally students start every year with zero prior knowledge of my subject or even knowing really what we’re going to do and they turn out all right as well!

I worked 40 hours a week in a care home between the end of year 11 and sixth form starting. A much better diversification of education, it set me up for life in the world of work and I made £££! I went to sixth form so much more confident and worldly.

I wish society would learn that education is so much more than school work.

I tell children at school that maths and reading are like muscles, they needs to be exercised little and often rather than in huge boring chunks.

Admittedly that's in primary, but I think the analogy still applies...

I wonder if there is more this year because the curriculum was trimmed down a bit for GCSEs due to lockdown. They aren't going to have that adjustment when they sit A levels, so some holes might need to be plugged.

Interesting how different schools take different approaches. In dd’s case, the work is definitely compulsory and even involves some mini online assessments!

Ds went to sixth form in 2019 and had summer work. It was around 5 hours per subject. Considering he had 10 whole weeks of summer holidays I would hardly say it was time consuming in the grand scheme of it. Ds2 has just finished year 11 and has the same summer work. Both children are doing/did 4 subjects.

For some students they also see this time as an opportunity to get stuck into their chosen subject for uni if they know what they want to do.

It’s a good idea really. Dd switched a subject to French after a week of year 12; the last time she had done French had been in May.

She definitely felt in the back foot for a few weeks. If she had always planned to take French, it would have been a good thing to have done some vocabulary and grammar practice over the summer.

Same for maths I would say; for Eng lit it makes sense to at least read the first couple of texts. I imagine for other subjects some revision of key topics would help avoid the dip.

Yes. Mine all did. It got tricky for one though as he had two offers and couldn’t make up his mind which one he wanted to go to before results day (which is ridiculously late in the summer). So he had to do two sets of quite different prep work.

Having said DD got no holiday homework, I realise that actually she is reading some texts similar/linked to ones that she will cover in English Lit. She's also doing some general reading related to possible EPQ topics.

She's doing this independently though, not because anyone has asked her to, which feels like a better habit to be getting into pre-A Level study, than just doing work that's been set.

Yes, compulsory at my school and will be checked. Maths definitely needs it, the course will start assuming fluency in some high level GCSE algebra skills and if these have not been practised over the summer, the student will struggle from the start. It’s especially important for students who are starting A-level maths from a grade 6 or 7 as they already might be quite shaky on these concepts.

I had to do compulsory pre sixth form homework in 2019. I remember the Sociology and Psychology being fairly quick but the Economics was really hard work! It was all graded and effectively our first bit of homework. In fact, our teachers go quite cross at the people who didn’t do it. I remember one teacher saying something like: ‘if you can’t even be bothered to do a bit of summer homework, how can I be sure you’ll put in effort for the rest of the A Level?’

If she does it well, she’ll make a good first impression with her A Level teachers which is always a good thing. Also some people I know found their summer homework really boring for a particular subject, which led to a last minute A Level change. So useful all round.

It’s a pity when it’s tokenistic and those who are diligent feel obliged to spend a thorough jOb if it, if it will never be referred to in September. Fine if it’s a. It tokensitic and optional and that’s made clear, but if is sound compulsory and important and then isnt, that’s a pity.

Given GCSEs finished a month ago, it would have been nice to issue any work then, so kids had 10 weeks to do it and could choose when suited them. If some people are getting it now, it seems a bit DS if unexpected. What if they have planned to be away all summer or to work or whatever. Given lots will be changing their subject choices, none if it can actually be that important. A couple of hours per subject might be okay, but anything that’s going to take much longer and then be ignored on return seems poorly thought out.

I agree that this was used a lot in the summer of 2020 when the yr11s left school without notice and then didn’t do exams. It was to keep them going over what turned into a 4 month break. Most places didn’t set much before that. However now schools in particular have the stuff, they forget it was just intended to be temporary. Would be interested to know if it’s mostly schools setting or also sixth form colleges. I suspect it’s more the former.

Kids I know going to the local college have some low level, very much optional work. With schools it seems variable from nothing, to a hardline compulsory task list which looks like it could take many hours to complete. No idea whether places will be looking at this work or it is related to the course content or not.