Are we just lucky or is this usual? Maths GCSE

[bundleofbabyboy]

DS state school have been (and continue to run until 10th June) Maths revision clinics every Saturday morning for 2 hours. They provide breakfast (pastries and juice apparently). So many kids attend and I’m so grateful to the staff for running it in their own time. But I was telling a non local friend about it and she was gobsmacked. Is it really not a normal thing offered? They also offer after school every day for various subjects.

It’s normal for my DD’s old school. They run GCSE Saturday school every week after Xmas each year and have an additional revision period by subject 4 days a week.

They get good results despite area not being high achieving.

Teachers often get paid for this, but not always

❤️

Can't they teach children during the usual school hours? You know, five maths lessons a week for five years of secondary school...

My dd gets 1 hour 1:1 with a year 12/13 each Saturday for maths (school also offer English). Year 12 get paid from school and something to put on ucas form and kids get targeted help so a win win.

I used to teach. We ran this kind of thing after school multiple days a week for years 10/11, during half term and Easter break for maths and other key subjects.
I'm so happy to hear you and your child are finding it useful because often it was poorly attended - you might invite thirty and get five show up. Of course you would give those five everything you'd got because they were the ones who'd bothered to give up their free time to do maths.
I hope your child gets the result they are working for and deserve OP, it sounds like they are putting a massive effort in and deserve to be rewarded by the examiner. Good luck.

I work in an academy and we ran Easter sessions through the holidays in all GCSE subjects. The teachers were paid for these from the Covid catch up budget.

DD’s school they have drop in ‘clinics’ that are run by teachers with sixth form help. The teachers are very approachable and the girls are not backward in asking for help if they think they need it. It isn’t on a timetable as such, more an always available thing. This is a high achieving grammar .

A friend who has a DS at a comp gets ‘interventions’ for her son and this includes study after school, during half terms and Easter. I haven’t a clue how it is funded. She had a younger DS who got the same pre-Covid.

My DC school has after school classes for everyone - lots of clashes, so you pick what you need (energy or Macbeth? Circle theorems or deserts?).
No Saturdays but Easter sessions were well attended.
The school probably is worried, as people upthread have suggested, and I think they found that doing it last year gave a real boost to grades.
Likewise no study leave, there are a number of kids in the catchment who might struggle to find a place to study at home, and who really need these teacher-led sessions.

But ours aren't teaching, it's extra revision. Especially helpful for those that struggle with motivation, or get distracted easily at home. It's something ours did pre Covid but, to be fair to year 11s, they haven't had 5 maths lessons etc a week for 5 years. A couple of those school years were quite disrupted!