Are your Y11s on study leave?

[Strawberrypineapple]

Many local schools seem to have abandoned study leave in favour of keeping them in until the last exam, but equally quite a few seem to be only in to take exams. Just wondering what the national sort of situation is?

Mine finish for study leave today, but the dc of a colleague the next county along started study leave before the start of the exams

My DC school had initially said it would continue keeping them in school for lessons til the end of exam period, but this plan has been abandoned.

However, a lot of the stem subjects are holding extra lessons in school over half term, which is well and truly above and beyond from staff

Recent survey shows most are still in school.

At my school they have to attend lessons till the last exam for each subject so I’m still teaching Y11 till 14th June.

It's up to the school. Ours is doing half-and-half - in school full time before half term, and study leave after half term. But the in school weeks were not the usual timetable - it was focussed revision sessions, and even during the study leave they will be running online revision sessions and students can revise in school if they prefer. It's helpful for students who struggle to revise at home.

This article clarifies Ofsted's view: https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-no-mark-down-if-schools-let-year-11s-leave-early/

You poor thing.

?

Yes DD year 11 has been on study leave since 5th May and only going in for exams

Mine has to be in full time until the 16th June when the exams end.

In school full time with normal timetable until Friday 16th June. Then a compulsory leavers assembly after school at 4pm!

On the Y11 parents' thread it looks like there are a lot going to study leave at half term.

Ours have to be in for all lessons until they've taken the exam. Ridiculous especially when they can't provide a quiet working environment the rest of the time, but only chaotic, poorly supervised "free study" sessions. Our poor kids.

We've decided to let DC skive a couple of days, when he would very obviously be better off at home. Not sure whether to ask permission or just sign him in sick.

Study leave since 9th May. On the one day they had two exams, it was pretty clear that school is not conducive to revision.

Our school doesn’t do study leave. They have revision between exams ready for the next exam they have.

Ds (grammar school) has been off since early May (a week before exams started).

We had to specify if we wanted our dc to still attend school after this date.

Ds has definitely benefited from being at home and working on the areas he needs to focus on. He is pretty self motivated and likes to get on with things - I think being at school during exams would have stressed him out!

Local comprehensives broke up on Thursday / Friday or are keeping them in until the end.

Ours are back in for a special day after exams end too 😊

Mine is supposed to be in school - when they’re not doing an exam the students are expected to go to the normal class they would be in for regular timetable and they’re doing revision sessions. However, in reality the teachers seem quite happy for the kids to go into the library, art room, anywhere else they fancy to chat revise.

The other day, DD didn’t have an exam at all, and she would have been expected to go to maths and various other classes where there’s no exam until after half term - but she had physics and psychology she wanted to revise for later that week, so I just rang school and said she’s not coming in, she’s revising physics at home. Nobody rang me back to ask why she wasn’t in/threaten to fine me so I’m guessing they didn’t mind that much.

I saw at least 2 'last day of school' posts (except for exams) on Facebook locally yesterday for yr11s so I'm assuming the school my DS went to is still doing study leave as they did when he was there.

My DS finished timetabled lessons on Thu. The letter from school said pupils were welcome to attend their timetabled lessons after half term but I imagine most will just welcome being on study leave. DS did go in yesterday for a further maths lesson and is going in for a few more of those after half term. Not sure about any other subjects.

DD finished school on 3 May and just pops in for exams and instrument lessons.

I think the other Indies round here all do the same as there seem to be quite a few kids in town when I pop in.

I would prefer her to be in school a few hours/week for supervised revision. It seems odd to imagine that students would thrive being "home alone" for 6 weeks, after 2 years of Covid lockdowns.

Last day for Y11s yesterday. Some pupils are expected to be back after half-term until their exams finish.

My yr11 has full timetable until 9th June. Yr 13 dc went on study leave yesterday

My DS still has to go to school until 16th June. They go to exam revision blocks the day before exams and if not, normal timetabled lessons.

The school are running English language sessions for a couple of days next week in half term. Which I think is great.

I know of two local schools where they're in study leave. Don't know about the rest. I didn't know they were keeping them in some places! Seems harsh but maybe they thought they wouldn't be revising enough at home? What's the rationale behind it?

Some/many won't revise at home.

DD finished yesterday for study leave but after half term her teachers will be available in their previous timetabled lessons for ‘supervised revision sessions’
She’s only going to go in for a couple of sessions and her exams.
They also didn’t tell the kids till mid afternoon that they didn’t have to come back after half term, they’d previously been told they would be in until all their exams had finished.

My Y11 is in until after her last exam on the 16th of June with a leaver's ceremony the week after, and prom the week after that. Her school is also doing some revision days over the half-term break and have been running revision help after school for a while now.

My Y13 at a different school is also in for most of it, though there are some mornings he isn't in due to other exams going on.

What's the rationale behind it?

In some places it just seems to be the norm, in chatting with other parents, they'd had similar when they were in school (I didn't grow up in the UK, so I have to go off them). They and one of the teachers I talked to seemed keen on the benefits of keeping in routine during the stressful time, having that support and dedicated time with revising or exam stress and being able to continue some of the extra curricular activities - my Y11 loves that she can keep doing drama club throughout the exam period.

Round here, my DDs school is the only one going in. All the other high schools have the year 11s on study leave.