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Secondary education

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Original poster

May half term - holiday for child doing GCSEs

107 replies

Madamlulu · 23/10/2023 09:03

Hi

We normally go away May half term and next year my oldest child is doing his GCSEs so other parents have told me 'you can't go away'.

I totally get this and don't want to be a bad parent but I also love our holiday away. DS never studies. He is super creative and loves his art but finds all the other subjects challenging. We are dealing with this with him having extra study time at school and he does a homework club 4 days a week but at home he just never studies. I'm wondering if this might change in the run up but extremely doubtful.

AIBU to take my child away for a break in the middle of half term (and have a break myself)?

Any advise from parents who have been through the GCSEs would be so appreciated.. at the moment I'm feeling like everyone is telling me that life has to be on hold form Spring to June next year and that's fine but I also don't want to put too much pressure on my otherwise happy (but lazy) DS.

Thanks in advance x

OP posts:
ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 26/10/2023 23:48

Roselilly36 · 26/10/2023 17:17

My DS2 wasn’t academic, we would have taken a holiday, chance to relax from the pressure of school.

But he still needed to do GCSE?

Roselilly36 · 27/10/2023 06:33

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow yes, he is severely dyslexic, sat all his GCSE’s that school entered him into, scraped one pass in Eng Lit, he is 20 now and works hard in an very specialised area of tech, his lack of GCSE’s hasn’t held him back. His school would fine parents for the cost of the exam if they didn’t turn up.

How is your health now? improving I hope Flowers

clary · 27/10/2023 07:25

Nellle · 26/10/2023 23:24

Highly unusual. All major exam boards timetable their exams in the same slots, so Eng Lang for example is always after May half term in the same slots regardless of whether you're doing AQA, Edexcel, OCR or Eduqas. Has been the case for at least 10 years.

Show quote history

Tbf @Longma mentions IGCSEs, eng lang is very early IIRC, this year it was in early May I think.

But most students don't sit IGCSE so will certainly have a good number of the correct papers - eng lang, maths and science - as well as most likely some option subjects after half term.

clary · 27/10/2023 07:26

Correct papers? I meant core papers obvs

androidnotapple · 27/10/2023 07:28

Is he treated for his ADHD?

MintJulia · 27/10/2023 08:21

OP, my ds is the same age as yours, gcses next spring. We're having a last break now. Revising for mocks will start next week. Then a break at Christmas, before more serious revising and focus next spring.

We'll go somewhere lovely after they are finished.

Evvyjb · 27/10/2023 12:58

Just as an FYI, English lang starts BEFORE the May half term this year - exam boards have released timetables.

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