Test week for teens

[pumpkin1976]

I'm just venting a bit! My daughters at a selective school, she loves it on the whole and is in year 9. They do test week every year, which I know happens all over in all schools but struggle with how it's organised. As someone who work with teens and understands a bit about learning, the brain and development I have some big problems with how it's structured.

They have to sit in the same room all
week, they don't have enough space in the hall, that's fine. When they don't have a test they have what they call "silent revision" which I get. The problem I have is my daughter has only one test first thing one day and then the whole day will be spent in silent revision. That's four hours. The test she has first thing is an hour. She doesn't mind the tests it's the ridiculous amounts of silent revision they are told to do. She suffered with terrible stress last year brought on by just being exhausted. When she's focussed she's fine, it's the sit in silence for hours thing that is just shattering for her. I know for her GCSE's she'll have to sit in silence but she'll have structure. I've tried to explain that when she does her GCSEs she'll come home afterwards and go in for tests. Enforced revision for hours is not a healthy way to learn, particularly for teens and for anybody to be honest. My hubby works at a university and he said there's no way they'd expect that of their students. I'd struggle to be honest. Honestly I bloody hate school nowadays 🙄

That sounds a very odd way to organise things. DD has an assessment fortnight (Y9). Exams take place in exam conditions in their normal classes. Most of the time for the core subjects everyone does the exam on the same day. However, there is some variation for history, geography etc. Conceivably kids could pass on information about content for these subjects, but this is considered less important than the timetable disruption of administering exams in unconnected subjects. To be fair most kids aren’t invested enough in Y9 to bother with that anyway. Other lessons continue as per normal timetable. They can’t do them in the sports hall because that is being used for actual GCSEs.

Presumably they have break and lunch where they can chat?
I guess they are teaching them how to focus and revise, but I wouldn't be keen either.
Can you teach her to swap subjects/topics/methods to break it up?

Four hours of silent revision is a lot for Year 9, especially if she already finds it stressful. If the school will not change the structure, I would help her make a rotation she can use silently: 25 minutes recall, 25 minutes questions, 10 minutes correction log, then switch subject. The aim is to stop the time becoming four hours of anxious staring.

Thanks all, that's her timetable for Tuesday and the school sent a letter out Friday to specify when they aren't doing a test it's silent revision. She struggles with no task or focus so it's basically her worse nightmare. The actual tests are fine. I've given her some advice about using some time to daydream, then doodle and she absolutely doesn't have to revise. Revision now is better if you do 29 mins have a movement break then go back to it. She has break and lunch but it's 2 hours in the afternoon if basically nowt to do. She can sit still but when she has her final GCSEs it's spread out over weeks and you're not sat still in silence when you don't have an exam.

Shes a confident fab student at this school but the prolonged atmosphere of stress when this happened last year resulted in her having panic attacks and being a wreck after test week. It was a kind of burnout, she has a nervous system that runs hot and wired most of the time.

I've emailed school and told them I'm collecting her Tuesday after lunch and she can come home and revise then. They can unauthorise it, I genuinely don't care. I've explained that she will cope much better for the rest of the week if she has some down time Tuesday rather than coming home absolutely cognitively exhausted. Last year when she was unwell they were supportive. It's a pressured grammar school and to be honest most of the kids there are complete wrecks with anxiety etc. The pastoral team is massive and you wonder why

My DD's school has the same setup during test week. I don't think it's a big deal. DD quite likes the peace and quiet! As someone else said, they get their normal break and lunchtimes so it's not as though they are tied to their desks.

DD is in Y10 now and Y10s are allowed to bring a laptop/tablet (not phone) to use during revision times, which increases their options. In previous years when this was not allowed, she did struggle to bring enough paper revision items to occupy her. She did, however, bring a book in, and she really enjoyed some long reading sessions in a quiet atmosphere.

When they have a double lesson (eg afternoon) of revision, your DD could ask the teacher at the start of the session whether they could have a 5-minute movement/chat break in the middle. If it is refused, she could email the head of year after exam week to propose that this be offered by teachers in future years.

Unless your child has a special need which is not met by this arrangement, I would just advise her how to use the time effectively. This isn't a hill to die on.

I get what you're saying they can't take books in, my daughter hasn't got a diagnosed Sen so we don't unfortunately have a piece of paper to wave around. She hasn't panic attacks brought on by stress. I'm not dying on a hill and it's fortunate your daughter enjoys studying, not everyone does sadly. When you have a child who's awake at night filled with adrenaline shivering because their nervous system is crashing then it's truly awful to experience. This crash that she experience then spreads to other areas of her life. School have said they can't take a book in to read, can't doodle, can't do anything other than look at their notes from other lessons. It's shit and badly organised.

shes not tied to a desk has 20 mins in the morning and a lunch break but other than that she is sat at the same desk in the same room next to same person she can't talk
to all week. Adults would struggle with that, I guess it's not a hill to die on as you say but it's crappy and anyone who's studied education and how teen brains work is pretty shit and doesn't teach them anything.