Holidays in GCSE year

[LittleMonks11]

I’m struggling with the notion of no holidays during GCSE year. Not just for us but for DD, who also needs things to look forward to and struggles with the relentless workload already (Y10).

Would a Feb half term break be irresponsible? She has her final assessment point just after though before the real thing starts in May 😩

What did others do? Just suck it up?

We are planning a special post exams two week trip once she’s done though.

Forgot to say, no siblings to worry about missing out.

We did a long weekend in the Easter holidays which I think was really needed! Because it was only 4 days there was still plenty of revision time left. I wouldn’t do Feb half term, some schools do a second set of mocks around then.

We're going skiing in Feb half term as usual with Y11 DS. Our school doesn't start holiday intervention classes until Easter (they do after school) and I think the break will do him good.

couple of days in Feb half term. Nothing since - we asked what she wanted and went with her wishes. Going at the end of June.

Depends. If she is a solid worker and will keep trucking through the year then a few days away won't be an issue. If she is a last minute crammer and the mocks are straight after half term then I'd make it a break at Easter.

I say this as someone with the latter who as a result we have literally done no family break since October and with hindsight probably should have as it would have made little difference and might have focussed her more when we came back. She did do some online revision courses [zoom teaching] that ran daily during those breaks though so it is tricky if a) they really need to use the breaks to revise and/or b) have aspirations for very high grades.

My DD is just finishing year 11 and they had mocks immediately after the Feb half term so going away wouldn’t have worked well.

We’ve just managed with no holidays and have several nice things planned in the next few weeks after exams finish.

Your dd may get more benefit from a week away in the Feb, than trying to revise.

At some point they need a break from things. Having a break then maybe fresh her so she can focus more when she returns.

We did a week in the Easter holidays and a new days in the May half term. These kids need a break. My son isn’t particularly academic but did well in his exams.

I would try to find out when mocks are being held.

My DC's school do them before Oct and Feb half terms- so going away would have been fine. If exams are straight after the holidays then maybe not.

To add, our mocks are straight after Christmas, we wouldn’t go if they were straight after half term

We went Feb half term for both of ours who have done GCSE so far. Thank the GCSE teens each had a 3 day break at Easter to the country of the languages they were doing for some relaxation before exams started dressed up as "oral exam prep".

Both got very good results.

One teen didn't do any work over the Feb half term. The more studious one did bring school work.

Ask the school when mocks are planned for. Ours did some in December and then that was it until the real thing. Other local schools did some after feb half term. I think there was some kind of booster session in half term, but when I spoke with the head of year when forward planning, she said not to worry about that as the teachers could provide resources.

We went away in Feb half term as our final break before summer. It was needed an much appreciated! The other option, of your family situation allows, is Christmas, maybe skiing?

Figure out when her mocks will be. If Nov you can go away for New Year, if Jan then Feb half-term is a good opportunity. Apart from that, we've just sucked it up. DC1 currently doing A levels, so this has been a minimal travel year for us, but the in between years we make up for it and last year we went away at new year, Easter, summer and Oct half-term. Next year we have GCSEs again for the younger one, so two lean years in a row, which is doubly annoying!

We did long weekends over Christmas, February half term and Easter which worked really well. A strict no work policy was enforced with all books etc left at home. It gave us all something to look forward to and was a proper break.

Some of DDs friends went away for a week or two on beach or ski holidays and it was fairly rubbish for them as they wanted to do some work so missed out on several hours of the holiday each day. Bit pants if the rest of the family is out on the mountain or sat on the beach. Her best friend wished she hadn’t been taken to the Maldives as it felt like a wasted trip.

We are going skiing at Feb half term still. But Easter we will probably just do a long weekend and some day trips

We went on a three day theatre trip to London in February half term and dd went for a long weekend to stay with her friend at Easter. She had originally been planning to go on a week long residential dance easter school but didn;t end up going for some reason.

Ds's GCSE year was 2020. He went on a day trip to London during February half term but obviously nothing happened at Easter!

DD went on a school trip to New York in Feb half term and is doing her GCSEs now. It did her good. She is though a very hard worker and that was her only holiday all year, her mocks were in January so even the Christmas school holidays were just work, work, work. Can’t wait for her to finish and then we’re off to the Med for a proper two week break.

We are just doing October and August in Y11, but that’s largely due to our own circumstances, I wouldn’t do the half terms, but a week Easter holidays seems ok? Still an additional week for revision, they will need some downtime.

Feb half term is probably far enough away too to be fair, I assume mocks are before?

I would just go after she’s finished. Make sure to avoid contingency dates too.

Ds currently y10.

Planning October half term in Paris and then a week at easter somewhere low key like Norfolk. Maybe take a few days in May half term but seems unlikely. I resent it as Ds2 won't be able to finish early so it's a long time from Easter to July!

When DD sat GCSEs, the second round of mocks was after February half term so we went away at Christmas but then no holidays until August (we did have an occasional day trip out in intervening school holidays as a break). She’s now sitting A levels and her mocks were before February half term so we went away then. We have always ruled out a holiday at Easter in exam years but I have friends with children the same age who’ve gone away then and their child has done some revision on holiday.

It depends what they're doing but mine would have found a week at Easter stressful as they were trying to finish their art portfolios. These had to be in the week after term started. We did a short city break over the Easter weekend in Berlin which was relevant for history and language.

We also did a few days in October half term as mocks were in January but a lot of schools have mocks in November.

We went away October half term, a few days in Feb half term and 4 days over Easter. DC took some work to do and stayed at the accommodation for a few hours each day to do some, but they also enjoyed the break and being in a different environment. They’re on track to do well in their GCSEs which they’re sitting atm.

I agree it depends on when mocks are, what the subjects are (thinking of subjects like art) and your DC.

While we didn't go away until after the exams DD did have days off from revising entirely.

We just sucked it up. It's only a few months after all. Loads of families can only afford one holiday a year.

Depends on mock timings and any practicals, but we went away for 5 nights this Easter. DD took revision with her, but just did a little each day. She’s been revising steadily though since the mocks last November, and now is almost at the end of her GCSEs.