Study leave?

[Idontmeanto]

Are anyone else’s year 11s having to stay in school for the duration of the GCSE exams with no study leave, with compulsory, structured revision?
Dd is very frustrated with this, and to be honest I understand that she’d fare better with some autonomy over her revision.
New head teacher is insisting this is becoming common and is beneficial. I’ve not come across it before. Just wanted a straw poll before I start trying to compose a stroppy letter.

OP you and your daughter have my sympathy. My Y11s have coveted the syllabus, revised it many a time and now we're just doing "fun revision" for the sake of it. They are a bright lot who would douch better recoding at home.

However, I do take the point many PPs made above about time wasting at home. FWIW, I'd vote with your feet, if recusing at home would be the best course of action for your daughter.

Covered! Definitely not coveted

Same for our school! For the first time the year 11 leavers date has been pushed back to mid June. I’ve told my DS that after half term (when they used to go on study leave) he does what’s best for him and I will call in. One particular day he is supposed to go in for a breakfast master class at 8 in Geography then sit an English lit exam, then have another lunchtime revision session, then actually sit the Geography exam that afternoon by which time he will be exhausted! Not happening in this house. They are not machines.

“New head teacher is insisting this is becoming common and is beneficial.”

Yes, it is. DD did her GCSEs in 2016 and she had to be in school all day every day until the last week of exams. I think she would have benefitted more from staying at home to revise, but it benefits students who won’t/don’t revise at home.

Also, the school is in a rural market town and often the only way most of the students can get to school is on the school bus as the public transport is very limited, and not all parents are around to ferry their children to and from school at odd times of the day.

The results at her school have been steadily rising since they stopped study leave. It is a state comprehensive and regularly gets over 80% pass rate for 5 GCSEs including English and maths.

DD is doing A levels this year, and study leave starts when they break up for spring bank holiday. They haven't finished the syllabus yet in her subjects.

How does cancelling study leave help students develop the independent study skills they need at A level though?
I'm sick of the way young people are infantilised, then expected to suddenly behave like adults with no intermediate stages.
I very much doubt DS's exam prep will be helped by getting into school for 8.30am, having to work out which lessons he still has around his exams, attending classes with people who (justifiably) see no point in being there at all.
Surely it's better to get up when ready, bring only the things allowed in the exam room, come home after the exam and have a proper meal?

Good point. However, I think at 15 and 16 a lot of students simply aren't emotionally mature enough to motivate themselves to study on their own. Suddenly expecting them to behave like adults at 16 is unrealistic, and why woud you deliberately set your child (or students if you are a teacher) to fail?

DD was 14 when she sat her first 2 GCSEs and 15 when she sat the rest. She is also young for her age, and definitely needed bit if support to revise. She is revising for A levels now and gets very little support from me now, other than emotional support when she has a meltdown.

Not study leave at all here and DS is mightily pissed off. I'm happy for him to revise in school up to half term but once the exams start he can stay home a fair bit and I'll just tell the school.

I do think it's crazy that on a day when you have an afternoon exam they want you in school from 9 am rather than having a good sleep and a calm morning at home.

Same on a day you've had a morning exam. Come home and chill for a couple of hours afterwards, then prepare for the next day.

I had study leave(a long time ago now!) I found it much better than being in school. Some subjects ran optional drop in sessions, I went to the ones I felt I needed to.

It'ss difficult for a school to be able to do what is best for children who all learn best in different ways.
Could your Dd take her own revision with her and when it doesn't match what the teacher is covering talk to them and use the time to focus on something else? The teachers should know what kind of student she is and perhaps trust that she knows how she learns best. That balances the need for her to have a bit more independence in her learning while the students that need more structured work from the teacher get the support they need.

My DS's school have study leave only from after the half term break at the end of May.

Personally, my DS and I both prefer him to be in school. He, even at this stage, just can't find the self- discipline or motivation to get down to serious revision. He will sit and passively watch GCSEpod on his phone if I insist but that's about it. Much better he's in school.
Also he usually catches school bus across the city. When he is coming and going at different times for exams, the transport is difficult and unreliable. I'm thinking he'll need £8 taxi fares there and an hour's walk home.

We don't give study leave anymore and it is a popular choice with parents and most of the kids.

I very much doubt DS's exam prep will be helped by getting into school for 8.30am

My son won't be going into school for revision lessons once the exams have started and we've told the school this already. He has to be out of the house by 7.15 (out of bed at 6.30) and doesn't get back home until 5pm due to shocking public transport around here (school is only 5 miles away - he could probably walk quicker!). All that for spending most of the day not actually doing anything productive, i.e. breaks, lunchtime, PE/games lessons, form time, assemblies, cover teachers who havn't a clue baby-sitting them in lessons where the teacher is doing something else, etc. He's far better getting up at a sensible time and doing his own thing throughout the day - he'll get more quality revision time by not going to school. If he goes to school, he does nothing once home in the evening as he's knackered and has to have an early night to get enough sleep for a 6.30 wake up the next day. If he gets up at say 9am, he can do a full day, and still have the energy/inclination to spend a couple of hours revising in the evening too. He's been off ill a couple of days just before Easter and neither he or we could believe just how much work/revision he got through - he actually asked if he could stay off until the exams because of all the wasted/unproductive time as part of the school day!

Study leave after half term here. DD can't wait and is having all the same issues with structured revision sessions that others have described. To much focused on those who didn't pay attention the first time round.

But at the other secondary in town they have none at all. That school is a bit of an exam factory so I can well believe they are in line with the national trend to treat teenagers like automatons and leave nothing to chance. I do wonder how they get on when they make the switch from sixth form (enforced silent study periods with teachers breathing down their necks) to university (do what you like but don't blame us if you fail).

DD doesn"t get enforced silent study periods with teachers breathing down her neck at her 6th form. What a strange notion. Do you have any children at 6th form Korma?

Not yet, but she will be in year 12 next year. And no, she isn't going to the sixth form that was so proud of its silent study period policy! Honestly, when we looked round that sixth form, I found it quite depressing to see 17/18 year olds being so closely supervised and not trusted to be able to motivate themselves to study without a teacher in the room. But it's a popular school and lots of parents buy into their approach.

DS’s school start study leave on Monday. However, he plans to go in each day, study in the very comfortable library, use the super fast broadband, eat lunch (that I’ve paid for) and know that his teachers are down the corridor if he realises he doesn’t understand something. So many of his exams are at 9.15am - he doesn’t want his body clock to get used to lie ins.