Holiday revision sessions

[DorothyL]

Do you think teachers should offer holiday revision sessions, or is it just extra nice if they do but they should not feel obliged to?

I am not because I want to spend the time with my children, but is that wrong?

It's like every other 'extra' that we do - once one person does it to be 'nice' then it becomes expected. It's why the union directive of 'work to rule' doesn't work and why performance related pay is nonsense - teachers who don't have outside responsibilities do extra stuff that is then expected from those who can't give up even more time to the job but who are then judged not to be working hard enough. Self defeating and shouldn't be allowed without proper remuneration.

There is a big debate about this in our school as after school revision has become compulsory for some students, so staff are teaching reluctant students. One our neighbouring schools pays staff for holiday revision sessions.

I have found that the students who come in during the holidays are the ones who would others be revising at home anyway.

This seems to be a growing expectation. I teach in 6th form college, I am doing a days revision tomorrow for my AS students who have an exam in 3 weeks. Im covering 1 topic in detail. Because of the way our holidays work, (we have a limited number of days which we 'book' off ) that day wont be counted as holiday and i will be able to take that day during the summer. I do know in some schools that staff are increasingly expected to take revision sessions without any extra pay. We are also expected to give up our free time during the day and at the end of the day to provide intervention for those students who are not meeting target grades. I am dubious about the effectiveness of any of these activities tbh.
Students who turn up to revision sessions generally revise anyway, its the lazy ones who need to be there who don't bother. Its just a way of making us entirely responsible for our students results, when in reality there are so many other things that affect their attainment such as aptitude, motivation, long term plan, interest, home life etc etc etc.

There was an interesting secret teacher article in the guardian by a headteacher who realised that intervention was having a negative effect on exam results so he stopped all intervention and results went up.

I read that too heir ive said for years the more we do the less the children will take responsibility. Not one of my yr 11 class of 16 who sit their gcse exams in three weeks and are already struggling did their easter homework. Not one.

For the first time in my 15 year (and hopefully last) career i did easter school. It has gone from optional to almost compulsory just as I said it would. It is unpaid and cost me money to put my own school age children in childcare for the day and to buy food for my yr11s to get them there. After o spent nd hour in the morning phoning them as they didnt show up at 9. Ridiculous.

Wholeheartedly agree with most of the points already made. Back in the day, when I was young, keen and childfree, I was happy to offer a few days revision in Easter, for which I was paid. Not a lot, but an acknowledgment of the time I gave up and I enjoyed supporting the kids who CHOSE to come in and really benefited.

These days my school asked for volunteers to come in over Easter for no pay. Most of us have our own children. We laughed at the email and hit delete. Apart from a couple of the young staff.

The push for constant FORCED 'intervention' at 8am, lunch or 3:30, rather than just offering support and being available to your pupils as needed, has become ridiculous in many schools and I too would question the impact. The kids who are forced to come to these sessions don't listen in actual classes so why on earth do we think making them attend additional lessons will make the slightest bit difference? I really love my own, ad hoc sessions with kids who ask for help, not those that are forced to come and arse around ruining it for those who want my help.

It's just yet another box ticking exercise so dept heads and headteachers can justify what they did to try and improve, when they have to justify results.

Time to roll out this pic: