Stolen jacket at school

duchy

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Blow the teachers - bringing the exams forward this much and then letting the students leave deprives them of half a term's education!

You are forgetting that exams need to be marked and graded.
If exam results are not as expected so the student's plans change (eg better marks might mean needing a place on a more academic course - worse than expected - again a different course or a place for retakes). At present there are only a couple of weeks between results and schools and college courses starting -If the exams were later then there simply wouldn't be time to change new courses starting in September so a lot more than a few weeks of education could be lost.

As progression onto post 16 education is based on GCSE results your idea is not practical.

missbiggles1

duchy wrote: »

You are forgetting that exams need to be marked and graded.
If exam results are not as expected so the student's plans change (eg better marks might mean needing a place on a more academic course - worse than expected - again a different course or a place for retakes). At present there are only a couple of weeks between results and schools and college courses starting -If the exams were later then there simply wouldn't be time to change new courses starting in September so a lot more than a few weeks of education could be lost.

As progression onto post 16 education is based on GCSE results your idea is not practical.

Except it managed to be practical for many years, including the days when exams were properly marked rather than consisting of multiple choice questions and others requiring quick, tick box marking!

When I was at school, exams were in early June, you only had a week's revision beforehand and students stayed in school after exams were finished. So, as I said earlier, current pupils lose a half term's education for no good reason.

Later exams don't have to mean later results and very few students need to completely change their plans in September if results are better or worse than expected. Having been involved in admissions for my course area for many years, it's a simple job to allocate a student to a lower or higher course if the need arises.

Spendless

missbiggles1 wrote: »

When I was at school, exams were in early June, you only had a week's revision beforehand and students stayed in school after exams were finished. So, as I said earlier, current pupils lose a half term's education for no good reason.

How long ago are you talking about? I left what is now called yr11 in 1983. Then there were 2 sets of exams CSEs and O'levels. If you were taking O'levels you were in school full time until they broke up for May 1/2 term, then you went in only for exams as all O levels took place in June, once you'd completed your last exam that was it, you didn't return.

If you were only taking CSEs, it depended on when your birthday fell.If your birthday was before a certain date (from memory either 1st Feb or March) once you'd completed your last exam you could leave. If your birthday fell after this date then you couldn't finish until the last day of school before breaking up for May 1/2 term even if you'd taken your last CSE.

I remember that scenario happening to a girl in one of my classes, she'd finished her exams wasn't old enough to stop going to classes and came into school with a book to read. I recall another teacher coming to find her and saying they'd found something she could help out with doing instead.

missbiggles1

Spendless wrote: »

How long ago are you talking about? I left what is now called yr11 in 1983. Then there were 2 sets of exams CSEs and O'levels. If you were taking O'levels you were in school full time until they broke up for May 1/2 term, then you went in only for exams as all O levels took place in June, once you'd completed your last exam that was it, you didn't return.

If you were only taking CSEs, it depended on when your birthday fell.If your birthday was before a certain date (from memory either 1st Feb or March) once you'd completed your last exam you could leave. If your birthday fell after this date then you couldn't finish until the last day of school before breaking up for May 1/2 term even if you'd taken your last CSE.

I remember that scenario happening to a girl in one of my classes, she'd finished her exams wasn't old enough to stop going to classes and came into school with a book to read. I recall another teacher coming to find her and saying they'd found something she could help out with doing instead.

I'm talking about late 60s, early 70s.

We came back to school for about a month and started on A level work, broadly based general studies courses and some visits. We even had to come back into school after A level exams were finished!

Spendless

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I'm talking about late 60s, early 70s.

We came back to school for about a month and started on A level work, broadly based general studies courses and some visits. We even had to come back into school after A level exams were finished!

What happened to those returning to education but not at A level eg someone going on to a Technical College?

peachyprice

Spendless wrote: »

I've 2 kids at (the same) Secondary school. They don't use email to contact students or their families. They do use the text messaging service but I think you have to sign up to it (and alert them about a change of number!). The only time they do email you is if you have initiated contact with an individual inquiry that is being replied to. But certainly worth asking if the OPs school participates in doing this.

Goodness, really. I get emails about everything, and I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, right down to a case nits being reported!

missbiggles1

Spendless wrote: »

What happened to those returning to education but not at A level eg someone going on to a Technical College?

In comprehensives, the time could probably be better spent doing work experience at this point, rather than earlier in the year. At least that would free up the time currently spent doing this in teaching time.

(However, leaving after exams is only one of the waste of times currently. Our lad went on exam leave in early May, a couple of weeks before the exams - now that really was a pointless waste of time!)

Jagraf

Mine finishes gcses next week. Between now and September she will be expected to use her time wisely - that's my job as a parent and her job as an pproaching adult. It's not a teachers reposibility, nor a schools, in my opinion.

Mine finished for study leave a couple of weeks prior to the exams and has honestly worked hard during that time. Depends on the child. I would have never worked! She could have gone back in if preferred.

I agree a good time for work experience is after GCSEs .

tom9980

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I'm talking about late 60s, early 70s.

We came back to school for about a month and started on A level work, broadly based general studies courses and some visits. We even had to come back into school after A level exams were finished!

Teaching has changed just a bit since then. Indeed quite a lot in the last 10 years alone. Your opinion is based on knowledge that is nearly 50 years out of date.

GwylimT

Running_On_Empty wrote: »

Why not teach non curriculum topics, life skills such as how to understand your pay slip and how to calculate your tax?
What exactly will those re aligned duties be? Tea drinking in the staff room?

They are curriculum topics.

Officially no longer a teacher but when I had said goodbye to my year elevens I would typically have four hours a week to be re-allocated, this was normally a combination of invigilating end of year exams, marking the science ones, going to primary schools to meet our new year sevens, the start of prep on next years work and marking ISAs that had just been completed by year ten.

A staffroom, that would I have been nice, I have only ever worked in one school that had a staffroom.