If you put !My Council! into google you can get all the term dates up to 2008 plus the exam dates.

All you have to fill in is your postcode!

Hope that helps you all for the future

My daughter is in year 10 and at her school,(not sure if this applies to all schools) there are changes to the Science GCSE. They are taking the modular examination approach (whatever that is!) to the year 10 GCSE exams. There are exams on 22/11/056, 12/3/07 and 25/6/07. Hope this helps.

Hi janelouise, after looking at the timetable again, I've realised that I got the dates and subjects the wrong way round and she has got a science exam,(Physics to be precise) on the 25/6/07, however, there isn't any mention of anything for her on the other dates that you have given in November or March, her other science ones are the week before.
It's really frustrating me because I've left messages with the school but so far they have not returned my calls and they break up on Thursday!

It isn't looking too good for us so it's looking like the only options that we have are either paying £900 to get the holiday moved or keeping the booking as it is but paying for flights with a budget airline and making our own way there after her exams, this means that we will lose about 4 days of our holiday.
Anyway, thanks for replying.

Any other ideas or suggestions by anyone would be most welcome.

Vodkafreak34

My son is also in year 10 and on looking at his school calendar his mock GCSE's start on 25.6.07 and finish 29.6.07. The dates given for Science Modular exams are 21.11.06 12.3.07 and 25.6.07.

Hope this helps

Regards Jackie

hi Vodka. How stressful. i really hope you get better news today. My son is now in year 11 so will take his GCSEs next may/june. But it looks like from the replies every area could be different. This is what he did last year in year 10. Year 10 exams around Easter. Various pieces of coursework and science modular exams. i still have the details of these here . he did 6 six modules last year , 2 modules for each exam (each 2 module s accounts for 5% of their GCSE) and he did one exam each term. November, march ,june. he does the same this year for the other half. but one point that you may find interesting is that he is being given the opportunity to resit those that the teacher feels he could improve on given the fact that they have now covered more of the subjects invloved. so this may still be an option for your daughter is she missed the june one. I personally would check that with her school before you make any decisions on your booking. His mocks are this christmas.

hope some of that may help.

lyn

well I'm going to stick my neck out and say that this thread proves the point that kids shouldn't take holidays at all in term time during Years 10 & 11 they are just too important!

Sorry Jan but I disagree. Although years 10 and 11 are important I would still take my children on holiday during term time but obviously not if they had an exam at that specific time. Also I think it all depends on the child i.e. are they capable enough to catch up on any work they miss, or would they find it too difficult?. In fact my sons school runs a ski trip to Austria or California every year for years 9 10 11 12 and 13 and although towards the end of a term one week of it is always in term time. Also any boys who play for the school football team go to Holland for a week to train and play over there when they are in year nine. This is also in term time and another important year for SAT's. I know everybody has their own opinions and I am sure the mods don't want a debate on their hands but again we are back to double standards regarding parents being refused permission by schools in some cases to take their children on holiday during term time and the schools doing exactly that.

Regards Jackie

I see your point jackie, but mine is that this thread shows that you can't be at all certain if a child will have an exam at that specific time!

You're right though I should not be debating this here.

Jan

Know exactly what you are saying Jan. I am lucky in the fact that my sons school issue a calendar of events for the whole school not just his year when they return for the new school year in September which takes you round to July the following year. Everything that will be happening in the school for that period is shown, so at least I am aware of when he has exams, work experience, parents evening etc well in advance.

Regards Jackie

vodkafrwak.

Most schools set internal exams in yr 10 to monitor the progress of their pupils and to give them some info to predict final grades. If it is like my school most of these exams will not count towards their final marks. However some modular courses such as the one I teach, science, may have external module tests that do count. In addition the new courses started by this years year 10s also don't have coursework. This has been replaced by externally set practical based exams. Again the school may have problems allowing missing kids to catch these up. The school will have the dates of any of these. Some subjects do allow resits in yr 11 so it is not the end of the world if they miss one however experience has shown me that kids usually get their best marks first time round and most that re-sit actually do worse as they have had to retain the info longer.

Kids that miss the internal exams for one reason or another usually get to do them when they return to school. Its no big thing for these. However external tests are another matter.

The recent trend for schools to switch to modular courses rather than traditional GCSEs means that many kids now have lots of external mini exams rather then the big 'finals' that we all remember from our school days. This makes it more difficult to take holidays as they either miss the test or may miss a vital 2 weeks out of a 10 week module which will affect their module mark.

Sorry if this is not what you want to hear.

Hi all, many thanks again for your help and advice.
I am getting increasingly frustrated with my daughters school as they still haven't returned any of my calls. I know that there is no immediate rush to get something sorted as this all happens next June, however, I would rather know exactly were I stand so that I can make any necessary alternative arrangements
The favourite alternative is me or my husband travelling with my son on the original date and the remaining parent following on with our daughter after her exams. Obviously this is going to incur further expense but not as much as if we move the holiday back one week.
Having looked at a few budget airlines, we can get two flights for less than £100, however, this price will increase as time goes on.
Anyway, again many thanks. It's a good job I asked for advice on this forum because if I had sat and waited for the school to respond I think that I would have been bald by now!!

Vodka

You may get a quicker response by phoning the education department at your Town Hall. To be honest I would take it that your daughter will be having Science Modular Exams on 21.11.06 12.3.07 and 25.6.07 as most of the posters that have replied with dates all give the same three dates for these exams.

Good Luck

Hi vodka Have you tried actually going into the school and asking to see either your daughter's head of year, or the head of science department? This should give you a better idea of what is going on, although it sounds very much like these exams are the external modular exams which count towards the final grade - my son did quite a few bits of his final grade coursework and exams in several subjects while he was in Year 10 (he's now at college).
If I was you, I'd push the school for confirmation today (go in and demand to be seen) and then book those budget flights as soon as possible

I totally agree with cyber Vodka. Speak to the head of year or the head of science. If they do fall on 25/6 then check if she can do them on another date as it appears to be common knowledge at my sons school that they can resit them in year 11 if science dept feels they could do better . my son is resitting one of his

lyn

Hi all, unfortunately I couldn't manage to actually go into the school because of work commitments that I couldn't get out of, this is why I phoned the school numerous times and asked to speak to virtually everyone apart from the caretaker!!!
Aswell, my daughter went to see the head of year and reminded her to phone us....not that it made a difference!!
I phoned the education department at the town hall, eventually spoke to someone after being passed from pillar to post who then told me, "you really need to speak to someone at the school"!!
So, as it currently stands, I have had no definite answers from the school, now they have broken up for half term, I won't be any the wiser for at least another week.
Like you said Jackie, going off what all of the other posters have said it is looking likely that this is going to be moreorless a national thing so I think that we are going to work with our plan of one of us travelling out after she has sat them.....now all we have to decide is who stays and who goes!!
Thanks again all.

perhaps you should call the education department and put in a complaint about the school. The fact you have put in numerous calls and not been contacted is shocking. Tell them you need to know the dates now - and you can't wait another week. I don't believe for a second that no-one can tell you.

For many students yr 11 resits will not be possible due to the new courses started this year. Instead of a 2 year course GCSE science is now a self contained yr10 course followed by another self contained yr 11 course. So once June 2007 has passed then all marks and work will need to be in for the award of core GCSE then the students will begin their additional or applied GCSE in September.

This is nothing to do with the year 10 situation, but my youngest who is in yr 7 has been off for 3 days,rang the school today to try and get some of the work he has missed,as he thought he could catch upover half term,they said ring you back before lunch----------STILL WAITING!!!!!!!

So much for the schools caring-----It's a different story when the schools have their results published!!!!!!!!!!!!Then it,s either the pupils or the parents fault--------never the schools!!!!!!!

By the way this school is SUPPOSED to be the best in Liverpool---------------Last Sunday the parents we're left waiting for 1hrs plus while the coach returning from a school trip had a driver who didn't know where he was going
Also the next day the kids were going on a day trip aaaafter spending the weekend away----in my opinion totally ridiculous

Surely participation in the trip was voluntary on your part so your child could have stayed in school? But the trip would have been for educational purposes to cover something that could not be done adequatly in school.

As for the bus driver, unfortunate but not something in the control of the school although future trips should make sure that the coach company has clear directions.

Teachers are not obliged to provide work for absent pupils. If they do so they do it voluntarily. Your child's teachers may have had classes all day, the Head of Year who would have co-ordinated this may also have been teaching all day, the work may not have been suitable for doing at home unsupervised (can you do science practicals on your living room table)? I suggest your child borrows the book of a friend and copies up any missing notes.