Hello

My eldest is due to sit mocks after the Easter holiday next year. We were led to believe that entry to 6th form of any school was based on mock results. With this in mind does this mean no family holiday during Easter? Not sure if a week away will mess things up or be ok seeing as these are mocks and not real exams.

Juneboy

6th form entry is usually based on a combination of mock results as well as predicted grades - plus any 6th form sill have a standard requirement (so for example it will likely expect a minimum grade in the core subjects and at least a 6 or possibly a 7 in subjects being pursued at A level).

Easter is an odd time to have mocks - is your ds not taking mocks in December or January?

In any case it is entirely possible to have a holiday and revise , although he clearly won't get the full experience. Lots of students go on holiday weighed down with text books and so on - you will need to decide if that's what you want to do.

It must be very different in your area, but round here, the deadline for application for sixth form places is sometime between the end of the autumn term and the first few weeks of the spring term. Conditional offers will already have been made to external applicants by Easter. Internal applicants are guaranteed a place if they meet the overall and subject requirements. No-one has their place confirmed until results day. So conditional offers will have been made on the strength of teacher predictions of likely grades, rather than on the results of mocks.

But as I say, your area may do things completely differently, (I would make sure of what the procedure is, though).

As for whether or not to go away for the week, cant help you there, I'm afraid. How does your D.C. normally approach their work? If they have always relied on last minute cramming, it may be a bit late to train them out of this.

X-posted with piggys

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Are these mocks as in end of year 10 exams?

With the "these will affect whether you get a place in the sixth form when you apply in year 11" message from school?

hmmm - might suspect it is just a way of getting them to take the mocks / end or year exams a bit more seriously

Ah, hadn't considered that we might be talking about year 10, but that makes more sense re the basis of predictions for 6th form applications.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Correct - end of year 10 exams

The schools our DC attend / have attended call those 'Year 10 end of year exams', 'mocks being exams in GCSE format taken midway through year 11.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Ours started to call them mocks a couple of years ago too. Personally I wouldn't hesitate to go away in the Easter of year 10, although if the exams are as soon as he goes back to school he may have to take some books with him...

I don’t recall my DS doing any work for the year 10 exams ( which was of course reflected in his performance).
A holiday would need t have made any difference.
I know some people worked very hard which not surprisingly made year 11 much easier.
How about asking his head of year what their expectations are?
My son’s year 10 exams were just before the Easter holidays which I thought was good timing.
What does your son think?
Is he the kind of child who likes to be well prepared for things?
Will he be stressed by knowing others are revising?
My DS didn’t do much for the November mocks either and then worked flat out from the end of Feb half term. I’m still not sure what made him get a spurt on.
Ended up with marks he was really proud of. The school were also pleased.
In my experience that’s really a boy exam technique.
Interestingly he has started working hard for A levels from day 1.
I think he realised he could have made life easier for himself last year...

Thanks for the responses. I’ve emailed the school to check if the end of year exams and the mocks are the same thing. Will also ask if a week away is likely to have major impact.