Study Leave 2026
Message from Mr Lester...
Study Leave for Years 11 and 13 will commence Thursday 7th May; the last normal school day therefore being Wednesday 6th May.
However, I‘d ask all to pause and think about where we might work best!?
As of Thursday 7th May students can elect to attend school as normal or go onto study leave at home and then simply attend ( in good time) ready for their scheduled exams or a blended approach with some study at home and maybe attending school for some lessons.
If they attend, they'll attend their normal timetabled lessons with their normal timetabled teachers - usually in normal timetabled rooms - but will use this time for independent study! The benefits are obvious. They’ll have access to teachers and resources for help; friends too will be around for both academic help ( two heads are better than one and all that!) but also just for well-being! They’ll be safe, warm, can access a hot meal at the canteen etc - a normal school routine really - or they can just attend for lessons/subjects they feel less confident in perhaps. Arguably they also missed enough of ‘normal school’ in the early years of lockdown etc. So, for many students we really do feel that the best place to be is in school and to revise here with all that support available around them.
How does it work in school?
Normal lessons will continue in any given subject until the last exam in that subject. So, for example, GCSE Maths lessons will continue all the way through until the last Maths exam. You can therefore still see your maths teacher in your normal maths lessons up to that point and get extra help and support as necessary in Maths - but equally we’ll understand that you might just want to use Maths time one morning, say, to prepare for your Geography exam that afternoon? It’ll be your choice! When you have an exam obviously you go to the exam hall; when you don’t you go to normal timetabled lessons where you can revise that subject with help from your teacher or revise for your next exam – your choice! Should you want to come in one day just for Period 3 and science, say, and then leave again to go home for the afternoon and revise there, then thats also fine. We just ask that you sign in and sign out so we know who is on site in the event of an emergency! We also can't have students around the site unsupervised - so if not in an exam or lesson they must not be on site.
However, we must also acknowledge that many students can and do work well independently at home - without distractions. They’d rather just ‘crack on’. Factor in longer journeys to school for some (arguably precious revision time) and ultimately it is for individual students and parents’ to decide what will support them best with their own preparation for the upcoming exams.
So:
- Either stay home and use home as your revision base, attending only for your exams ( leaving good time to get here in time!) or lessons you want to attend for extra help.
- or use school as your revision base when not in an exam and just follow your normal school day. Teachers will be there to either facilitate your revision in their own subject or perhaps just to supervise you as you revise another.
Public written exams begin for GCSE on Friday 8th May with Drama – though there’ll be orals and practicals in some subjects before that!
From Monday 11th May the main exam season begins in earnest and from then on in its quite full on!
A-levels also begin on Monday 11th May - though again some orals and other practicals before that.
National Contingency Day is Wednesday 24th June and all schools are asked to ensure that all students sitting exams this year are available on this day for any catch up exams in the event of a national issue arising. This then in effect becomes a hard deadline for any summer holidays that students/families want to consider. Basically, nothing before that date has passed please for students in Years 11 and 13.
For students in all other years the last day of term is Wednesday 22nd July.