Examination Leave Letter 2013.2.docx - Oswestry School

14/12/2012
Dear Parents,
I write to relay various bits of important information for those taking public examinations in 2013 and
beyond.
Summer 2013 Examination Leave
Summer examination leave next year takes place as follows:
Form 5 - Examination leave takes place from Monday 20th May until Wednesday 19th June
inclusive. Pupils will be expected back in school on Thursday 20th June, Friday 21st June and
Monday 24th June for an A-level induction course. On the weekend of the 22/23rd June Mrs Lowry
is organising a 5th Form weekend away, about which you will be hearing more later. The 5th Form
Prom will take place on the evening of Monday 24th June. After this, pupils are encouraged to go
off on work experience - no formal lessons will be taking place in school. Overseas pupils may
decide to fly home after this date to carry out their work experience at home if they wish.
Lower Sixth - Examination leave takes place from Monday 20th May until Monday 10th June
inclusive. Normal lessons restart on Tuesday 11th June. Pupils who have finished all their AS
examinations before half term are free, if they wish, to extend their half term until lessons restart.
Upper Sixth - There is no formal examination leave before half term. Pupils who think they would
benefit from early leave should write to the Headmaster. After half term all the Upper Sixth are on
examination leave until the term ends.
Experience has shown that these arrangements provide ample time for preparation and revision. Our aim
is to keep pupils in class, preparing with their teachers, for as long as is practicable and we would ask
that you support the school fully in this aim. It is important to stress that even when examination leave is
in place teachers are available to help pupils should they need it.
All pupils, except those who have opted to fly home early, are expected to be present in school for
Speech Day on Saturday 6th July.
If you would like to check when the exams fall and begin preparing the summer with your son or daughter
we have uploaded all the key GCSE, AS and A2 exam dates to the calendar on the school website.
Please use the ‘week’, ‘month’ ‘agenda’, or down arrow buttons on the top right of the calendar to
navigate to the exams. You may find the down arrow button particularly useful as it allows you to select
what information is shown on the calendar. To get direct to the calendar click here: http://goo.gl/NdtEX
P.T.O

Changes to the Structure of A-levels
As you may be aware, Ofqual recently announced that after September 2013 pupils will no longer be able
to sit A-level exams in January. The removal of January exams from September 2013 affects all pupils,
regardless of when they started their course.
For pupils who started a two year A-level course in September 2011:
AS and A2 examinations will be available in January 2013 and June 2013. There will be no AS or
A2 examinations in January 2014 so any students who wish to resit will need to do so in June
2014 instead.
For pupils who started a two year A-level course in September 2012:
AS and A2 examinations will be available in January 2013, June 2013 and June 2014. There will
be no AS or A2 examinations in January 2014.
For pupils who start a two year A-level course from September 2013:
AS and A2 examinations will be available in June 2014 and June 2015. There will be no AS and
A2 examinations in January 2014 or January 2015.
Pupils will still be able to sit modules separately and there are no restrictions to the number of times they
can resit a module or qualification. However after January 2013, students will only be able to sit in the
June exam series. What this means in practice is that the typical Oswestry pupil will have far fewer ‘bites
of the cherry.’ In order to really succeed pupils need to treat each exam as if it were their final, best-effort
attempt.
Yours faithfully,
Tim Jefferis
Deputy Head (Academic)