Usual Norma End of week just before holidays announcement

Treppen

So Orals are to remain during Easter 'break'.

Not sure if that includes practicals like home-ec and music too.

By nature of music teachers accompanying students I presume the vast majority will be required to not be on their "break".

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41290627.html

Random sample

Music and home Ec are already on in school time.

It’s just the orals during the holidays.

cmssjone

You’d love it if all the oral examiners would refuse to do it in the Easter break. Not going to happen though

Random sample

It suits me better in Easter than during school, I can’t be the only one.

My school only let 1 of us out per year when it was in school time, so I got to do the orals roughly every 4/5 years. There’s 3 of us go out to do them every year now that they are in the holidays. It was a lot of hassle having to leave a weeks worth of work for a sub too.

Treppen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121507879#Comment_121507879

Yes I think it's good if you want to examine.

Is there any schools where the teacher is required to be there? Or is everybody leaving it to the students to turn up and go through the motions. And the teacher continues having their break.

Random sample

I haven’t come across a teacher coming in for their students. A year head appeared one of the days last year, but only saw 2/3 students. The exam aide is there and the atmosphere is different in the school for anyone who is struggling. The students are coming in one at a time, so there isn’t a congregation of them to feed off each others anxiety.

joebloggs32

Union surveys showed almost a 50/50 split on this issue among teachers, but interestingly Norma has hone against the wishes of the ISSU. Maybe its payback for the students not backing her plan to introduce exams at the end of 5th year 🤣🤣

Treppen

It's just money saving really. No more cover needed for language teachers. When the inspector was in our language teachers used to get the day "off" to be around the students and ensure they were all in line.

Random sample

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121512586#Comment_121512586

I wondered about that. Reading teachers pages/twitter, I thought I was in a minority of one with my opinion.

the thing about the students is, they’ve only had one experience, and 2019 is the last time it was in school time, so none of them have a memory of what it was like, nor are they able to make comparisons between the two systems.

My school didn’t allow language teachers out of class to cluck around students before their exams, but I’ve examined in schools where they did. I don’t know how helpful it was.

dory

I've examined under both systems - as an examiner I prefer an empty school. In my own school one teacher used insist on being out of class for the day or so of her exam (small class so got away with it) and we always felt she was winding them up more. No sign of her now it's during holiday time. I always got let out but some colleagues of mine didn't, now we can all go.

I feel for the students who used be able to do one language one week, the other the next week. Some schools seem to be better than others at spreading them out. Many have Irish one day and French the following day now.

galwayhooker

This is just a stepping stone closer in expecting us language teachers to examine our students for free.I feel it’s always the Irish teachers and MFL subjects that are at the end of the ladder in comparison to other subjects.

I teach two languages at Leaving Cert level. There are over 200 Leaving Certs in our school and it is an absolute nightmare trying to create a timetable so that Irish oral is not on the same as MFL oral day for each student. We also have many students of many nationalities who study a non curricular language and have also three orals for their three languages in one week - I speak four languages and I would find that difficult.

Also many students did not appear for their oral exams. There are many students from disadvantaged backgrounds who rely on money earned during the Easter break.

Orals always ran smoothly in my school pre Covid and also as an examiner. We never molly coddled students by being out of class. Always kept a calm atmosphere. There would be one or two teachers greeting the examiner/ checking in to see how things were going. We used to have some TY students help out also making tea etc.