― Alice Cooper, School’s Out (School’s Out, 1972*)
Okay, I will admit that the above song lyric does not entirely fit but, in my defence, there was no song about going back for the spring term after Christmas!
Yesterday marked the beginning of the second full school term in the British school year (well, English, I do not know if the Scottish system follows a similar pattern). I still have two school age children, one of whom will be sitting his GCSE (General Certificate of School Education) exams in May/June 2020.
For those unfamiliar with the education system here, GCSEs (which themselves replaced and integrated the General Certificate of Education, GCE, and Certificate of School Education, CSE, in 1988) are the exams which are sat at the end of year 11 of school during which a pupil turns sixteen.
Living With Narwhals 