15 year old wants gap year

[Woffa]

I have never tried home ed but my DD would like to take a year out of formal UK school between GCSE and 6th form.
She has convinced me that it would actually be a sensible idea and we have a year to plan what she should do.
She is very bright and will take all her GCSEs a year early next Summer when only 14years old (no choice) and doesn't want to end up taking A levels a year early as well, I agree.

She would like to learn a language (preferably a Scandinavian one, Icelandic ideally , she loves the sagas) and travel a bit. I would be happy to go with her. Apart from that we don't have too many ideas yet. Her main driver is that she is sick of school.

Does anyone have any ideas or links of how we can go about this? I don't want to cause problems with the education authorities.

[Snowfire]

This sounds like a wonderful idea . I would think that once she has taken her exams next summer you could just deregister her. As she's a year ahead, having a year out would bring her back in line with her peer group and give her (and you) the chance to have some amazing experiences and develop skills she can't gain in school.
Having something exciting to plan for will give her a nice distraction to help ease the stress of exams and give her something to look forward to as well. I can't see any downsides to this idea at all, in fact if I was in your position I would want to do the same!

[TheyreMadITellYouMaaaad]

Deregister her and state that she is being home-educated. There are many excellent Home-Ed boards (not just on MN) which will give you advice and support - just make sure they're UK-based for the technical aspects.

[Saracen]

It sounds fantastic. There will be no problems with the education authorities. Just deregister her and let her learn about what she likes!

Once your dd is deregistered, your LA may be in touch to ask about your plans for her education. There are various ways you can respond, ranging from pointing out that they have no statutory duty to monitor you on a routine basis to submitting a brief report describing your general approach (several sides of A4 should do) to meeting with one of their staff at your home or elsewhere.

You definitely don't need to worry about the LA disagreeing with your plans at this stage. After all, your dd is a classic example of a child who would leave the authorities in this very inflexible school system scratching their heads in perplexity. Ultimately, the LA's only available sanction if they thought you weren't educating your dd appropriately (though of course they wouldn't think that, because your plans are fantastic) would be to attempt to force her to school. They know quite well that no school would know what to do with her, arriving partway through her final year, unable to undertake any additional GCSEs from scratch just a few months before the exams - so what would be the point?

So relax and help your daughter do what she wants!

If you post on a big busy national home ed list, there may be people who share your daughter's interests or can put her in touch with others who do, in case she wants any ideas about where to go and what to do. I'm sure she'll be brimming with ideas anyway!

[Singsongsung]

Iceland isn't in Scandinavia. Otherwise I think your plan sounds great.

[Woffa]

Thanks, the de- registering sounds quite straightforward. I'll look at some home ed sites and see what information I can find. Sorry about thinking Iceland was in Scandinavia, I know better now!
Dd is already full of ideas