I have said all of this elsewhere in this home ed section, so if you have read this before I apologise.
Our children left school aged 13, 11 and 8. All had dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyspraxia to different degrees.
None of it had been recognised by the school before the diagnoses, none of it was supported by the schools afterwards.
Just before our eldest left, one teacher told me that 'if he worked very very hard, he might achieve GCSEs Grade D'
Our middle child's difficulties were increasingly frustrating her as the school simply didn't take them into account. She admits now she was falling in with the wrong crowd in the bottom classes.
Our youngest was diagnosed as having very severe dyslexia. She couldn't read or spell even her own name when she left school.
We followed a totally autonomous home based education, with the children following their own interests, with no formal work at all.
All three ended up following very different educational paths.
The only things in common is that we did lots of camping at home ed camps and gatherings, every summer. Then as the children got old enough they started to travel and stay with home ed families around the country and their friends started to come and stay here.
Hence I now know loads and loads of home educated and formerly home educated young people now aged between 15 and 24.
I have been thinking about this as I have been asked a similar question just recently.
Every single one of them is successfully employed/at college/university/self employed.
Our eldest went to FE college on one day a week, post 16 and did 2 GCSEs. He achieved Grade Bs
Then he used those two GCSES and interview to go onto another FE college and did A levels. He achieved Grade Bs.
At both colleges the tutors commented that he fitted in very well both academically and socially.
He works locally now, in a job he enjoys. He has been saving as he intends to go on to Uni, coming out with less debt than his schooled peers.
Our middle child took a totally different path. She chose not to do formal qualifications and instead followed her passions in her education.
By 18 she had:
*Sailed around the country for two long summers helping to crew a boat and look after three small children
*Co-launched a new dyslexia charity with a well know American Dyslexia expert.
*Worked for a new WAP mobile phone internet company and developed mobile internet sites for one or two very well known names as well as some smaller concerns.
*Worked as a part-time sales assistant, running a small shop, in the hours she was there.
*Helped run workshops for women who were victims of domestic violence.
Aged 18 she was taken on by a well known national organisation, to work from them in a different city to where we live. Five of the managers present at the interview weekend recommended her appointment.
She now lives and works in a city she loves. She found and organised a house to share and found four friends to join her.
Our youngest caused me most angst as she was so severely dyslexic.
When she first left school we tried every reading scheme available, to help her and all left her a hysterical wreck. It was awful.
Eventually we listened to autonomous home ed peers and stopped trying to get her to read. Instead we concentrated on following her interests and allowed her education to run ahead whilst allowing her reading and spelling to catch up in it's own time.
She finally began to 'get' reading aged 13.
She reads and spells well now. The first book she read was Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Grey'-after another home ed friend recommended it.
She started a OU course aged 15 and 'achieved all of the outcomes' and was said to be studying at degree entry level.
She is a musician and travels the country playing live gigs with the (formerly home educated) lads in the band.
On Saturday they were playing live at The HUB Festival in Liverpool-she says the stage was as big as the one at Glastonbury! Then yesterday they played at Hungry Pigeon FestivalShe has just arrived home (we live in Worcs) she says the crowds were great, very lively and kept shouting for 'more'.
The band will disband in September as the boys are all set for university (they all went to FE college at 16)-but don't worry if you know her band they intend to reunite at HesFes each year!
The choices before her now she is at the end of compulsory schooling age, were:
*to go to FE college
*do more OU courses and then use them as evidence that she can study to an appropriate level on application to 'brick and mortar' universities
*complete her whole degree through the OU.
All of these options have been taken up successfully by many of the formerly home ed young people we know.
However she has now been accepted by at least two FE colleges, to do a National BTEC-which is apparently equivalent to three A levels and looks set to go in that direction.
She has had a social life that is the envy of her schooled peers and cousins.
She is confident, independent, well educated and happy (as are her siblings and home ed peers.
The same cannot be said of the other children with such severe SEN, that she left behind in the remedial classes at school.
HTH!