Year 8, maybe starting Home Ed, would love to hear about other people's experience

[leafandpetal]

I wondered if anyone would be happy to share their experience of taking their dc out of secondary school to Home Ed, either short term or long term? My DS is 12, has Aspergers, and is in Year 8 at a mainstream school. He hates it, has pretty much stopped going. I'm so tempted to try home schooling for a year, in part so we could take our time finding another type of school. I'd have to not work for a year. We'd be broke, but it's like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders, he's so stressed there.

My ideal scenario is that we'd find a great school eventually and he'd go back into school in Sept 2018 in Year 9, he's an August birth so really young for his year, as well as having ASD, so we'd alleviate that issue a little bit too. Or who knows, maybe we'd love Home Ed so much we'd continue. He has a statement of SEN so not sure what happens with that.

Would LOVE to hear from others who've done it!

[YourHandInMyHand]

I haven't done it but am in a similar situation and can really relate to you saying your son has the weight of the world on his shoulders. I'm considering the same thing as you so I hope you don't mind my hitchhiking along on your post with you.

[leafandpetal]

Not at all Yourhand! Although I'm not there's a lot of traffic about! Maybe someone will come along soon!😊

[Mumarelli123]

Sorry I don't have any advice. But someone on the home education Facebook group with nearly 22,000 members should be able to help you. www.facebook.com/groups/Homeeducationuk/

[leafandpetal]

Thanks mumarelli, that's really helpful!

[NK346f2849X127d8bca260]

I removed my daughter at end of Y7 last year for anxiety related to bullying. Our plan was to find a different school for the start of Y9 but she has settled into home education that she is now staying out until sixth form college.

[jtmatters]

Hopefully replying to the correct post as just joined mumsnet and this is my first post but....

My son just received his GCSE results after being 'home schooled' for the last two years. He is an international tennis player who can be away from school easily for a month at a time so GCSEs at school was too problematic. What I wanted to say is MAKE SURE THE EXAM BOARD ALLOWS PRIVATE CANDIDATES TO TAKE THEIR EXAM. AQA GCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE DO NOT BUT LITERATURE IS FINE. As the Americans would say "Go figure!". My son and another girl we know ended up having to change exam syllabuses from AQA to EDEXCEL three months before the exam date! Thank goodness it wasn't literature. Can you imagine?

The last two years were sometimes very stressful for me as mum because it is a huge responsibility and my friends' problems seems so small in comparison to mine. Used to worry that he'd sit down on the day and he'd have the wrong paper because I'd made a mistake in registering but now thrilled as he got to play his tennis and got a full set of A*s and grade 9s. However, I didn't teach him myself! I sourced fantastic teachers who came to my house. Does that count as home schooling? Maybe not. He sat his actual exams at his old school as a "private candidate". Nice for him as he knew the school etc. Otherwise, there are many schools or other institutions where you can do the same. The sciences are definitely harder from home because you miss the practicals but he watched lots of youtube clips. I originally came on here to see if there were any parents who could advise on homeschooling A level scientists as you must now be certificated as having completed the practicals for A level otherwise your grade doesn't count.

Anyway it can all work for certain children depending on their circumstances. For me it was a reluctant choice because I wanted him to be at school. He wanted to play tennis as well as have a good education so this was our compromise. He has lots of friends around the world and up and down the country so the social side isn't really a problem for him particularly since he simply doesn't have time for too much socialising anyway but I guess everyone's circumstances are different.

Good luck all

[SummerKelly]

We did it for year 9, DD has just gone beck into school to do GCSEs. We did it because of bullying. We had a great year, there are lots of Facebook groups about different things for advice and information. Local organisation varies, search FB with home Es and your location. there does tend to be less for teens than younger children IME, but we were lucky that a county near us was very well organised with activities. My DD wasn't great at self motivation, but there are various online / distance options, perhaps Google HE exams wiki for more info. If I was starting again I would probably have skipped a lot of the KS3 stuff and moved straight onto GCSEs.

[Saracen]

jtmatters, I don't know anything about doing A-levels while HE, but this page may help: he-exams.wikia.com/wiki/Science_A-levels

There is a big busy Facebook group for all things related to home ed exams: "Home Education UK Exams & Alternatives" . You might want to join that group. I am sure many other people are in the same boat when it comes to science!

[jtmatters]

Thank you so much to Saracen. That was extremely helpful!