Yr 10 - short term Home Ed. Questions

[Paddlinglikehell]

Hi
Looking for advice or your experiences please.

DD yr 10 has been very badly bullied at her private school, excluded from friends, school have let her down, but that’s a whole different thread!

I’ve taken her out as she had what I can only describe as a breakdown and I’ve promised she won’t go back there. There is no space at the local school, but we’re at the top of the list for a good one with excellent pastoral care - a state school and I think she will fit in better there.

In the meantime I intend to homeschool, as the only other school is definitely not right. The LA have asked my intentions and I’ve told them, but I don’t know what else I have to do to provide any proof of schooling. Do I have to submit any sort of plan? Is there any paperwork to complete?

I’m trying to go over what she has already done and can do the ‘soft’ subjects RS, Drama, even English, but may need some help with science and maths. She currently still has access to school Hegarty maths, so I’ve been using that for practice questions on subjects we’ve revisited and I quite enjoy when we go over things, something else crops up which she has forgotten and we can divert and then look at that, but I don’t know how long I have the Hegarty before school pull the plug.

What’s the general experience of tutors? Can I get Hegarty Maths as a personal thing? Do I have to keep a record of what she does everyday?

I don’t want to do too much as I think she needs time to just recover and she is having counselling, but I’m finding it a bit daunting to be honest. It may be weeks, or months before a space for her crops up and I’m very aware she is at the start of GCSEs too.

Any advice, help, suggestions would be welcome. Thank you.

[crazycrofter]

You don’t need to prove anything to the LEA although they may come for a visit. A general plan will do. We home educated temporarily in year 4 and then ended up doing it until the end of year 6.

If you’re hoping to get her into a specific school you’ll need to find out what exam boards they do so you’re covering the right content.

I’m so sorry to hear about the bullying :(

[Ricekrispie22]

Subjects like English, science and history often contain a coursework element so you must consider how this will be done. Look into this on the major GCSE examining boards' websites - for example, OCR, EdExcel and AQA.
Another option is to enroll your daughter to take International GCSEs, known as IGCSEs, which do not involve any coursework.
Get a hold of each syllabus and a few textbooks so you can find the style that he works with best. Go through both the syllabus and textbooks methodically, at a pace that suits your daughter, and keep it active with lots of question and answer sessions and written responses too. Set your daughter some of the practice papers as test exams so she knows what to expect.
Ask your relatives about their areas of expertise, and whether they’d be willing to work with your child, on a one-off or regular basis.
Not every home-educating family has a timetable, but it can help, especially in the early stages, while you're setting up a routine and encouraging good habits. It can be a loose framework of subjects you intend to follow each day, or a more detailed hour-by-hour plan.
We joined Education Otherwise, a charity that supports home educating families, and there were email lists that parents could join. We had meet-ups every week – once a week all the families would go bowling together. These children are likely to be of a wide range of ages but can help your daughter to not feel 'alone' in her method of education. You might also be able to borrow resources such as textbooks.
It might be a good idea for her to join clubs that match her interests, or offer new activities so she can gain confidence.
Most libraries allow extra loan entitlements for home-educated children, letting them borrow additional books or hang onto them for a longer period.
Lastly, don't make GCSEs too stressful - try to keep the education process fun and engaging, so that your daughter will want to learn for the course for its own, interesting sake.

[Pieceofpurplesky]

No coursework in English anymore. I would find out the texts that are being studied in your preferred school so that she can read them. Pretty standard are A Christmas Carol, An Inspector Calls and Romeo & Juliet/ Macbeth if you don't want to contact school. There is also an anthology of poems to be studied.
The website Seneca is really good and she can keep up by doing work on there for all subjects

[YourOpinionIsNoted]

If it looks like she will be able to join the school that you are on the waiting list for, the best thing to do is contact them to find out the exam boards they use for the different subjects. You could also ask about the set texts in English, and the order in which they cover topics in as many subjects as possible. Also try to find out if she will be able to continue the options subjects she started in her previous school - if she was doing history and art, for eg, will the timetable allow for that in the new school?

[TeenPlusTwenties]

You know you can appeal for a place?

Appeal on the basis of e.g.

• excellent pastoral care (can you prove it, eg comments in Ofsted)
  
• ability to support existing GCSE courses / boards (if true)
  
• extra curricular
  

Are you sure the only other school is worse than potentially home schooling for all of GCSE?

[itsstillgood]

How soon do you expect a place to come up?
If it is weeks/month or two then I would say contact the school and ask for advice. You need to know what exam boards they are using and what options for English Lit and History and the order they are being studied. Ideally you could do with a scheme of work for all subjects so you can be catching up and then keeping pace.
There is no coursework for most subjects but there are some compulsory non examined practicals for science and a speaking and listening aspect for English language so worth checking plan for these with school If she is starting late.
If longer than a few months it might be best to consider going it alone and home educating through exams. The HE Exams wiki he-exams.wikia.org is full of information. The downside of that is the cost and organisation falls on you but would mean less chopping and changing. If you start GCSEs and no school place arises then you may be faced with having to swap syllabus in a few subjects, those I mentioned with a practical aspect can be very difficult to do as a private candidate as need a centre who will accommodate the practical, hence most home educators do International GCSE for English language and Sciences and Geog.

[AspergersMum]

Y10 is a very tricky time to join a school - have you spoken to the LEA and the school? You may need to use the Fair Access Protocol to get her in quickly (or quicker at least) at this point. If you read up about it, it covers students joining in Y10 and also those who have been out of education for ? 8 weeks or so. I believe that schools can otherwise say No at this point as they've already started GCSE work (I've seen this exact scenario happen at a school, formerly private pupil turned away as he had studied different GCSEs). You may have to fight quite hard to get in the door.

[AspergersMum]

Just to add, I'm very sorry that your daughter has been bullied. I hope that her recovery goes well.

If you do decide to go down the Fair Access route, it does all happen very quickly (that is the point of Fair Access after all). My daughter missed over 1 academic year on the waiting list and got in within a week once we asked for Fair Access.

ConquerMaths is very similar to Hegarty and there is a big discount through awediscounts if you google Awe Discounts Debbie.

Best of luck and enjoy the time off.

[Paddlinglikehell]

Thank you everyone for the advice? Lots of useful stuff and we hadn’t heard of the Fair Access.

The syllabus is on their website and the exam boards are the same, except one of set books they were doing. They have confirmed they haven’t her subjects except one, which she top in and would have likely been a 7/8 at least which is a shame.

This has only happened on the last two weeks - our 3rd week this week and the school have said as soon as the paperwork is through from the LA they will be in touch about more formal chats and discussing options, so they are open to accepting her. I know they have space too.

I w been going over what she has done for maths, but whilst she’s covered the work, she doesn’t seem to have retained it.

Unfortunately this morning she had a bit of a melt down, worrying about the new school, saying maybe she should be going back to her old school - there is no way that can happen - it seems that how bad it was, she thinks that is better than being home educated in the short term!

I feel so bad for taking her out but mentally she is in a state because of it and whilst the whole think makes me sick to my stomach with what’s happening, I can’t send her back there.

I will see if I can speak to the school and maybe get some sort of feedback on what they have covered.

Thank you.

[Paddlinglikehell]

Sorry that should read they HAVE got her subjects!

[YourOpinionIsNoted]

She must be feeling very unsettled, no wonder she's panicking.

Can you take her mind off school stuff for a week or two? It won't make much of a difference (if any!) to her work to have a break for a couple of weeks, but it might do her mental health the world of good.