does anyone know name of school that doesnt do GCSEs or A levels?

The point you are missing Saracen is that they are doing an awful lot in school as well, not just going to lessons.
HGs example of the HE group being involved in international robotics championships. DCs school has made the finals in California of the world Vex competitions. One of the boys on the team is also in the schools MUN team and also was lead in their recent musical production. Outside of school he is an MP on the Youth Parliament and has spoken in the House of Commons. You can't invalidate experiences in school because you believe they are in a "bubble". School is regularly taking them out of that "bubble"
Last term through school my ds ended up at a dinner at one of the Worshipful Companies in the City. The speaker was Steve Cowley and ds sat on a table with Prof Roger Cashmore and chatted to him. He came home with a handful of very useful email addresses of people who were willing to provide a little bit of mentoring to him.

happy
Having seen Dominos being delivered to the boarding houses of an evening, and the boys milling around at the fireworks and in the cathedral close, they do mix - not socialise - but certainly slot into the life of the town.
There are ex WC and Eton boys at PSC so I suspect the interactions increase in the 6th form

talkin I can't talk for summer but my DS doesn't seem to mix with people from the town but he does mix with adults all the time when he's at school and of course he has to live alongside 59 boys all different personalities etc a useful life skill.
Having said this I agree he lives in a bit of a bubble and when at home that bubble continues as we live in a very small town but IMO he has other experiences instead, he seems to be adaptable and confident so I'm not overly concerned and life is rarely perfect.

saracen
HGs son is at a boarding school - which would be as near to a segregated teenage very wealthy boys bubble as you could get
except that the boys mix with the people of the town whenever they are not in lessons

children are in school lessons for 1/6 of their time
the other 5/6 they are not in a "bubble"

My dc are not unusual, all their friends have lots of similar experiences out of school. I suspect my dc's friends are more the norm than not.

That's fabulous, bruffin. I am really glad to hear that your kids have managed to do all those things outside of school. It hasn't been the same for my daughter's friends who go to school, so I'm delighted to hear that their experience of being often tired and having to make difficult decisions to free up some time is unusual.

It's also great that you're not fooled. That's a useful skill.

Saracen
teenagers are not segregated from the rest of society or in a bubble. I have a 17 and 19 year old.
The 17 year old has been volunteering at a special needs centre since she was 12 and has been friends with the adults that work there and the other volunteers of all ages, as well as the little children that go to the centre. In fact she has a part time job doing respite care for one of the little boys who she has known since the beginning.

DS was one of those children that preferred adult company and got that through school, he does actually chat to his teachers outside of lessons about everything. He also got on well with the scout leaders and was a young leader for a while. He has been p/t working since he was 16, for a short while in an electrical store and at the local leisure centre lifeguarding.
For example, my 15yo has the chance to integrate into wider society now, rather than waiting until she has finished formal education. Because she has time on her hands and isn't restricted by spending most of her time with people of her own age in a closely directed environment, she has opportunities to do things alongside adults: clubs, voluntary work, education, and daily life. Sometimes adults play the role of mentors to her. Sometimes they are her peers. Sometimes, in her turn, she helps and teaches them. This makes for a gradual transition to adulthood.

Guess what my two have exactly the same from going to school and their daily lives. Your dd is the one that is missing out, not the children in school. I have been reading your posts forever (you were on parentcentre as well I think) and with all the HE threads I am not fooled by the supposed benefits of HE, unless the child has extreme social issues or some sort of SN (FWIW my ds has dyslexia and has thrived in school.

As HG I think home ed / alternative education can be of great benefit to some DCs but for those who are naturally social and able to learn in school, I think there are greater benefits (including fun) to sharing times in school / college with their fellow teenagers so that they don't feel like 'immigrants' with their peers in adult life. They can still take on responsibilities and part-time jobs as appropriate.

Saracen I don't know what sort of schools you've looked at but both my DS's socialise with all age groups both in and out of school.
I'm not against home ed, alternative ed or conventional ed, as long as it suits both the child and the parent.

Saracen I agree with titchy. I also think you are slightly missing the point that the shared world of adolescence also provides a frame of reference and social memories /connections when these teenagers are adults together. Some people will never make that connection with their adult peers because they have missed thar rite of passage by mainly living in a world of older adults

I don't know that going to school prevents young people socialising with adults or working with them. Don't know about anyone else but my teens use public transport, go shopping, have part time jobs, eat out, talk to their teachers and our friends etc. All of which they do quite happily despite having been 'cocooned' in their little world of school.

Oh yes, summerends, socialising with other young people is good fun and is a positive experience for most kids. What Epstein objects to is denying teens the opportunity of socialising with anybody else, and of taking on a more adult role as and when they feel ready, rather than waiting for some arbitrary age. That age has been getting later and later in recent decades. It's very frustrating to young people who feel themselves ready and able to do something meaningful in life.

You seem to be in favour of protecting teens from the adult world, keeping them in the "bubble" which TalkinPeace was disparaging.

Me, I think that some adolescents do need and want to be kept safe more than is possible at school, from bullying and pressure to conform, for example. One of my children is likely to need this protection. Others, like my teenager, need and want less protection, and shouldn't be infantilised when they are ready to start moving out into the world and taking on responsibilities. Make the bubble available, but optional.

talkin I'm not sure the particular group of home educated pupils I observed were ever going to cope in the "rough and tumble world of employment" regardless of where they were educated. As I said above all has abnormally high IQ's and most were firmly on the spectrum. I don't know enough about home ed to comment on more normal children. I do know a couple of children educated at Steiner Ed all their school lives, they are articulate, creative, broad, minded individuals, they are unlikely to do well in the cut and thrust world of say investment banking (no crime) but are also unlikely to choose this occupation but in their own fields of work they seem to be coping fine.

Saracen, sorry not had time to read that stuff but I don't really agree with your last statement for the majority of young people who are socially at ease. Being in school and at college gives them their social framework and shared youth culture experiences, why push them into an adult, non teenager world before they need to be?

"My comment about post university outcomes was more to do with how people reared in a bubble : home schooling, then Open University
cope after graduation in the rough and tumble world of employment"

Here's a discussion of a recent American survey into this, which may interest you: blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/09/how-do-unschoolers-turn-out/

IME, school is much more a "bubble" than home education is. For example, my 15yo has the chance to integrate into wider society now, rather than waiting until she has finished formal education. Because she has time on her hands and isn't restricted by spending most of her time with people of her own age in a closely directed environment, she has opportunities to do things alongside adults: clubs, voluntary work, education, and daily life. Sometimes adults play the role of mentors to her. Sometimes they are her peers. Sometimes, in her turn, she helps and teaches them. This makes for a gradual transition to adulthood.

Like many of the young people in Peter Gray's survey, she is already engaged in work which is likely to be relevant to her future career. It would sound shallow to say that this will "look good on her CV". That isn't why she's doing it: the acquisition of actual skills is more important. Still, she does already have plenty to put on her CV.

In The Myth of the Teen Brain, Robert Epstein explains why we do teens no favours by segregating them from the rest of our society, in schools for example.

But Hakluyt that does n't apply to English Language and nobody needs English Lit GCSE.

Talkin it would be interesting to know whether self motivation and direction required earlier in Home Ed or alternative schools results in worst or better outcome for those young people. I suspect the latter for those with appropriate social skills.

Closed book exams, compulsory 19th century set text, more learning by heart- no problem for top set types- an almost insurmountable hurdle for many who need the C....

My comment about post university outcomes was more to do with how people reared in a bubble : home schooling, then Open University
cope after graduation in the rough and tumble world of employment

TBH I've never been asked for my lower certificates once I got the higher ones

Actually I think I remember; someone's changed the set texts?

Out of curiosity what's been done to the new syllabus for English?

And there are plenty of kids in ds's school that are perfectly capable, willing and able to hold down good jobs but who will struggle to get GCSE Maths and English. Particularly the new syllabus English. It's a crying shame.

The problem is only going to get worse as more employers, and universities use the automatic filtering options that online applications offer. In my department we have a filter set for our lowest grade posts that rejects any applicant without C grades in English and Maths GCSE or equivalent. This rejection occurs before a human has even read the application. We were told at DS options evening that there are now several universities who computer filter before the applications go to the admission team, so if you are going down the non standard qualification route you would need to avoid those.

The problem is that we've become obsessed with paper qualifications which not only in my opinion but also in my experience are frequently no indication of academic ability or more importantly ability to do a job.
There is no thinking out of the box qualification, or A level in rapid decision making, a compassion and empathy O level, a GCSE in following instructions or even I can happily work independently but get along with my work colleagues IGCSE and there certainly isn't a hard working punctual BETEC.

I agree. But tell that to the local authority that said "No maths certificate, no job. Unless you do this course and pass the exam at the end. And no you can't do the exam without doing the course"

I've done numerous courses some immensely tedious two actually required a very high level of math and no one has ever asked me to prove I have got O level math; help is nearly always provided for those who struggle with math. Many years ago I endured one very niche course that as far as I could see should only have been open to those who not only had a A level in maths but an A level in physics as well (my proudest most useless qualification).
Surely a good degree in an academic subject is a better indication of ability than an O level?