GCSE's for home-school children

Invigilation for GCSE exams would cost approx £25 for one invigilator per subject taking into account the going rate for invigilators.
One invigilator can cover up to 30 candidates, but there needs to be at least 2 members of staff in the room to cover emergencies.
There isn't that much admin to be honest, just ticking off that candidates are present, checking ID for external candidates and a small amount for postage back to the exam board.
I would say the additional costs should be comparable to the exam fees themselves in the range £40-£60. The problem is that many schools don't accept private candidates and so home-edders end up using independent schools which have their own fee structure.

OP, I admire your argument, and will have a good look at the petition before deciding on whether to sign or not.
In principle I support home education, but I have seen some disasterous outcomes in practice. In an ideal world, all state education should be able to be adapted to meet the needs of all students.

As an aside, OP, make sure if you're teaching your child Grammar and Punctuation, you don't use apostrophes in plurals!

But paying £180 per subject when the exam cost less than £40 is not a good use of public money. It’s not the student who benefits but the private companies offering the service.

Sorry, as a former home edder I won't sign this. Any funding comes with strings attached, which most home edding parents want to avoid.

Dems the breaks, when you home ed the costs are yours. 🤷

JDiana, thank you, I've signed it. You may also want to post on the HE section.
errorofjudgement, there are admin fees on top. Just one GCSE, 6 years ago, cost over £50. The are quite a few 16 year olds who have families for whom this is too much. Every young person should, at least, be offered the opportunity of taking GCSEs if they are able, regardless of their personal circumstances or family background.
I agree it should not be funding for those who are already wealthy, but presumably this will be debated if it goes to the next stage.

I work.with the exams team. £40 per GCSE, more for A-level. Administrative time costs a bit of course, it's a good deal of extra work for external candidates. Then add in invigilation costs- this really ramps it up as the candidate might be taking an exam when no one else is at the centre. Candidates need to be accompanied by a staff member at all times, too. (To and from main reception, etc.)

In fairness, it wasn't the OP who said that it had cost £2k, it was another poster.
One attempt in 8 subjects would be approx £320 for GCSEs.

Sorry posted too soon - link here

filestore.aqa.org.uk/admin/library/AQA-ENTRY-FEES-2018-19.PDF

Why did you pay £2k in fees?

According to the AQA website, the fees for GCSEs are generally less than £40 per subject.

The LA doesn't save anything, the government does. Funding is set on the number of children in school on a certain day (census day). The funding for that amount of children is given to the LA who then take some off usually, before giving it to schools.

I might be ok with government finding exams if it didnt come from the existing pot of money as that pot will then become even smaller. I'd also be alright if the government negotiated the exam fee for home educated children.

However, £2k for one child's exams if from the current pot would be almost the same amount as one child's education pot for a whole year in primary.

I think it's a fair idea but it needs to be limited subjects plus Functional Skills in y12 if Maths or English is failed in y11. Also just one attempt.

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, the LA is saving thousands because I am home educating. My children would require specialised schools with some 1:1 support which would be very expensive, but as we home educate, the LA does not have to provide this (or any funding) for my children's education. Some in my position might think that with all the money the LA is currently NOT having to spend on my children's education, the GCSE fees are a small price for the LA to pay.

On the other hand, one of the main benefits of home education is the ability to set your own curriculum and cater to your child's individual needs, abilities, and interests. If the LA provides funding for GCSEs, they will likely then demand input/feedback/reporting on the curriculum that your child does leading up to those GCSEs.

Bottom line for me is that I do not want GCSE funding from the LA that comes with strings that makes it more difficult to do our home education in a way that works for my children.

The funding for schools is per child.
In primary in my area its ridiculously low, about £2.7k. The school then uses the money to fund teachers, buildings, teaching assistants, access to counselling etc. If a child is lucky enough to get an ehcp for instance, they might be allocated a one to one teaching assistant. The school has to fund the first £6k of this cost. Therefore this funding is in theory subsidised by all the other pupils.
Exam entry costs are lower for schools as they submit such large numbers and facilitate it. The exam boards are businesses that have to make a profit. The large parts of their profits are overseas students and external candidates.

The money a child got as an individual package would make the financial administration of schools a nightmare and in itself cost a great deal to administer. School finances are complicated enough. Effort would be better spent campaigning finding schools adequately so they could provide better provision.

Wouldn't it be better if each individual child had an educational financial package which followed them around. So a parent could choose to send them to a school which then applied for the financial package or they could choose to HE and money could be used for Tutors, exams etc, not suggesting a lump sum payout, pretty sure that would be a disaster; but an educational credits system which could be used at each level of education, didn't there used to be something similar for Higher Education.

I'm really sorry I can't support this.
Funding in mainstream education is dire. Funding gcses for homeschooled children would come out of that main pot, therefore less funding for special needs etc etc. In my area children are already having the number of gcses they're allowed to take reduced because of funding cuts.
Choosing to homeschool is like choosing to send a child to an independent school. I wouldn't choose to fund a subsidy to school fees either.

This sounds very sensible. Passing GCSEs opens various doors for children (sixth form, further ed, jobs, apprenticeships) so totally reasonable for the government to subsidise exam entry for home-schooled children as well as those in school. Maybe limit it to first entry in 9 or 10 subjects.

too much emphasis on grades and statistics and not enough care to the minds of our children. There is just too much pressure put on our children and if its not enough at school,

So why aren't you addressing that in your petition, rather than focusing on exam fees which perpetuates the emphasis on grades.... the beauty of HE is that you can choose not to focus on exams, and therefore can opt out of the cost.

As far as I can see, the petition is not up yet. OP, could you put a reminder on this thread in a few days?

I chose to home educate my child and paid for her GCSE. However, through that I met people who had not "chosen" to educate their child, but were doing it as a last resort. Financially, they were struggling by from week to week.

Why should any 16 year old be denied GCSE's because their parents could not afford the exams or even because of their parent's decision to home educate.

Financially, the home education community covers a large spectrum, some of who are the most disadvantaged in society. We are failing as a country if we deny those who are already from disadvantaged backgrounds at 16 the chance to gain GCSEs.

But as @OKBobble says it is a choice. I knew when I sent my dc to the school they go to, which has for years been consistently the best in the borough, I would be shelling out for numerous things each year for them to participate in as mentioned above (and I won’t lie I do eye roll every time another email comes through requesting money for ‘something’).

Like wise we almost sent ds to an indie, but he choose not to go. Had we sent him, it would have been our decision to pay those fees. Also many indies charge for exams on top of their fees, as the one ds looked at did.

You made a decision to home school your dc. Therefore you knew that there would be costs involved. You had the opportunity to send them to a state school and not pay the monthly fees you say you do, pay for exams to be entered, pay for outings, electricity, heating etc. But that was your choice, no one made you.

So if you decided to decline the offer of what is ‘free’ education, declined to pay the fees for an independent school, then why should the government pay for your child to sit exams?

I knew a family who HE'd 6 kids thru GCSEs on a family income of £14k/annum (they said that included benefits). So I know it can be done on the cheap.

£2k is crazy cost.

Yes as you say it is about choices and exam fees would be something you factor in when making a decision to home school in the same way I factored in the various costs of privately educating mine. It was a choice I made the same as you made a choce.