Can 16 year olds to a year of online GCSE retakes at home and then do Alevels over 3 years if needs be in school?

Lindd you would be better starting your own thread. Is DS receiving medical needs EOTAS tuition, and does he have an EHCP?

What happens when my 16 year old son finishes school next year with no GCSEs? He wants to do them but is agoraphobic and has not been in school for 3 years. He needs to be somewhere where he can do them when he is ready but his anxiety only leaves him with online options. I'm so afraid of being fined and him not getting funding for further study. I thought they were free but the school can't let him stay on as he's not able to do A levels he's over 2 years behind please help I'm desperate

OP could you clarify which unis he is thinking of applying for? And what is his end goal in terms of a job (if he can think ahead that far...)

If he is thinking Oxbridge I would dissuade him, it is not a good fit for anyone with physical or mental health issues. Next tier down, there is usually a lot more wriggle room in terms of grades.

Personally I think it’s better to apply with predicted grades & if they get an offer, hope the uni still takes them even if actual grades are lower (this worked for my two). If you are applying with actual grades, and these are lower than the standard offer, then I would think you are less likely to get an offer. Though this is all speculation given the uncertainty over the future. If there are a lot less foreign students coming it may change things drastically.

Not all jobs require a degree from a top ranked uni. Sometimes getting in at entry level & proving your worth is more valuable.

I think you should try to talk to someone at the school who knows him.

If he's looking at upper end universities in the maths/computer science direction, he might be well-advised to do further maths, if his maths is strong enough. If he's strong enough in those subjects that they've no worries about him doing those at A-level, then I think I'd be inclined to suggest that he just jettison the GCSEs and get on with A-levels. Although his GCSE results will not be that good, when it comes to university applications, he's going to need to explain either that or the extra year, and if he's doing well enough in the A-levels I think they're unlikely to worry about them. They'll probably be taking this year's results with a large pinch of salt anyway. The one exception is English - if he hasn't got at least a 4 or 5, that might be worth re-taking.

The problem is that he's probably had 18 months of teachers going on about how important GCSEs are, but actually, once you've got on to your A-level or college course, they're really not that big a deal.

That assumes his health is recovered. If it isn't, then a year of studying at home might be no bad thing - perhaps doing some maths as well as the GCSEs (maybe A-level, but maybe GCSE Further maths, or something like that, which will ease the A-levels).

Can he do his A levels as normal and then redo his maths 1 year and English the next? (I retook mine doing my degree don,t recommend it, didn,t get a c in maths, but times have changed and it,s more necessary these days.)

If he’s worried about a spike GCSE profile impacting his uni application, there is a section for teacher reference where they can include that sort of information

Can I just say - I know you say you don’t have long after results to come up with a plan - but at my college if you rocked up on enrolment day with no idea AT ALL what he wanted to do, in fact if you phoned up without even having applied, you’d come in, have a face to face chat with a member of teaching staff who could advise on a route. If that didn’t find anything then a senior member of staff would take the enrolment on personally and do everything they could to find a three-year route to university for him. It’s really not uncommon at all and wouldn’t be held against him in the slightest. In fact I kind of enjoy a “challenging” enrolment, especially when you see the student then go on to do well. Colleges want students to enrol with them and aren’t as nit picky as schools.
Plus a much more agreeable learning environment.

So yeah, if you turned up on the day and said “this is a mess and we don’t know what the hell to do” it wouldn’t be an issue at all!

A levels are not the only route to university. Level 3 btecs can get you to uni too. FE colleges are better geared up for resitting GCSEs alongside other qualifications. If he gets 4s in English and maths though he won’t be funded for resits as he will have passed them.

I don’t have any specific advice but wanted to share my experience in case of any help, My DS decided to drop two of his 3 A levels in Feb of year 13 Super bright lad, forecast all As / A*s but had not been in a good place mentally for several years. He left school with 1 A level, is now taking a couple of years to study 2 A levels independently ( Online course for one and tutoring for the other) - not cheap but he is contributing to cost by part time work. Main point I wanted to make is that mental health if by far the most important thing, if I had to do all this again I would worry less. Finally after a year he seems to be getting his life together. A situation I feared and stressed about for years did in fact happen - he massively underperformed at school, didn't get to the Uni course he had planned when he planned etc but it is really really ok. He is sorting himself out in his own time and I honestly now think he will be fine. Good luck OP

He was doing really well with revision.

Was this prior to the lockdown and if so, was it evidenced in any way (topic tests, etc)? If so, then the school can legitimately have used it in its assessment of his grades.

One thing to think.about if just studying for GCSEs (or any public exams) unsupported except for the use of an institution as an exam centre, is that in the event that things get so bad again that a similar assessment system has to be used again next year, their will be no-one actually able to make those assessments.

My ds dropped out of Alevels two months in. We thought at first he would go back after Christmas (he is very bright and the college supported this decision) but the time came and he still wasn’t able to face it.
We took him out of college, he was working and the pressure was off, and a couple of months ago he announced that he wanted to sign up for two Alevels so he is doing it through an online study college. He’s doing maths and further maths and he is much happier.

He was under camhs too and on anxiety medication and just couldn’t do another two years of study in a school like environment.

I think it’s important to remember that there is time, there is no rush and they will get there in the end with the right support.

Mental health illnesses should be treated in the same way physical illness are. If a person has gaps in their academic record for an acute life threatening physical illness it is considered more favourably than a mental health illness.

Also, this year's chaos around the exams is actually a bonus as future employers will see 2020 and know that everything was up in the air.

You can take the year to redo extra GCSEs as a home student - For the best unis you still want to do the A-Levels in two years. You can resist during year three but it does count against you. When he applies make sure you get an expert to write the personal statement not just a random form tutor - can make a huge difference.

If his GCSEs are ok, and I am sure Covid will bring good news for most students he could home school for a year - actually focusing on getting well whilst doing an intro to the A levels then aim to go back the year after to sit them as a two year course.

Really don’t think he should be judged on illness 2/3 years previous caused originally by life events.

If your son has been ill for 2/3 years, his school will have applied to the exam board for ‘special consideration’.

Also, mental health isn't a "protected characteristic". Telling a future employer/university that gaps in your academic record are due to mental health issues may naturally invoke sympathy, but they're under no legal obligation to be blind to it when deciding whether to offer the role/place.

Depending on when he became ill Covid results might be better for him. Hard as it is you will have to wait until August to form up plans.

Camhs is tricky, do you have a crisis team? We are in hampshire and they have one called i2i. But we only got to see them after 2 nights in hospital.

Would having a year at home be a positive? If your child has cancer and needed a year out of school to recover no one would think twice, mental health illness need to be taken more seriously. Saying that we want our daughter back in school as staying home will shrink her world. However if in September she is not well enough we have a backup plan.

Do look at the online schools, they might give him structure and focus but also the time and space he needs.

You can only use the 3rd year of ks5 if you haven't taken any exams. As soon as you do you are considered finished and the free education comes to an end, even if you fail them all.

DC here did A levels (2 years) followed by a diploma (1 year).
Followed by degree.
Funding stopped after the 1 year diploma at 19.

At my sixth form college the usual route in this case would be a level 2 course for a year - a level 2 vocational course in Media, Health and Social, Sport etc - alongside maths and English resits, then on to a level 3 course as usual. The level 3 in that case would usually (but not always) be a vocational course. They can redo Science GCSE alongside that. It would not be usual to repeat a year of level 3 (going that route is designed to remove the need to do it, because of the more gentle pace of the level 2 course and the enhanced pastoral care that comes with it).

Students who have followed this route have gone on to university when they came from school with almost nothing.