Doing a GCSE privately

[frick]

Hi
seeking some advice… any guidance would be gratefully received.
DD’s school does not offer a particular subject that she would really love to take as a GCSE, and that I think will be very good for her to do.
Any advice on how to go about this?
I’m pretty sure I can find a tutor for her, but would they actually take her through the GCSE, if you see what I mean? Or would we follow the curriculum for that subject and the tutor is additional support?
I’m aware that we’d have to pay for her to sit the exam, but we can cross that bridge further down the line!
Thanks in advance for any pointers.

My experience is that it was impossible to find a centre to take the exam. Even the school the child attended would not help. If you pay for a correspondence course make sure they provide a venue for the exam at the end! BTW I'm a teacher and still could not find anywhere.

What subject does he want to do? If there's no coursework element it should be straightforward to find somewhere to take the exam. I suggest asking on local home-ed groups where their children take exams as there will be some in your area. In our area there are several secondary schools that take private exam candidates.

Sorry...she..not he!

I work as a tutor and have taught students who are taking an exam in my subjects out if school. Sometimes it's not offered, more often they are HE. Depending on how long we have, an hour of 1-1 a week (for two years) is usually enough tuition (with the student doing work as well).

There are external exam centres @frick - I have worked with Tutors and Exams. Or your dc's school may oblige.

The main issue can come if there are practical elements. What is the subject?

At my school we allow people to take exams that they have studied elsewhere, as long as they pay the fees. It’s usually languages, but there’s no reason why it couldn’t be something else.

Thanks so much for your replies. The subject is textiles - so definitely a practical element to it - but one that we could support at home.
So looks like my next step would be to contact a tutor and also maybe ask the school if they would possibly support with the exam as a best case scenario.
Thanks again for advice.

I think the issue would be the coursework. NEA (Non examination assessment) tasks need to be completed in a controlled educational setting and have guidelines on how long is allowed to complete work.

Ah, I did wonder if it was textiles. That is outside my area of expertise (for sure!) but yes, I would say the selection and assessment of the practical element may well be the biggest challenge.

Textiles is quite tricky because they mark you on your coursework throughout the 2 years not just at the end

Not sure how you can navigate that side of it

However to take textiles as an A Level you don't generally need to have taken it as a GCSE to apply

Mainly because as you're experiencing not everywhere offers it

Oh! I didn’t realise that you don’t necessarily need the GCSE to do the A level - that does change things a bit. I’ll have a ponder on this. Because it does sound like rather a ball ache, unfortunately.
Thanks for your collective wisdom and advice 😊

Is it the textiles version of Art & Design? Or Design Technology textiles? If the art & design route, I agree the best option might be to do a portfolio, or see if the art teacher will let your daughter do textiles for all her coursework. If you want to do it independently, get in touch with Tutors & Exams as they have a partnership with an art provider, it will be expensive though and you have to travel to (I think Coventry) for an in person lesson approx every half term. I think it would be difficult to fit around school including the live lessons too.

Is it necessary to do the exam? If she wants to do further study a lot of places will be more interested in her portfolio than a GCSE. Might be worth finding out the requirements of any courses she is interested in.