Home schooling year 11

[Foxsoot]

my son is having problems in his last year or should I say months at school which have only got worse I fear do to the lack of support it will reflect in his GCSE results .
I have approached the school about this but matters have only escalated, my son is also mildly dyslexic.
I want to home school him , what is involved and how do I go about this

All you have to do is email the school and tell them you will be electively home educating and give a date. The school will contact you and go through your reasons but ultimately it’s your choice. Is there nothing that can be done to help him at school? It’s very late to choose this in year 11. Be aware that if he’s off roll, you will have to pay for any exams.

You will also need to find an exam centre where he can sit his exams.

@Foxsoot if you want to homeschool him at this stage of year 11, make sure you have the capability to do so. I am a qualified teacher and I was saying only today to a friend that I would not be confident to support a year 10/11 child with some subjects - physics and other sciences for example. So do you have the detailed knowledge needed? Yes for sure there is support online but you suggest your son needs extra support. Are you the best person to offer this alone?

You say matters have escalated with the school - I am wondering what you mean - obv it's up to you how much you share here, but if I were you I would try to engage in some meaningful dialogue to try to support your son during these last months.

Is it a bullying issue? Is it about behaviour - his or fellow students'? I am sure the school will want to find a way forward - whether that be a reduced timetable or some kind of internal support - to enable him to finish his studies in school.

If you do withdraw him, you will need to find somewhere for him to sit his exams. There are private centres but the deadline for exam registration is approaching fast so you would need to move on this quickly. But it may be that you can arrange to have him still sit exams at his school? I would discuss with them in the first instance.

If he is in year 11 then he is very close to GCSEs.

Taking GCSEs if you are not enrolled at a school can be expensive and difficult to find somewhere that will let him.

For a level maths I had an hours drive and paid 500 pounds.

In your shoes I would try to negotiate with the school that he can sit the GCSEs at school.

Don't take him off roll at this stage, that would be crazy. How and where would he sit his exams? He needs to sit them in the school where he is currently enrolled. If he is not coping there, then arrange something with the school such as working in the isolation room, part time attendance, somewhere private to sit and lunch times or break times, or whatever is needed. But don't withdraw him from school

Thank for you reply .
I am new to mums net and have never posted anything on any social media so hence my description not being detailed .
Two of my sons teachers have ‘banned’ him from being in their lesson and he is placed in a room for the duration of the lesson on his own with no guidance just a book on the subject matter.
one of the subjects his old teacher left and his new teacher in this subject has a different approach to the way he teaches as a result several students have clashed with this teacher . My son is no saint unfortunately he does joke around but not all the time , but even the deputy head has said there are several clashes of personality . I know I am not the only parent that has concerns about this new teacher .
I appreciate this is a decision I should not take lightly and in a short space of time but I have done everything I can including several meeting with the school .
I have already emailed the headmaster today in order to discuss this matter and the way forward .

Thank you , I am hoping to talk the to the school for a positive outcome but unfortunately they have always proved disappointing .
One can but hope

Well, if he is banned from two lessons, he is already working alone and out of the class, so he just needs to get on with it on the school premises. if he can't do it there, he certainly wont be doing it at home. Also, stop making excuses for him not getting on with the new teacher, we all have to get on with people who's personalities we don't like

Crazy would be doing nothing knowing that two of his subjects he is not actually being taught and precious time is being wasted . I have had many meetings at the school to try and resolve this problem but to no avail

He has a place to work and resources, supervision and no distractions. how would being at home be better? It is only two of his subjects anyway, he is still in lessons for the rest.

He's basically finished the course now anyway, more or less. He has been taught.

I think it would be a big mistake to let him stay at home. I can imagine him staying in bed until lunch time then getting straight onto the play station.

If you take him out, who is going to supervise him full time for the next 3 months, and give him resources to revise from?

And how and where is he going to take his exams?

If you want to teach him those two subjects at home, then by all means do so - evenings and weekends. Don't through a hand grenade into his whole education career at this stage.

I am not making excuses as I said and if you had read my post I already said he was no saint .
As for him studying at home , during lock down he improved with his studies , he has always worked better on his own .
i posted this about my son to get some helpful and useful information I am sorry you felt the need to be so negative and judgemental.

You posted for advice. I am giving you my professional advice. Keep him in school. Work with him evenings and weekends.

If you’re set on it all you have to do is email the school and that’s it. They will let the LA know he’s being electively home educated.

I home educate my children and am an ex teacher. I have questions since he’s in Year 11.

What would be your plan with regards GCSEs? It’s a myth that GCSEs have to be sat at age 15/16 so there are options but if I were you I’d have an idea of what you and he want to do before you deregister. Does he need some time to decompress and recover or does he want to plough on and sit his GCSEs this year? What most on here don’t know is that many colleges now offer course for home educated 14/15/16/17 year olds to sit GCSEs and/or vocational courses. They can also sit them as external candidates in another school or college but you’d be responsible for the cost of that. Another option is igcses buy this requires quite a self-motivated learner. How motivated is he?

Personally , I would be persevering with school. I have seen my year 11 DCs revision for his science and maths subjects. There is no way I could help prepare him for the exams in a home schooling capacity without spending a huge amount of time learning the content myself first. Do you have the time to do that ? Paying for all his exams would also be a deterrent for me, especially when ‘sticking it out’ at school for a few more months would avoid that expense. I’d be quite concerned if my ds had been ‘banned’ from the classroom by two subject teachers, this suggests an underlying issue that really should be addressed. Having him work alone with only a book and no teacher to provide guidance is very poor, unacceptable really. Are there behavioural issues - it is unusual for a school to take such action, particularly in year 11.

The Op is concerned about maximising his GCSE results, she is not talking about postponing them or staggering them. As you know, staggering GCSEs puts the young person at a considerable disadvantage

I work from home for myself , my son would have a place to study with no distractions.
it may come as a shock to you but he doesn’t own a play station and during lock down he woke up the same time as a school day and did a full day attending online lessons .
He attends army cadets twice a week and has a regular job during the holidays teaching kids at a sports camp .
I will talk the school before I decide what to do , and some of your latter advice is helpful but a lot of it is judgmental due to maybe your profession or am I being judgemental.

Does it? How so? How many children do you know who have staggered their GCSEs?

Thank you so much for your reply , I really appreciate your knowledge on this matter and your experience

And actually the op says nothing of the sort. She’s concerned that him staying in that environment will jeopardise his results.

Its quite common among home educated children, and it is a huge disadvantage because we disregard most of the results. It is very easy to get top results if you take them in ones and twos over several years. So we normally only count a raft of GCSEs taken all at one time, or over no more than one year.

We also don't accept students onto A level courses if the A level they need to qualify for that course was taken a while ago, and they have not studied it further. And quite often home eded kids take their favourite subject first, then of course can't get onto an A level course with it, because they got a 9 when they were 12, but haven't studied it further since.

Firstly that’s a bit petty of the college. In my experience the home educated teens/young people I know are getting into colleges and unis because they are well rounded, self motivated individuals that the colleges local to us encourage to enroll. The quantity or date on their GCSEs is only part of what makes them successful. To quote one of the admissions team at our local college “we love having HE kids as they are motivated enthusiast learners and not burnt out from having to do 9 GCSEs all in one year”. Our local grammar school 6th form takes kids with minimum 4 GCSEs. It’s not how many you have or what grades they are it’s just you need 4 and a motivation to learn. I guess all colleges have different values.

Secondly the OPs son is 15/16 not 12. There is nothing wrong with spreading GCSEs over a couple of years. It’s very antiquated to demand they’re sat all in one sitting.

I’m calling bollocks on this. You must be somewhere very selective.
Not sure who this “we” is.

OP I’m a HE mum and a teacher.

I’d say you should keep your kid in school.
He’s got max 5 months left - will have done all his study. At this point if you deregister him you will have to foot the bill for all his exams plus find a centre willing to take him at this late stage who are doing the correct exam body he’s been studying. Plus somewhere that will give him the support he’s allowed. (Very unlikely).
Finding an exam centre like that at the moment is really tricky. (For all GCSEs enrolled at school cost will be into £thousands.)

What I would do is negotiate with the school. It’ll be bad for your son and bad for their stats if he leaves this late in the game.
Unfortunately at the moment there’s a pretty big teacher retention crisis and a lot of gcse kids are not even taught by teachers/subject specialists anyway.

Some home ed kids are amazing, some are not. Most are turned down by colleges. Some are taken on, We take some on, some do well, some don't. Think what you like about GCSEs taken together or not. I have told you how it is, and I cant be bothered to argue.

I don't think I've ever heard of a student being banned from certain lessons, can you elaborate? A reduced timetable for medical or sen reasons maybe. Banned is quite a heavily loaded word and unfortunately suggests your son has done something beyond the usual silly misdemeanors. I'm thinking something like assaulted a teacher, done something awfully dangerous with science equipment, you know something REALLY bad.