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

I was home educated and staggered mine. It's never been a problem, and I've done plenty of academic stuff since. I also know lots of other home educated people and I've never heard of anyone getting rejected from a course because of staggered exams. So I'd say, "considerable disadvantage" is an exaggeration.

I think it would be a huge mistake to remove any Y11 from school at this point and trust that they would do better on their own.

I'm a GCSE and A level teacher and would not do this to one of my own DC - I'm not sufficiently up on every other subject bar my own to confidently guide them through the course. Simply having the knowledge (I assume) is pretty limited - it is knowing how to structure answers, what the exam board are looking for and unless you actually teach this subject and this exam board you simply don't have the ability to effectively help a student out. I teach History, and have taught English and RS at GCSE in the past. I don't have the knowledge of what AQA are looking for in their Chemistry exams, however. Or how to structure an Edexcel Geography answer to gain top marks.

I also agree with other posters that if you take him off roll then you will need them to admit him as a private entrant to the exams (which they may decline to do) and you will need to pay for each one.

Getting banned from two lessons isn't a personality clash, it's awful behaviour, however you try and dress is up.

However I wouldn't take him out completely unless you're prepared to fund the exams and all revision. It's a bit different to lockdown which would have been y7&8 to study for all GCSEs alone. You'd need some tuition from somewhere.

People love to be be dramatic about HE.

They can’t cope with deviations from ‘the norm’ when it comes to our school fixated society.

Nothing will jeopardise his results more than taking him out of school at this stage. Does he have any idea of what he wants to do post GCSE's and beyond? I'd say work with the school to try and make it work, for his sake.

OP you are being ridiculous and are not being honest. Two teachers have said they can't teach your son due to his behaviour. The sensible thing to do would be to sort his behaviour out so he could get on in class. Throwing a tantrum and talking about home Ed for all his subjects because he has been given a consequence you don't like is silly. How is depriving him of all his teachers going to help? Rather than looking for excuses tell your son to shut up and get on.

Yes @Foxsoot I agree, it's quite a serious matter to be banned from two subjects. What subjects are they out of interest? Even if he is not being taught in them, he can self-study at school as well as he can at home.

Are you able to share the issue and why he has been removed from these subjects? I would never have removed a student for "joking around" as you put it. Even something like direct swearing at me usually meant a 1-2 lesson session in inclusion.

Anyway; I agree with @Hatty65 and others - the best thing to do is to try to negotiate with school for him to stay there until at least Easter. Is school asking him to leave, or are you simply wanting to take him out because he is out of lessons for two subjects? Presumably he is in the other 6-7? Wouldn't he be better in school and taking GCSEs as prepped this summer? I think so.

Are you a teacher? Do you have the expertise to teach the specialist subjects? As I and others say, that would really be a significant challenge. If you think at this stage, it's just about him getting on with revision, well he is surely better doing that in school, clashes with the teachers or not.

@clary I think you are a teacher as well? It's unlikely to be just revision for GCSE at this stage, isn't it? Most of us will be lucky to manage to get through all the content before Easter, and we're unlikely to have much revision time. The biggest complaint in History (and from the majority of my colleagues in other subjects) is how there is now far too much content to cover at GCSE.

I don't suppose any of his subjects have actually finished teaching the course in January.

Banned was the word the teacher used .
my son talked in lessons and fiddles with his pen or paper , I understand this is very distracting for the teacher but any pupil doing this lesson has had the same treatment, there are four others that have been ‘banned’
He does not want my son in his lessons at all so my son is sent sometimes to another classroom other times to a room where there is no one for the duration of his lesson.
Emailed the teacher and asked if he could at least give my son the resources he needs to study , he agreed and asked my son to see him that day after school at which time he had already got the bus . Emailed the teacher to say would it be possible for him to collect those at another time but had no reply .

Yeh good point. I don't teach in school any more, but I would aim to get content (MFL) complete by mid Feb. I know that for history and some other subjects (sciences) it's a struggle to get through it by Easter.

When I said "he may only be doing revision from now" I was thinking that the OP might say it wouldn't matter if she didn't have specialist subject knowledge, as he would only be revising from now on. Obviously if he has not finished the content then all the more reason for him to stay in school - unless the OP is a teacher. And even then - teacher of what? All the teachers on here are agreeing that covering 8-9 subjects is a challenge. My subject is MFL; I could certainly support in Eng lit and lang as I have decent experience there as well; I guess I could have a go at history support but I would have to do a lot of reading myself; maths maybe at a basic level; but give me sciences or DT or geography or RE or music and I would have no chance.

That's why I was wondering what the missed subjects were - were they crucial, would the majority of the content be covered, if not now, in the next half term? We used to regularly send the occasional student who was really struggling on study leave at Easter.

And also yy that's why I would say the OP's DS really needs to be in school, even if on a reduced timetable. I honestly don't think HE at this stage is practical or thought through.

good on the teacher for getting shot of the disruptive students and letting the others learn. No it wasn't for talking and fiddling with his pen and paper 😂

You are contradicting yourself quite a lot - there were 4 others banned, and your child is all alone, the teacher gave him nothing but a text book -the teacher is prepared to see him and give him resources....

Your son is out of lessons because of his own behaviour, noone's fault but his own. Your son has a teacher prepared to see him after school and give him resources. your son has access to the course text book. Your sone has a place to study. I don't know what advantage there would possibly be in removing him from the school.

he would lose access to the teacher who agreed to see him after school, the exams, the other subjects and the text book, and other resources.

Any year 11 student that talks in lessons is stopping themselves and others from learning.

Is it possible to negotiate lifting the lesson ban after a while? The teacher has agreed to give your son the resources he needs. So your son needs to find the teacher and politely ask about this. This sounds eminently resolvable to me. I think the HE suggestion is a massive overreaction.

You've not answered OP what your own qualifications to teach and knowledge of the exam schemes of work are?

Thank you for your reply and @Hatty65 I am going to try to talk to the headmaster again and try to see if we can resolve this matter .
As any parent I am trying to help and support my son, I am new to sealing out advice on this matter and because I am at my wits end both your advice I has given me a lot to think about . Needless to say it’s all I have been thinking about

My main concern for you would be finding an exam centre for him to sit his exams. The nearest one to me has increased the admin fee to £100 per paper. The next is cheaper but much further. I would be doing everything to keep him.in school.

HE is fine if done well with forethought. HE is not going to be better at this stage for anyone. The son is somewhat institutionalised towards school and learning that way. The OP has limited knowledge of exam specs, curriculum and how to access support before May.

My advice would be an absolute kick up the arse for your child. Phone and Internet would be gone until he earns his way back into those classes. Start getting it right at school, not removing school from him. Is he going to have his mum remove him from work when he doesn't like it?

Where were you thinking he would sit his exams?
You have to make sure you meet any deadlines for registering him.
Depending on what he wants to do after GCSEs (presumably not staying on at same school?), it might be worth resolving things with school rather than taking him out at this stage.

It is not a massive overreaction I have tried every avenue with this school, I am going to however try one last time to get the school to support my son in his education the. I will know I have tried everything.
My son approached the teacher and asked the teacher and he told him he couldn’t have them as he should of come to collect them when he emailed me, however as I said he was already on the bus .
I emailed the teacher again and requested the resources again still no reply .
I am sure there are a lot of home educators that are not qualified in teaching , however I am prepared to support and help my son in anyway I can and seek out the necessary support if I chose to go down this route .

Could you ask the school to provide home tuition? Also to allow him to sit his exams at that centre?

why didn't he get off the bus and go back?

I haven’t read every reply as it seems to have strayed from the topic. The school will be totally against you home educating him because census date has passed and he will therefore count on their results. If he doesn’t sit any exams then he will be a heavy minus for them. For this reason they maybe more willing to work with you - they will want him to sit at least some exams.

Support your child with strong boundaries and expectations around his behaviour. Not by expecting the earth from school who sound thoroughly fed up with his shit in lessons.

I do not contradict myself they split the kids up they have banned into separate classrooms, my son ended up in a year 9 geography class even that teacher was confused .
the school packs up at 15.20 his bus leaves at 15.40 , the teacher sent me the email at 16.00 so how could he pick up the resources, I asked about another time and the teacher did not reply to me … how is that helpful ???
I am just trying to find the right solution for this problem and to find the best way forward

Have you told your child to stop messing round in lessons ? This really is the most important thing.

He could collect the resources the next day?

Sorry, you have not explained why he didn't get off the bus and go back?