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 tried to text him but his battery had died hence not being able to get in touch , that’s why he went up to the teacher and asked the next day for the resources

I home ed so fully support it but I wouldn’t be taking my dc out at this stage unless school was causing such severe MH issues or similar.

He has got so far into his GCSE courses and if you want him to sit them this year would need to be able to find somewhere where he can sit the same papers that he would have done at school given that he will have been taught to their specification. You would also need to book and pay for them pretty much right away, the exam centres where I am have deadlines ending in the next week or so. It is around £250-£300 per subject at my local centres.

@Foxsoot

What is your son hoping to do after his GCSEs?

I am sure there are a lot of home educators that are not qualified in teaching

That may well be so. But I presume they go about it in a more planned and structured way, sorting out the necessary specialist tuition ahead of starting GCSE courses and planning and arranging exam centres to sit the exams.

Pulling your son out of school with just over three months to go before he sits his first exams is not careful planning and organising. I cannot imagine that it will be easy to source the needed tuition at this kind of notice.

If what you say is the full story - that your son has been removed from class for two of his GCSEs and offered the work he needs to complete as well as text books, then yes, I do think removing him from school is an overreaction, and crucially, not in his best interests. And other teachers posting here have said the same.

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.

Wow that's pretty low - our grammar schools want over 64 points to study A levels there. No chance of getting in with 4 GCSEs.*

Go to Harrogate Army College

Why don't you tell your child to stop talking and disruting his lessons? You seem focused on the wrong thing. You keep saying you want to support your son. The best way to do this is to support a short term sanction of working alone followed by a reintegration into the class with your son being clear from you and the school that he needs to get on and stop disturbing the rest of the class or he will be out for longer.

Has he already been accepted by the Army?

I'm wondering whether he feels that he is home and dry and doesn't need to make an effort with exams any more.

OP what are the subject he’s been chucked out of?

He needs 5 passes at C for soldier to officer selection, so I’d just be focusing on using school as a means to an end and getting those. They do need to include English, Maths and Science or MFL so if hes been chucked out of one of those it would be helpful to know and we can provide better advice.

Many parents that home educate are facilitators, not teachers. The children are fortunate to be able to choose to study in the way that suits them best. Some favour recorded lessons,some prefer live… some like books….the internet has so many videos, worksheets, etc in every format imaginable for a child to learn and progress without a parent needing to teach. Additionally many do international GCSEs so the practical element is not needed also.

To be fair to me @MusictomyEar I and others here were speaking to the OP about the specific situation with their DC, and their idea of HE at the end of January for the remainder of year 11.

I have no doubt at all that many people are HE without being teachers, and find excellent ways to do so. I very much agree that there are many options, and I would also add in subject experts with good knowledge of the exam specification. I have worked with a good number of HE students myself. But I suspect these parents are not starting from scratch with less than four months (at the time of this thread) until exams start.

The two issues with deregistering now but still wanting to do the GCSES are:

1. you will forfeit the ability to sit the exams through the school and will almost certainly have also missed the deadline to register elsewhere for this summer, so you won't be doing any GCSEs in 2024.
2. when you find an exam centre for each exam (not necessarily all the same place, significant cost), you will have 'lost' all credit for his coursework. So you will be restricted to exam only GCSEs or IGCSEs and may need to learn a different syllabus (this will vary: likely to be a lot of overlap in Maths but might be totally different texts in English).

I moved DD in yr 11 but it was in October

Best thing I could have done

But she did have to drop a couple of subjects which they didn't teach or had dif curriculum

She took up media studies instead which was super easy

She did pass all her GCSEs and had a tutor first maths

She may have done better if she hadn't moved but she probably would have dropped out completely failing everything and suffering greatly with her MH

You can move DC this late and schools will accept them

Be quick they can make the change within a couple of weeks

Contact the schools you want him to go to and fill in relevant online forms for local council LEA - they will connect quickly and sort it out

At least 2 other DC moved after DD did from different schools fir different reasons

It's worth doing

Probably too late for you now but for anyone else going through this