Adult learner left school due to mental health now trying to teach myself.

[Wordsearchqueen]

Hi everyone here's some ground information for you to know about me.
I'm a 23 year old english woman. I have autism and other disabilities plus mental health and chronic illness. I went through Primary school and struggled but managed to deal with the mainstream side.
Went to mainstream high school and that's when my mental health really started to go downhill. I could not cope with the environment due to my autism and the school having poor knowledge of special needs. Due to this I struggled to learn anything. I Eventally had to leave and was out of school for 9 months. Then I went to a special needs school where the maths and English education were way below my academic level. At the time my mental health was a priority not my education and I thrived in the special needs school with my mh issues.
Now I'm finally in a place where my mental health is doing really well and I'm really trying to better myself.
Obviously I never had the chance to take Gcses and therefore left school without any qualifications which is making getting a job very difficult. I Need some advice on where I can find resources to teach myself from ks3 level to eventually doing gcse. My science level is very low as in high school it wasn't taught to me very well. I'm a fast learner when I teach myself but unsure where to go next. I can't afford a tutor and I can't afford those really expensive courses I have very little money. I want to hopefully one day get to the stage where I can go to Uni to study to be a Vet. Please any suggestions.
Thank you everything is greatly appreciated.
If you have any more questions leave them below and I'll do my best to Answer them.

For maths, have a look at Maths Genie
https://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/scheme.php

Could you get in touch with the learning support team at your local college and see what they could offer? There are online providers but they can be expensive.

Oak Academy- it's completely free and was made to teach the full curriculum from primary school onwards, and covers all subjects. It has a mix of videos and downloadable resources. Year listing | Oak National Academy

Have you got an EHCP? If not, you can apply for one yourself, but it would entitle you to funding to go and complete these courses at a local college up until you're 25 Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND): Extra help - GOV.UK

I think you need some proper advice and guidance about the best qualifications to take as an adult learner. Could you see if the job centre, council etc offer any careers advice and guidance that you could access?

If you don’t have English or maths gcse then the courses are free.

you can look up here where offers them:

https://www.gov.uk/improve-english-maths-it-skills

Please have a look at the 19+ Adult Education offer from your local council (they may directly deliver but probably do it via local colleges and community education providers). You’ll be able to do Level 2 qualifications in English, Maths, Digital Skills etc (may have to start at Level 1 depending on your level) which are the equivalent to GCSEs. The provider will guide you through it all, and if you’re unemployed or on low income it will be free

Oh - and well done for getting yourself into the position you’re ready to re-enter education. That’s a massive achievement!

Thank you but I'm not able to deal with a college environment I'm best off doing it online.

In my area they tun maths and English classes for free in the library, but honestly it sounds like a college would be the best provider and as you are under 25 I think you might be able to access teaching there.

There are loads of online courses. English and maths will be free, you can also do science, but you'll need to pay for that one.

https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/find-a-course/page?searchTerm=maths%20mathematics%20numeracy&distance=10%20miles&town=&orderByValue=Relevance&startDate=Anytime&courseType=&sectors=&learningMethod=Online&courseHours=&courseStudyTime=&filterA=true&page=1&D=0&coordinates=&campaignCode=&qualificationLevels=E,1,2]

In some areas, the Adult Education is also provided by community education providers - the environment is nothing at all like a college! They don’t have them all over the country but here they do the set up is exactly for people who didn’t have a great time the first time round at school so please don’t write off before you’ve looked into! Of course, if it’s not for you it’s not for you - but it really isn’t like walking into a college!

That’s so positive on your part - well done for doing this.

My AuDHD son is currently in Yr10 and really likes the BBC Bitesize resources. Again, they’re completely free and you can go at your own pace. There’s pretty much everything on there from maths, to history, English and science. They also have other pre GCSE courses like citizenship which my younger son really enjoyed doing.

Oak National Academy is also good and I know a few people who’ve used Khan Academy.

I would also look into applying for an EHCP as that may help.

Best of luck!

Also…..and I know it’s a hot topic at the moment, have you applied for DLA? My youngest (severe ADHD + EHCP) has DLA and this helps to pay for extra academic and social / communication/ OT support. Maybe this would be an option for you?

Start by getting the revision syllabus books from a bookshop or Amazon. You'll need a lot of other resources, but these show you what the syllabus actually is. It's a good idea to browse them first - there are several different ones to choose from and you might find you prefer the layout of one style over the other. It can make a big difference to how you absorb the information.

Think about your learning style. Do you take in info more easily verbally or visually? If verbally, there are podcasts and you tube videos. If visually, you might find things like BBC Bitesize more useful which is very text-based info.

If you are primarily visual, you can get full text graphic novels for several GCSE set texts on AQA Literature and probably other exam boards, so they'd be worth looking at.

You could look at Access courses too, for adults wanting to complete GCSEs (and maybe A levels too - not sure) if you'd like a classroom environment.

Sure, and it’s great that you realise your limitations as regards learning environment, but if you plan to be a vet, that’s five or six years of degree study in person at a university because of the extensive practical, clinical practice needed.

The Open University has access courses which might be worth looking at.
Access courses are not a universal thing, so one uni's access course does not necessarily qualify you for another uni's degree, but the OU ones are online, so would help you get going if you need to study online for now.

At degree level, the OU don't do vet med (and presumably nowhere is going to do that online), but if you wanted to continue with the OU, you could do biological sciences and then look at postgrad vet med courses.