Year 11 Home School

[laurenoc]

My son is currently in year 11 and I’m looking to remove him from mainstream and home educate. Looking for advice from anyone who has done this.

Long story short, he is currently working with CAHMS due to emotional trauma from years of bullying. He is also awaiting his ADHD diagnosis.

The school he is at has never supported this as they describe it as his ‘perception’. Where behaviour has been an issue, they have not looked at the underlying causes and continuously applied sanctions.

He has now not attended school for nearly a month due to them selecting an off site placement at a school that is in special measures and failed safeguarding.

I’ve exhausted all options of trying to get the school to support my son. We have been paying for private tutors since year 10 for English and maths and plan to reduce the GCSEs he’s taking.

Has anyone been able to do this and have any success stories with it?

As a mum it’s so difficult trying to get people to help and just get given policy after policy!

That sounds really tough. It can be hard to find places to take GCSEs (or iGCSEs) so definitely have a look now and see if you can find somewhere that will take private candidates. It can also be really expensive…

Edit: typo

I'd try to keep an arrangement whereby he stays on role somewhere.
This way the school or wherever pays for the GCSEs and does all the admin and he goes back to sit them there.

Have you applied for an EHCP?
What is the plan for y12?

Did you actually look at the offsite placement? What was the issue with safeguarding, has it been resolved? (Safeguarding could mean rampant bullying, but could also mean they slipped up on renewing DBS checks).

Op I was in a similar situation with DD although for medical and mental health reasons. My advice is do not deregister him. Keep him on roll at school so he can still sit his GCSEs with them .Use private tutors at home but make sure you have an agreement in place that he can come in for his exams.. She didn't go in after Christmas except for her exams and passed all her GCSEs with good grades. She then attended an online school for A levels but found it too hard and is now enrolling for T Levels at college Sept 2027.She will be18 then but finally mentally and medically ready for the education system again. Her good GCSEs have been really important and it meant she didn't walk away from an awful school experience with nothing.

We deregistered the year before exams. Our plan was to save up and take them privately over a couple of years as you don't have to follow the school system anymore, but if there is a chance you can get them paid for by school while he attends part time that's worth looking at. Otherwise while he has log in access to school, have a look at what study guides and work plans etc they have online for the subjects he may want to study at home, we found a lot there. There is a lot of information online for subjects and exams and if you are already paying for tutors you are halfway there already.
Do you find he engages with study by himself or with his private tutors? If he does then he will ok learning outside of a school setting.
I wish your son and you all the best.

Before deregistering I would think about the provision offered.

Is the off-site provison reasonably practicable - that is available, is possible and is accessible to DS? Not just because you dislike the provision or because of the OFSTED rating, but genuinely, objectively not reasonably practicable. If not, the LA still has a duty to ensure DS receives a suitable full-time education. You might want to read LVN, R (on the application of) v London Borough of Southwark [2026] EWHC 2254 (Admin)

Does DS have an EHCP?

Have you looked if you have exam centres within reach who accept private candidate for the exams you want? Have you also checked if they offer the exam access arrangements DS needs? Have you checked if DS would need to swap any of the subject to IGCSEs?

Personally, I wouldn’t deregister.