how do you make sure your child is getting the right education up to exams

[piratecat]

i know its a huge question.

I am interested in HE, as i don't think school is working for us.

I want dd to have a good education where she can take exams, i think i do anyway.

What's out there to help me with the correct work she needs to achieve a recognisible exam result, She is only 8 now, but i know that when she is a teen i will be wanting her to get some qualifications, if she wants to go to college or uni.

Well, what the "right education" will be depends on a lot of factors about you, your dd, why school isn't working for her, etc, etc, etc... and you definitely need to be open and flexible about what to cover and how to do it.

But, if you mean "what would she cover in school, working up towards exam subjects", then you might want to look at things like the National Curriculum to see what she'd be covering at school. You don't have to cover the same things, or in the same way, or in the same order, but it does give you an idea of what children in school will have done before they get to the point of studying an exam syllabus.

I've just seen your other thread saying your DD has missed quite a bit of school - in that case, I'd certainly not let her see the NC stuff as she might be quite far behind in some areas. But it might still be useful for you to see the kinds of things they cover, and how the "ideas" in a subject build up over time.

thanks amuminscotland.

i am a bit all over the place with ideas at the moment. whatever happens i do feel that change is required!

I have always wondered how or if HE kids actually work to state set exams. One of my best friends HE's and i asked her the other day about the future and exams and she honestly seemed to not be concerned about it at all! So i am a bit confused. As it's obviously how the individual parent wishes to do it, and how the child likes to learn. Yet for me, i would ultimately be looking to give my dd as much nat curriculum experience as possible.

Hi, not seen your other thread, but this was the sort of thing (amongst all the others) that worried me too, but here we are doing them. :)

The answer is some do and some don?t and some do a lot, and some a few, and some talk about them a lot, and others don?t, and some prepare for them from the begining and others don't. :)

We?re structured H/e taking Igcse,s and A/S levels, who to paraphrase Mum in Scotland, like to ?build ideas in a subject, up over time?, but have friends who?ve always been autonomous who?ve suddenly gone after the same exams.

I wouldn?t have dared take that road, but they don?t seem to be having any difficulty filling in any parts of the syllabus that are new to them. :) (Exam technique?s something you have to understand when you get to that point, but there?s plenty out there to learn from.)

For us we simply study the same exam syllabus?s as schools do, ie Exdecel, AQA etc, and use their textbooks as a syllabus framework, but do it our own way (ie physics; understanding forces and motion on a surfboard rather than a blackboard, and our geography river coursework was done in the river) and tend to read around it more as there tends to be more interest in the wider subject as a whole, (ie studying Rosetti for English, threw up fascination in where the reform house she?d worked in had been exactly which isn't part of exam syllabus) rather than just the bits that get examined.

But just to reassure you whilst there?s many different h/e paths, for those wanting standard exams later, college and uni, it?s all perfectly do-able, and you don?t need to have always done a curriculum, or done exactly x,y, or z by x age or be doomed. :)

HTH

brilliant, thankyou. I am in a rush but will go and look up some of the things you have mentioned as it's like a new language to me.

autonomous and such !!

thanks.

It's not really relevant when your DD is only 8, but you might get reassurance from looking at the Home Ed Exams website.

Some people do GCSEs at the rate of one or two a year over three years (you have to pay the exam fee yourself and arrange the exam centre). Some decide to take a GCSE at the end of six months concerted study. Some wait until 16 and do 5 GCSEs in a year at college (free) in order to then access higher courses. Some bypass GCSEs altogether and get accepted at college for A-levels on the basis of other work (e.g. an art portfolio or music grades). My DD (and others) did Open University courses at 14 and used them when applying to university to prove that they were capable of the work.

The main tip is that when your DD gets to secondary age, keep an eye to what she wants to do later and try to see how you can help her achieve it, whether it is university, an apprenticeship, college or a job.

i would ultimately be looking to give my dd as much nat curriculum experience as possible.
Many EHErs would wonder why you'd restrict her to the NC, LOL. EHE is much more efficient than school and families tend to cover more stuff, a lot of which they'd never see in school. For example, if a family were to have connections with Bulgaria, then they might learn Bulgarian... which would be more use than the standard Spanish/French that schools tend to do and you could start it as early as you like. Many EHE children seem to be learning Japanese - usually through an interest in manga or anime.

At 8, you don't really have to worry - a normal busy life will cover most things on the NC that matter. For example, reading to and with each other, watching films, preparing meals, etc. My DC were autonomously educated throughout and we did not start anything formal until the OU courses at 14ish.

such an informative post thanks!!

you see it's so hard to not think in the way of the 'system', i am learning tho!

i just needed to know how it can work, if and when dd starts to show an interest in something. as school itself is so drawn out i have to stop thinking it takes that long to study for an exam!!

It's scary to step outside the system! But if you think about it, if you as an adult suddenly decided you wanted to do, say GCSE Latin and had never done any before, you'd be able to pick it up and do the exam in a year or two without any previous knowledge.

So until your dd gets to that kind of stage, education is more about picking up skills and ways of looking at things, rather than there being a list of facts which she needs to know. Being reasonably confident with literacy and numbers, being able to go find information for yourself and join it up with things you already know, being able to weigh up information from different places and decide whether you agree with it, being able to pull in information and present it in your own way. All those sorts of things are useful skills and can then be applied to any subject.

"I have always wondered how or if HE kids actually work to state set exams."

This is nowhere near as difficult as you might think. I know yours are too young to worry too much yet, but you might be reassured!

GCSEs are set by national exam boards, nothing to do with schools. There are about 4 main ones - you can choose what suits your circumstances. No employer cares what board you take as far as I can tell (because most schoolkids have no choice).

We looked on the exam board website, looked at subjects available. DD1 read the list and decided what she would like to do that year. We bought a recommended textbook (the boards have lists) and studied it. At the end of the year we took the exams at a local private school.

To date DD1 has 3 GCSEs/ IGCSEs she got at 14 and takes another 4 this year at 15.

Compared to the poor overloaded 15 year olds she knows who are in school, she has it really, really easy. She really doesn't do much work. I think schools must just invent work to keep them busy!!

Long, long way off for you, but wanted you to know it's possible and not even that difficult to do.