Did you experience any difficulty getting your child on to an A level course?

[chickorita]

I would love to hear your experiences - and it would also be good to know what part of the country you're in. It will be interesting to see if any particular parts of the country come out best for having schools/colleges that offer some leeway when it comes to the taking of A levels for those who have been home educated.

My ds took 4 IGCSE's this summer, and came away with an A*, A and 2 B's. Granted, he doesn't have the minimum 5 - 6 GCSE's that is required for a student wanting to take A levels. However, he does have the grades for the A'levels he wants to study - namely English Language and Maths. He wants to take Art, but couldn't take it at GCSE due to the coursework component - so has to make do with his portfolio of work as proof of his ability.

So far,we've been unable to find a school or College that will let him take A'levels;they all seem to want him to do a load of GCSE's - which to my mind is a waste of time, given that my ds has passes in the core subjects. Ideally, he'd like to sit at least a further 2 GCSE's. He doesn't want to go to the likes of Oxford or Cambridge, so a total of 6 GCSE's will be more than sufficient.

We live in North London. So, like I said, I'd be very interested to hear what your findings have been, or perhaps like me, you're going through this now for the first time.

My friend's DCs were able to enter a school 6thform with no GCSEs.

Do you know if the school allowed them to study A levels alongside GCSE's exoticfruits, and out of interest where in the country does your friend live?

Two of them went in earlier -flexi time to do a few GCSEs and then full time 6th form and the youngest just went in full time 6th form without having gone in earlier and without GCSEs-possibly because they had already had the siblings and so knew the family. I don't think anyone would want to do them alongside-the workload would be too great and I would imagine that timetabling would be a nightmare. It was UK-large comprehensive.

My eldest was allowed to take A levels on the back of 2 good GCSEs.
Our youngest got into an A level equivalent course with an OU starter course under her belt.

We found talking to the course tutors always helped, rather admission officers.
And putting the young person in front of the Tutor and letting them talk for themselves seems to impress. My son always talks of 'playing the Home Ed card'. HE makes them stand out from the crowd.

Have you been in contact with the Otherwise Club if you are in North London? They may know of colleges to approach.
There is also a website for HE people interested in taking qualifications and an associated busy email support list-it would be worth asking your questions there.

Thanks both for the info. My son has just enrolled at a College that were prepared to offer him the courses he wants to take with only the 4 IGCSE's.

Great! Hope all goes well.

Fabulous!! Good luck to him and I hope he'll enjoy the course.

My youngest starts tomorrow doing 4 A levels at college. There wasn't any problem at all with her only having 5 I/GCSEs, and in fact they offered her a place last year when she was only 15 to start A levels with 4 I/GCSEs at that time. It was when we went to an open evening and talked to the course tutor that they asked why wait for another year, why not start now? The course tutor turned out to also be the admissions officer. My dd decided she wanted an extra year of not doing much to spend with her friends and also she wanted to be the same age as the others doing As instead of being younger, so she deferred the place to this year.