AE for secondary school age children

[Colleger]

I'm looking for reading material on AE children who've been in the school system until the age of roughly 11 and also experiences of HE'ers who have gone down this route at approx this age. My son is not an only child but during term time he effectively is as his brother is at boarding school. So if there happens to be a parent of an only child who AE'd from around this age I'd love to hear how it went, although I'm happy to hear from anyone. I know Julienoshoes has been successful with this.

I've decided I'm going ahead with it now but I am going mad with worry and stress thinking that it doesnt work at 11 if a child has been institutionalised or that his experience of school and academics has been so unpleasant that he'll never want to return. Success is not measured by exam results or qualifications or careers but I am worried that a boy who could have achieved high exam grades may opt out forever and limit his opportunities. That's just my thoughts which may irritate some but I can't help how I feel and I want it to change.

HELP!

am possibly being dense here, but what's AE?

And have you seen the changes to exams, I can see more children coming out of school as nobody knows what on earth is happening (though obviously the quote top schools unquote will be working flat-out to keep exam scores up whatever the system)

edyourself.org/articles/examsfaq.php

Autonomous education. When I say never return I mean to academic study not to school.

I didn't do autonomous so can't answer from experience, but I'd just say - a decision to let him be autonomous for a year or two at 11 doesn't mean you've committed to letting him be completely autonomous till he's 16/18. If after a year or so he really doesn't seem able to take that responsibility for his own learning, then you can sit and talk with him about what he wants out of his life/career and agree a plan together of how he can move in the right direction to achieve that. Once you agree things like "I'd like the chance to go to university/be a plumber" then you can work back to "I would therefore benefit from having these qualifications" and back to "So I need to learn about these subjects at these levels over the next couple of years" - it would still be him deciding what he wants to learn, but with a plan in mind, and you can then remind him of that plan as required to keep him on track. Or discuss again and plan for a different direction if his interests have changed.

Some children at 11 are clear enough about what they want in life to make choices completely on their own, but most need some steering or at least encouragement to keep them focussed. That's a world away from making them do things because it's the standard set of subjects, set of exams, time to do those exams.