Home Educating year 10

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I want to withdraw my 15 year old daughter from school due to personnel reasons as it will be better for her to home schooled.
is this an easy thing to do with 1 term left in year 10?
I am willing to pay for her to do 3/4 GCSE's privately at home,what else would I need to teach her?
Do they make you do certain hours every week and check, just asking as she is going to be going away for a week at certain times throughout the year which is one of the reasons I am looking into home schooling her,as I don't want to get done for her not attending school.

What is the process I have to follow to withdraw her? Does she have to go back after the holidays as I want this to start asap and she is away tomorrow for a week.

Any advice would be great thanks?
xxx

I assume from your reference to GCSEs that you are in England or Wales? To deregister, you just have to send a properly worded letter to the school. There is no notice period, so your daughter won't have to return to school at all if she doesn't want to. Some kids do like to go in and say their goodbyes and get phone numbers from any friends they might like to keep in touch with, but some kids would rather leave ASAP. I have just bumped a post on deregistration for you; if you have any questions, just ask.

There are no specific requirements for what your daughter must learn, or when, or how. You can arrange your schedule as you like. That is entirely up to you and her to decide. It's also your choice about whether to do exams, how many and when. IGCSEs are a popular choice among home educating families because they are exam-based without controlled assessments, which can be hard to arrange privately. Here's a wiki about that: www.nwilts-he.org.uk/he_exams_wiki and you can join the busy email list which is linked from the top of that page.

If your daughter's week-long stints happen to be related to her working, bear in mind that until she ceases to be of compulsory school age at the end of Y11, she will be subject to the same child employment laws as if she were at school.

Thank you very much for that info Saracen it is very helpful, I had read a bit about IGCSE's so will look more into that.

No her weeks away are not about working so that is all ok.

Thanks again
xx

I have looked into college and training for her Coconutty and for some she needs no qualifications and for others she needs just Maths and English GCSE,which she will do plus French probably as she is good at that.

If i keep her at school I doubt she will get a C or higher but I know she has the intelligence to do it just not in a school environment,I have 2 children older than her and 3 younger and school works for them just not her.

Among home educated kids it is common (but certainly not universal) to acquire qualifications as and when they are wanted or needed, rather than to rack them up in advance. This has been called the "just in time" approach as opposed to the "just in case" approach. It has the advantage that the child is studying a topic out of intrinsic interest or because she knows she needs it in order to achieve other goals, so she is well motivated.

School uses the "just in case" approach, based on the assumption that learning must be completed by the time the child leaves school because it cannot be done in any other way. If you have to be taught in a school classroom in order to get a GCSE then it follows that you need to finish GCSEs by the end of Y11. Never mind that you may not yet know what you want to do, and so you don't know which qualifications you'll need. School must attempt to stuff in as much learning as possible before it is too late.

So, my teen (who is not currently working toward any IGCSEs) may decide in a few years that she wants a particular college course or to go for a certain job. At that stage, she'll go and get the qualifications she needs, with no thought that it is "too late". From the school perspective this approach may feel very risky, but from our perspective it is common sense. Meanwhile, she is still learning and acquiring valuable skills and knowledge, just not what is specified in an exam syllabus. She has other fish to fry at the moment.

Course provider links

Correspondance courses
www.nwilts-he.org.uk/he_exams_wiki/index.php/FAQs_about_taking_exams_as_an_EHEer#Course_Providers

Online schools
www.interhigh.co.uk
www.firstcollege.co.uk
www.briteschool.co.uk
net-school.co.uk/

American highschool cert (UK Uni's accept this)
globalacademy.miami.edu/
ohs.stanford.edu/

Open University - again these are used by some children who have trouble with/don't fancy exams.

Some local groups do group tuition for one year GCSE courses - this is often very cost effective as they also act as an exam centre. It's worth getting in touch. Do this quickly as many start their course in August so as to cover all the material in a year. The attendance police aren't an issue if she has to have the odd week off.

I give no recommendations but hopefully a bit of research from amongst that lot should provide you with an appropriate course of action that suits your child.

I can't say when the weeks she goes away are as they are set by someone else,I can't say what they are for but yes they are very important and are needed to help her in her future, If i can get the school to agree with the weeks i will see about her staying there, she has a few ideas what she wants to do and they do not need a degree or GCSE's etc.

Thanks for the info Bohead I will look through it.

Thanks for your comments Saracen, she doesn't need GCSE's for what she wants to do but I feel she should have Maths and English just in case but do them in her on time and if it takes 6 months or 6 years it is in her time frame.

I would be very concerned about this. She may not need GCSEs now, but might want a change of direction. Surely she will miss her friends and the life she has as an independent (near) adult. I think there is a lot to be said for education in the home, but that can happen alongside school. If she only has one more year then, surely, these absences could wait until then.

I teach and teenagers change their minds all the time about what they want to do. The advantages of a range of subjects, and teachers, is that they are prepared for a broad range of choices. Also, home education at GCSE level may well require a very skilled teacher in the subjects. I teach English and it is not just about knowing English, but about understanding the system and what is required. I am not saying you can't do this as a parent but, surely, it is a long way round.

I teach in Scotland so don't know the ins and outs of taking a child out of school for trips but I would assume, if it is legitimate work experience, leading to a planned job or career, that should be taken into account.