15 year old wants to go to school

[waltwalker]

Hi, my daughter has just turned 15 and is feeling really overwhelmed trying to do GCSE's at home and wants to go back to school. She thinks school will give her the motivation and self discipline she lacks.

I don't know where to start, she would be right in the middle of year 10, will any school take her now, will they allow her to go into year 9? Help!

Has she been studying herself with an exam board curriculum? If so, even if she's been finding it a struggle, she may be able to catch up if she joins a school now.

Most state schools aren't keen on having children 'out of year' so they'd probably focus on helping her catch up rather than letting her go into the year below.

Alternatively, could she look at going to FE College from the autumn and doing GCSEs there?

Approach your local schools, ask if they have a space in her year, and go from there. Schools will take her if they have a place. Depending on how much of the GCSE syllabus she has completed so far, she might be better off starting Year 10 in September - instead of Year 11 as she should be. I have no idea whether a school would agree to this, but may do if she would really struggle & has missed huge chunks of the GCSE courses.

Phone the schools, ask about spaces, visit with DD, speak to the Head Of Year/Deputy Head/Head Teacher etc. and take a list of questions with you so that you don't forget to ask anything.

Good luck .

Thanks for the replies, I thought that some year 10's already had GCSE's under their belts. I am most worried about the maths syllabus, she hasn't done large parts of the syllabus.

DS1 has done/is doing maths, English and science at evening classes at the local sixth form college. Would that be a possibility?

We have also done a couple extra as private candidates (1 GCSE that had no controlled assessment and 1 IGCSE). This will give him the 5 he needs for sixth form.

Some Year 10's will be taking a couple of GCSEs this May/June but they will still sit most of them next year. It is quite often done to increase the amount of GCSEs a pupil gets in total.

Unless the schools you are looking at are very high performing, there probably won't be any subjects where the whole year has already sat the GCSE in Year 10.

Thanks for that SantasLittle,

Lots of schools don't have vacancies for this age group. You might have to go through the local authority's In Year Admissions process rather than applying directly to individual schools. FE colleges are funded to take 14-16s home ed now and some offer GCSE courses, depending on where you are in the country. Also Sheffield College Online is just starting to take applications for free Maths and English GCSEs starting this September.

Thank you Fiona. I feel we have left it too late really, if schools would consider putting her in the year below it might be workable but as others have said I suspect they wont.
I think I will give the local college a ring and see what they say.

Have you looked at online alternatives like Interhigh? They cost, but might be a good solution especially when you look at the costs of uniform and getting to and from school etc.