Gcses as a private candidate

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Approximately how much does it cost to do a non core gcse such as history as a private candidate?

Does it vary by exam board?

When my son did IGCSEs it depended on the exam centre as they work out their own costings. I know that nationally there was a lot of variation. The school we used had a price list per subject - last year they ranged between £81 and £125.

A good way to find out locally would be to make contact with others in your HE circle who've already started doing I/GCSEs and ask about the exam centres they use, and speak with the exams officer yourself.

Are you on the Yahoo exams list? here

Quite often some local schools will accept outside GCSE candidates and the cost is approximately £100 or so. The examination boards usually have a list of those schools who will accept outside candidates.

Unfortunately we aren't in a local network

Dd is taught at home by the medical needs team due to anxiety

She's academically very able but they only offer English, maths and science
She's expressed a wish of doing humanities independently so i'm just trying to see how feasible it is

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You would be limited to iGCSEs as they don't have continual assessment/coursework. (Apart from, atm, GCSE maths)

It is doable, I would start by ringing your local schools and asking if they take 'students as external candidates' - make contact with someone who runs the exams.

My daughter goes to a school to do hers, they are really helpful and cost around £50 a subject.

Ok. I appreciate you're not electively home educating, but you might find the relevant information you're looking for by reading the Exams section on Ed Yourself.

It does vary a lot between schools so you'd have to make a lot of enquiries to find a suitable centre. I expect you'd also have to liaise with the SENCo to ensure you have any relevant access arrangements in place, too.

I don't know a great deal about the subject, but have you posted on the Special Needs board about pressing your LA to provide the subjects your daughter needs? It seems to me that since they are providing her education they really ought to do better. A very academically able child should be supported to do more subjects than they are offering, so long as her medical condition doesn't prevent it.

What reason has the LA given for failing to provide a wider range of subjects?

Mind you, I do appreciate that battling with LAs to get them to make appropriate provision can be soul-destroying and it may be easier to foot the bill yourself.

LA are saying she can be in mainstream school while at the same time providing education via the medical needs team

She's not suitable for a special school but going into a school with 300 pupils per year group is too big an obstacle to overcome

Could you take her out completely? I know you shouldn't have to but if you could then maybe think about that.

Taking exams as an external candidate can work really well. Where my daughter goes is lovely - there is normally less than 8 in a little room away from the main hall so good for reducing anxiety?

I like the social interaction she gets from her tutors -if she didn't have that she would probably only talk to me and her sister

I know there are home ed groups but locally they are very primary based

Hmm, the LA can't really have it both ways though, can they? The fact they are providing tutors is an acknowledgement that your daughter's needs can't currently be met at school. So they need to provide a suitable alternative, which they aren't doing.

I don't have any experience of fighting the LA, but the folks on the Special Needs board are like terriers with a bone seem very determined and knowledgeable.

I spent 9 months fighting for what she gets -i'm not sure I've any more fight in me

Then back to your original question - sitting exams as an external candidate entirely doable.

Where abouts are you? Hopefully someone may know of a good centre to do exams at.

If you have some support of LA, then keep it. It is saving you a small fortune in tutor/exam fees. Well done you for getting even that. You can do extra from your own pocket if your daughter is prepared to study it herself with books and CDs . You can get codes off exam board on her preferred subject, they are helpful then ask local school/college to do exam only with them. Avoid private exam centres, they charge over £240 for IGCSE. They do not provide great service for that price.