Home Education at Year 10?

[Erqhart1]

My Year 10 girl is completely and utterley miserable and I'm all out of ideas for how to support her. Her attendance is at 71% and now I'm under considerable pressure from the school. She's never really liked the school enviroment, but started to implode when they started to pile the pressure on - she's predicted all A's. We're seeing the doctor for anxiety, but I really think removing her from the environment is the only solution. But know clue how to start home ed at GCSE level, any advice?

Your poor daughter! I think you are doing the right thing in taking her out of school now. The main priority is to get her happy and relaxed. That will be easier once she is out of the environment which is causing stress.

Home educated kids usually do IGCSEs because those are entirely exam-based and remove the need for controlled assessment. The bad news is that there is a lot of legwork involved for you to find where she can sit each exam and choose the best way for her to prepare, plus you have to pay fees. The good news is that there is tremendous flexibility to give her just what she needs. There are no required subjects, so she can just do the ones which interest her and are likely to be needed for whatever she wants to do next. Many teens find that five or so are enough unless they are aiming for a very competitive uni course. There is also no set age to do them, and they don't have to be done all at once. It's common for HE kids to spread them out over several years so they can really focus on just one or two or three subjects at a time. If she doesn't feel up to doing exams next year, she doesn't have to.

In fact, some kids like mine don't do exams at all but follow an alternative path, such as going straight into employment or self-employment. So there are lots of options.

Also if your daughter is very academic she might enjoy something like an Open University course.

Thank you so much for that, there's so much info out there, it's difficult to know where to begin. Where us the best place to start to source the actual IGCSE course work? The irony is she actually likes learning and is a complete self starter, I'm just so shocked by the way the school has no real interest in the person, just the (their) results. Thanks again.

I don't know all that much about it as my teen isn't doing exams, but you could start here:
He-exams.wikia.com/wiki/he_exams_wiki

And also join a local home ed Facebook group or email list to find out what is available in your area.

Thank you again, you've been really helpful.