Can I supplement with home ed?

[Rainboho]

Apologies in advance of this is a strange question - is it possible to do some home ed on top of traditional schooling?

Let me explain - my DD is has done her options and keeps expressing that she feels the choices have been restrictive - she is very interested in doing a psychology GCSE. She is a bright girl and I have no particular concerns about her managing to do this.

Additionally, I am qualified in psychology myself and I did not attend school for my GCSE years, but passed all my GCSEs. I’m thinking there is no reason I couldn’t support her to do an online psychology GCSE and I’m not one for sticking with the traditional so happy to take a relatively ‘subversive’ approach.

I wondered if anyone had any experience of this or could recommend any online providers?

Sure, you can do that. It isn't a very popular approach, since many kids already find the workload which school is requiring of them to be too great. But if that doesn't bother your dd, why not?

One point worth knowing is that kids who sit exams independently can do so at any age they like. Home educated kids often spread their exams out over several years to take the pressure off. Perhaps your daughter would rather sit the psychology exam earlier or later than her school-based GCSEs.

Here is a guide to getting started: he-exams.wikia.com/wiki/HE_Exams_Wiki

you can, but if shes already doing a full day at school and several GCSEs, maybe youre both underestimating the workload shes about to get. She could always do psychology at college without having it as a GCSE

Thank you both for the replies - it is worth knowing it is an option. I am cautious of the workload thing, but also aware that school may put her in for a couple of GCSE early so it may work with that approach. I have told her it is a lot of work and she can do whatever she chooses after GCSE but she is keen.

Thanks again for the replies.

Yes it is possible; lots of teenagers take extra subjects especially languages. I would consider how much free time she has out of school hours. If she has extra-curricula activities, a job, a lot of travelling to and from school she may have enough on her plate. Also how many subjects is she already taking? A lot of schools do 9 subjects which probably leaves enough time to do some home schooling. Whereas if she does 10+ subjects she may get overloaded with work and stress!
You could maybe stagger it so that she takes the exam in Year 12 - which in my opinion is a gentler year with more free time (depending on the number and type of A levels she takes). She might not be able to sit the exam at her own school, so it is worth checking what the options are. I helped someone with a different subject at GCSE and the only problem we had was finding a local centre where she could sit as an external candidate.

If it's subversive ideas you are after, another thought is this. If your dd is simply fascinated by the subject, she could just learn about it in her spare time without aiming for a qualification in it. Some HE kids favour this approach, as they find following a curriculum can be restrictive, so they only sit a modest number of exams while doing free learning about other subjects. Then she can explore whichever aspects of psychology are most interesting to her without having to cover what isn't, and she can give the exam stress a miss.

Is there a particular reason why it would be advantageous to have the GCSE result to show? Given that not all schools offer psychology, I'm sure that NOT having that exam pass wouldn't bar her from any college or uni course she might want to do - unlike, say, maths or science, which might well be a non-negotiable prerequisite for some courses.

If your dd actively likes having a structure to her learning, she might see whether there is an Open University module at a suitable level. OU accepts under-16s onto their courses if the young person seems able and motivated. I think there is usually an interview locally or by telephone to help them establish whether the child seems mature enough to manage the work.

I did an extra gcse at the local further education college, during year 10. Because it was aimed at adults it was done in a year, so was over before year 11. This was not uncommon among the higher achieving students who wanted to do more languages than were offered, or an subject of interest.

She can always drop it if it’s too much

Sounds like a great idea! I home school my two and generally let them lead the way in terms of what they want to learn (they follow a curriculum for the main academic subjects). I find they learn more if they are excited about a subject, or if I can make it exciting for them.

The only thing to consider is the workload, but it looks as though you have this covered :-)

My eldest is at secondary age now and he's starting to think about what he wants to do after school so we've been doing a lot of research on the internet. There is a really good website we use a lot, there's lots of job videos and personal stories on it. He finds it really useful.

We just need to tackle the issue of sitting GSCEs next (although that is a while away).

Good luck!