Homeschooling at 14

[HeyLittleRichGirl]

I'm considering taking my DD 14 out of mainstream school for years 10 and 11 and homeschooling her.
She would then attend a local college at 16 to sit her GCSEs.
Has anyone done this or have any advice, please.

Can you say a bit more? Why? What does she want to do?

have you checked what GCSEs are available at the college? She may well not be able to sit science, or a language

Colleges often only offer resit maths and English which can be quite a demotivated group.

However they kight be able to access the normal post 16 provision if you've done an entry level ou course or similar. Youd need to speak to them

Are you concerned about your childs wlel being at school? Or academic ability? Some more vocational courses may have different entrance requirements which you may be able to do at home.

Thanks for replying.
She doesn't get on very well at her school. Lots of anxiety and stress over attending.
The school is small and has a discipline problem. The majority of her classes are constantly disrupted by unruly pupils.
She dreads going in and does not excel academically. She's not excited about learning at all.

I haven't yet checked GCSE availability at local colleges.

I don't want to send her back after the summer break so I'm just floating ideas about what other options we have.

Change schools?

I've considered changing schools before but think she would benefit from a new approach to learning.

Well, you can home school whoever you want to. But apart from
anything else, you'll have to pay for her exams as an external candidate if you HE for years 10 and 11 and they don't come cheap. Would she be learning online or how would it work?

Have you checked what's available for home schooled kids locally? Some FE colleges do take 14 year olds or otherwise some kids attend GCSE groups run by local parents (often with external tutor). Kids do need to be motivated though, but needing to get GCSEs can help with this as some don't want to be left behind. You do need some money and the ability to run them around though. Home ed kids often do fewer GCSEs but in a shorter timescale, e.g. a couple this year and a couple next. Do you know what she might want to do after that and the minimum requirements she needs to meet? That might help to motivate her too and also shape the next couple of years. My DD was out of school for a bit during key stage 3 because of mental health problems, it really helped her, but I am glad she's going back for GCSEs, she wasn't very motivated at home but is now she's back at school. Isolation can be a bit of an issue for teens depending on where you live and how many other home ed kids there are around - I'd say there were fewer teens around than younger children and they're more choosy who they hang out with!

Betrand
I'm not sure how it would work TBH. I don't yet know how I would organise everything.

WeAreGerbil
Not sure what is available locally.
I'm mostly ignorant at the moment and need to research HE to see if it's suitable.
I'm a bit lost TBH.

There are, as with anything, pros and cons. My local college a 1 year GCSE programme for those 16+ with English, Maths, and a handful of other GCSEs to 5 GCSEs either total or in addition to English and Maths, I'd have to check that. Compared to a typical school or even a specialized school like a UTC, there are very few options (science is an option but not triple science) and there can be issues for some having it in one year rather than two, but for a child who has studied for it at home for a couple years, that's probably not as much of an issue.

Personally, as someone who has home educated for years, the college GCSE route is something I'm glad is available but it isn't my first choice mainly due to how restrictive it is for a child who wants to do anything beyond the basics. Most home educated kids I know either start going to school in Year 10 for GCSEs, do alternative qualifications at 16 (some colleges allow this with interview/portfolio), or use OU largely because of how awkward and expensive it is to do a full range of GCSEs outside of school.

Lots of people do exactly this op. There seems to be a lot of pressure on children in years 10 and 11 often leading to really worrying mental health issues.
I home educate my three children. One of them is in year ten but she has been out of school for longer than that. There seems to be a real influx of children being deregistered from school in this age group.
I would join your local home education group if you’re on Facebook, they’re usually a wealth of knowledge. If you’re not sure of your local group join the national one and ask.
My eldest dd (year ten) is taking GCSEs through a local tutor group. We pay £5 per subject and of course there’s the exam fee on top which is around £100 so it is quite costly.
However in the area we used to live the local college offered massive discounts on accessing the exams through them, it was around £40 per subject. There might be help in your area.
Another option is to attend college. I looked into a btec level 2 (equivalent if I remember correctly, to a number of GCSEs grade A) and this course offered maths and English GCSEs alongside. This was for 14-16 year olds and free as the college can access funding for the course. Not all colleges will do this though but the local home ed groups will be the best place to ask. (Some colleges ask that you do a btec level one first, others will accept students straight onto a level 2, particularly if it’s an art / design course and they have a strong portfolio.
There is also something called an arts award (also a photography award) that’s quite easy to access and is equivalent to GCSEs I believe.
Good luck.

Try HE exams and alternatives Facebook group, and as someone else suggested your local one too. There's also the HE exams wiki that has lots of useful info.

But I think maybe starting with what she might want to do at 16 if she had her GCSEs, if you know that, and working backwards from there might help.

BlackandWhite
Thank you. It's her mental health that's paramount.
She's not coping, never mind thriving at school and I worry about the pressures of GCSEs.

I really appreciate all the replies

This upsets me and makes me angry as a teacher, the good kids lives ruined by the ones who think it is ok to mess around and disrupt lessons.

Can I suggest you get in touch with the governors?

Give the specific descriptions about specific lessons, on named names and times.

The school should be enforcing discipline.

It is possible, if you have a discipline policy, and stick to it, and back up all your staff, and exclude those who keep breaking it

Of course, you get penalised by ofsted for exclusions, but who cares, when the alternative is a school children can't learn in.

sort of defeats the object of being a school, really.

And do look at other schools, there really are schools that exist that are strict on behaviour and this situation doesn't arise.

There are lots of people in our home ed community withdrawing teens from school. I think that, as they hit secondary school, or hit year 10, there's just a moment when the families just can't cope with fighting to try to have an experience that is anywhere near tolerable.

On the social side: teens can be a bit closed in their existing friendship groups. Look out for the meet ups that are open to all comers (there's a home ed youth club in our area, and various activities that are for teens with younger siblings allowed to go along). Also, it can be worth socialising with younger children for a while, to rebuild the child's confidence, and that also gets you onto the social circuit, and people will network you with like-minded people.

On the educational side: do what is right for your child right now. Their mental health is paramount. Much better to do unconventional qualifications a bit later than the herd, than to do huge damage to them by trying to replicate the school hot house environment.

One of our local schools always puts up a banner in August showing off something like "75% of our students got 5 x A*-C grades at GCSE" (or whatever that's called in new money) and I always think "good grief. That means that one in four of those teenagers have spent YEARS and YEARS in school, almost certainly not enjoying it, and they don't even come out with the kinds of qualifications that anyone is going to crow about. What was the point of that?!"

I think thats a little unfair. Theres so much more to education than purely results! (As home edders ought to know!.) My kids have loved school and have had some amazing experiences. Its not certain they dont enjoy it!!

If mine really didnt gel with school i would consider home ed and initially did look at it. And i recognise for some school is a bad fit but it is certainly wonderful for many and not intrinsically evil in the way some home ed communities make out

I'm not saying it's intrinsically evil at all. I'm saying that, if a child struggles their way through school, not thriving there, not getting the benchmark of 5 A*-C GCSEs, then it must feel a bit "what was the point of that then?" - all that struggle when they might have been better off getting on with working out who they want to be as an adult, and how to move towards that.

My point is just: if school isn't a positive experience, there's no point being part of it (and I strongly believe that some children are school-shaped, and they should absolutely be in school, and fair play to them).

Thank you everyone. All these replies are really helpful.
I've been scouting around online and I'm feeling much more positive.

There is a local FB group so I've requested to join.

Next step is to write to the Headmaster to inform him of my decision.

I bet you feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders. The Facebook groups should be able to help you with templates for deregistering letters.

BlackandWhite

It does feel like that

I home educate my 14 year old daughter, she would be Y9, she is doing 7/8 GCSEs over the next two years, I looked at college provision in our area but I heard it had a reputation for disruptive students, something my daughter would find difficult to cope with.
If you home educate most do just 5/6 GCSEs as that is all that is required by most colleges for A level courses.

he-exams.wikia.com/wiki/HE_Exams_Wiki

Thanks NK34
I'might waiting to hear from our local college to see if they accommodate GCSE at age 16.

The (vague) plan is to have her at home for now and see how we get on.

I've sent the deregistration letter today so the first step is done.