Home Education for 16 yr old

[Derbyshiremum1]

My son has failed his gcse’s he is an elite sportsman and as such we have paid for him to go to a sports academy, from September part of the course involved 2 days a week college education in mainstream colleg, doing a BTEC in sport but because he has failed the gcse the education side isn’t going to work for him now.
The academy still want him and as I said we’ve paid for that part of the course
From what I can see we either have to find another college and get him to do any course he can get on to and he would also have to retake his maths and English or is there an option to home educate him.
Any advice or thoughts please on home education a 16-18 year old as I really do not know what to do.

Will the course accept Functional English and Maths instead? If so, would they allow him to sit those at the same time?

Can you explain a bit more? Why does your son need to carry on with academic study? (I'm not saying academic study is a bad idea, just want to understand the background!)

I'm not familiar with sports academies - is this at a college? If it receives government funding, I believe your son would be subject to the requirement to keep working toward his maths and English GCSEs while he attends. The mainstream college you mentioned should be able to offer that, as would any other local college, though there might be timetabling issues.

If it's a private academy and they don't have to make him do maths and English GCSEs, and they are willing to take him without GCSEs, then he doesn't HAVE to do any academic study. The Raising of the Participation Age does place a duty on all young people to remain in education or training until their 18th birthday, but this is fairly theoretical, as there are no criminal penalties for noncompliance. There are benefits sanctions, however: you can't claim Child Benefit or Tax Credits for a young person beyond Y11 if they aren't in full-time education.

How is he feeling about all this? Is he motivated to work on GCSEs? Given that he has failed them, what different environment do you think he would need to enable him to tackle them successfully?

I wouldn't give up on the sports academy yet.
He hasn't made the requirements for level 3 BTEC but it may be possible for him to a level 2 qualification alongside retaking his GCSEs.

Have you considered US SAT exams?