Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

New GCSEs and home ed

5 replies

YesSheCan · 12/11/2018 13:12

Hi, I've just deregistered 12 yo yr 8 DD back to HE (she was home ed from age 6 to 11 by my mum then did yr 7 in a school. Unfortunately we had lots of problems at home with my mum and had to move and DD had to leave her school. She is repeating a lot of work at her new school, is bored and unmotivated and not adjusting well. Has asked to be home eduacted again and after lots of consideration I have agreed. I'll be teaching her. She has CAT scores of 141 verbal and 136 quantitative and had been self-learning some GCSE Maths when she was yr 6 age). I know it's not time for GCSEs yet but thinking ahead, what are the options for the new style GCSEs which she can take as a home educated student and will be recognised by sixth form colleges when she comes to do A levels?

OP posts:
anniehm · 12/11/2018 13:16

The home Ed family I know registered with an online school for GCSEs and arranged with a local private school to sit them

Saracen · 12/11/2018 15:01

The new-style GCSEs open up more options to home educated kids. It used to be that with just a few exceptions (e.g. maths), GCSEs always required coursework, which had to be validated. That was difficult and expensive for HE families to arrange. As a result, IGCSEs (which were and are exam-based) were the usual choice. This wasn't a huge problem, as IGCSEs are universally accepted as equivalent to GCSEs - in fact, many private schools do IGCSEs.

But now that GCSEs are moving away from controlled assessments, in more subjects you will be able to choose between GCSEs or IGCSEs. You can choose between several exam boards according to which syllabus you prefer. However, bear in mind that it can be tricky to find exam centres which accept private candidates. The availability of an exam centre may dictate your choice of exam board.

There is a wealth of information here:
he-exams.wikia.com/wiki/HE_Exams_Wiki
Once you've had a read of that, join the national Facebook or Yahoo group to discuss details. It's also sensible to be in touch with other local home educators, who will be able to tell you what's available in your area. Private schools, independent exam centres, colleges, and sometimes state schools are able to accept private candidates; however, their willingness to do so tends to change from one year to the next so you'll need to check back again when your daughter is closer to sitting the exams.

In addition to, or instead of, tutoring your daughter yourself, you might choose to outsource some subjects. Some colleges offer part-time courses suitable for home educated kids, which would be free. In some areas, a tutor (often a home ed parent who has specialist subject knowledge) may offer a tutor-led study group to help kids prepare for exams. Or there's distance learning.

itsstillgood · 12/11/2018 20:06

Only thing to add to what Saracen said was you need to find an exam centre before deciding on exam board as that might limit choice.
You don't need to sit 11. Work backwards, find out what she needs for what she wants to do after and work backwards if not sure than think what keeps options open.
English Language and sciences usually need to be IGCSE as there is a practical element in GCSE that makes it difficult.
You can stagger them over several years/sittings (some have options to sit in Nov or Jan) to break up costs/workload.

itsstillgood · 12/11/2018 20:18

My yr 8 is studying for 2 GCSEs with a view to sit summer of what would be yr 9. We are viewing these as tasters if he passed great if not they are exam practice in subjects that he doesn't really need. One he is studying through group Skype tutorials. The other he is doing lessons at local HE tuition centre (I'm tutoring the group).
The beauty of HE is you pick the right time.
My yr 12 age one did his GCSEs in school and didn't get great results so is doing another batch at home this year (subjects not offered by school) as the college options when resits were needed were really poor.

CarrieErbag · 15/11/2018 17:39

My dc is doing igcse courses to solve the problem of course work/practicals.
No problem with recognition by 6th forms either.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page