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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.

Online schooling for years 10/11

9 replies

ScreamingKid · 26/04/2020 08:24

Dd has always hated school due to social anxiety. They have alsobeen crap at providing for some mild SEN issues she has despite repeated emails from me asking for handouts as per her Educational psychologist report.

She is loving online schooling provided by the current school. So its led me down a rabbit's hole of looking at online school options. I am thinking of giving it a go now as a trial and if it works then she could do that instead. My main concerns are that from September she should be starting year 10 for GCSEs, so is this a risky move ?

Her social anxiety is manageable and I have always gone along the lines of telling her this is life (big crowds) and that she needs to use strategies to cope (lots of downtime alone at home works ). So I worry that she will find all this much more difficult if she gets used to no crowds.

Just as a bit of background: DD has autistic traits (seen by CAMHS) and has consistently had social anxiety issues since she was tiny. Shes now 14 and has developed some good strategies and knows what she can tolerate. She is quite introverted but does have a group of good friends. She has always described school as exhausting and says she doesnt like it. She finds noise and all the people too much so needs time out when she gets home like we all do. This seems to manage the situation well.

She has very slow processing (less than 1 percentile) which probably contributes to her exhaustion. The school are meant to give her handouts, time to process and extra time in exams but they dont. Shes not on SEN support although I think she should be. They have her on their SEN register but don't know what that means.

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qwerty1972 · 05/05/2020 21:04

My daughter has ASC and has been always been home educated. She started online education aged about 9 and has completed her IGCSEs via online providers. She is now headed towards a degree with the OU. Like your daughter, she finds social gatherings exhausting and so I've always been of the opinion she should save her energy for things which require her to be in company (eg. musical theatre which she loves). For us, online education has worked fantastically well - her grades have been excellent and she has had the freedom to work at different levels for different subjects.

ScreamingKid · 05/05/2020 22:54

I'd forgotten I'd posted this so thank you for your reply. Can you recommend a provider?

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qwerty1972 · 07/05/2020 21:29

We mainly used Net School for iGCSEs. My daughter also did Level 2 Art with the Online College of Art and Design (OCAD).

There are quite a few different providers out there these days and they all offer slightly different ways of working, but we've been very happy with our choices.

ScreamingKid · 08/05/2020 08:55

Thank you. That's really useful.

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Lightsabre · 08/05/2020 09:01

I think there was s a homecschool called Interhigh school @ScreamingKid.

ScreamingKid · 08/05/2020 09:40

Yes I've had a look at that. Thank you.

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ConnieDoodle · 08/05/2020 09:43

Im getting an add for wolsey hall oxford home education on this thread.

Im a teacher and ive sAid during lockdown a few times i bet there are students who thrive at home who wont come back. Where their parents have debated home ed previously, but didn't want to make that jump just in case it was worse, who have now had a sample of how it could be

qwerty1972 · 08/05/2020 16:44

I think you are definitely right, ConnieDoodle. I am not going to send my son back to school. I have always homeschooled my daughter, but I thought my son (7) needed the social aspect of school (he is a very different child to his sister). Turns out I was wrong! He is thriving at home, learning quickly and easily and very happy. While the absence of school is a nightmare for some children, it may well be a blessing for a significant minority.

ScreamingKid - I should have said that you and your daughter need to think about whether you are looking for synchronous classes like Net School, My Online Schooling etc. provide or whether you are looking for asynchronous learning - ie. a curriculum and a tutor who marks work (but no online classes). Both options are out there...

oldbagface · 17/07/2020 14:16

Hi @qwerty1972 do you have any examples of where I can access asynchronous learning. I think it would be a style my boy would prefer

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