Dd doesn't want to do her GCSEs

[timothytoeseatenbyaghoul]

Can anyone help please?

Dd is home educated, she has a tutor that gives her work weekly. Dd has decided she will not be doing her GCSEs so why am I bothering to pay for a maths and English tutor.

She's just turned 16 in oct. What should she be learning if there's no goal in sight?

If your teen doesn't follow the national curriculum what do they do?

Thanks

Hopping- I don't know why your so over invested in my thread if you have nothing of use to say? She is in education but GCSEs are not compulsory and she doesn't need to sit them if she doesn't want to. So I was asking what else could she being doing that classes as education?

Some info here www.gov.uk/browse/education/find-course

FAQs she passed her art exam.

Sorry you have been getting a hard time here! I think many posters don't home educate.

Are you asking about the legal requirement to remain in education until she's 18? That I can answer.

You have a legal duty to educate her until she finishes "Compulsory School Age", which for her will be the last Friday in June 2021. After that, the duty to remain in education until her 18th birthday rests with her, not you.

This is a legal requirement but it is not enforceable. There are no criminal penalties attached for noncompliance. The door is open for penalties to be introduced fairly easily at a later date, but just now, if she doesn't stay in education, absolutely nothing will happen to her. The only immediate practical consequence is that if she did stay in home education beyond the end of CSA you would remain eligible to claim Child Benefit and Tax Credits for her as a "young person continuing in education" same as if she were at college, which you can do until the day before her 20th birthday. If not, those benefits end in August 2021.

So, you do need to be educating her until June, and later if it is essential that your eligibility for benefits continues. However, there are many ways to do that. It doesn't have to be formal education such as English and maths GCSE. It can be driven by her. This is called "unschooling" or "autonomous education" and is well recognised among home educators. If I were you, I would think in very broad terms about what she actually needs to know in order to be well-equipped for her future, and offer her opportunities to learn those things. See what she wants to do. What does she spend her time doing when she has a choice?

I am sure you are in a better position than I am to know what she'll need, but here are a few examples which might be a starting point:
Cookery and food safety
Baby care
First aid
Finance: interest rates, consumer credit, the tax system, investments
Home maintenance
Consumer rights
Safe internet use

And maybe she has interests such as
Music
Foreign languages
Cultural history
Crafts
Fashion

All of those count as education. If the Local Authority want to know about her education, it is just a matter of explaining your general approach and giving information about what she is learning. You can come here or to another home ed forum if you need help with how to lay it out so it is easy for them to understand. Some LAs have a narrow view of what constitutes education, as their staff often have a school background and no training whatsoever in home education, so you may have to spell it out for them.

@timothytoeseatenbyaghoul

Assuming you're also a traveller (and female) then why are you working?

You say that she'll be married at 18 and will only ever be self employed as a beautician or cleaner.

Why did you end up working for Royal Mail instead of doing beauty or cleaning?

I assuming something must have changed in your life for it not to follow the predicted path. If that is the case then maybe her having qualifications might help her in the future if necessary.

Saracen- thank you so much that's all I needed to know but people here have complicated it so much lol very much appreciated thank you

How depressing. It's like going back to the 19th century

Textiles, childcare, home economics.

I'd still push her to get English and Maths though. I worked with someone without them and they limited her to most training and jobs. People also assume she's stupid because she doesn't have them.

It'll be a lot easier to complete them now than have to do them in the future. It's worth bribing her so she has them behind her.

Getting- I was married young had my kids and divorced. I'm now re married to a non traveller and myself and my eldest two have a settled life and they don't mix with travellers so have gone down a different path. My dd16 sees a lot of her dad and has followed a traveller path and that lifestyle. I have no worries of her getting married young if that's what she wants to do it's her culture.

You're welcome!

Home educated teens can and do work part-time and volunteer.

My eldest did quite a lot of that from an early age, and initially didn't intend to do any GCSEs but planned to go straight into work instead. She later changed her mind and did English at 19 and maths at 20 and is now at university. I agree with others that it MAY be useful for your daughter to have the English and maths exams someday - mine was barred from some college courses because of not having them - but there is no hurry. She can do them at any age. Those subjects are free to do at college for adults of any age irrespective of financial need or employment status. I think you are wise not to push her now if she is dead set against them, but mention to her that she could do them later if she wants.

Until your daughter finishes CSA in June, there are restrictions on paid and voluntary work; google the child labour laws. Basically the law is intended to prevent children from leaving education and being exploited, so it has to be part-time only and avoid school hours, late nights etc. From our point of view the law is a bit rigid in terms of hours, since home ed kids could be getting their education at any time of day. After CSA there are very few restrictions, mostly to do with very hazardous occupations and those considered morally questionable, but she could do almost any job she wants and work any hours after CSA.

Reading- Can she read and understand the fine print on a legal document? If she's signing a contract, does she have enough by the way of comprehension to understand what she's agreeing to?

Maths- real life problem solving. Could she accurately cost a wedding, for example? Right down to favours for guests etc. Can she work out interest on a loan? Can she calculate a budget?

Writing- Can she write a formal letter, such as a letter of complaint?

Languages- Get her learning a more widely spoken foreign language, such as French or Spanish. She can use it on her holidays if nothing else.

Music- Get her playing an instrument. It has lots of cognitive and emotional benefits.

Food technology- Get her improving her recipe repertoire. I presume she'll be expected to cook for her family?

@timothytoeseatenbyaghoul

Bluntness100- and what is wrong with our jobs?

I think you need to reread my question, I never said or even implied anything was wrong with them.

@timothytoeseatenbyaghoul

Getting- I was married young had my kids and divorced. I'm now re married to a non traveller and myself and my eldest two have a settled life and they don't mix with travellers so have gone down a different path. My dd16 sees a lot of her dad and has followed a traveller path and that lifestyle. I have no worries of her getting married young if that's what she wants to do it's her culture.

Ok. So that answers my question on why the lifestyles are so different. You are not living as a traveller as such as per your original post.

Oh, and PSHE- does she know what's healthy in a relationship? What's not? Where she can get help if she experiences abuse? What contraception is available (presuming this isn't going against any religious beliefs she may have), how she would acquire this, what the pros and cons are of each. What are the symptoms of STIs? Where would she seek medical and dental treatment?

Saracen- your a star ⭐️ I've asked her twice this week if she's sure she doesn't want to sit her exams but she's adamant. I'll keep pestering her but I don't think she's ready and if I'm honest I think she might be a bit dyslexic.
I'm disappointed she doesn't want to experience the same as her siblings and have them under her belt but I can't force her.

Life skills I can think of
Cooking/shopping on a budget, things like Quidco cash back if she buys anything online, food safety/storage
Scams/MLM like younique type stuff
Beauty - hygiene is a massive one at the minute
Maths for beauty business so costs/expenses/earning
First aid - children and adults
Finances
Abuse/control and what to do, relationship advice

I'd force her to do maths and English as they are the bare minimum required for most jobs. Because at 16 she doesn't know everything that will ever happen in her life. What if her marriage became unhappy? It is hugely empowering to know that she is a housewife because she chooses to be, not because she can't get whatever job she wants. Plus they will help with her chosen career if she wants to do beauty etc if she needs to mix up chemicals, for eyebrow tinting or whatever, she needs an understanding of ratios and such. Chemistry would be another good one for that. A good one for a life of self employment would be a business course, possibly something with computers? She may want to create a website for her business. Heck if she has a talent for coding, she could make a mint working from home. Perhaps cooking if she doesn't know how already? Teach her basics of home administration like bills and insurance and stuff because that's the sort of thing that kids are baffled by when they leave school. These are just suggestions based in what you've said about her but use her interests. What does she enjoy? What does she see herself doing aside from being at home? She'll be bored stiff if she has no hobbies so look at those and see if she can earn from them and if so what skills does she need and go from there.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/791528/EHE_guidance_for_parentsafterconsultationv2.2.pdf

I suggest you read this. There are no hard and fast 'requirements' such as qualifications, a lot of the guidance is open to interpretation, however the education must be age, ability and aptitude appropriate. So sitting her down to do handwriting at 16 when she can write wouldn't be appropriate. But if she is struggling with maths, sitting down to do maths aimed at year 8 (12/13) would most likely be appropriate if she can do maths up to a year 7 level for example.

I would have a conversation with her about aspirations though. Does she just want to follow what she has been told is correct for a women or does she actually yearn to do something, but is quashing it for fear of upsetting her family / community?

If she is keen to do beauty you need to make sure she can get the correct qualifications with no formal education. A beauty course that you can do online or in a day won't give her qualifications to set up a legitimate beauty business, or will it not be legitimate? Is she educated enough to understand things like COSHH, liability insurance etc?

It might be worth looking into functional skills level 2 for maths and English. They are more straightforward than GCSEs and much more related to "real life" - so in the exam she might be asked to write a job application or a letter if complaint or something - and a pass is equivalent to a GCSE pass, so if something were to go wrong in future she would have more options for work with passes in those two subjects under her belt.

Plus I wouldn't be surprised if this year's year 11 end up on teacher assessment anyway so she might, if she works in the lessons, get a pass without sitting any exams.

Then all the info you have above from Saracen.

God poor kid... what a bloody depressing read...

So what if she wants to follow your path? What if she wants to get divorced too one day but can’t because she has no way of supporting herself?
We sponsor a girl overseas so she can get an education and not have to marry young and churn out babies, I find it shocking that people here would willingly turn down that opportunity
Nothing wrong with getting married etc instead of having a career but as you know yourself OP marriages don’t always last and everyone needs to have something to fall back on.
You can’t make her do her GCSEs I know and if her Dad and his community are offering her an “easy” alternative a lot of 16 year old girls will take it but you are doing her no favours by not encouraging her to explore other options

Thanks guys for your useful comments.

I would have a conversation with her about aspirations though. Does she just want to follow what she has been told is correct for a women or does she actually yearn to do something, but is quashing it for fear of upsetting her family / community?

She hasn't been told anything, I've worked for all her life and she's seen me graft. It's what she wants to do the same way my eldest two stayed on and did theirs because it's what they wanted.

For those saying "I'd make her" how? How the hell do you get a Teenager to put pen to paper and take learning in if they are dead against it. I'm not rich by any mile but I live comfortably and don't live beyond my means so have never inspired to be a doctor or work in a bank. I've no qualifications but it's done me fine I've always earned money so I have no doubt if it all goes pear shaped for her she will be able to do the same.

Hopping- she has money to support herself she's richer than me and my husband combined.

Who is she going to marry?