Starting home education at year 10

[sampamsnan]

My Dd has been suffering with mental health issues since the first lockdown and is now struggling to attend school at all..

I feel the support available is awful and she is so anxious and stressed I really want to take her out. She's taken an overdose now, such is her level of anxiety about school.

Would I be mad to take her out and start home Ed at this age? I couldn't do it myself but I assume there are resources??

I'm a total beginner and clueless!

Have you looked at interhigh or any of the other online schools? Would that work for your daughter?

Is that one you'd recommend? I feel like I dont know where to start. There are so many of them! I'll have a look at inter high

Ah Ive just looked. We could never afford the fees. I'm a single mum on UC and PiP for health reasons xx

Year 10 is not the easiest time to start home education due to exams. It is possible to get the text books and study for GCSEs but it isn't cheap to enter the exams - £100-£200 per subject. If you want tutors or online classes, the costs add up a lot. You don't have to take as many exams as if she is in school though - many people just take as many as they need to get into college or sixth form - and, if her mental health is really poor, it might be better to concentrate on sorting that out and doing exams when she is ready, they don't have to be taken at 16.

I'd like to just focus on her mental health and take exams later but the only option for taking her out of school is if I home school. Or are you saying I could home school but delay exams?

Yes, you could take her out to home educate and concentrate on her mental health, with a view to taking exams in what would be year 12, or you could spread them over a couple of years, if she can manage, take a couple next year and more the following year. If she wants to go to college or sixth form, she should be able to sit them a year later than usual. There are lots of options - you might be best to look for home ed facebook groups as there will be more people on there who have been in similar situations and you can talk through the options. Also a good resource is here: he-exams.wikia.org/wiki/Considering_Home_Education_for_Qualifications%3F Click on the EOTAS section as well as that may be relevant to your situation.

Speak to your lea to see if they have any options eg my dd was offered a place for young people with mental health issues. We turned it day because it didn't suit her needs but might be suitable for your dd

I would start by joining the local home ed group for your area on Facebook. If you can’t find it join the home education UK group and ask there if anyone knows the name of your local group. Some areas will offer cheap GCSEs or even a couple for free. But otherwise they are around £150 each.
For my dd we spread them out, she needed five to get into sixth form college so we did two in year ten and and three in year eleven. The two she took in year ten were environmental management and travel and tourism which are often recommended as first exams as there are no essay questions. They’re both interesting, engaging subjects where you can do a lot of less formal learning eg day trips/documentaries. For any subject you do there will be a Facebook group to help with resources and ideas for revision. Again, ask in home education UK if you can find it.
You don’t have to have a tutor for the subjects, we just got the course text books and worked through them and past papers online.
If you can’t afford the GCSEs or she would like a couple of years before she sits them most sixth form colleges will have gcse courses for post 16 year olds. These will be free of charge. And then in her ‘time off’ you can help reignite her love of learning by looking at things she’s interested in. Sometimes it takes them some time to get over a traumatic school experience.

Thank you this is all incredibly helpful. I'm off to look at Facebook groups now!

LAs have a statutory duty to provide education to those unable to attend school for medical reasons, this includes because of their mental health. Medical needs tuition is usually in the form of home tuition, online, hospital school or small group tuition depending on a pupil's needs.

Alongside this you can apply for an EHCP. An EHCP can mean the LA can fund internet schooling or an EOTAS package with home tutoring and therapies. EHCPs have the benefit of being able to include therapies such as CBT.

Unless you are sure you want to EHE I would caution against deregistering, it is easier to get support when on a school's roll - bluntly, you are someone's problem.

That's a good point to consider thank you

@Lightshowers

I would start by joining the local home ed group for your area on Facebook. If you can’t find it join the home education UK group and ask there if anyone knows the name of your local group. Some areas will offer cheap GCSEs or even a couple for free. But otherwise they are around £150 each. For my dd we spread them out, she needed five to get into sixth form college so we did two in year ten and and three in year eleven. The two she took in year ten were environmental management and travel and tourism which are often recommended as first exams as there are no essay questions. They’re both interesting, engaging subjects where you can do a lot of less formal learning eg day trips/documentaries. For any subject you do there will be a Facebook group to help with resources and ideas for revision. Again, ask in home education UK if you can find it. You don’t have to have a tutor for the subjects, we just got the course text books and worked through them and past papers online. If you can’t afford the GCSEs or she would like a couple of years before she sits them most sixth form colleges will have gcse courses for post 16 year olds. These will be free of charge. And then in her ‘time off’ you can help reignite her love of learning by looking at things she’s interested in. Sometimes it takes them some time to get over a traumatic school experience.

Hi, sorry to jump on. Where did you do the environmental management and travel and tourism please?

@DragonmotherKhaleesi There are lots of companies/tutors you can study with. My son hasn't done either of these subjects, but has just done a GCSE with Kate Sleep at Homemade Education, and I know she offers those subjects, along with English, psychology, sociology, and from sept, working with another tutor to offer chemistry and biology. The courses are generally designed to be done in a year, and. She's also been brilliant with all the TAG stuff this year.