secondary education

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do home ed children have to do gcses?

nope.

thanks. um how do they get into college if they wish to do a levels etc?

Some 6th form colleges are prepared to be flexible about entrance requirements. But if dc want to do A levels etc. they need to follow the GCSE syllabus for those subjects, and it would be useful to take them. If you chat with the 6th form college or FE college they can do GCSEs qualifications, or just exams if you wish, through them.

Our eldest chose to do 2 GCSEs one day a week at a local FE college.
Didn't do any more than that. He didn't see the point.
Then he did 3 A levels at a different FE college altogether.
The local FE college seem to like having HE youngsters.
Apparently they are well adjusted and interested in their subjects, and not afraid to answer/ask questions.

Our younger two have decided to bypass GCSE/A levels altogether and are going for an OU degree course.
They will then use that as evidence for Uni if they decide to enrol in one away from home.

If you are going to go down the A level route it would be difficult for a child to access some subjects ( I teach science and not having GCSE science would add significanty to the work load at A level)

If you are thinking of using night school as an option for GCSEs take into account that it can be excetionally difficult to study Science (other than biology) at night school (I've also been a teach in adult ed).

For science, having a tutor and taking GCSEs as an external candidate at a local school might be a way around this.

thanks. my friend has a dd of 14 who is getting bullied at school and is begging to be home schooled but her mum isn't sure. are the tutors expensive for home schooling?

To a degree you would have to shop around, and it also depends on the area that you live in London and the SE tends to be more expensive than elsewhere in the UK (as with so many other things)

When I tutored for A levels I charged £25 an hour. GCSE tutoring would be less.

There are also Online school options that also charge.

She wouldn't need as many hours as she would have in school (you'd be looking at 4 hours of science a week in most school at GCSE elvel, she wouldn't need that much)

Worth checking with the Local FE collage to see if they would take her also

you don't need tutors for GCSE level, especially if you have a motivated child. Anything can be looked up.
I found them doing English harder because I didn't know what form the essays should take to pass the exams. They don't want your true opinion about the play/novel/poem but aan answer conforming to a certain method. Luckily the home ed community is full of people who can help.
Or you can follow a corrospondance course like Little Arthur School. Its about 150 quid per GCSE and they set and mark work and send you a full curriculum.
But quite a few Home ed kids bypass GCSE's and do OU short courses or A levels. If you have chosen to do something, you are more likely to do well regardless of whether you did it at GCSE or not. I di A level chemistry with no O level back in the days when exams were hard. Because I wanted too. One of mine is dojng Psychology with no previous experience but is interested.
I'd disagree with martianbishop over this. Sciences are actually easier to do as home ed because they aren't subjective.

You can do lots of science without having to do any GCSEs. Just saying

If the child is begging, then I'd recommend that the mother gets in touch with Education Otherwise (there's a supportive mailing list) or the HE-UK mailing list and asks for advice. There'll be lots of people able to put her mind at rest.

Private tutors are expensive, but

a) because one-to-one is so much more efficient, she'd maybe need an hour a week tops on the subjects she definitely thought she needed formal teaching for.

b) no need to do 9 GCSEs. For form filling later on, Maths is useful and English is useful. But neither is essential.

c) lots and lots of resources in the community at large (evening classes, libraries, friendly museum staff, etc etc etc) and many more in the home ed community - depending on where you are, there might be HE groups which do all sorts of languages, arts, science, pottery - very common for groups to club together and share resources. Again, Education Otherwise can point her in the right direction for making contact.

d) there is enormous freedom for HEers. You do NOT have to do GCSEs. You do NOT have to follow the National Curriculum. You have the freedom to follow the interests and needs of the child. It's great!

Ha! Look at that! 3 X-posts!

NMC - how many gcses did yours do? did they have any tutors?

dd1 was doing 6 GCSE without tutors. Having said that, she changed her mind after 8 months and went into college to start again cos she wanted more social life and parties. In-laws paid for the correspondance stuff (cant recall which one, not Little Arthur though) and were a bit miffed. But thats teenagers for you.
ds1 chose to go back to school at 13 (he's now 14) after 8 years home ed but ds2 (12) has started 2 GCSE's (maths and physics). He's toying with the school idea for next september but I don't know how it would work given he will have 2 GCSE's already. I don't think he'll go to be honest as he's a bit too independant minded and has never been to school. (the other 2 did a couple of years at reception-Y2 level) and we're going on a home education camp the first week of school anyhow
The UK-HE email list is fab for help. EO is worth joining for one year to get the contact lists so you know who is in your area (if you want to meet other HE'ers). Some areas have more active groups than others.

how old was dd1 when she went to college for her gcses?

While it is possible to do this before 16, routes that I have looked at almost always seem to cost lots of money. You could obtain the syllabus for whatever subject you are considering and then cover it yourself, then find an examination centre to enter the exam and just pay the entry fee.
Whether we go down the gcse route or not I'm not sure at this point. Whether they are necessary is something else that we are considering.

she's 15

We considered gcses for the girls. However, dd1 (who is 14) has just been accepted to start college p-t next year without any GCSEs. Many colleges do take them on their own merits. It's the first time our local college has taking on a HEd child and are very interested to see how it all goes!

Gibberish - Did you have to pay for her to go? Which type of class is it? I've heard that some 14-16yo will be accepted into classes which are usually held for children that would normally be excluded from school. I'm not that well up on this but trying to find out more.

what will she be doing gibberish?

She's interested in childcare, possibly working in nurseries, so has decided to attend a p-t course on childcare.

There is a new system here in Scotland where S3 and S4 pupils can sit their Standard Grades a year early then spend the remaining year/years at college, either part time or full time. We have no idea how she will find it tbh but are certainly willing to give it a go. It is entirely funded by the Council.

Even if she finds, though, that this isn't the course for her, she will have her foot in the door, so to speak, and will no doubt have other options open to her.

Sylabuses for a;; GCSEs and A levels (as well as Btech etc) can be found on line.

I'm not sure how you get around the course work requirements without a tutor. Or now the 'instead of course work' requirements.

I don' think that you would be allowed to assess your own child's work.

If you are going down this route, it would be worth while checking which board the nearest school uses.

We have to do 12 Individual assessment activities over the 2 year period, and these make up a large portion of the final GCSE mark.

Following the same course(if this is the choice you make) will make your life (and the dcs obv!) massively easier

Oxford Learning have a section aimed specifically at home educated children and they included GCSE courses. They are pretty pricey though and as far as I can remember, they supply you with the exam centre details but you need to make the arrangements and the exam fee is additional.

mb, you always offer such good advice

There's no need to have GCSEs in order to do A-levels, though it is probably a Good Thing to have GCSE-level subject knowledge. Just ask round your local sixth form colleges about what they'd want.

yes, doing the actual exam isn't the issue. Not understanding a subject to at least a GCSE C pass level (preferably a B in sciences from personal experience) would be a serious handicap to starting an AS course.

very quick point re sciences

you can apparently do OU courses even if you are not yet 18. I understand that several HErs have done this.

The entry level science course, S104, is great. I do not see ANY reason why a motivated gcse level student shouldn't do it, and do well, though technically its A level standard plus. The important thing is that the explanations are very, very clear, and it is designed for independent learners. There are also experiments.

Another option with the OU is their short level 1 courses, some of which are designed to teach study skills as much as science. I have done a few, they vary widely in their difficulty tbh, but the advisors are very helpful with regard to which course you should do and the website has feedback from previous students.

There is no way round it, if your child wants to do a highly academic course at university, say medicine, they MIGHT need actual A levels (though its worth talking to the uni-I know that some have accepted OU courses, including the course I mention above). But I think with anything else there would be more flexibility.

There are always options with HEing. Sometimes you have to jump through hoops, because that is life. But I think its generally best to jump through as few hoops as possible.