GCSEs for HE children

[BaggyBick]

Hi there everyone,

My hubbie and I really want to HE our son.

DH was home ed from 13 and loved it. He's very sociable and confident and individual. I was in school until 18 doing A-Levels and I loved it. I feel those pieces of paper really mean somehting-they show my achievments.

My question is: would you give your child the opportunity to sit formal exams or do you think that true HE means they never have to go into school even to sit exams?

thank u!

Local schools can act as the examination centre for HE children (school I work has done this). A tutor would have to mark the course work/ continuous assessment aspects of the course....not sure how this is done, child comes into school for the exams themselves.
If that is the choice made by family/child.

No such thing as 'true HE', BaggyBick - it can be as formal or as informal as you wish.

Personally, I'm going to see which direction my children go in - if it becomes necessary for them to have certain qualifications I'll facilitate that. That may mean GCSEs (or whatever is around at that point) or it may mean vocational training and learning a trade.

0|-<

But if your child chooses that they want to sit GCSEs, why not let them, Baggy?

Exams can also be taken via distance learning eg online.
Or at local colleges.

Some HE families do GCSEs.
Some go straight to A levels.
Some go straight to University.
Some don't do any formal qualifications whatsoever.

BaggyBick
True HE is whatever the family wants it to be.

We are totally autonomous home educators -with no formal work and following the children's interests totally.
But there are home educators who do 'school at home' and there is every combination in between.
I would think there are as many different ways to home educate as there are families doing it!

After living and enjoying this laid back informal life for years our ds decided to go back into the system and went to FE college one day a week and did a couple of GCSEs and then the following year went to another FE college and did A levels.

Our girls are a different kettle of fish and they choose not to do GCSEs and A levels and will go straight to the OU instead.

So it is entirely up to you and what is right for your family!

thanks for your opinions everyone. it's nice to see different viewpoints and how flexible HE can be. thankfully we have quite a few years before he comes to GCSEs but it's good to know those options are available.

Should just add that if your ds wants to do GCSEs with no coursework when the time comes he could always choose iGCSEs (international GCSEs - more like the old O Levels). Unless they change the whole system yet again that is

DS 1 has gone through the school system and is now doing A Levels but DS2 is home educated (autonomously) and decided he wanted to have a go at a GCSE.

He did maths with coursework through a distance learning college who authenticated his work before it was sent to the exam board. He took the exam in June. Now he's doing biology and physics iGCSEs and will sit them at a local tutorial college that accepts private candidates.

It's all been very easy to arrange. I'd always thought the OU when he was older would be a good option rather than GCSEs and A Levels but this is what he wants to do...

I'd just like to point out that my employer does not recognise degrees from the OU.

Seems rather odd branflake, considering the government recognises the OU as a route into teaching.

My DS is also studying towards iGCSEs at the moment. He's doing them through an internet school, but there are plenty of textbooks etc so it would be perfectly possible to work towards them independently and just organise the exam when the child is ready.

If the child wants to do exams, either just to mark their achievements or as a step towards a particular career, I can't imagine any HE parent trying to stop them.

Agreed AMumInScotland - we're about to emark on history iGCSE without buying in a course. DS2 has looked through the Edexcel syllabus and is choosing the areas he'd like to study. There are so many ways to do this

Re OU - I always thought that OU degrees were held in high regard as you have to be very self-disciplined to follow distance-learning courses at that level...

How can an employer not recognise OU degrees?

That is pretty poor, tbh, if there is a blanket discrimination against one university. I can think of ways in which it MIGHT be straightforward indirect discrimination (on say sex/race grounds).

Funny enough i have just been having a conversation with 2 business men-who said exactly the same as Sugarbird-that anyone who has the self discipline to complete a degree with the OU goes straight to the top of their lists of potential recruits because of the self discipline they must have had to do it.

I also know of a few home educated young people who have lived a lovely life of freedom, directing their own learning, who then started an OU degree at 15/16 and by half way through they applied to uni-using the OU results so far and got in straight to the chosen university-for the reasons above.

One went to a Uni open day and got chatting told them her story (autonomously home educated and OU course)and the uni invited her to apply as they were so impressed with her.

I have no intention of HE but i was wondering the other day how parents HE when the kids get to GCSE level, as obviously you can't be expert enough in 8 subjects to teache them yourself. I see that the iGCSE's are one option.

I would say that if the child is motivated to do GCSEs, then there's no need for the paent to be able to "teach" the subject (with a nod of agreement to martianbishop who has quite rightly pointed out on previous threads that it is useful/important to have someone who can unpick misunderstandings) - they can do it themselves from textbooks; they can find someone who knows about the subject to teach them; they can use distance learning/online schools; they can wait till they're 16 and go to college/nightclasses; they can miss out GCSEs altogether and go straight to A levels/degree level courses.