Hi Anna,
There are a great many many options for home educated kids to sit GCSEs, or the almost universally-recognised equivalent IGCSEs. The upside of that is that it can be really flexible to meet the child's needs and interests. The downside is that there are so many choices that there is a huge amount for you to investigate. And of course there is the cost.
I suggest that first of all you join a local home education group where you can find out about local social and educational opportunities. You can also find other parents of teens and bombard them with all of your exam questions in person, which is a bit quicker and more efficient than using online forums. Online forums are good if you have a very specific question which local people don't know the answer to.
Facebook is the place to go for most local and national home ed groups. Go on FB and type into its search bar "home education" followed by the name of your town or county or nearest big town. Let us know if you can't find anything; probably someone on here can point you in the right direction.
Most home educated teens sit fewer exams than schoolchildren, typically just enough to get onto the next level of education or into work, which is usually five or six. That doesn't mean they can't learn a lot of subjects, just that they don't have to bother sitting exams in all of them to prove what they know. That is less expense and less stress. It is also usual for HE kids to spread exams out over multiple sittings, studying one or two or three subjects intensively before sitting the exams and moving on to the next ones. if your daughter is academically strong, she might consider dipping a toe in the water by doing an exam this spring, probably in her strongest subject. Then she will have some experience and feel a bit more relaxed about the whole exam process before doing more the following year. But there is nothing to say she has to be finished at 16, so if she isn't ready, she could do them at 16/17/18 or later. Only in the school system is there great rigidity over exactly what age people do exams.
Your local college may have a dedicated 14-16 programme, probably offering quite a limited selection of GCSEs, but it could be part of the picture. Or your daughter could wait until after 16 and do "catch-up" GCSEs at college. Either option is free. Often they aren't a great fit for a very academically inclined child, but sometimes they are.
Unless you use college, there are three sets of costs to budget for:
- Exam fees charged by the exam board,
- Centre fees charged by the venue where your child sits the exams,
- Cost of learning, e.g. tutors, books and other study materials, online schools.
When comparing prices, make sure you know which of the above are included. For instance, exam centres will pay your fees to the exam board on your behalf, but they may or may not include the exam board fees in their quotes to you.
Depending how you do it, total cost per subject can range from about £100-£1000. Ours were on the cheap end of that range, as my child self-studied and we were lucky enough to have a cheap centre nearby, but costs vary hugely.
You'll need to decide
- Which subjects and which exact specification your daughter will sit. There are several exam boards offering IGCSEs and sometimes multiple specs to choose from. For instance, if I remember right, with English Language there are about four different options.
- Where she can sit each exam. You might need to travel some distance, or use several centres, as not all centres offer all subjects and all exam boards. Whether centres accept private candidates often changes from year to year, so make sure your info is up to date.
- When to do each exam. Some have autumn or winter sittings as well as spring ones, but they might not be available to all candidates.
- How to learn the subject. Choices include independent study, online or in-person individual tutors, local tutor-led study groups, or online schools.
Here's a good wiki to get you started: https://he-exams.fandom.com/wiki/HE_Exams_Wiki