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Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Home schooling year 9 onwards

10 replies

HelenCMc · 08/03/2024 12:24

I have today made the decision to withdraw my daughter from school due to it being an unhappy environment for her. She is currently in year 9. We have looked at a few options online like ed plan etc & will use these to start with but in theory from this September she would be starting the 1st of her GCSE years & we will need to get some tuition along the way with this, has anyone had experience of home schooling this age & the best way to go about it??

Any advice is appreciated, thanks

OP posts:
Saracen · 08/03/2024 18:24

There is far more flexibility to sit whichever exams your daughter wants whenever she wants to do them than if she were at school. So you don't really need to be thinking, "She'll be in Y10 so she needs to be doing the first of two years of GCSE study ready to sit exams in two years' time" or anything like that.

The flip side of that is that all that choice can feel a bit overwhelming. So many decisions! When to do maths, which exam board to use, how to prepare for it?

You could start out by spending some time with home educators in your area to see what other people are doing. They will be aware of which local exam centres are available to private candidates, and at what cost - but do be warned that this often changes from one year to the next. There may well be in-person tutor-led study groups your daughter might enjoy. Usually those are done over just one year, to allow kids to really focus on the subject and sit the exam and then move on to other subjects. Juggling ten subjects across two years and sitting all those exams in the space of a few months, as schools do, is rarely the preferred method for people who have a choice!

One common approach is to sit just the number of (I)GCSE subjects needed to get onto their chosen college course, usually five or six to include English and maths. If your daughter has an idea what she wants to do, she could work towards that. Spread over two years, that is manageable for most kids. Some kids take longer.

However, the main thing is to consider what is best for your own child. Neither of mine sat exams at 16. One sat just a couple of GCSEs at a later age and then went to university. The other is 17 and is learning practical life skills; she might do Functional Skills exams later because I doubt GCSEs would be within her grasp. Without school to insist that teens do the same thing as everyone else at exactly the same time and in the same way, there are all sorts of paths they can take in life.

If your daughter was quite miserable at school, she might need some time away from formal learning to recover and feel ready to get stuck in. You could start off by just letting her do the things she enjoys and wait for her to get her spark back. Visit some museums, plant a garden, learn to skateboard, play the guitar - whatever makes her happy. Mental health comes first. Unlike at school, she doesn't have to "keep up" with anybody.

HelenCMc · 08/03/2024 22:29

Thank you for the reply, it’s nice to get another person’s perspective who has been through this. We are going to look at doing 5 exams in total so she has the choice of college when the time comes. We’ll take the next few weeks off & give her a break then ease in with some easy home learning just through bbc bite size etc & as you say research where she would be able to sit exams when the time comes & then start to do some proper work for these & with tutors when needed. Thank you

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Newathomeschool · 12/03/2024 10:35

Hallo

i too want to start homeschooling my son who is 14. He will start year 10 in September but I am so overwhelmed with which textbook to buy for what level he is at and I can’t find any homeschool mums in my area or I don’t know how or where to start. Can anyone help, please? How do we assess our children at home? Is year 10 different work they will be learning than in year9. In school they have different levels of where your child is at and how am I to know at what level he is what they have covered so far. Am I making everything more complicated than it is?

HelenCMc · 12/03/2024 17:09

If you want to stick to the level of learning he would get in school then year 10 would be the 1st of his GCSE learning years so you would need to concentrate on content for that from sept onwards.
For now I’ve ordered some of the key stage 3, year 9’workbooks (complete with answers) off Amazon for my daughter to work through & we will use these & sign up for some online stuff, Ed place sounds quite good. She has missed quite a bit of learning in year 9 so far with one thing or another so I’m hoping these books will see if she’s on track & what we might need to go over again maybe going back & starting with year 8 books.
think it’s just trial & error, see what works for you. We are just going to get started next week & see how we get on & hopefully just find resources as we go along. I am going to try stick to school timetable with half term hols etc & aiming for GCSE in another 2 years as I think that would work best for us but who knows that might all change once we get going properly.
good luck & hope it all works out

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Backwiththeillbehaviour · 12/03/2024 17:22

DS14 is HE, he is sitting all his IGCSEs at the local private school. We use a mix of tutors,computers,books and apps. He will go to college to do his A Levels. Taking him out of school was the best thing we have ever done. Good luck and enjoy.

HelenCMc · 12/03/2024 20:51

Sounds promising & the way we have decided to go but not using tutors for 1st few months while we find our feet with everything. We’ve found a local test centre to sit the IGCSE’s & some course providers that work in conjunction with that test centre so there are more options out there than we initially thought. All quite daunting at 1st & we only removed our daughter from school a few days ago so all new to us still but I’m hoping it will be the best decision we ever made as well

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Newathomeschool · 13/03/2024 10:02

Hi Helen

Would you mind sharing links, apps or websites where you found the local IGCSE centers and course providers please? I’m in the same boat with my year 9 son. Thank you in advance.

HelenCMc · 13/03/2024 17:22

I found an exam centre localish to me using this website. https://www.tutorsandexams.uk/

For online courses, Cloud Learn looks good but at a cost of course!!! They book exams for you so you can check centres on that too.

still looking myself properly, there seems to be quite a few out there providing courses but fees can vary massively. Have a look at these for now to get a feel of things & I’ll let you know if I find others

Tutors and Exams Heading 2

Private Candidate Exam Centre, Bolton, Coventry, Doncaster, St Neots (and Wimbledon)

Private Candidate Exam Centre. Home educated, private candidate, excluded or adult learners. GCSE, A-Level exams in Coventry, Manchester & Wimbledon and UK

https://www.tutorsandexams.uk/

OP posts:
Saracen · 14/03/2024 00:17

Hi @Newathomeschool, in your situation I'd strongly advise getting in touch with other local home ed families. They'll be able to help you with information about exam centres in your area. That may also help you find out about local tutor-led study groups, social and educational opportunities, and so on.

The best way to find local HE groups these days is on Facebook. Type into the Facebook search bar "home education" followed by the name of your town or county or nearest big city. If you need help, feel free to post back here to say where you live, and I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction.

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