Homeschooling at secondary – does it actually work?

[Hali99]

Hi all,
I’ve seen a few threads recently about homeschooling at secondary level and thought I’d ask here. I’ve worked with a number of families who’ve chosen homeschooling for different reasons, especially around GCSE years, and I’m curious to hear others’ experiences.
For those who homeschool (or have done):
• What made you decide to do it?
• What resources or support worked best?
• How did you manage GCSEs and exam centres?
It seems like structure and the right support make a big difference, but I’d love to hear what’s actually worked in practice for people.

We are almost 3 years into secondary home education. He left in y7 and would be in y10 now.

He haa been studying towards his igcses since mid 'y9'. We dont use tutors - we explored the specs for the boards that he is doing and went from there, using things like CGP resources, Twinkl, Oak Academy and various other online resources.

I was a primary school teacher but quit about 15 years ago, so my experience in teaching isnt particularly helpful now, although I am obviously aware of how interpret things like specifications. I also have a best friend who is a secondary school teacher and has helped with marking some work against gcse marking guidelines (dont worry, I do lots of things to help her in return- im absolutely not expecting an overworked teacher to add to her workload with nothing in return!).

My son is 'only' going to be doing 3-4 igcses - English, maths, history and potentially business. We already know he wont be going to university so just needs grades to go to college or do a trade apprenticeship.

There was no big reason for us to choose home ed for him, just that school wasn't the right place for him. He was bullied because while he doesn't have any diagnosis of additional needs, he is very 'quirky' compared to his peers. He has absolutely thrived since being home educated- he has a weekend and holiday job, goes to cadets and has a very active social life.

My other three children (one at secondary, two at primary) all go to school. School is absolutely the right place for them at the moment.

That’s such a lovely example of homeschooling working because it suits the child, not because of any big ideology behind it. It really comes across how much he’s grown in confidence and independence since leaving school.
What you have said about starting with the specs and using resources like CGP and Oak Academy makes a lot of sense - structure seems to be the key rather than doing “everything”. And the wider picture you describe (job, cadets, social life) is such an important reminder that GCSEs aren’t the whole story, especially if university isn’t the goal.
Thanks for sharing such a balanced and reassuring experience.

It definitely can work, especially at secondary level...but you’re right, structure and support make all the difference. Most families who do well with it keep a clear routine, use a mix of resources, and plan early for GCSEs (including finding an exam centre in advance).
What’s really helped me recently is using a more personalized homeschooling curriculum, where teens can learn at their own pace but still stay on track academically. There are some great tools now that combine structure, subject coverage, and independent learning support, which takes a lot of pressure off parents.
It’s not always the easiest route, but with the right setup, it can be surprisingly effective and even more tailored than traditional schooling.🙂

We decided to homeschool because my daughter wasn't able to learn at school - not able to concentrate or keep up - and this was causing her a huge amount of distress. She also wasn't coping socially. She became mentally unwell so it wasn't even really a choice, more a necessity.

Due to my dd's particular mental health and learning difficulties, she needs one to one support to learn and has very little sustained energy. So we do two hours a day in the mornings with breaks. She spends the rest of her day doing her own thing which might be nothing if thats what she needs but usually she will bake or do her art or her singing.

I try to use different resources for different subjects so they feel different and to keep up her interest. We use cognito (absolutely amazing resource with video lessons and quizzes). I make personalised lesson plans based on revision guides with lots of images instead of words, quizzes and games tailored to my dd. We do some lessons as discussion where she does most of the talking - that works really well for essay planning. We also use things like play dough and anatomical models she can put together in science. Now she knows most of the curriculum, we go through exam papers a lot, with the mark scheme to hand. For French, most of the work we do is speaking because that builds vocabulary naturally - I don't find she learns much by looking at a list of words - and in general she learns so much better actively rather than passively. Due to her learning difficulties she cant do any reading beyond a sentence or two, or watching of more than 1 minute of a video, or hardly listening at all. All her learning has to be a guided active process. She's very bright - its interesting how specific her difficulties are and if we can get around them she could do well.

We have a local exam centre just a few minutes walk down the road which feels very relaxed, and all small rooms so thats fantastic. Booking them was straightforward and they also do mocks. We considered the remote invigilation service for a while but the pitfalls and potential complications were prohibitive. When it comes to the exams themselves and whether she will have the resilience to actually stay the course, I'm not really sure.

To answer your question, this set up - which took a heck of a lot of fine-tuning including trying an online academy at first - absolutely works. My dd is thriving academically I believe as much as that is possible for her. And her mental health is vastly improved.