Homeschool Alevels

[byroadorbyriver]

Hey ya!

This isn't regarding Homeschooling a child so I hope you dont mind me asking here!

I was homeschooled up till I finished my GCSEs. But teh actuall exams were over seen by a local school (althou sat at home).

I want to go back to homeschooling now and do some A levels. Does any one know how it works with course work / exams?

I dont want to do a distance course, as I unschooled befor and thats how I learn well, I dont want to be told what i should be doing each day!

Thanks for your help! Beaniex

Hi, I'm up in Scotland so not sure if it's the same, but our local Further Education College allows you to do Highers (a bit like AS levels) by "Flexible Learning" - you can study when and where you want, but have a tutor in the college making sure things are going ok, and go there to do your exams and assessments. You could have a look at your local colleges and see if they do anything similar.

Colleges here often do the same sort of thing as AMumIn Scotland mentions, so it would be well worth asking your local FE college.

But have you considered doing an OU course instead?
The OU will now take everyone over the age of 16 routinely (and home educators under that age) You can get funding for the course as the funding is dependant on the Students income and not that of their parents.

DD2 has recently taken her first OU course and we are exploring what to do next right now.

The suppport from the course tutor was excellent, but dd dictated the timing of what she did and when-and when she needed the support of the tutor.
The OU did supply a suggested timetable, but it was very flexible and accomadated our daughter's autonomous, eclectic lifestyle very well indeed.

I'd strongly suggest any home educated young person looked at using the OU-but most especially unschooled ones!!

Good luck whatever you choose.

I used the NEC, and they were brilliant. You have tutor support, and a period of two years in which to do the course and take the exam. I applied to my local college as an external student, and it worked very well. I only had to go in to do the exam, and the coursework was all dealt with by the NEC. Very flexible as well - my sister and I have both done A-Level courses in 6 months as you can work at your own pace.

I'm in Scotland, and A-Levels are much easier to do up here than Highers if you are an external candidate.