iGSCSE home ed. Anybody doing this?

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Would very much appreciate hearing from anyone currently home-educating to iGCSE level.

We are considering it pulling out of Y11 but have never done it at any stage before.

Thank you in advance for any help.

People are doing it. The website www.home-education-exams.org.uk is the place to start. There is a Yahoo! group linked from there which is for people discussing how to go about accessing exams and providing mutual support for those doing so.

If you have a specific question, ask and I'll try to help.

What are the issues for which you are considering pulling out of Y11? Has your DC taken any exams and what does he or she want to do next?

Thanks Deuchs. I will look at the website. My 15yo is miserable and not learning at school (there are other issues to which I can't really describe in public for anonymity reasons as they are unique I think) so I am considering cutting the number of exams, making sure they are iGCSE and making sure they are academic subjects like Physics, Music, Maths etc. Maybe one language. It is a complete forest of unknowns to me.

I don't know the difference between Cambridge and Edexcel, I don't know if I have to arrange the exams externally through a school, I don't know how to get lab experience and keep him in touch with other children, I don't know how to get official permission, I don't know nothing!

I'm going to have a look at the website now.

Sod. My internet won't let me go there as it's a busy time. It's like that where we live! But it sounds like what I need to get me started. We are in London btw, or will be, I should say.

I don't know how to get official permission

You don't need it (in England and Wales). If you decide to withdraw him, you simply send a letter to the school. I've bumped the threads on de-registration.

I'll come back to answer the other Qs after lunch.

Thanks. He's not in a UK school right now. I thought someone had to come and inspect that I had the right materials and give an official stamp of approval.

I really appreciate the time you are giving me.

Hi Mrs Woolf. The limited research I've done (in the last half hour) seems to indicate that LEAs won't be any help because state schools don't do iGCSE. Are you doing any sciences? Sorry to sound stupid but is Oxfordhomeschooling distance learning?

Lunch is cooking

Does "not in a UK school" mean that he is not on roll? Or simply that he is not attending? Just that your OP implied he was already in Y11.

If he is not on roll, you do not need to shop yourself to anyone. You just get on with doing what is right for you and your son. That can include not doing GCSEs.

I don't know the difference between Cambridge and Edexcel

There is a profusion of exam boards. Check out the Affording exams thread to see links to them and for other information.

I don't know if I have to arrange the exams externally through a school

You need to arrange through an exam centre (not necessarily a school). Any school that deals with a specific board should be able to be an exam centre, but often they can't be bothered (or price it very high). The advice is usually to find the exam centre first and then tackle the syllabus for the exam board they can let you sit.

I don't know how to get lab experience

Some syllabuses do not require it.

keep him in touch with other children

Does he do out of school activities? He can continue to do them. You can contact EHE groups but it is often more difficult for yp your son's age. Have you heard of the Otherwise Club? It does structured stuff for older young people. Local EHEers may be able to help put you in touch even if the general social get-togethers are not suitable. They may have offshoots for drama, sport etc.

What does your DS want to do later in life, BTTAT? Once you are not in school, you can choose to do away with school's paraphernalia. From your OP, I guess your DS is academic? If so, Open University would be an alternative.

My DS is almost 16, always EHE and will have 90 OU points (75% of an undergraduate year 1) in maths and science by the end of the summer.

My DD has 190 OU points and has been offered a place aat university to do law on the strength of them.

Hi Pixie. How nice and good luck with your own experience. Yes we can hold hands through this!

Deuchs, enormous thanks. We are abroad doing iGCSE and returning, so we are on no roll. He can't catch up with GCSE coursework and we can't afford private school for iGCSE. He is finishing Y10 next month and going into Y11.

I'm hoping there will be an HE network where he can meet other children his age and do various activities. I will definitely look at the Otherwise Club.

He's not academic but certainly bright enough, and musically reasonably talented. All those subjects involve minimal writing, tbh, but have enough solidity to look OK for the future if he is depending on fewer of them. For example, if he does only five, it's better if they are traditionally academic subjects.

I am amazed and impressed by your and your children's achievements. Wow. Don't know what to say. Congratulations on your forward thinking -- very inspiring.

OK, that makes more sense.

Grade 6 and above music exams attract UCAS tariff points (for university entrance). Agree about only doing five IGCSEs in traditional subjects - five is enough for most colleges, if he wants to go on to A-level, BTEC, etc.

I'd suggest joining the HE exams Yahoo! group for help with specific syllabuses and exam centres in the area you are moving to. Start now on contacting the schools to see if they'll let your DS be an external candidate (and cost) - the earlier you do it, the better (although exam coordinators will be busy atm until the main diet is over). You can also take IGCSEs in the winter, BTW, to spread it out a bit.

A few years ago we had a real dig going on round here - Roman remains that get covered up after every dig (about every 5 years). The EHE group had a great time at it. And we could go at quiet times, in school hours - a big plus.

I'm sorry I couldn't reply earlier. Our internet connection can be unreliable and now it's really late. But thank you and will report back.

BIG thanks actually for support and information.

Morning. I have a number of jobs today Deuchs!

HE exams Yahoo! group. Exploring exam centres/local private schools. Thanks for the tip that I need to do that first.

Syllabi and courses -- online? Can I do it, will I need tutors?

How far has he already got? (involves ferreting through school bag and books which are in a huge mess)

Music. Do we do iGCSE or higher grade exams? That is very interesting Pixie about the relative regard of grades/iGCSE, and the UCAS info Deuchs.

Cost.

Sixth forms and sixth form colleges. What do our local ones require for entry. Can he do IB after only 5 subjs to iGCSE level? Do we need to go back into that system at all? A question I think that will only be answered when our success or failure at home next year is measured.

God that is so much to be going on with. But at least I know where to start.

Have you joined Yahoo yet Pixie?

If you are thinking of sixth form college, I would consider traditional A'levels. Private schools do iGCSEs (now possible for state schools btw, change of government thing), because they are better preparation for A'level.

Syllabuses are online at the exam boards. There are organisations that will sell you distance-learning courses. However, I'd be wary of them. The word on the street is that they are expensive, of variable quality and highly dependent on the tutor you are assigned.

If you want help with English, Catherine Mooney is a home educator who has put together a specific package for EHEers and covers all the exam boards. She gets rave reviews on the EHE exams email list. Mostly, people get the books and do it themselves. Again, the list can recommend the best books for each exam.

For music, higher grade exams seem to have more credibility than GCSE-level exams (and are certainly easier to organise). Anything over a bare pass at G6 practical is in the arena of UCAS points for A-level, not GCSE.

It might be a good idea to plan to do a couple of exams in November or January [I think the month has moved from N to J, but I'm not sure] to get them under your belt and remove some stress. Maths is usually a good one to start with - the answers are largely either right or wrong and the content is easily defined and accessed. Also good to start with something DS is good at, enjoys and is well through the course material.

Good idea to defer deciding what to do until after IGCSEs, once you have checked what your local colleges and sixth forms require.

Incidentally, as long as he is EHE before his 16th birthday, he qualifies for Child Benefit after as long as he is doing school-level study.

Mummytime, thanks. I thought iGCSE were for IB prep but tbh I know very little about it. Have you done this too?

Sdeuchars, may I ask you something. Did you do all the tutoring yourself?

try www.conquermaths.com for the maths. All the course for GCSE IGCSE is there and you work through at your own leisure. YOu can have up to 3 children doing it at once for the same price. If you are a member of Educationotherwise you can get a hefty discount. This was enough for us to pass an IGCSE.

Have also done 2 Edexcel sciences IGCSE with just buying the book from Amazon, working through that, and doing thousands of past exam papers which you can download free from www.freepastpapers.com.

Taken at an idependent school for under £40 per subject.

Have no experience of the distance learning so others may be able to help with that. But remember you can always use a tutor for cetain topics if you are finding them tricky.

I didn't do any tutoring. We have been autonomous home educators since the DC were born.

You can read how we got into Open University. Once the DC started doing courses (at 14 and 13), the responsibility to complete the work was theirs; my role was to facilitate. I checked that they were on track with completing the work and getting assessments done; I discussed difficult parts with them so that they could explain it to themselves; I read assignments and said if something made no sense to me.

Not everyone does it like this. There are a fair few parents on the HE exams list who have taken the responsibility on themselves and are setting up study timetables and working through the material with their children.

The OU provides a study timetable. I worked through DD's first course with her because I also enrolled on it (I'm an IT tutor for the OU, so I could do it without paying). That was because I had not seen the OU from the student perspective and I wanted to be sure I knew how it worked. DS has been away for the last month with the maths course finishing in two weeks so I was a bit more involved before he went and will be more involved next week just to be sure he can complete it in time.

BTW, IGCSE stands for International GCSE, so it is a capital I - many people think it means interactive or something, like iPhone. Science IGCSEs, in particular, seem to be much better prep for A-levels.

By certain topics, I mean just one part of the course, so an hours tutoring is well worth it once in a while.

I really thought it was a little i! Duh.

found this page quite useful

Have not been very successful with local independent schools but am more hopeful about the W London exam centre, though it's currently on half term.

I am not hopeful that he'll do it "by himself". I feel slightly faint at the achievements you've made SD.

Rockrose thanks. That will be useful. I am pretty confident that with Maths and Physics I could guide him through an internet course and textbook as I did MST 121 myself. But there will be times I need a tutor. I wonder if they are available on a more ad hoc basis.

Our experience, in case it is useful - my ds has just taken 8 IGCSEs. We used an internet school for tuition, bolstered at the end by some extra private tuition in a couple of subjects.
There is no need for lab time or practical work really, in IGCSEs but you do still need the knowledge of how experiments and field tests etc work as there is an 'alternative to coursework ' paper to be taken in some subjects.
The IGCSEs seem to be at a higher level than GCSEs - my ds's French tutor thought the French was more AS level than GCSE and my dh, who has an A level in Maths thought some of the Maths syllabus was stuff he did at A level.

Obviously because there is no coursework then everything rests on passing the exam - we will find out in August how this has gone for ds. We definitely didn't feel we could tutor effectively ourselves for a lot of the subjects and needed tuition from outside.

Ds has a place to continue his studies at a local school offering the IB and also at a FE college to do A levels - he is leaning towards doing the IB but will need B grades in the subjects he wants to do at higher level to do that.

Our local EHE officer was a great help and actually got a local exam centre registered for IGCSE just so ds could take his exams there which was brilliant as we were struggling to find a centre within reasonable travelling distance.