Scottish syllabus for 14 year old?

[mrsspaniel]

Hi there,
Desperate for some advice.
My nephew who is almost 14 has been pulled out of school due to bullying, and his parents have decided to home school. However, it feels they are floundering! They don't seem to know the cirriculum or have appropriate books which is worrying me.

Could anyone help inform me:

1. Is there some sort of legal requirements/ofsted inspector to regulate home schooling?
2. Is the cirriculum and recommended study books available to see/buy?
3. What happens with exam entrance etc?

Thank you for reading a worried aunties ramblings xx

Hi! First off, don't panic. Even if they don't seem to be doing much that looks 'educational' at this stage that is totally fine - when children have had a bad time in school it is a good idea to let them have some time to start getting over it, and that can take quite a while in the case of things like bullying.

Here's a link to Schoolhouse which is an organisation dedicated to home education in Scotland - it covers all sorts of legal and practical stuff, and they can give advice too. And here is the Legal guidance The part on "Efficient and suitable education" explains what they would be looking for.

To answer your specific questions -

1. Assuming they have taken him out of a state school, they are meant to show the council how they plan to provide an education. Properly speaking they ought to have asked first, but they won't get into trouble if he was being badly bullied. The lagal requirements are all in those links, but basically it is about showing that he will get an education that is suitable for his age and abilities. They don't have to follow any set curriculum.

1. I'm not sure what is available in the "Curriculum for excellence" as I think it is more defined by individual schools, but you/they could look up Learning and Teaching Scotland for ideas

1. It totally depends what they want to do about exams. There is no rush, some home edcuated people decide not to do them, or not till later, or fewer than they would have done in school, or wait and go to college. All sorts. Don't get too focussed on 'they have to cover what they do in school' - there's plenty of other ways to go about it. If he does want to do exams at some point, there are ones which can be done without marked coursework (IGCSEs) but he doesn't have to.

Hope that helps!