GCSE's for home-school children

[JDiana]

Good morning.
I am the mother of my 15 year old daughter who has been home schooled since 2015 and will be sitting her GCSE examinations as an external candidate this summer. I have started a government petition to ask parliament to consider the introduction of funding to help families who home-school their children pay for their GCSE examinations. Note that these would be free of charge if your child attends a school! The decision to home-school is not taken lightly by any family and is made for many different reasons and circumstances; ultimately to ensure the happiness/wellbeing of their child. I have already paid for my daughters GCSE fee's but feel very passionately about this and would love to help future home-schooling families. If you would like to sign my petition please read below:
I’ve made a petition – will you sign it?
Click this link to sign the petition:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/244092/sponsors/new?token=1Dzg66XgzDoIm6fqiNts
My petition:
Introduce funding to help families of home-schooled children pay for GCSE exams
The decision to homeschool is not taken lightly and is made for many reasons; ultimately to ensure the happiness/wellbeing of a child. The cost of teaching at home is accepted and managed, however many families find it difficult to pay the high fees for GCSE’s that are free in our state schools.

This is a good idea. DS's exam entry cost us more than £2k and we saved a long time for it.

The cost of taking GCSEs isn't really free - it's paid for by the school so the parents don't have to pay the cost, but that's not quite the same.
dds school only paid for the first attempt not for resits.
I would be prepared to sign if the petition stated Y11 and first attempt. I wouldn't want this to be used to fund taking GCSEs very early or to encourage multiple resits.

It is a good idea on one hand, on the other you could say that by home schooling you save on:-

uniform, PE kits, Games kits, school shoes, school coats, school bags, every fundraising event, school trip, school dinners, non uniform day, bus money, and the list goes on.

Ds goes to a catholic high school (state). Between September and this July, we would have paid out for:-

2 x school trousers x 3 as he’s grown so much (6 pairs x £25 each = £150), 6 school shirts (£30), school shoes x 2 (£45 & £70), blazer (£45), new tie as he’s upper school (£10), games kit (£56), PE kit (£35), bag (used last years🙏), coat (£70), rugby tour (£2000), non uniform x 3 (£6), lunch money (£20 x weekly), bus money (£15 x weekly), Christmas Hamper (£10), chocolate hamper (£5), biscuit hamper (£5), Christmas trip (£40), then there will be end of year activity week/theme park etc which will be around another £100+, and more fundraising, contributions, non uniforms to come.

And that’s off the top of my head. For one year only. I appreciate that home schooling you will also be paying out for materials, books, outings etc. But you also save on what you don’t pay out.

It is a misconception that home-school students pay out for very little!
We have been paying between £90-£160 per month on tutors over the past three years. Home-school children still wear clothes when they are at home and they still eat lunch. It may sound silly but being home all the time generates more bills in electricity for use of the internet to study and heating that wouldn't ordinarily be used. the household income takes a hit with one of us remaining at home instead of at work. Plus the books, stationary as mentioned.
The choice to give money at schools towards hampers, parties, non-uniform, trips, sports, end of term activities and contributing towards fundraising are all optional. This is the same for home-schooled children who wish to go on outings and/or as with my daughter she is a dancer who attends lessons throughout the week and additionally attends classes in London monthly; cost of travel, use of own transport and class fees.
school attending students and home-school students both have money to pay out to gain their education, the difference however is that school attending students don't have to scrimp and save extra to pay the crazy fee's for their exams at the end of secondary school and I do not feel that this is fair.

Yes as you say it is about choices and exam fees would be something you factor in when making a decision to home school in the same way I factored in the various costs of privately educating mine. It was a choice I made the same as you made a choce.

I knew a family who HE'd 6 kids thru GCSEs on a family income of £14k/annum (they said that included benefits). So I know it can be done on the cheap.

£2k is crazy cost.

But as @OKBobble says it is a choice. I knew when I sent my dc to the school they go to, which has for years been consistently the best in the borough, I would be shelling out for numerous things each year for them to participate in as mentioned above (and I won’t lie I do eye roll every time another email comes through requesting money for ‘something’).

Like wise we almost sent ds to an indie, but he choose not to go. Had we sent him, it would have been our decision to pay those fees. Also many indies charge for exams on top of their fees, as the one ds looked at did.

You made a decision to home school your dc. Therefore you knew that there would be costs involved. You had the opportunity to send them to a state school and not pay the monthly fees you say you do, pay for exams to be entered, pay for outings, electricity, heating etc. But that was your choice, no one made you.

So if you decided to decline the offer of what is ‘free’ education, declined to pay the fees for an independent school, then why should the government pay for your child to sit exams?

@SnowyAlpsandPeaks, @OKBobble I completely agree with your points with regards to choice....I made the choice to home-school my child and knew when making that choice that we would need to factor in the cost of exams; we did this and the exams are already paid for, as mentioned in my initial post. I was in no way moaning about my weekly costs, this was just an example to show that families of home-schooling do pay out for various things too.
My petition is to help future families who home-school, the families that don't necessary go out of their way to make that choice but go down the home-schooling path out of necessity to ensure the wellbeing of their child. There has been a significant increase in the number of children who are home-schooled and this number is increasing. As I mentioned before, there are a number of circumstances as to why a child is removed from school or unable to attend. Mental health is a massive issue, something the younger royals are working hard to raise awareness of right now, particularly in schools. The school system is getting something very wrong...too much emphasis on grades and statistics and not enough care to the minds of our children. There is just too much pressure put on our children and if its not enough at school, they are given homework to carry on doing in what should be their down time/family time which should be of the upmost value at this age. Some may argue that this is preparing children for the real working world but this argument is ridiculous to me. There is an increased awareness of anxiety and depression in children of school age, with them unable to attend school. Bullying in school and online has a detrimental effect causing children to fear school. And with this point there may be some people who may be of the opinion that children need to face their fear and push on, to which I would highlight the problem and increase of suicide in our children. There are other reasons too such as medical conditions, family problems that all factor in to children unable to fit in to the school environment. My point is that it is not always a choice but parents caring for the long term well being of their children. What good are great grades if we have a generation carrying metal health issues with them in to their adult years!

I chose to home educate my child and paid for her GCSE. However, through that I met people who had not "chosen" to educate their child, but were doing it as a last resort. Financially, they were struggling by from week to week.

Why should any 16 year old be denied GCSE's because their parents could not afford the exams or even because of their parent's decision to home educate.

Financially, the home education community covers a large spectrum, some of who are the most disadvantaged in society. We are failing as a country if we deny those who are already from disadvantaged backgrounds at 16 the chance to gain GCSEs.

As far as I can see, the petition is not up yet. OP, could you put a reminder on this thread in a few days?

too much emphasis on grades and statistics and not enough care to the minds of our children. There is just too much pressure put on our children and if its not enough at school,

So why aren't you addressing that in your petition, rather than focusing on exam fees which perpetuates the emphasis on grades.... the beauty of HE is that you can choose not to focus on exams, and therefore can opt out of the cost.

This sounds very sensible. Passing GCSEs opens various doors for children (sixth form, further ed, jobs, apprenticeships) so totally reasonable for the government to subsidise exam entry for home-schooled children as well as those in school. Maybe limit it to first entry in 9 or 10 subjects.

I'm really sorry I can't support this.
Funding in mainstream education is dire. Funding gcses for homeschooled children would come out of that main pot, therefore less funding for special needs etc etc. In my area children are already having the number of gcses they're allowed to take reduced because of funding cuts.
Choosing to homeschool is like choosing to send a child to an independent school. I wouldn't choose to fund a subsidy to school fees either.

Wouldn't it be better if each individual child had an educational financial package which followed them around. So a parent could choose to send them to a school which then applied for the financial package or they could choose to HE and money could be used for Tutors, exams etc, not suggesting a lump sum payout, pretty sure that would be a disaster; but an educational credits system which could be used at each level of education, didn't there used to be something similar for Higher Education.

The funding for schools is per child.
In primary in my area its ridiculously low, about £2.7k. The school then uses the money to fund teachers, buildings, teaching assistants, access to counselling etc. If a child is lucky enough to get an ehcp for instance, they might be allocated a one to one teaching assistant. The school has to fund the first £6k of this cost. Therefore this funding is in theory subsidised by all the other pupils.
Exam entry costs are lower for schools as they submit such large numbers and facilitate it. The exam boards are businesses that have to make a profit. The large parts of their profits are overseas students and external candidates.

The money a child got as an individual package would make the financial administration of schools a nightmare and in itself cost a great deal to administer. School finances are complicated enough. Effort would be better spent campaigning finding schools adequately so they could provide better provision.

I'm torn on this issue.

On one hand, the LA is saving thousands because I am home educating. My children would require specialised schools with some 1:1 support which would be very expensive, but as we home educate, the LA does not have to provide this (or any funding) for my children's education. Some in my position might think that with all the money the LA is currently NOT having to spend on my children's education, the GCSE fees are a small price for the LA to pay.

On the other hand, one of the main benefits of home education is the ability to set your own curriculum and cater to your child's individual needs, abilities, and interests. If the LA provides funding for GCSEs, they will likely then demand input/feedback/reporting on the curriculum that your child does leading up to those GCSEs.

Bottom line for me is that I do not want GCSE funding from the LA that comes with strings that makes it more difficult to do our home education in a way that works for my children.

I think it's a fair idea but it needs to be limited subjects plus Functional Skills in y12 if Maths or English is failed in y11. Also just one attempt.

The LA doesn't save anything, the government does. Funding is set on the number of children in school on a certain day (census day). The funding for that amount of children is given to the LA who then take some off usually, before giving it to schools.

I might be ok with government finding exams if it didnt come from the existing pot of money as that pot will then become even smaller. I'd also be alright if the government negotiated the exam fee for home educated children.

However, £2k for one child's exams if from the current pot would be almost the same amount as one child's education pot for a whole year in primary.

According to the AQA website, the fees for GCSEs are generally less than £40 per subject.

Sorry posted too soon - link here

filestore.aqa.org.uk/admin/library/AQA-ENTRY-FEES-2018-19.PDF

Why did you pay £2k in fees?

In fairness, it wasn't the OP who said that it had cost £2k, it was another poster.
One attempt in 8 subjects would be approx £320 for GCSEs.

The centre we chose for GCSE's this summer charges £180 per subject. Local schools also quoted extra fee's to be added to the exam fee itself for things such as hire of the room, their time for accommodating an external candidate, admin fee's and even one school quoted for the room to be cleaned after its use for the exam.

@JustRichmal The petition can still be signed via the link. The UK Government & Parliament Petitions Team are checking it, to ensure that it meets petition standards before it goes live on their site.

I work.with the exams team. £40 per GCSE, more for A-level. Administrative time costs a bit of course, it's a good deal of extra work for external candidates. Then add in invigilation costs- this really ramps it up as the candidate might be taking an exam when no one else is at the centre. Candidates need to be accompanied by a staff member at all times, too. (To and from main reception, etc.)

JDiana, thank you, I've signed it. You may also want to post on the HE section.
errorofjudgement, there are admin fees on top. Just one GCSE, 6 years ago, cost over £50. The are quite a few 16 year olds who have families for whom this is too much. Every young person should, at least, be offered the opportunity of taking GCSEs if they are able, regardless of their personal circumstances or family background.
I agree it should not be funding for those who are already wealthy, but presumably this will be debated if it goes to the next stage.