Alternative year 12

[LucyLatimer]

Dc is 15 in y11 and increasingly missing more days with poor mental health and feeling unable to go in.

with 1 year to go until gcse, I wonder if they can study somewhere else, maybe by remote learning?

how would I go about finding whether this is even possible? I see that some local secondary schools offer an online provision. Would it be a good idea to contact our local council?

dc’s current school is an independent and so I have never applied for a school place and don’t know who to ask.

apologies for the disorganised thoughts, but any ideas on how I could go about this would be welcome.

You can home educate and study remotely from home, you would need to pay for tuition and exams and possibly delay some of the exams due to change in syllabus. It would be really unlikely to be more expensive than an independent school.
Most subjects are available one way or another.

There are also 2 sittings per year for exams, June and October, so it’s possible to
spread the workload out.

I think the only autumn ones are Eng Lang and Maths these days.

OP, can you confirm, is your DS in y10 and you are looking for y11, ie GCSE year, or is he y11 and you are looking for alternative for post GCSE ie y12 as per what you actually wrote?

If you post on the SEN board, you'll get lots of help re education otherwise than at school, and LA duty to you if your DS can't attend school due to illness.

Presumably you have been referred to CAMHS via GP? I wouldn't hold your breath. If you can afford it you may want to go private, which is what we did for DD in the pandemic (she missed all y11 due to MH issues).

If she is in Year 11 now then it's only 4/5 months until the exams.
You could remove her from school and Home Educate but you would have to enter her for the exams yourself and pay for them yourself. She would have to go to the designated exam centre to sit them - which is usually within a local state school - she wouldn't have to be registered as a pupil there.
Alternatively you could remove her from school - Home Educate on whatever takes her fancy, focus on her mental health and in September sign her up to local college and she can take GCSEs there. She might be able to do them in one year but it might be less subject choice.

Autumn exams are available in almost all subjects if not taking at school (since school exams cannot be taken if studying from home)

Can you expand on that please? Is this iGCSEs rather than normal GCSEs?

I've just checked, iGCSEs appear to be January, and I can't see a full set of GCSEs in the autumn.

As OPs son is at an indie, they may be doing iGCSEs for some already I guess, otherwise I was thinking they may not want to switch exam board part way through.

OP as your child is not in state school, I don't know how getting LA provision out of school would work. You can contact your local SENDIAS for advice perhaps.

As at an indie, I would definitely recommend you pay to go private for help for your DS rather than waiting for CAMHS. You'd need a Consultant Psychiatrist if you are looking at medication such as antidepressants, or something like CBT or similar. The Child Mental health board on MN can help you through that.

All/almost all igcses (equiv to GCSEs) can be taken in October. GCSEs less likely but also less likely to be able to take them anyway unless on a school roll.

Ah thanks

There are numerous fully online schools now. Would it be an option to move to one of those for Y12?

Is he well enough to work even if he can't face attending school?
When DD was at her worst she couldn't do anything.

Contact your local authority, ask for whoever coordinates 'blended learning' or whatever your local authority calls their provision for children too ill to be attending school. Sometimes it done by the fair access team, other times by others so ask advice.
Some local authorities will have system whereby your child has to be on a school roll to access this (not all), in which case you can make an in year admission application and be allocated a school place.
Otherwise you can look at home educating but you wouldn't receive any support or funding.
As a PP has said consider contacting SENDIAS for advice and signposting to the right departments.

Sorry for all the posts.
Another thought.
You'd maybe need to be confident that staying at home and working online wouldn't be on balance be detrimental to his MH. It may be that staying at current school, even with reduced attendance may be better for him, than pulling him away. He could for example go onto a reduced set of GCSEs and use the time saved to catch up on days he misses.

(State) schools generally aren't keen to take pupils in y11 mid way through GCSEs, for various obvious reasons. Timetabling may anyway mean dropping subjects, plus they may teach things in different orders eg Eng Lit they may have done the Shakespeare but not the 20th C whereas your DS may have done 20C but not Shakespeare. Plus different texts.)

If y11 are they not taking gcse this summer? Some colleges do gcse courses, resits in year 12 if needs be, or other level 2 courses.

Thankyou for your ideas. We have talked this evening and dc still enjoys the social side of school, so I will speak to the head a bit more strongly and see what she can suggest

Rather than EHE I would push the LA to provide medical needs tuition under s.19 of the Education Act 1996. This can take many forms, including online provision, depending on DC’s needs.

As well as this apply for an EHCNA. This can then mean an online school could be funded as well as other provision such as therapies.

Some local authorities will have system whereby your child has to be on a school roll to access this (not all)

These LA’s are acting unlawfully.