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Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Home ed

H.ed until y8 then secondary school.

11 replies

morethanpotatoprints · 31/05/2014 16:17

Ok, I know its holiday time and folks are enjoying the sun, but just had a conversation with dds friends mum that made me think.
The girls are y5 now and happily making a den/house in the garden and we were saying how this would be the last time this year as they'd be high school age next year.
We are happy H.ed atm and the school dd would like to attend takes dc any year except in middle of GCSE's etc.
I believe most would join in y7 or even before this, I'm wondering what sort of problems we may find leaving it until y9 and if anybody else has done this having H.ed for a number of years.

OP posts:

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Nocomet · 31/05/2014 16:29

DF HE all her DCs until Y7. Her eldest DS was better at maths than her by that age so, it seemed the right time.

I think it might be harder to make friends as a new kid after Y7 and people are going to be noisier about HE.

Round here there are lots of small primaries and county boundaries and bus route anomalies, so DCs not knowing anyone in Y7 happens.

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Nocomet · 31/05/2014 16:32

Else I agree Y9 is better than Y8.
DD2's lot seem to have be doing boys, bitching and talking too much and working too little this year.

I'm hoping Y9 might be slightly better, DD1's lot were.

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5madthings · 31/05/2014 16:35

My only thought is Will it be harder to get a place in yr 9?

I moved my son from one high school to another at the beginning of yr 9 and it was fine.

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morethanpotatoprints · 31/05/2014 17:48

Thank you for the responses, its difficult to know the right age for dd.
I know from a selfish point of view we (parents) are happy to H.ed as long as we need to, but dd wants a particular school sometime during secondary.
I have as much info on the school as I can but obviously the intake varies every year so there doesn't seem to be a normal.
Does anybody know from a purely academical pov which would be the best year.
Nocomet

Thank you for that info, y8 seems a bit of a waste in some respects.

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ReadyToBreak · 31/05/2014 18:00

I wasn't home educated but I was moved from one secondary school to another in Y9 and I found it really difficult to fit in.

Everyone had their friendship circles well and truly sorted by then. It was a very lonely experience.

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Mumstheword21 · 31/05/2014 19:07

Hi Morethan,

Don't forget that lots of schools now decide their option blocks during year 8 and some even begin the courses for some options before the end of the year 8 year. It might be worth investigating the process at your dd's school of choice - it's a numbers game in lots of cases & could well be difficult for the school to make changes once timetabling and staffing is set!

My husband is a teacher (secondary) although we HE our LO's

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morethanpotatoprints · 01/06/2014 16:31

Of course, options and starting GCSE's. I hadn't completely forgotten about these, but had forgotten how much has changed in just a couple of years.

Our older two chose options in y9 and didn't do the earliest until y10.
This was the same for all our local schools with the exception of the named college where this subject was taken in y9. So my ds2 school was technology and this was taken at the end of y9 along with RE as it was a faith school. Apart from these all others were sat during y11.

I will get in touch and ask, but the info they give says any year except y9, 10, 11.
The main decision is y7 or y8 and as I forgot to say its a boarding school this may sway things too. I'm particularly thinking of the boys in y8 comments.

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AtiaoftheJulii · 01/06/2014 18:54

Mine were HE'd from the start. One went in y9, other two in y7. No difference settling in, no problem for any of them. The y9's peers were a bit more interested in HE - I guess they were slightly less self-centred than 11 year olds, and they'd already found out anything interesting about anyone who'd been there for 2 years!

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BanjoPlayingTiger · 01/06/2014 19:05

Hi Morethan,

As you know I have knowledge of the school you're thinking of.
My dd started there in Yr 9 and it has been fine. She has just chosen options now so that isn't an issue, and has been fine settling in. The school have said to me that yr 9 is a good year to start as they do one GCSE at the end of Yr 10 (the obvious one for the school) so they do prep work for it in Yr 9.

If it is a choice between Yrs 7 & 8, I would suggest Yr 7 as a larger number of kids start new there that year with it being the break between primary and secondary in the state system.

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oneboy3girls · 01/06/2014 20:41

What if your dad did not like that part ocular sch oil It may be a fantastic school,but it may notsuit your dd Would it not be better to start in year 7 ,so she can change if need be.Excuse typos.

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morethanpotatoprints · 01/06/2014 22:42

Hello Banjo, I was going to pm you after getting a general idea, should have known you'd see it.
Hope you are all well. x

Oneboy

It is her dream and for a long time was asking to go asap, now she doesn't mention it constantly but she is still very keen and preparing to go sometime during secondary.
She is my little girl and I don't want her to go, neither do the rest of the family.

I was thinking more from the point of being H.ed for a few years, and timing etc.
I suppose its a silly thread really as nobody knows my dd so how could they say what it would be like.